Orchestral Contracts Get a Look

Aside from artistic excellence, continuity is the critical is sue in the life of performing organizations. And that issue is regularly threatened when contracts come up for renewal. Across the nation, in recent weeks, a number of symphonic contracts have been renegotiated.

At the Pacific Symphony, the bottom line in a new, three-year agreement between the symphony association and Local 7, American Federation of Musicians, includes a 14.7% wage increase over the length of the contract, as well as a $50,000 signing bonus; additionally, the contract clarifies provisions for touring and substitute players.

At the St. Louis Symphony in Missouri, a new wrinkle in a recently ratified, five-year agreement between the orchestra players, represented by Local 2-197, and management, the Symphony Society, is the creation of a “Community Partnership Program” that will enhance the personal involvement of the musicians in the community. The contract also sets annual cost of living salary increases for individual players over the five-year term.

Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have ratified their new contract, which increases base salary by 7.7% in the first of three years, and also increases the orchestra’s pension benefit from $40,000 to $45,000 on the final day of the first year of the contract. Both sides, the official news release says, “made some adjustments in working conditions.”

The San Diego Symphony and its players have agreed upon and ratified a contract commencing Oct. 1, 1994, through Sept. 15, 1997.

The new agreement restores and adds weeks of employment for the orchestra, with an increase in compensation each year. The contract, according to a news release, “expresses a major commitment from the . . . Board of Directors to the musicians of the orchestra and to the institution’s continuing growth and de velopment.”

It also provides yearly employment of 36, 37 and 38 weeks for the 81 musicians of the orchestra. Weekly minimums are $835, $870 and $900 in each of the next three seasons; included in the minimum is $45 of electronic media guarantee, which will enable the orchestra to continue recording projects and radio broadcasts. Long-term disability insurance, already in place for the symphony’s administrative staff, has been extended to the players.

ANNIVERSARIES: At a special, 75th Anniversary concert Monday night in the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will repeat its inaugural program of Oct. 24, 1919. Conducted by music director Esa-Pekka Salonen and former music director Zubin Mehta, that program lists Chabrier’s “Espana,” Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” Liszt’s “Les Preludes” and Weber’s Overture to “Oberon.” Michael York will be master of ceremonies. . . . On three consecutive nights, Nov. 10-12, the New York Philharmonic will observe the 50th anniversary of Leon Fleisher’s New York debut (Nov. 4, 1944), when the then-16-year-old pianist from San Francisco played Brahms’ D-minor Concerto. Now 66, and the father of five adult children, Fleisher on these occasions will play Ravel’s Left-Hand Concerto, a highlight of the current repertory he was obliged to take on when, at the height of his career, in 1965, he lost the use of his right hand to what was later diagnosed as repetitive stress syndrome. During the rest of this 1994-95 season in the United States, Fleisher will play not only the Ravel work, but also a new left-hand concerto written for him by Lukas Foss, and other one-handed works by Prokofiev and Curtis-Smith.

BRIEFLY: Cal State Long Beach will host an open house Nov. 5 for two new landmarks on the East Long Beach campus: the Pyramid Event Center and the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Both facilities will be open for public tours from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. . . . . Charles McNeal, 33, an instructor at San Francisco Ballet, has been honored with the Bernard Osher Cultural Award of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, a prize of $10,000, as “an unsung hero in the field of culture and the arts.” McNeal has worked for 14 years, developing and implementing community outreach and educational programs of S. F. . . . A former principal pianist and assistant conductor at L.A. Music Center Opera, Grant Gershon was recently named the conducting assistant at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. According to music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gershon will help to program the orchestra’s neighborhood and educational concerts, and act as understudy to the music director and to guest conductors. He will also be associate conductor in the co-production of Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande,” in February.*