Could the Philadelphians be the Prom's first recession victims?

[Nick Armstrong]

I for one am really looking foward to seeing and hearing them in the RAH!

Me too

[bluestateprommer]

......the Philadelphia prom has joined the short list of sold-out proms. Is it because the Philly has a surprisingly huge following, or is it a case of "last chance to see"? :-(

Well, if nothing else, the disaster that the orchestra's management has unleashed with this has certainly given the orchestra more prominence, if not in the most desirable way. One hopes that it's not a "last chance to see", or it may be a last chance to see with the orchestra in its current incarnation.

Speaking of which, one of the orchestra's musicians let rip today in the Philadelphia Inquirer recently:

http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-18/news/29556364_1_bankruptcy-pension-obligations-musicians

While there's more than an element of "it's not my fault" borderline whininess, and this is obviously an article from one side, I would tend to agree with the assessment of management blunders there.

[bluestateprommer]

The Philadelphia Orchestra just played in Lucerne, as reported by the Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/128544738.html

Interesting to see this part:

'Kim acknowledged a certain amount of trepidation - his word was "sadness" - among orchestra members over what they might face in contract negotiations when they return home. That aspect of morale was bolstered somewhat by a memo from orchestra president Allison Vulgamore, who stayed home from the tour to work on pressing issues - some of which, she assured, point to a brighter future.'

It makes total sense that Vulgamore would want to stay away from the tour, since it's not hard to infer that the mess which the bankruptcy declaration started has probably poisoned musician-management relations to the point where the musicians won't want to be in the same room with her. It'll be interesting to see what kind of reception you folks give the orchestra in a few weeks at the RAH.

[BBMmk2]

I will be having the radio on!

[Curalach]

I'm looking forward to hearing them in Edinburgh on Wednesday 31st.

[Simon]

Before anyone starts any excessive wallowing in emotion, and taking it as a given that it's always regrettable when any quality musical group of any genre has to cease, the fault for this lies completely with some of the players and some of the management.

I hope they get their heads knocked together, start behaving like adults, and turn things around.

[Tony Halstead]

some of the players and some of the management.

Ok; names please...

[bluestateprommer]

Another article from a few days before in the Inquirer, about the Philadelphia Orchestra and its current tour:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110825_Philadelphia_Orchestra_begins_European_tour_on_a_note_of_trepidation.html?viewAll=y

While some may ridicule the citation of Gramophone magazine, the point is that outside evaluation matters of an orchestra, and gets written up. However, you'll also note the plug put in for The Proms and the picture of the RAH .

Actually, regarding "some of the management", the truth is that it's more like the board of trustees pushing the orchestra over the edge into declaring bankruptcy. The Philadelphia Orchestra, like virtually all US orchestras, is not anything like the self-governing groups like the LSO. The musicians don't have nearly that much pull over the actual running of the orchestra. I wouldn't dispute that the musicians should pony up a portion of their salaries to help the organization go through. But they don't have the authority to pull the bankruptcy trigger. The board of trustees and the orchestra top management are the ones making that decision.

The orchestra has certainly had attendance problems, and a lack of steady presence in their PR-department, not to mention the new hall taking a lot of brickbats for its perceived insufficient acoustics. But it has no debt, and no real pressing reason to declare bankruptcy, except the unadmitted reason, to break the union and the pensions.

[amateur51]

Before anyone starts any excessive wallowing in emotion, and taking it as a given that it's always regrettable when any quality musical group of any genre has to cease, the fault for this lies completely with some of the players and some of the management.

I hope they get their heads knocked together, start behaving like adults, and turn things around.

You might think that this could be said about almost any industrial dispute

But when the Department of Industrial Relations at Nuttwood holds forth, we'd better all take notes

[maestro267]

In answer to the question posed as the title of this thread: No.

[Chris Newman]

Ah yes, maestro 267. I know now that the Syracuse SO regretably got there first.

[bluestateprommer]

For Chris N, actually, the Honolulu Symphony went belly-up well before Syracuse, back in 2009:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2009/11/02/daily60.html

Getting back to Philadelphia, the other Inquirer critic, Peter Dobrin (the pot-stirrer of the paper's 2 critics) had this article in today's paper on the ongoing bankruptcy story/soap opera/slow motion train wreck:

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20110909_Philly_Orchestra__musicians_seek_new_mediation.html

[bluestateprommer]

Newest article from Peter Dobrin in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the orchestra's bankruptcy soap opera:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110925_Orchestra_at_a_juncture.html

Human nature being the way it is, I expect the worst-case scenario of the two posited in the article to come to pass. I'd love to be wrong.

[bluestateprommer]

contract agreement at Philadelphia Orchestra

I'll admit that I was shocked to read the news:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/20111014_Philadelphia_Orchestra_and_its_musicians_agree_to_labor_concessions.html

Basically, it seems that the musicians caved in, but in the current climate, they were pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm not holding my breath that the board will start to make up the difference financially to try to restore matters.

[Dave2002]

I've lost track of what those dollar figures mean. From the UK, to me the musicians seem relatively highly paid compared with many people, including musicians, in London and other parts of the UK. Maybe costs have risen a lot in recent years, so that salaries over $100,000 are really not much above the poverty line. Perhaps some Americans or those who are closer to this can help to put this in perspective. I really don't know, though i have worked and lived in the USA, but not for a long while. What are considered to be low, medium and high salaries these days? Do the costs of living in Philadelphia weigh so heavily against even a reasonable income that it's difficult to afford to work and live there?