A look back: A Week in the Life
You’ve just gotta love this profession. No matter how many roadblocks get tossed in their path, musicians always seem to find a way around them, taking things in stride and laughing about it later with each other over either coffee or beer (depending on the hour!). Whether it’s butchering the Messiah by whacking the transposition button on the organ, dropping bows and breaking into hysterics mid-concert, or finding oneself face-to-face with a leering colleague just as they are about to play a big solo, musicians are often only a hair’s breadth away from making fools of themselves in very public settings.
The following series from 2007 describes a week filled with enough painful (yet strangely humorous) moments to warrant a series all its own:
Part 1 – Locked Out in the Cold
Part 2- Parking Nightmares
Part 3 – Behind the Scenery
Part 4- Look Out!
Tails Man
There are always a few moments (usually in the spring) when the stark contrast between “normal life” and the wacky life of a freelance musician rear their heads. A few examples from a recent warm and sunny Saturday:
I was breathing in the wonderful springtime scents through my open kitchen window, my awesome cat Dan on the windowsill next to me. I could already see my north Evanston neighborhood bustling with activity: people were donning wrinkled shorts (undoubtedly yanked from a draw that was last opened the previous fall) and out in full force, sipping a Starbucks coffee and animatedly chatting on the first truly fantastic weekend day of the year. Days like this in Chicago are all too rare–the continental climate in which this town is ensconced only gets a few dozen truly great days (devoid of rain, hail, sleet, snow, and subzero or scorching temperatures) at the most each year, and I was pumped to get out and enjoy the day.
The only problem? I was stuck in my stupid tails all day.
Sunny and 77 degrees on a Saturday morning, and I’m in my white vest and tailcoat? Lovely.
A Day in the Life
I put on my penguin suit and head out the door, getting bemused glances from all my neighbors. They’re carrying tennis rackets and going out to have “normal person” fun. I’m headed out to play a bunch of random gigs in tails–I had just enough time to get from gig to gig, so bringing street clothes made no sense, unfortunately. Already sweaty and uncomfortable only after loading the bass and getting into the car, I drove by scores of happy Evanstonians out frolicking in the sun, getting the occasional glance at my seemingly eccentric choice of summer garb.
I ended up teaching some lessons in my tails on my way to gig #1. Ever take lessons from a guy in tails? I never did as a student, but I’ve taught countless lessons in them myself.
You’ve Got To Be Kidding
My next stop was at a hotel in downtown Chicago, and I left with enough time to spare, but not a whole lot of extra time (which is more my style). I was just about to hang a right and go into the parking garage (which was only going to cost me $14–a relative bargain in Chicago these days) when I noticed, to my horror, that the Cinco de Mayo festival going on. Hey–it was only the 2nd of May! What gives? I didn’t know, but I was thoroughly hosed by this predicament. All exits off Lakeshore Drive were blocked off by the cops for miles, and I had to drive down to the near South Side before I could flip around.
My adequate time cushion had now evaporated, and to make matters worse, I was now stuck in horrible freaking Cinco de Mayo traffic on Michigan Avenue. I looked at the clock. I looked at the traffic. I looked at all the happy shiny people enjoying their Saturday while my stomach acids burned (no time for lunch now). I cursed my fate.
I finally got to the entrance for one of the underground parking garages (this one would soak me for $24 for a few hours of parking). I pulled in, grabbed my bass, and began speed walking up out of the garage. I was about a mile from my gig, and I had (hopefully) just enough time to make it to gig #1.
There’s nothing like a man speed walking through jam-packed Cinco de Mayo city streets in tails with a double bass to get people’s attention, and I got a lot of smirks and smart-aleck “should’ve played the piccolo” comments as I booked it across Millennium Park in the center of downtown Chicago.
I made it, breathless but still slightly early, to gig #1, headed up to the second floor, where I was shooed away impatiently by some irritated party planner and directed to 2B–the subbasement of this massive hotel/convention center. I made it with just enough time to spare, hungry, hot, and cranky to be sure, but there.
Gig #1 lasted for a few hours (this gig alone would make for a fairly entertaining blog post of its own–maybe some day…), and I then got the pleasure of again crossing Millennium Park in my tails (albeit at a more relaxed pace), getting more heckles along the way, back to the distant garage, where I loaded my bass up and headed off to gig #2.
The Hungry Penguin
The expressway was a sea of brake lights and interminably slow traffic, and I drummed my fingers on the dashboard as my rumbling stomach called out pathetically for nourishment. Mile after mile painfully crawled by–I could have walked faster–and I eventually found myself 40 miles out of town in a distant working-class suburb for gig #2. I spotted a Subway sandwich shop and dashed in, getting a fresh set of puzzled stares from the families in the restaurant. I was getting sick of looking like I was on my way to a catering gig or a Dracula convention, but honestly, what could I expect? Who else but a musician drives around all day on a beautiful weekend day in full formalwear but a freelance musician with scant minutes between each stacked gig.
I inhaled a footlong sub like some ravenous animal, careful not to get mustard on my white duds (I’ve soiled many a vest or dress shirt that way in this same exact situation), and waddled off, burping happily, to play gig #2.
Just another day in the life of a freelance music dude…
You! Peon! Work for Free!
Here’s an exchange I was forwarded (on condition of anonymity) that, while being both aggravating and darkly amusing, reminds me how easily non-musician administrators forget that we performers are actually trying to make a living from this kind of work. It’s a job–honest!
