However, according to the Chronicle, percussionist Patti Niemi, speaking for the musicians, commented that the latter “faced a grim choice between ratifying the agreement and losing their income and health benefits entirely.” Niemi noted that the musicians “had been hoping to collaborate” and come up with an agreement that only covered the period during which they were not performing, “But suddenly there was this pivot to issues like the orchestral vacancies that are unrelated to COVID.” She pointed out, furthermore, that management “also objected to a contract provision that would restore the salary cuts if ticket sales rebound in 2022-23.”ĭozens of orchestras exacted major pay cuts and furloughs in March and April, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony and many smaller ensembles. The opera’s General Director Matthew Shilvock gushed that the organization was “profoundly grateful to the Orchestra for its partnership in facing this pandemic.” In September, the members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra had a 50 percent salary cut imposed on them under the terms of a contract modification. Meanwhile, the financial bloodletting for the artists continues. Chen, who was rewarded by BlackBerry in 2018 with a five-year contract including compensation valued at close $150 million in total, is also on the symphony’s board, along with Kausik Rajgopal, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, the prominent management consulting firm, and Max Levchin, Ukrainian-born American software engineer and businessman, with an estimated worth of $300 million. Michael Anders, also on the Board of Governors, is the founder of Iconiq Capital, referred to in the media as the “family office of tech billionaires,” including most prominently Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Goldman, multimillionaire insurance executive and major donor to the Democratic Party, sits on the board as well. Johnson, of Franklin Resources, perennially on the list of most highly compensated executives, whose total compensation was $10.4 million in 2019. Getty, of the Getty oil family, among the wealthiest individuals in the US, with a net worth of $2.1 billion. One of the members, for example, is Gordon P. Picking out symphony board members almost at random, one comes across enormous wealth. It is composed in large measure of extremely affluent individuals, a good number of whom could afford to make up the revenue loss out of their own pockets, and not notice the difference. The San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors, however, is not some anonymous institution carrying out unavoidable measures in an impartial, godlike manner. The Chronicle and symphony management take for granted that the musicians should see their living standards slashed. Management reported November 2 that the symphony had recorded a “cumulative revenue loss of $40 million by the end of the 2020-21 season as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” All of the orchestra’s live performances through the end of the calendar year have been canceled. The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that the musicians would “take a 30 percent pay cut for the remainder of 2020 under the terms of a newly ratified contract revision” that went into effect October 18. The musicians of the San Francisco Symphony are among the most recent to become victims of the combined effect of the pandemic and management action. Management may well side with Lady Macbeth, who reasoned that “what’s done cannot be undone.” That remains to be seen, but it is certain that nothing will be regained without an enormous struggle, with far-reaching political and social implications. In the current crisis, musicians and others no doubt hope that with the end of the pandemic what has been given up will be restored. In the US, for example, the management of various orchestras, operas, museums and other institutions and cultural organizations are taking full advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to press forward with their demands as part of an offensive for pay and other cuts that has under way for more than a decade.Īs long ago as 2010, the WSWS reported that pay cuts had already been “imposed at symphony orchestras in Phoenix, Houston, Cincinnati, Seattle, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Atlanta, Virginia, North Carolina and Utah, among other cities and states.” Orchestras in Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago and elsewhere have since faced major attacks-prior to the coronavirus outbreak. This is also true in the cultural sphere. As the WSWS has repeatedly argued, however, the pandemic acts in many regards as an accelerant or amplifier, speeding up processes already under way. The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on artistic and cultural life.
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