JAVS Fall 2005

by Sam Bergman

hear about these commitrees unless something horrible, like a strike or a locko ut, is going on. But they are always there, and most o rchestras couldn't function w ithout them. T he members of most orchestra committees meet regularly with their o rchestra's upper manage ment team to discuss all the nitty gritty, behind- the-scenes, " inside baseball" minutiae that most peo ple prefer not to think about. For instance, say rhe orchestra wants to put on a free concert in a large public park, and a local radio sta tion wants to carry the event live. A lovely idea, you say, and what could be complicated about that? Bu t to the o rchestra committee, such an event sets off a chain of actions and reactions, checks and balances, all designed to insure that the event goes off smoothly. Fo r instance, what if the concert is scheduled fo r J uly, and your orchestra is based in, say, Arizona? What will the maximum allow able temperature on stage be, and who will monitor it? W hich direc tion does the stage face, and will direct sunli ght (a no- no for string instruments) be a problem as a resu lt? Will there be live cannons go ing off during the 1812 011erture (the answer to this one is always yes), and if so, who is responsible for malting sure that they are set up far enough from the stage that the musicians wi ll

about music? The simpl e answer is that, several decades back, o rches tral music ians got organ ized, and bega n a determined fi ght for such controvers ial "luxu ry" items as health insurance, job security, and a living wage. In an industry which had always been ruled by temperamental conduc tors who held tbe careers of eve ry one in the orchestra in their hands, the rise of the union was a revoluti onary change. Within a few decades, it became possibl e (not usual, but possible) co make enough money as a member of an orchestra to support a family and live comfortably. A few orchestras (16, as of this writ ing) even expanded their seasons to 52 weeks, allowing musicians to be paid year-round for the first time. But with higher pay and added benefits came the necess ity for musicians to sha re a measure of the responsibility for monitoring d1e heald1 of the overall organiza t io n, and to keep an eye on the often combat ive relationshi p between musi cians and manage ment. Committees were fo rmed , stocked with musicians elected by their peers, to represent the inter ests of the group as a whole, and to se rve as the voice of the orches tra whenever such a voice was called for. T he general public - indeed, even professional musi cians who make their living ou t side the orchest ral sphere- rarely

lt's an accepted fact of modern life that almost nothing we learn in schoo l tu rns our to be of any d.irect use once we reach adu l t hood. T hat doesn't mean that these things aren't worth learn ing, of course- aren't we all a lit tle better off for knowing that the color green played a s ignifl cam (if symbolic) role in Jay Gatsby's love life, or that you shou ld always remove radi cal numbers from the denominator of a fra ction before so lving fo r x? - but the disconnect be tween the hard truths we are taught in schoo l a nd rhe malleab le, ever shifting reali ty of pro fess ional life (whatever the profession) does occasionally give one pause. For those of us in the music bus iness, particularly in the orchestral sub culcure, o ne's first full - rime job has tbe effect of ringing up the curtain o n a whole new wo rld of rules, acronyms, and professional o bliga tions tha t no o ne ever menti o ned back in conservatory. It's ove rwhelming to say the least, and many musicians respond to the onslaught by hiding quietly in the co rner for a few years until they can begin to decipher the insider code in w hich everyo ne else seems to be speaking. So why the code, and why all the extra-mus ical activity in an organ - ization that is supposed to be

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