With Administrators like These….
I’m chalking up the attitude exhibited by the administrators in this email exchange to ignorance of the actual economic situation of their musician employees. This institution also happens to pay quite a meager per-hour scale to their employees, require unpaid meetings on a regular basis, and do a host of others things that make me think that this is an attitude that is unfortunately ingrained in this particular institution. I’ve changed names and omitted any revealing references (though I’d love to expose the school I’m actually talking about….I’ll be good….). This correspondence, while only bouncing between a few individuals, was also sent to the entire institution’s faculty, which is how I got it….and no, I don’t work at this place! Never have. Also, I couldn’t help editorializing just a bit–my remarks are in italics during the exchange.
Do you have any contractors you work with, music school or otherwise, who ask for “favors” like these? Leave a comment and let us know!
You Play Now!
Administrator: On _______, 2008, [Retail Outfit #1] is celebrating [Random Anniversary]. In honor of this milestone, there will be a concert in the store on _________ from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM — first floor by the fountain. A grand piano will be available.
[Retail Outfit #1] has invited [Anonymous Music School] faculty members to perform– string ensembles, piano trios, solo piano, singers… etc. This will not include any student performances—it is strictly for professional musicians.
If you have any interest in participating in this community event, please email me so I can give you contact information.
Musician #1: Is there any pay offered to musicians for this event? If not, I would think it would be a disservice to the music profession to have professional musicians provide free entertainment to solely benefit a for-profit business.
Note the “crafty dodge” employed in the response–a classic administrative deflection tactic intended to befuddle the poor helpless simpleton musician mind:
Administrator: Dear [Musician #1],
As I have told all of the musicians who have expressed interest in this event, you will need to contact [Random Administrator #2] to find out about compensation. She never mentioned any type of stipend to me, and as I stated in my email, it is a community service event for the patrons of the store.
While the event does benefit [Retail Store #1], the excellent visibility helps create greater awareness of our faculty and of [Anonymous Music School] for those same patrons. Hopefully, that awareness translates into inquiries and future registrations. While I agree with you that compensation seems appropriate, I am sure [Retail Store #1] sees it as a way for musicians to serve the community, while promoting their talent and their school. I suspect she invited other community music school faculty too.
[Musician #1], please contact [Random Administrator #2] to get more information about the event. Thanks.
What’s that? It’ll create “excellent visibility” for the institution? Yippee! So do concerts…and I get paid for those. “Serving the community,” you say? Are the caterers volunteering their services? How about the security guards? The store employees working late?
Pay up, cheapskates. By neither securing payment from the store or offering up some compensation yourselves, you’re sending a message: our faculty have nothing better to do than to drive to downtown Chicago and play for free, with some possible…exposure? For what–some more random young students at this music school, which, by the way (this is lovely!), takes OVER 50% of what parents pay the school for lessons as “administrative costs.”
You take over 50% of all lesson payment for these “administrative fees,” yet you can’t cough up $100 as an honorarium for musicians for an event that will benefit your institution? Classy….and you make this guy to yet more unpaid busywork to even find out about compensation? You can’t just do it yourself? OK…gotta cool down…NOW I remember why I vowed never to work for these guys….
Musician #1: I called [Random Administrator #2] and she said that there is NO compensation – not even parking or a gift certificate. While I also believe in promoting the awesome faculty of [Anonymous Music School], this is an inappropriate way to do this. [Retail Store #1] would not think of asking a practice of doctors to come and provide free medical assistance to their employees, nor would they ask an accountant firm to perform services for free. They would not ask secretarial students to file receipts or ask that bartenders and wait-staff to work for free just because it is their [Random Anniversary].
Music teachers have bills to pay and families to support. Our teachers have spent tens of thousands of dollars on their musical education and spent way over that amount in practice hours honing their craft. If we are a music school, we need to teach our faculty as well as our students that our craft is worth a price.
Musician #2: I completely agree with [Musician #1] on this. The public at large does tend to subscribe to the notion that musicians will work for nothing for the publicity. If [Retail Store #1] wants musicians to entertain their patrons, or if [Anonymous Music School] wants musicians to entertain at [Retail Store #1] for the benefit of [Anonymous Music School], then someone should provide compensation. In no profession, outside the performing arts, are professionals expected, or even asked, on a regular basis to perform their professional duties free of charge. Personally, I do a lot to provide community service, but I do not subscribe to the notion that musicians should perform for nothing. Unfortunately, there are still too many professional musicians willing to work for nothing. So the public continues to subscribe to this notion.
Think they got paid?
Nope.
We’re Lower than Dirt, Huh?
During my educational certification program these past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about the differences between a professional (doctor, lawyer) career path and a paraprofessional (paralegal paramedic) career path, focusing on how teaching is in some aspects a true profession (highly regimented, standardized, governing boards, re-certification at regular intervals) and in other aspects a paraprofession (not self-regulated, practitioners held in lower esteem than other professionals, debatable body of unique knowledge). We’ve discussed this profession/paraprofession dichotomy endlessly in class, writing papers and considering how exactly teaching fits into these two paradigms.
Well, guess what? My other career of musician apparently isn’t even a paraprofession by many people’s standards! So, then, what is it? Some sort of circus freak show? Why are we treated like trained monkeys by our own administrators, the very people who should be advocating for us?
