Ok, I seldom read the star tribune these days, but I saw the recent article that the music director/conductor of the MN Orchestra has sent a letter to the Orchestra mgmt board threatening to resign, unless the lockout ends “soon”. Good for him, and I wish he had written it sooner. However, I was VERY disappointed to hear the board’s idiotic response (paraphrasing): “You sent it to the wrong group, you should have sent it to the musician’s union, instead of us (the mgmt board)”.
I am so tired of this lockout, this is/was a great orchestra and now, because of this lockout, several wonderful musicians are leaving for other orchestras – since they don’t know when they’ll be back playing again. And, does the board think they’ll be able to replace them?? Who would want to work in this kind of hostile/stupid environment when their mgmt board has its head up its . They (mgmt) are only looking at the short term situation and they have forgotten they are in place to look long term – 5-10 yrs out, not just this yr or next.
God, this makes me so angry – these are people lives, and it takes yrs to develop a great organization such as this for 100 people to come together and create/play such beautiful music x nights a week, almost all yr around.
[p.s., this IS their full time job – I was speaking to an uninformed friend who thought playing in an orchestra such as this was just a “part time” gig, and that they had full time jobs during the day (like what, in IT??). No, this is THEIR career, they work full time by “practicing” 8 hours each day – they don’t “just” show up on concert night to play – so they should be fully compensated at market value salaries.].
Sorry, but this situation just irks me! Say it with me: WE WANT MN ORCHESTRA BACK!
