Symphony seeks to trim pay, jobs

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Honolulu Symphony, facing a $1 million debt, is negotiating with its musicians on ways to cut spending through reductions in salaries or positions.

The Musicians Association of Hawaii has been told that these reductions would be matched with 20 percent pay cuts for the symphony's top officials, according to sources who asked not to be named because they feared jeopardizing the negotiations. Conductors Samuel Wong and Matt Catingub and Stephen Bloom, the symphony president, would all take pay cuts, the sources said.

The negotiations, which began earlier this month, were scheduled when the current five-year contract began about 1 1/2 years ago, Bloom said. The contract only set pay levels through the first two years, he said, compelling both sides to reopen negotiations now and agree on wages, length of season and rules for performances with the Hawaii Opera Theatre.

Bloom declined to confirm specific proposals. But he did confirm that the symphony organization is planning to accelerate its endowment drive to help sustain the orchestra for the long term. The endowment currently holds $5.5 million, he said; symphonies in cities this size usually have endowments of at least $15 million, he said.

"We know that is one piece of the answer for long-term stability," Bloom said.

He said that a group including "symphony board members" has pledged a total of $2 million contingent on the symphony developing a "viable financial plan," but would not disclose specifics. Sources have said this group includes symphony board chairman Carolyn Berry and symphony board treasurer Michael OâNeill; and Lynne Johnson, who chairs the Honolulu Symphony Foundation.

Berry and O'Neill could not be reached for comment. Johnson would not confirm that report, but she did say that the foundation, the symphony's fund-raising arm, would only embark on an endowment campaign until the organization "is on firm financial footing."

"We've been running at a deficit," she said. "We canât do that anymore and survive. And we can't expect people to invest unless we get our house in order."

Sources have said that the musicians and the symphony are discussing options for spending cuts, including the option of a $6,000 annual pay cut for each musician. Base pay for symphony musicians is currently $30,345 annually. Alternatively, the union might opt instead to lose six positions through attrition or cut the symphony season, or choose any combination that will achieve the same end, sources said.

Johnson would not confirm specific pay cuts for management but acknowledged that cutbacks will be "a sacrifice by everybody."

"I think the idea is we're all in this together," Johnson said. "Everybody has to work hard, everybody has to sacrifice, simply because the symphony is so important.

"Itâs important not only to the people who love it," she added. "Even if you hate classical music, there are a lot of people who move to Hawai'i because we have a symphony, so it's good for the economy.

"And it's good for education for our children. Our musicians not only play, but they teach."

Bloom said the symphony has reduced its running debt from $1.8 million to about $1 million. But Johnson said all deficit spending will have to end if the foundation expects to meet its minimal goal of doubling the endowment.