Proposed cuts in pay, staff 'disheartening' to musicians
| • | Symphony finances a problem across U.S. |
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Proposed pay and staffing cuts might help the Honolulu Symphony regain its financial footing, but only at the expense of musicians struggling to preserve the quality of their music despite below-average pay, a spokesman for the musicians said yesterday.
The symphony has asked its musicians to accept pay cuts, staffing cuts or a reduction in the number of orchestra performances as a way of reducing its $1 million debt. Musician union representatives were told that top symphony administrators would match the reductions with a 20 percent pay cut of their own.
"It's especially disheartening considering the many ways the musicians have tried to help in the past to help make the organization balance its budget," said spokesman Scott Janusch, an oboist in the orchestra and chairman of the symphony's Orchestra Committee. "The current salary of around $30,000 minimum, as you know, in this state is not a very high salary for a professional person to live on, or for anyone to live on for that matter.
"The cuts that are proposed would severely compromise the ability of the existing core of artists to live and raise a family in Honolulu. (They would) also impact the ability of the institution to attract talent from the Mainland, which is already difficult enough."
Janusch also said eliminating five or six positions through attrition would hurt the quality of the orchestra's performance.
"The core base of musicians in the orchestra is already quite small," Janusch said. "If you look at orchestras across the country, including mid-level sized orchestras like our own, the composition is 75 to 80 players."
Officials from Musicians Association of Hawaii Local 677 met with symphony musicians last night to discuss the situation, but Janusch said there were no plans to formally present any proposals to the membership.
The union had earlier stated that a vote could occur as early as today, but union bylaws require a 24-hour waiting period between the presentation of a proposal and the vote.
Symphony president Stephen Bloom said Monday that negotiations will not affect the current season and are only intended to secure the long-term success of the organization.
However, Janusch's comments yesterday seemed to confirm rumors that symphony administrators had warned the union that failure to resolve the symphony's financial woes might force the symphony to close.
Janusch did not indicate what sort of compromises the union might be willing to make. But a prepared statement said, "We have proposed several ideas for growing the financial support of the Symphony and feel that we must begin to take some bold entrepreneurial steps toward increasing the visibility and support of the orchestra."