What bothers me most about this interchange is the callous nonchalance demonstrated by the administrator I quoted. Believe it or not, there actually is a way to approach musicians and ask them to play for free. It’s not this approach! Also, this kind of event, which is not a benefit/fundraiser but really just a gig, contracted out by a retail chain (and it’s one of the biggest chains in the country, by the way) trying to “cheap out” and hire musicians from the local music school. After all, it’ll be a noisy event, and these musicians are really serving as window dressing, like dancing bears in a toy store; who cares how the musicians sounds, and why ay them if you can get a bunch of warm bodies for free?
An Anomaly?
Is this encounter just an anomaly…or have you had similar experiences? Let us know!
Bass Blog Posting – Culture Wars – The Value of Music
I have been giving this issue a lot of thought during the holiday season, a time when musicians head out in the snow for the holiday gig season adding merriment to the times – and for me with a newborn in the house, even more poignant…
Time for Holiday Cheer!
Once upon a time there was a department store chain in Chicago – we’ll use the fictional name ‘Gimball’s’ (alla the classic holiday film ‘Miracle on 32nd Street’). This department store thought for a big anniversary; let’s have some musicians perform all day in their store to celebrate. These musicians would be performing for patrons indulging in the usual department store materialism – sales of jewelry, fragrances, clothing, etc. ‘Gimball’s’ contacted…we’ll call the institution the ‘City Music School,’ a local community music school.
Okay, we have some of the players, but a few more to go. ‘Gimball’s’ asked this school for no student musicians – just professionals. Okay – seems like a good idea. Celebrate with some good professional musicians playing high-quality literature. Great idea…or so I thought. I am a self-promoter as a freelancer, but here’s where the champagne goes flat. When the ‘City Music School’ had their faculty to contact a coordinator at ‘Gimball’s’ to setup the gig…wait…you mean you aren’t going to pay? You mean that I, faculty for a not-for-profit institution DONATE my work to a for-profit corporation. There’s injury No.1. So okay, if I were to hypothetically come & play for an hour or two, parking validation right? NOPE. Injury No.2…Insult No.2? So I would have to drive 40 miles into town, spend $20-30 on parking & no food either. Well, I’m not juggling that gig into my schedule.
Hello Scrooge Ol' Boy
So what’s the problem here? A few of the faculty at the ‘City Music School’ spoke up to the administration of the school. With complaints about contacting the union local, suggestions of using students instead, my feeling is that the true issue is about the value of the work we do. It has as much to do about the value of music and/ or the perceived value:
It is vastly different, when I (the performer) offer a pro bono workshop or performance – I am offering work I believe has value for no cost. When someone asks me to play for them for free, it suggests that this individual doesn’t value the work I do. Here’s a scenario:
I go to a dinner get together with various people and they ask me what I do for a living. I mention that I am a professional musician and teacher. They ask -”play me something.” If I am in the company of friends, or colleagues, I might just to prove to them what I do is at a certain level.
When a complete stranger does that, I ask – “what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a lawyer.”
“Oh, would you write me a free will or give me free legal advice?”
“No…”
“Then don’t ask for free work from me.”
No Sense Being Miserly!
It’s not that I think everyone has to pay for music. I do not think that ‘class warfare’ is the name of the game. Apologies by the way to a student of mine who IS a lawyer – I’m just using another ‘professional’ as a player in this discussion. The issue is this attitude in our American culture.
The poor urban areas deserve outreach efforts (that’s the work I do in schools) – but why should those who can afford to pay for quality art not subsidize works of art?
Oh…you said the a-word. What word? ART.
Art is often a bad word nowadays. There is such a focus on materialism and sports – remember what the ancient Romans did? Give them bread and circuses! No need to educate the masses right? Let’s give them Guitar Hero or Rock Band…no need for them to even learn how to do what we do.
Ever notice that primary schools are cranking out more students in choirs, orchestras & bands every year, many of which do NOT continue in music. Culturally in the United States, the majority of youth who are involved in sports become avid sports enthusiasts later in life. I don’t usually see the same happen with music students. I think the cultural ‘dummying down’ of what our musical art is about by seeing the popularity of games such as Guitar Hero exemplifies that music has been turned into a commodity. It’s got to have a dollar-value right? No. It’s more complicated than that. More people are being exposed to art music than ever before due to the success of Apple’s iPod & other MP3 players. On the other hand, ensembles still are struggling to get audiences to come & see live music. We’ll see how that trend plays out, but time for the rest of us to move and take advantage of new media.
The value of art & music is a big issue that in an era where media exposure to content, music or otherwise, can be grabbed up sometimes for nothing. This is something I think about a lot. What we do as musicians has value, but with everything being turned into a commodity in our consumerist culture how do we explain the value of music?
I had a college professor who referred to individuals as “musicians” versus musicians. One is an amateur – any person can, through some effort, achieve some proficiency on an instrument (or their voice) can label themselves a “musician.” How does that differentiate from someone who has spent years mastering their craft? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to think about.
So in the end, what is the value of music? I love what I do, but I often have to balance monetary concerns with artistic ones. All of us do at some point. Before you decide what you are willing to do, free or not, consider the value of the musical product you are producing, who is the audience for your work, and how much effort you can afford to put in. Let’s do what we can to bring music to wider audiences, while still remembering that we can’t do everything for free.
Remember the spirit of giving this holiday season, and happy holidays from the bass blog!
Happy Holidays from the Bass Blog!
