Hate to see this happen. Don Strand (quoted in the article) is a helluva tuba player and an overall nice guy.The Atlanta Journal wrote:Atlanta Ballet season to open with a CD, protest
By SUSAN ELLIOTT
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/26/06
Barring a last-minute agreement with musicians, the Atlanta Ballet will begin its 77th season tonight with recorded music inside the Fox Theatre and its erstwhile orchestra outside — greeting patrons with picket signs.
The company's 48 union musicians, whose contract was not renewed in August and who have since filed an unfair labor charge, plan to protest tonight's performance of "Giselle."
In a worst-case scenario, the ongoing dispute could have a far more disruptive impact, potentially forcing the ballet to cancel or postpone its premiere of a new ballet, "The Great Gatsby," planned for later this season.
While attempts to resolve the dispute restarted Wednesday, the ballet planned to raise the curtain tonight on the first of six performances of "Giselle" — danced to a CD comprised of segments from various orchestral recordings of this classic 19th-century ballet score. (The company's dancers, also union members, have not taken a stand in the dispute.)
Neither side sounded enthusiastic Wednesday about the situation they find themselves in.
"Nothing would make me happier than to not have to picket tomorrow night," said Don Strand, head of the players' committee of the American Federation of Musicians Local 148-462. "This is not a good situation for either side."
"Live music has always been something we've been committed to," said Atlanta Ballet Artistic Director John McFall, adding, "This is not a matter of preference," but economics.
At the heart of the dispute is the Atlanta Ballet's decision this summer not to renew its contract with its orchestra.
When contract renewal talks began last spring, ballet administrators, scrambling to shore up a deficit of $2.7 million, sought to cut back the orchestra's work — and cost — by about half and instead use a mix of live and recorded music. The musicians refused and offered a counterproposal, which the ballet did not accept.
The ballet announced shortly thereafter that it would present the coming season, including the "Gatsby" premiere and its popular and lucrative run of "The Nutcracker," using recorded music, and save $500,000 by doing so.
Musicians claimed the ballet failed to negotiate in good faith and filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board. That charge is pending.
Wednesday, lawyers for the two sides held new discussions aimed at resolving their differences. One scenario discussed, according to those close to the talks, would have the orchestra record the score for "Gatsby" and return to work for the ballet, at least on a part-time basis, next season. In exchange, the orchestra would drop its NLRB charge and its plans to picket performances. As of press time, no agreement had been reported.
The "Gatsby" score has proven an interesting wrinkle in the live-vs.-recorded music dispute.
McFall is currently working on new choreography for "Gatsby," which the company is scheduled to premiere at the Fox in February. But unlike the 1841 classic "Giselle," which has been recorded numerous times, the score for "Gatsby," by up-and-coming contemporary composer Michael Moricz, has yet to be recorded in its entirety by an orchestra.
Because almost all professional musicians in the United States are members of the same union — the American Federation of Musicians — it will be difficult for the ballet to find a professional orchestra to record the score. Ballet musicians have placed the company on a national "unfair list," all but assuring that no AFM member will work for it.
Atlanta Ballet Production Manager David Tatu looked into the cost of hiring an orchestra out of Seattle, whose professional musicians belong to another union — the International Guild of Symphony, Opera, and Ballet Musicians. But after members of the two music unions consulted, the Seattle players "opted out" of the project, said Seattle Symphony violinist Simon James, Tatu's contact.
"The notion of putting colleagues out of work is not something I'm interested in doing," James said in a brief telephone interview. "I'm not having anything to do with [the project]."
Lacking an agreement with the Seattle musicians, Tatu said he now has three options.
"We'll either get somebody to produce a CD for it," he said, "or we'll create a fully digitized version on a computer, or we'll do a different ballet — that would be our least favorite option."
If no agreement is reached and the NLRB rules in the musicians' favor, the two sides will have to attempt to reach a settlement. During that process, Atlanta Ballet would likely be required to rehire the orchestra under the contract's previous terms, deficit or no deficit.
I hope things work out for the better.
d
