MUSICIANS’ APPEAL TO OUR SYMPHONY AUDIENCE

Hello, friends from the community. Thank you for your interest in and concern about your Symphony. We would like to share our perspective on the current situation. We believe that the Association’s mantra of a “sustainable business model” is doomed to fail if it relies on the musicians having an unsustainable career.

Over the last few decades of this fine orchestra, Jacksonville has changed tremendously. Since the 1990’s, this city can boast of many achievements, notably the Jaguars coming to town and recognition as one of our nation’s fastest-growing economies and populations. There is evidence of our city’s thriving economy all around us from the many riverfront construction projects to the influx of new residents in the Beaches communities and St. Johns County. In fact, according to Census Bureau figures, since 2001 the Jacksonville metropolitan area has seen total personal income grow by 36%. Despite this, there is one crucial area in which our community has fallen short— its commitment to its Symphony orchestra, which is one of the standard measures of sophistication which transforms a city into a major city.

The musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony are currently in the midst of a contract negotiation in which we are being asked to take concessions that will ultimately lower our ability to bring great music to you, our audience. These concessions include cuts in pay and benefits, as well as in provisions which are in place to ensure artistic excellence and quality performances. Such a contract would have grave consequences for your city’s Orchestra, resulting in the defection of our best musicians, the reduction of our ability to attract talented players to replace the ones that leave, and to force us to part with our finest instruments. Musicians will have to direct their energies toward finding supplemental income, diverting their primary energies from their symphony work. Placing such financial constraints on our musicians– each player having performed in this Orchestra an average of 16 years– will damage our great institution. This particular group of Symphony musicians has a total of over 700 years together honing our own unique, mature musical ensemble— not easily recreated, by any means.

The Symphony players have been told that we need to accept these concessions in our contract to defray yearly operating deficits. Yet despite Jacksonville’s immense growth since 2001 the fundraising income has actually dropped by $130,000. Between 2001 and 2006, however, money devoted to the Symphony’s marketing salaries have increased by 23% and Development salaries have grown by 34%. In contrast, musicians’ base salaries have only risen 10%. Yet we continue to hear that the orchestra’s financial woes are due to musicians’ inflationary salaries.

Our history has shown that repeatedly cutting the Symphony budget does not lead to a growing, thriving organization that reflects the economic vigor of an ambitious community. In 2001 and 2004, Jacksonville Symphony musicians accepted cuts with assurances from Symphony management that they would be able to fix structural problems thanks to our financial concessions. Unfortunately, problems still exist today despite musicians’ best efforts to help. We believe that the people of Jacksonville want and deserve a great orchestra as its cultural core, and that there is substantial untapped financial support for this in our city. It is our hope that the Symphony’s Board and Management team can translate Jacksonville’s economic gains into a healthy, thriving institution. We invite those who support us to encourage our orchestra’s Board to adopt the ambitious goals for our orchestra that our city’s visionaries have for Jacksonville.

Your Symphony musicians hail from 18 states as well as from 11 foreign countries, and we all call Jacksonville home. We are educated in 48 different universities world-wide, and the majority of us have earned Masters degrees. Many of us teach privately, instructing a total of 220 students in greater Jacksonville, ages 5 to 80. We are personally responsible for providing fine-quality instruments for our orchestra, and have personally invested upwards of $1.6 million dollars to buy them. We have come from all over the world to help make Jacksonville a better place to live through the beauty of live music, and are proud to be members of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. We hope to continue, with your support, to make great music and sustain a great orchestra which will serve its citizens and anchor its city’s cultural way of life.