These opinions are strictly the opinion of the author, Phillip Serna, and not necessarily of the Double Bass Blog.
How many bass players do we need on this gig?
Grant Park Symphony and Northern Illinois University bass professor John Floeter put out a really interesting blog post earlier this fall, posing an excellent question:
How do people determine the proportion of basses to other string sections for a particular orchestra?
John writes:
I’ve often wondered what the “perfect” balance or even the “normal” balance of bassists is in an ensemble. Obviously, this is a quirk of orchestral music,where more than one person is playing the same part in a section. If only one person plays on the part, he or she just needs to adjust their volume in order to balance with the rest of the ensemble. I have to admit that there is a lot of freedom to make artistic choices when you are by yourself, including the proper balance of bass with the rest of the ensemble.
Read the complete post here.
Freelancing in the new economy
My good friend Josh Nemith just put out a two-part series about freelancing in the economic downturn that we’re entering. It’s a great piece of writing and full of advice for folks in all sorts of various self-employed niches in the music industry. Check it out through the following links:
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra on strike
Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
-Ulysses S. Grant
___________
For up-to-date coverage of the WCO strike situation, be sure to visit the musicians’ website (not the management’s site): wcomusicians.wordpress.com
___________
As I write this post (October 1, 2008), the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra is on strike. Here’s a summary of the the issues precipitating this strike:
THE MUSICIANS OF THE WISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA-
WHY WE ARE ON THE SIDEWALK THIS EVENING INSTEAD OF THE STAGE
The musicians of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra have a deep commitment to the WCO, and in particular to you, our most loyal audience. Our wages and benefits are meager – only $10,000 – $15,000 per year – but our dedication to music in the Madison community is large. For years we’ve had a positive and respectful relationship with management, and we’ve always resolved our contract negotiations without incident.
What’s different this time? The Board’s outside negotiators are insisting on extreme positions that would put Madison out of the mainstream:
· Work rules that would make it impossible for WCO musicians to fulfill their obligations to the WCO and to their music students, teaching jobs or other music endeavors. All over the country, orchestras like the WCO have rules that allow their musicians to patch together a living by adding income streams from teaching and other engagements to their small orchestra salaries. Why won’t WCO do the same?
· Travel reimbursements far, far below industry norms.
· Refusing to implement a fair system of peer review on musical performance – systems that are accepted throughout the nation in large and small orchestras.
We have, in good faith, tried every known method to reach an accord with the WCO on these and other issues, and we believe that our Executive Director, Doug Gerhart has done likewise. We do not understand why the Board of the WCO has, in our opinion, allowed the outside firm of Foley & Lardner to create obstacles to agreement, to force WCO out of the mainstream, and to jeopardize the once-excellent relationship between the musicians and management.
It is our desire to resolve this dispute and to get back to performing for you, our loyal audience. You can help us with our situation; please write Executive Director Doug Gerhart at douggerhart@wcoconcerts.org and urge him to come to a reasonable accord on a new contract with the WCO musicians. Thank you for your continued support of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and its musicians!
Sincerely,
The Musicians of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
By the time you read this, the situation may have been resolved. As a fellow performing musician struggling to make ends meet with a variety of part-time jobs, I stand in solidarity with my colleagues in the WCO. What I hope to accomplish with this post is to take a step back and look at the situation from an outsider’s perspective. How did things come to this?
Let’s find out.
Why Single Out the WCO?
I tend to avoid singling out specific ensembles in my writing, for two main reasons:
1. While I usually have one particular ensemble or organization in mind when I write a post, situations I write about usually apply to many other groups. If it’s not necessary to single out a specific organization for something negative, I tend to keep their name out of it.
2. My site has a lot of “Google juice”, meaning that posts from this blog tend to show up prominently in web searches for that particular topic. Sometimes they will even show up above the organization’s website. I don’t want my little story about some wacky thing about group x, y, or z to pop up above the group’s actual website when patrons are searching!
The tangled web of problems surrounding management’s treatment of the musicians in the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra have been making headlines in local papers, and I have many colleagues that play for this group. I’ve also had many people forward information about this group to me over the years. I’ve therefore decided to weigh in about this ensemble and the prickly labor situation in which it is enmeshed.
The most puzzling thing about this dificult situation is how arbitrary many of the demands that management makes seem to an outside observer. I work with many ensembles with a season and operating budget similar to the WCO, and I just want to scream “WHY?!?” when I hear about the scattered and capricious demands placed upon the musicians by management.
My Perspective…..Take Two
I’ve actually written (complete with snarky illustrations and testimonials) and then discarded a lengthy post about this ensemble recently, deciding that it was too catty and negative in tone. I get kind of irrationally annoyed at the practices of the management in this group.
Here’s the thing–this orchestra is made up of a great bunch of musicians and really great people. The ensemble is well-supported by the community. They have a beautiful new hall in the tony Overture Center located in downtown Madison. There is absolutely no reason why this couldn’t be a positive experience for all involved. The culture and attitude of this group’s management is utterly baffling to me. To me, it’s a perfect example of how to not manage an arts organization, and it’s remarkable how those at the “helm” of this organization are able to take such a potentially good situation (great musicians, good community support, new facilities) and make it so bad.
Bad Management
Rather than being a positive experience for musicians, however, working for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra is a frustrating experience on a variety of levels. The management of this ensemble seems to go out of their way to make the experience difficult for the musicians. Why? It’s unclear, but this group has had rough labor/management relations for many years. In fact, when the phrase “Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra” is uttered in the company of northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin freelance muscians, people roll their eyes and groan,
“Oh no, not those guys…..”
