By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published May 24, 2010
Musicians of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra rejected a plan late last week that the board of directors had proposed for funding a scaled-back 2010-2011 season, saying the wages were unacceptable.
In a statement, symphony officials said the proposal was for a one-year operating plan that would keep the symphony operating as its leaders undertake a comprehensive restructuring. Board members announced in March that the symphony would suspend operations because it had run out of cash.
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The one-year proposal called for eight performances from September through April. Most musicians were offered a salary totaling $3,600, along with health benefits and pension plan contributions, which symphony officials said were valued at $3,627.
The agreement called for musicians to work 15 hours over one weekend each of the eight months of the season. Principal musicians would work an additional 25 hours for performance weekends and would have received $15,600 plus benefits worth $4,127. The principals would also perform three additional performances and assist with educational outreach, fundraising and promotional efforts.
In both cases, symphony officials said in a statement, musicians would be earning more than $60 per hour worked.
According to a statement from Ryan Leveille, spokesman for the Players Association, the 34 musicians voted on the agreement May 19 and 20 — nearly unanimously rejecting it.
“We anticipated an unpalatable offer but were completely taken aback by the austerity of this proposal,” Leveille said. “We decided to put the terms to the full body of musicians and were not surprised by their overwhelming rejection. I don’t know if the CSOA (Charleston Symphony Orchestra Association) sincerely believed that it would be able to staff an orchestra for such low wages.”
Leveille said the proposal represented a pay cut of 84% from the salaries agreed upon in the five-year labor contract between the symphony and the Coastal Carolina Association of Professional Musicians. After previous pay cuts, the musicians’ average salaries for the interrupted season were $18,888, he said.
Leveille has said that most musicians supplement their symphony income by working as instructors at local colleges, by giving private lessons and by performing at private events such as weddings.
“We are very disappointed and saddened for the entire Charleston community,” Marty Klaper, symphony board member and chairman of the board’s bargaining committee, said in the symphony’s statement. “The proposal offered part-time work for the musicians with full-time benefits during this time of restructuring. It did not restrict in any way the musicians’ ability to seek alternate work in the weeks they are not committed to the CSO.
“For the majority of the musicians, this provides them more than 44 weeks of time where they are able to seek employment elsewhere but preserving their much-needed benefits.”
The musicians’ vote doesn’t necessarily end the possibility of a 2010-2011 season, which would be its 75th season, said Tara Scott, director of marketing for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
“We haven’t given up,” she said. “Our intention is to apply as much intellectual energy as possible to ensure that we have a season, some sort of season for next year. Certainly it’s not guaranteed.”
Scott said she didn’t know whether the board would make another offer to the musicians.
According to the symphony’s statement, issued on Saturday, the $1.35 million interim operating budget included production costs, a staff of four full-time employees and a music director. Revenue was to come from ticket sales, fundraising and sold services.
Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.
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