But those quantitative matters give way to a qualitative question: Would the last, best and final contract offer from PSO management alter the orchestra’s artistic product?
Monday, October 10, 2016
Musicians say quality at heart of PSO strike
But those quantitative matters give way to a qualitative question: Would the last, best and final contract offer from PSO management alter the orchestra’s artistic product?
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4 comments:
Something that confused me about this article is that the musicians are more upset about the pay decrease changing the reputation of the PSO - making it a "less important" symphony. If all the musicians are constantly auditioning for different places, then why does it even matter if this one lowers to 14th instead of 10th! Who cares if you are trying to leave anyways? Several of the musicians quotes were said to have been auditioning at different places for years before the strike - so PSO really IS a stepping stone to a bigger symphony!!
Something that also concerns me is that if the options are reducing the reputation of the symphony and shutting the whole thing down, people should be more concerned about losing their jobs! If the musicians were fighting against the pay cuts because they were doing it for any reasons besides "We are going to go bankrupt," that would make a little more sense to me. But if I was a trombonist, I would not want the orchestra I work for to go out of business! I hope these issues get resolved soon, so they can attempt to find more innovative ways to connect with the Pittsburgh audience.
This situation keeps getting more and more interesting. Last week I read an article and felt upset for the musicians. This week I feel slightly different. It said that a change in pay would make this orchestra a stepping stone in a career. Does pay mean that? I believe that if the work is still as constant as it has been, than people will still want to work here. Also does one judge from 10th spot to 14th spot. Is it just what they are being paid? What makes such a big difference? Hopefully they will settle this so the company can stay open for as long as possible and produce great music without having to close!
This is my second time writing on this topic, but I really wanted to write on it again, because I didn’t realize how serious this was becoming. I agree with the top comments that I feel like there is something missing here. Why would decreasing the pay change the reputation of the PSO? Is it because of the fact that the musicians considered the job to be an amazing place to work in and it benefitted their life style? Because I’m sure like any entertainment job, working either gets you a lot of money or it gets you just enough to live off of. So with PSO salary, did the musicians feel like out of the many options they were offered (some expressed in the article) that the money was good enough to stay home? Or is it because, they said this in one of the previous articles, they were going to cut down the size of orchestra members and reduce pay? I do like someone to explain that.
But I must say that I do understand the moving of places within an orchestra. Having been part of three different orchestras within my life playing the violin and viola, I feel somewhat competent in saying that I can understand a little of what the musicians mean (just a little, because I didn’t do it past middle school, but I would very much like to go back to it). It could have been just in the amateur orchestras, but there was always this sort of competition between players (how intense it was depended on the person), and one person always wished for a higher setting. There is a certain pride when you getting closer to first chair, or even the first 10. And if you weren’t, you still worked hard in order to reaudition and try the chair again next season. So moving chairs around is a very scary thing, and it is not as simple as moving from 10th to 14th chair. It is a symbol of their talent and hierarchy, and believe me, if one is not fighting to move to a chair, they are fighting to keep it. So drastic changes like that do mean something.
Having said that, I really feel like the musicians are holding onto something that they know will change. I mean, the manager office says that they will close down the entire PSO if they don’t do something! And unfortunately, that is the reality that I believe some musicians can’t entirely embrace. Their perfect world/job is changing around them, and being human, as we have all done it at some point, are trying to hold on. Perhaps they feel like there must be a way to resolve the issue without the change, and so even on the brink of collapse, the PSO musicians stand their ground to hold on what they know. Sadly, I do feel like the manager office could be right on this one, because even if it is changed, the PSO would still be standing. There are always opportunities to make it close to how it was before. But who knows? We can only wait and see the answer.
I think on one of the fundamental issues this article discusses is whether pay scale affects quality of work. In most industries, the answer is usually automatically yes. If you decide to cut a factory worker’s pay, you can assume they will produce less quickly on the assembly line. If a lawyer takes a case pro-bono, you expect to be less of a priority. Yet for some reason it surprises people when they learn artists will alter their work based on pay. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra management thinks that cutting the starting salary by 15% and cutting back on benefits won’t affect the quality of the orchestra, but it’s a ridiculous notion. Artists will not perform the same knowing their wages have been cut. It’s a basic principal of motivation. Additionally, dropping the starting salary means that PSO will attract less experienced musicians. I don’t think there’s any way around that. I’m not saying the PSO management team should plan ahead for the future, and come up with solutions to preserve the orchestra. But at some point they are going to have to admit that their proposal will affect quality.
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