Why is there such a negative impression of the WCO management in the region? We’ll get to that in just a bit….
Give a Little, Take Away a Lot
A relatively recent WCO contract featured a substantial pay raise–the per-service scale nearly doubled in a few short years. Awesome, right? Well, the problem was that this raise came at the expense of many other factors, some of which are causing real trouble for the orchestra members.Can a high pay scale make up for everything? It’s an important factor, but certainly not the only one. Where is the tipping point? For the members of the WCO, it may have already been reached.
The Facts
Here’s a summary of the current labor situation for the WCO. Principal bassoon Todd Jelen sums up the issues in question in this news item. Things have gotten worse since this was published, but it’s a good summary of their pre-strike concerns:
WCO contract negotiations stall; strike possible
September 24, 2008
Just over a week before opening its Masterworks Series on Oct. 3, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra could be faced with a musicians strike.
The contract for the core group of 34 orchestra members, not including substitutes and extra players, expired on Aug. 31. It has not been renewed due to several sticking points, including a pension plan for musicians and a requirement that they attend 90 percent of all rehearsals and concerts.
Todd Jelen, principal bassoonist and a member of the chamber orchestra players committee, said the two sides — orchestra members and staff — have been negotiating since early March. They’ve even invited a federal mediator, which apparently did little to help.
Now, it’s getting so that a musicians’ strike is possible.
“If they stonewall us, (a strike) is a very real possibility,” Jelen said.
Or, musicians could opt to continue to play under the old contract, which is what they’ve been doing since the end of August.
Management could impose a “best and final” contract offer if a resolution is not in sight, at which point Jelen said the union stewards could elect to ratify it, or move toward strike.
Doug Gerhart, the new executive director of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, said in an e-mail that his staff is working “in earnest to arrive at a new contract for our musicians.”
The two sides have several meetings next week prior to its opening performance on Friday, Oct. 3, featuring Kyoko Takezawa playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor. The orchestra is scheduled to play in the Capitol Theater at Overture at 8 pm.
The problem with the 90 percent attendance requirement, which perhaps appears reasonable to non-musicians, is that professional musicians often hold several jobs at once. Since orchestras typically don’t pay a living wage to anyone but the conductor and concert master, musicians often teach during the school year and play for several different resident symphonies, sometimes in different states.
Section players and principals generally make $13,000 -14,000 a year (per orchestra), Jelen said. He lives in Akron, Ohio, and plays in three orchestras including the WCO.
For that reason, the 90 percent attendance requirement is “unheard of” and “impossible to maintain,” Jelen said. The WCO produces 29 concerts annually, including the six Concerts on the Square, the Masterworks series and five holiday concerts.
“Orchestras our size expect a little more flexibility,” Jelen said, and in the beginning, they had it. The first year of the recently expired five-year contract allowed them to attend 65 percent of all rehearsals and performances. It gradually went up to about 75 percent per year, then to 90 percent, which has been the requirement for two years.
Another problem is a pension plan for professional musicians. The American Federation of Musicians’ and Employers’ Pension Fund collects contributions from individual orchestras and then pays out of the larger pool to musicians who are members of those orchestras. Jelen said the WCO is currently not participating.
Gerhart came to the chamber orchestra on June 1 as executive director. He said in an e-mail that the group’s policy is “not to comment in the press” on these issues.
“My hope is that these are productive meetings and that we can come to agreement on the outstanding items,” Gerhart said in the message.
Jelen doesn’t conceal his frustration, saying orchestra staff is “stalling” and focusing on inconsequential things. Still, both sides claim to want to negotiate in good faith.
“We’ve said if they have any progressive proposals, we’ll read and consider them,” Jelen said. “Honestly, we’re prepared for really bad things, but we hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The Issues
Here are the primary issues of concern from my (outsider) perspective. Many of these were mentioned in the preceeding news item. For me, the first two points are the ones that really make my blood boil:
1. 90% attendence policy – Todd summed up the problems with this policy in the preceeding paragraphs better than I ever could. By any standard, expecting 90% attendance for a part-time orchestra that pays $13,000-14,000 with no benefits is completely unreasonable. Anyone actually attempting to earn a living as a performing musician will quickly realize that it is nearly impossible to make such a service requirement. WCO members must find other means of income, and while the most practical option is to become a member of two, three, or more regional orchestras with similar schedules, this extraordinarily restrictive attendance policy makes regular membership nearly impossible. Only folks in metro Madison without other musical employment would be able to satisfy such demands, and even these individuals are likely to run into problems.
90% of such a low number of services essentially means that a musician can’t even take one series off. With many weeks of summer employment (and only a few services for those weeks) but a regular season of only a few weeks of masterworks concerts, missing even one service is significant.
There is a dark side to this 90% attendance policy that I am not going to go into here. Let’s just say that some dirty tactics have been used by managment to coerce WCO musicians in the past….
2. Half pay for subs -As an outsider to the WCO, this point sticks in my craw the most. The per-service rate for non-members is approximately half of what it is for members.
Half!
Maybe subs should only play half the notes…or half right notes and half wrong notes. Is that an equitable arrangement?
