News of the Phoenix Symphony

The last several years for the Phoenix Symphony have been interesting ones with the arrival of Music Director Michael Christie. In any orchestra management change there is always the possibility of other personnel changes. In the case of the performers in the orchestra I always tell my students there are basically only two reasons why musicians with tenure would lose their position, either for artistic incompetence or for just cause. Just cause is usually pretty black and white and involves breaking work rules as defined in the master agreement. I keep on my desk a copy of an old master agreement from when I was in the Nashville Symphony, and in that I see these reasons to be dismissed for just cause:

1. Persistent or serious infraction of rules reasonably promulgated by Management
2. Repeated willful or inexcusable absence or tardiness
3. Insubordination
4. Intoxication or other serious misconduct at concerts or rehearsals

Phoenix must have similar rules stated for just cause. Artistic reasons are tougher to prove. I am an outsider to the ins and outs of what Phoenix Symphony management and players are dealing with now, but for sure Maestro Christie has shook things up and is trying to remove a number of players from the orchestra for just cause and artistic reasons. This is the background for a couple of news items worth looking over further.

Yesterday a blog I follow, The AFM Observer, had an article on “Why we need unions” that offers observations on the situation in Phoenix and links to another, longer article just published in the Phoenix New Times. That article is titled “Michael Christie and the Ongoing Rumble in the Phoenix Symphony” and is a very interesting and in depth view into orchestra reality in Phoenix as of now.

In the New Times article we learn that

…the Phoenix Symphony is facing serious legal challenges arising from its alleged mistreatment of many of its most talented musicians. These legal challenges involve lawsuits, complaints to federal agencies, charges of wrongful termination, allegations of retaliation, and the charge that the symphony’s top, veteran players are being forced to take demotions or leave the symphony so they can be replaced with younger, more compliant players.

So far, eight symphony members have lodged age-discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of them being Richard Bock, the symphony’s longtime principal cellist, who was fired in January….

Bock, 62, has since filed a lawsuit against the symphony claiming discrimination, unlawful termination, and a hostile work environment resulting from the actions of Christie, the Phoenix Symphony’s CEO Maryellen Gleason, and other symphony higher-ups…. The lawsuit states that Bock “experienced unfair and inconsistent treatment in comparison to other employees and was ultimately terminated to be replaced by a much younger person.”

Another of the EEOC eight, veteran principal violist Peter Rosato, is embroiled in a legal fight with the symphony over unpaid wages and breach of contract, and was recently terminated ….

As if all this weren’t bad enough, the Phoenix office of the National Labor Relations Board has issued a formal complaint against the Phoenix Symphony’s leadership, including Christie, alleging violations of the federal National Labor Relations Act, which prevents employers from interfering with the right of employees to freely associate, organize, and engage in “concerted activities” for the purposes of collective bargaining or “mutual aid and protection.” The complaint charges that the symphony has been discriminating against its employees, punishing them, demoting them, and sometimes firing them because they have come to each others’ defense, spoken out, and/or have made complaints against the symphony to the EEOC.

Yikes! Any way you slice it this is not promoting a good work environment. The New Times article also highlights reactions from current and former musicians in the symphony.

Several symphony members who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, indicated that the demotions and firings of veteran players such as Bock and Rosato, have had a devastating effect upon the morale of the symphony.

“It’s very disconcerting when you see this happening to the people who were the stars of this orchestra – the people who have been standing up playing concertos in front of the orchestra,” said one musician who wished to remain nameless. “And Christie has seen fit to find excuses to basically persecute these people. I think because he would like to hire his own people, younger players that he feels will owe some allegiance to him.”

Delaine Salt, a former cellist with the orchestra, was willing to go on the record. She stated that she decided to retire in June of 2008 after 41 years with the symphony, in part because of an ageist atmosphere at the orchestra.

“I wasn’t sorry to leave, because of Christie,” she explained. “If there had been a different atmosphere I might have stayed.”

Salt continued, “There was nothing personal towards me, I just think Christie had an attitude towards veteran musicians. Not necessarily respecting that we have knowledge too.”

There is a lot more in the article, including links to much background information, well worth reading over in full if you are involved with orchestral horn playing or training to be an orchestral hornist. I am sure this will all sort out in Phoenix over the next few years and hope that musicians and management will honorably resolve this present situation. It is a situation to watch for sure.

UPDATE: The upcoming second horn audition was cancelled or postponed, as noted in the update to this post.