Orchestral crisis in Chile

[quinterbourne]

Well, unfortunately, the attendance of classical music concerts has gone down dramatically as of recent (in North America). I assume this to be true for many parts of the world. There are many orchestras here where the musicians are forced to take a pay-cut to keep the orchestra from bankruptcy.

What's probably happening is that, although the economy is doing well, the orchestra is not. They believe that the only way to keep the orchestra running is to reduce expenses (they probably won't be able to get many more people to attend their concerts... that number is probably on the way down). One of the easiest ways to reduce expenses is to have less musicians and/or pay the existing musicians less (they probably feel/think/know that is not possible in your case, so they are planning on hiring completely new players).

I don't know if you are under a union, or how that works in Chile, but I would suggest speaking to whomever is in charge of representing the musicians of the orchestra. It's been known to happen that the musicians of an orchestra will "ask" the administration for a reduction in wages when bankruptcy seems inevitable. Perhaps you should consider sending this type of message to management. Sure it will suck being paid less (probably below what is reasonable for most of the musicians) but at least you'd still all have jobs.

Now, if the orchestra is doing all right, and all they want to do is "make more profit" if that is even possible for an orchestra, then I might not try the strategy above.

If a major orchestra here, in North America, were to fire all of the musicians and hire people straight out of college/university (thus reducing musician fees like 40%) it would not sit well with the public - of course they can't do that because of unions/laws. If our local orchestra were to do that, most people would resent the orchestra, and attendance would plummet. The amount of money they would save in salaries would be potentially less than the amount of money they would lose in ticket sales.

[Steve Oberheu]

Jeff,

Very sorry to hear the news. Having spent a year myself in a Latin American orchestra where there was no union, I completely identify with the frustration of having virtually no representation or even a chance to negotiate things.

For those among us who haven't been there...essentially, you take what you're given and be thankful for it. Whatever management says goes, no matter how weakly founded their explanation for why. It really is so different from what North America/Europe is used to. It really solidified in my mind the necessity of the union and made me thankful for the one we have.

I don't know what to add, other than this treatment is unfair and affects working musicians' lives. I wish I could offer some sort of solution, but I don't have that kind of knowledge. The orchestra in Santiago has my sympathy and I hope something will shake out for your benefit.

Courage, my friend...courage.

Steve O.