I find this kind of pay disparity extremely offensive and disrespectful to both members and non-members. It indicates both that this ensemble doesn’t value the musical contributions of non-members and that it pretty much doesn’t care who fills a vacant chair. I know that the musicians of the WCO don’t have this attitude. As for the management, er, well…..
This amounts to a substantial savings for the WCO when as sub is employed. Since it’s a per-service gig, there’s no time off pay, sick pay, or anything of the sort. There’s therefore no rational justification (outsde of pure greed) for this policy.
This half-pay policy is in effect even for musicians (like the tuba position) who play nearly every concert but play instruments not designated as “member” chairs. Lovely, huh? Makes you feel warm all over about this group, huh? Still wonder why this organization conjures up jeers and sneers in the greater professional musician community?
The remaining points on this list are more like minor to moderate annoyances, but they still bear mentioning:
3. The five minute “grace period” – Rehearsals are allowed to run five minutes overtime before any extra pay kicks in. Guess what that means? Yup–WCO rehearsals tend to run five minutes long as a rule, not an exception. Not cool.
4. Misleading advertising or unwillingness to publish complete information – When attempting to place an advertisement announcing WCO vacancies in American Federation of Musicians trade publications, the group was informed that they needed to include the onerous 90% attendance policy in the advertisement as full disclosure to potential applicants. They elected to not place any advertisements rather than include this information. Nice. How are folks supposed to find out about vacancies? And what does this indicate about how management feels about this attendance policy? If it’s a fair policy, why not include it in any audition announcements?
5. No housing allotment – A significant percentage of the musicians in this ensemble are from out of town. Some even travel from Ohio or Pennsylvania to perform with this orchestra. Many part-time orchestras in other regions of the country provide accomodations–either a hotel or a homestay arrangements with orchestra patrons–for out-of-town musicians. The WCO doesn’t. Getting a hotel for a week’s worth of services takes a healthy chunk out of a musician’s final paycheck.
6. Low mileage reimbursement – As stated in the preceding news items, the mileage reimbursement is far below the Federal mileage rate.
7. Hostile management attitude – This has been effectively covered in both the news items and in my descriptions of the methods management has used when dealing with the WCO musicians.
Things I’d get in trouble for publishing
There’s more (a lot more) going on behind the scenes here, but I don’t feel that it’s appropriate to go into any more specifics. All that I’ve written about is public knowledge, and I’ve betrayed no confidences by presenting this to you. Also, keep in mind that this is my personal opinion about the WCO situation. I do not speak for the musicians of this ensemble, and I welcome any commentary and elaborations in the comments section for this post.
Also, keep in mind that this is a blog post that you’re reading, and while I’ve made every effort to publish only factual information, I do so with a clearly stated bias. I’m a musician. A freelance musician. I therefore have a very sympathetic attitude toward the plight of the WCO musicians and a relatively hostile attitude toward this orcanization’s management. In other words, think of this post as a call to action for you. Do some research, learn more about this ensemble, and come to your own conclusions.
Why?
I find this situation to be utterly bewildering? Aren’t we all here to make music? Management’s actions convey disrespect and indifference to the needs of their musicians? Why make full-time demands on a job that pays $13,000-14,000 with no benefits? Why gouge subs when the group isn’t paying the absent members anything? Why have such a draconian attendence policy for a part-time gig?
Thoughts?
Carping about Cartage
While digging through my old e-mail recently, I came upon this snippy exchange between management and musicians regarding compensation for cartage. This is the sort of thing that really makes my blood boil–cartage is compensation paid to musicians who must load a lot of gear in and out of a venue. The philosophy behind this compensation is that it reimburses those who must come early, load in multiple trips of gear, and therefore need to drive to all jobs in large vehicles without possibility of taking public transit or carpooling.
Though it may seem like paying cartage reimbursement is a no-brainer for management, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been shorted this compensation while working on jobs, even when there is a policy in place under a contract negotiated with the American Federation of Musicians.
Those of us who receive cartage payment often get the evil eye from our colleagues (who mistakenly think that we’re getting more money per service when we’re only being compensated for having to drive solo in a car full of gear and arrive an hour early to load in). In many groups I work with, this reimbursement is viewed by management as a perk and looked at with dubiousness. It is therefore frequently on the chopping block when renegotiating contracts.
This is a segment of an e-mail exchange. After this exchange, those of us in this group began to be taxed on our reimbursement. This is not a normal occurrence in most groups I work with (mileage and cartage are generally viewed as reimbursement and are therefore not subjected to withholding by the employer–though we musicians have to report this money as income to the IRS), and a huge uproar broke out around this issue in this ensemble.
Though we cartage recipients were outraged, there are a lot more of them (the non-cartage recipients) than there are of us, and we often find ourselves alone in this battle, with management viewing us as an expensive annoyance and our colleagues viewing us as being awarded extra pay for doing the same job.
Is Cartage Compensation or Reimbursement?
After chatting with my more tax law-aware musician colleagues, I have been made aware that there are benefits to having taxes withheld on cartage, since this money must then be reported as self-employment income and is subjected to higher taxes as a result.
What do you think? Is cartage income or is it extra compensation?
Regardless of the above answer, you can see how hot under the collar musicians get when the subject is even broached. Here’s a bit of the exchange I dug up in my e-mail archive. I changed all the names of involved parties:
Hello ___________,
I am John Doe, the accountant for the Anonymous Center, and also the Random Symphony Orchestra. I am also familiar with some of your names having done the accounting for the No Name Chamber Orchestra for many years also . Please allow me to explain the change in handling cartage.
