The orchestra’s management had wanted to cut the musicians’ paid weeks of work to 40, from the current 52. The musicians argued that such a cut in paid weeks would demote them from the ranks of year-round ensembles and make it harder to attract and retain top talent.
So are they still a full-time orchestra, or a part-time one? It depends on how you count.
Under the new agreement, management said, musicians would be paid for 40 weeks of work this coming season — and for another 10 weeks next summer through what the orchestra called “bonus compensation” that was made possible by a group of donors.
That means the players will be paid for 50 weeks this season. It is less than the customary 52 weeks, but that is because the first two weeks of the season were lost to the labor dispute.
The agreement will allow the orchestra to start its delayed season Friday. But it leaves some of the big questions about the orchestra’s future unresolved, since it runs only through next September — and it is unclear whether the bonus pay that will keep the musicians’ compensation stable this year will be available again.
Under the new agreement — which raises weekly salaries by 2.4% — the minimum base pay of Baltimore’s musicians will be just over $81,438 this season for 50 weeks, down from $82,794 for 52 weeks under the old contract.
And the orchestra is creating a “vision committee,” with musicians participating, to plan its next steps.
“Important work lies ahead,” Peter Kjome, the orchestra’s president, said in a statement. Brian Prechtl, the co-chairman of the players’ committee, said that the musicians “look forward to working side by side with leadership to chart a course for a promising future and to once again fill this room with the glorious sounds of music.”
That music will return Friday with the orchestra’s music director, Marin Alsop, leading the Overture to Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Voodoo Violin Concerto, with the composer as soloist.
This article originally appeared in
.