DETROIT, Aug. 2, 2010 — Just before the start of each of their three season-ending programs, members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra left the stage at the Meadow Brook Music Festival and went into the audience to pass out cards asking for support.
"With contract negotiations rocky at best, we wanted the audience to know that the level of quality, the richness, the sound and style of this great orchestra were being threatened," said principal trombonist Kenneth Thompkins. "Management's demands drop this orchestra — an orchestra we're all proud of — right out of the rankings of the top ten American symphony orchestras, and with no possibility of restoring that ranking. If that happens, we will not be able to continue attracting the best musicians. Our audiences may no longer continue to enjoy the world-famous guest conductors and artists who perform with top ten orchestras.
"We're asking the public to help save this orchestra every one of us loves — an orchestra that enriches our lives and makes us proud, an orchestra that brings us recognition worldwide. We want the people to continue hearing great symphonic music at the level of quality they are used to and deserve," Thompkins said.
"We want them to know that management refuses to negotiate. Not budging from its demands but merely repackaging them is not negotiating. The musicians look forward to honest negotiations — not charades from management — to arrive at a contract that guarantees the eventual restoration of our status as one of America's top ten symphonic orchestras.
"We know the problems. We've offered to swallow cuts of 22% in next year's annual scale, 14% in 2012, and 8% in 2013 — $9 million in concessions — to help bail out management and save the orchestra. Our proposal was flatly rejected," Thompkins said.
"That's after making $3.4 million in concessions the past two contracts. At least, past concessionary contracts contained a final-year restoration of our ranking to the top ten American symphony orchestras in America. Management's current proposal makes the cuts permanent, thus eliminating any possibility of the orchestra regaining its position among the top ten.
"It's not just the economy that's the problem," Thompkins said. "It's the many management problems that have to be fixed — problems that range from an unending turnover in the development department, to resolving how to present and market the orchestra and Orchestra Hall, rebuilding a donor base that has been allowed to plummet, and abandoning its strategic plan."
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