This has been a topic under discussion for many years now. We have been advising the Random Symphony about this situation off and on, but we decided it was time to take action now to protect the organization.
Basically, any payment made to an individual for which receipts are not turned into the organization has to be considered taxable income. This is also true of per diem money paid out. With the No Name Chamber Orchestra, this money also appeared on your year-end 1099s. Any per diems or drayage (as they call it), were also considered income, and it was filed with the government accordingly. You did indeed pay taxes on this income. Because the Random Symphony Orchestra correctly pays musician’s fees through payroll, the per diems and cartage should also be paid through payroll. An individual can not receive a W-2 and a 1099 from the same organization.
If musicians were to fill out expense reports for their personal expenses relating to business and submit them directly to the Random Symphony Orchestra for reimbursement, then it would not be considered income. Since the organization has no way of knowing whether or not any cartage money is actually spent or to what extent it is spent, we have to consider the entire amount taxable income. If you do have receipts, you can claim those business expenses on your year-end taxes to offset the income. The Random Symphony Orchestra does not handle expense reports for musicians.
As an hypothetical example, let’s look at per diems. An organization may give employees a $50 per diem for an out of town trip. Some people may indeed spend all or part of it, but others will save the money. Without knowing who spent what amount, i.e. without receipts turned in to verify that indeed the entire $50 was spent, we have to acknowledge the entire amount as income.
This is not an issue of mistrust or misuse. We wholeheartedly respect your professionalism, your integrity and your talents. This new policy is simply protecting the Random Symphony Orchestra from any government scrutiny as far as money paid to an individual.
I hope this explains the situation a little better. If anyone has any further questions, please call Frank Doe. If he can not help you, you may call me at the number below. I fully understand your concern, but please know, this is something that needs to be done to keep things in check. I appreciate you asking the question. I hope I have given you a satisfactory response.
Sincerely……..
Bill Doe
Service Accounting Manager
Anonymous Center
The e-mail outcry was instantaneous. This one (from a percussionist) sums up my thoughts on the issue quite nicely:
Dear Bill Doe:
I don’t get it. As far as I see it, cartage payment is indeed reimbursement: reimbursement for expenses involved in moving large heavy equipment. Some musicians have these expenses, and some don’t. Those that do have these expenses are reimbursed for those expenses. On the other hand, all musicians receive compensation for playing their instruments. What am I missing?
These outcries fell on indifferent ears. Our personnel manager e-mailed us with this message soon after the original one from Bill Doe:
Hello All,
I wanted to let you know that there is a new policy in place for cartage payment starting the beginning of 2006. Our accountants at Anonymous Center Accounting are going to be including your cartage in your payroll. This issue on how cartage has been paid in the past has been going back and forth for some time now. It has been determined by them that it is a form of compensation. The rule states:
“Anything that is paid to an employee that is not a reimbursement is considered compensation.”
So, in this check and in the future you will see cartage included as earnings.
Any questions please feel free to talk to me about it, although I might have to go back to the accountants, as I am not an expert on this subject.
Thanks,
Frank Doe
Notice that “Frank Doe” refers to cartage as compensation Is this accurate?
Many heated e-mail exchanges followed from both musicians and management, yet the policy remained in place until I quit this ensemble, and it probably still is in place.
One more thing–no musicians in this ensemble receive any mileage compensation either, even though tout-of-town talent makes up a significant percentage of the ensemble. Lovely huh? I quit soon after.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think of cartage payments (especially those of you who don’t receive them)? Are they reimbursement or extra compensation (you know what I think)? Was the management reasonable in this exchange? Do we deserve cartage at all?
Welcome to the world of freelance orchestral playing!
Road Warrior now on Amazon!
My book Road Warrior Without an Expense Account is now available through Amazon.com! How cool is that? Now you can take advantage of Amazon deals and free shipping when ordering. If you haven’t picked up a copy and you’re a fan of the blog, doing so would really help to support all the projects we’ve got going here. I’m doing a book signing later this month–more on that later. I’ll also be putting out a video with my Keynote presentation on the facts and insights presented in RRWEA, so stay tuned for that. Also, if you’d like to give the book a little support, feel free to head over to Amazon (click the link below) and fill out a review for the book.
Update: It’s also available at Barnes & Noble! (link)
“Road Warrior Without an Expense Account” (Jason Heath)
Summer festivals – a good deal?
Adaptistration blogger and Inside the Arts mastermind Drew McManus recently put out a post about summer music festivals that really caught my eye. In this post (dated 6/27/08), Drew writes:
Unlike regular season positions, music festivals have an added bonus by offering their exclusive location as an added incentive to performance and travel pay. Add to that varying levels of accommodations (from “you’re on your own” to gratis top-of-the-line private housing), travel pay, and proximity to major airports and you have all the elements for the basic formula many musicians consider when looking for summer work. Consequently, festivals located in idyllic locations typically have some leeway over those needing to leverage monetary compensation and travel pay to a larger degree.
Trading location for pay is an established fixture in the among both part-time and full-time orchestra rank-and-file, though (as discussed later in this post), I often question the sensibility of this trade-off. More on that later.
Drew continues:
Unfortunately, the sharp increase in gas prices has thrown that delicate balance out of whack. Not only is it far more expensive for musicians (not to mention seasonal staffers and patrons) to drive to music festivals but musicians are having a much more difficult time flying with instruments due to increased airline fees. As an example, if a Chicago based musician wanted to play in the Colorado Music Festival the estimated fuel cost is nearly $400, a 47% increase compared to last summer.
This post touches upon one of my gravest concerns for musicians looking to earn a living as orchestral performers. In my post earlier this year (reprinted in Los Angeles’ Overture Magazine) The Real Cost of Driving to Gigs for the Freelance Musician, I demonstrated how one’s seeming profit is drastically eaten away by fuel costs and other travel expenses.
Taking musician summer festival compensation on even a cursory run through Drew’s Gig After Gas Online Calculator makes most summer gigs (outside of a select few festivals) seem like a dubious proposition for generating a profit.
If we musicians make no money doing festivals, why do we do it? I have played a lot of orchestra festivls over the years. Some have been awesome, some have been grim, but few of them have been dull, and in hindsight, I don’t regret doing any of them!
Still, it is valuable to take a few moments and break down some of the pros and cons of these summer activities. Here are a few of the major reasons why musicians play summer festivals:
1. Paid Vacation – Musicians (especially freelance musicians) often have neither the time nor the discretionary income to take an honest-to-goodness vacation, and a summer festival is therefore the closest thing that many musical folks get to taking time off. Better a working vacation than no vacation, right? More on that later…
2. Working in Paradise – As Drew discusses in his post, getting a chance to make music in a pretty place is one of the driving force behind taking summer festival work. Non-musicians may not understand this compulsion, but playing a concert in the crisp mountain air, an exotic locale, or (as I do each summer) in wacky boathouses and barns in the middle of Lake Michigan is a feeling that just can’t be replicated.
3. Filling Slow Months – Music doesn’t really….well…. pay that well! Freelance musicians and orchestral musicians in orchestras without a summer season often find themselves besotted with work in the chilly months, only to be completely and utterly unemployed in the warm months. While work may disappear for them, those pesky bills keep coming! Taking some summer work (even low-paying work) is therefore preferable to no work.
4. Recharging Creative Juices – Many musicians grow weary of the monotony of their regular work, and taking off for a few weeks in the summer allows for meeting new friends, playing under different conductors, learning new repertoire, and getting a few weeks of fresh faces and places can be like a B12 shot of creative juices, keeping a musician inspired for the entire year to come.
5. Social Reasons – Musicians tend to be social creatures, and many folks simply view festivals as a time to party down. The meager pay offered by many festivals is not so grim if viewed as beer and pizza money rather than mortgage and health care money, and many orchestra festivals become shaggy hippie affairs as musicians stay out all night partying at local joints, doing hikes, and spending time on the water.
Pros and Cons to Summer Festival Work
1. Two services a day… is that really a vacation? – I have played many summer festivals in beautiful locations, only to find myself locked in a rehearsal room morning, noon, and night. The problem with summer festivals is that they keep wanting you to do some dang work when you’re there. While you may be there for a vacation, your employers think of you more like summer staff, and even if they don’t the audience certainly does! You’re there to take care of business, and your personal enjoyment typically comes second to the job.
2. Very few days off – I played a festival in a gorgeous West Coast location many years ago. I was there for three weeks, and I got (drum roll) two whole days off! I had two services a day for nearly every other day I was out there. This, friends, is typical. How many mountains can you climb in two days? How many rivers can you canoe? Again, you’re not actually going there for vacation (right?), but having an idea of how much down time you get while at a festival is a smart.
3. Colossally bad pay – Now, not all summer festivals pay poorly. In fact, most of the gigs I’ve done in the summer have payed close to what I typically make for equivalent work in Chicago. But many festivals pay astonishingly poorly, with little to no travel compensation and a pitiful per-service rate.
Here’s an example of the latter. While this festival was quite enjoyable, even a cursory glance at the following number will have you doubting the wisdom of doing such a festival. As you can see, I lost so much money doing this festival that I could have easily taken my wife and I on a great vacation:
Per-Service Compensation: $26
Number of Services Per Day: 2
Days Worked Per Week: 6
Festival Length: 3 weeks
Total Days Off: 2
Travel Pay: $500
Distance I Traveled (Round-Trip): 5200 miles
My Mileage Costs According to 2007 Federal Compensation Rates (50.5 cents/mile): $2,626
Actual Travel Costs According to the Gig After Gas Online Calculator (71.9 cents/mile): $3,738.80
My total per-service compensation for the festival: $1,134
My total compensation including travel pay: $1,634
My net loss according to the federal mileage rate: $992 loss
My net loss according to the Gig After Gas rate: $2,104.80
Weighing the pros and cons
As I said earlier, I have played a huge number of summer festivals. Some have lined my pocket with a little cash and some have put me deeply in debt. Not being made out of money, I’ve jettisoned the latter and embraced the former, though some of my best memories come from those crazy low-paying orchestral festivals I used to do.
Is it worth it? Well, define “worth it.” I tend to be the kind of person who looks at these things as paid vacation, despite the long hours often spent. I like the change of pace, the unfamiliar colleagues, and I find that summer festivals give me creative energy and help to keep me inspired. For these reasons, I embrace them and don’t ponder the financial nuts and bolts very much.
I generally don’t look at the festivals I’ve done as income generators (though I do come home with a profit from the ones I do these days). I could easily make more money staying at home and teaching, but I enjoy the change of atmosphere and break in routine.
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