Detroit Strike, What are they thinking?

Ok, I was going to leave this alone, but I can't resist now that the DSO members have reached an even higher level of insanity.  An article in the Detroit News states that the musicians are handing out fliers at the North American International Auto Show requesting that Ford withdraw its support of the symphony.

In my previous blog, I tried to make some suggestions regarding possible solutions.  Biting the hand that feeds you, was not among the mix.  What possible good can it do to further injure the DSO financially?  Do the musicians want to have an orchestra to return to or are they just trying to accelerate its demise?  The orchestra still has ongoing expenses even when they are not having to make a payroll.  If the DSO gets to the point that it can't afford to keep the administration and staff, then the orchestra goes under.

I think a more useful tactic might have been to beg Ford to help broker a solution and to request that they increase their level of giving.  

Detroit, think outside the box!

Ok, I have spent the last two blogs questioning the wisdom of musicians going on strike.  Now I would like to be a bit more productive and offer some possible solutions.  I agree that orchestras around the country are looking to see the outcome of the Detroit strike, but not for the reasons you might think.  I am going to take an optimistic view and assume that they are watching what happens to see if Detroit can come up with any brilliant ideas that will help them solve their economic woes too.

First, let's stop the ongoing "negotiations" over salary with all symphony orchestras in the country.  I have never been able to figure out why all non-profits in the country haven't done what US federal government workers have worked out with their employer.  In other words, just tie all raises (federal gov. workers never take pay cuts) to the same cost of living index that the federal government uses for their employees.  If federal government workers deserve a 2% raise, then so does everyone else in the non-profit sector.  Hey, it might even have a side benefit of making everyone in the country pay more attention to the expanding federal payroll.  In order to accommodate regional economic disparities, just use a comparison to public school teacher's salaries in any local jurisdiction.  If a public school teacher in Michigan makes 20% less than teachers in Maryland, then adjust symphony salaries accordingly.

Second, look at operating budgets based on percentages.  The American Symphony Orchestra League has detailed charts and graphs that show averages of how much is spent on administrative staff, operating costs, personnel, advertising/marketing, etc.  They do this for orchestras in every economic niche so that orchestras could compare apples to apples.  For example, an orchestra that operates on a $1.5 million can compare their percentages to other orchestras in the same tier.  If an orchestra is way out of line in comparison to other similar orchestras then figure out who is at fault and fire them.

Now, stop thinking in cash only terms.  Here are some examples.  All musicians need reliable cars to do their job.  We tend towards Toyota and Honda because of the longevity and reliability of the vehicles.  What if, instead of going to GM and Chrysler and asking for cash they don't have, the Detroit Symphony instead asked them for a car for every musician?  This is a win/win.  What a great advertising opportunity for car manufactures. (I would photograph the Detroit musicians parking lot and paste it in every classical music related publication possible.)  GM and Chrysler could promote their products into a market that has abandoned them and Detroit musicians could ditch a car payment.  ($200-500/month)

Repeat this concept for everything from dry cleaning to cell phones.  Give Detroit symphony musicians special discount cards for participating merchants.  Businesses may be cash poor right now, but they might be willing to give a 15% discount to musicians.  Again, a win/win on both sides.  Struggling businesses gain a new customer base, customer loyalty and help their community while musicians cut their expenses.


As a final added incentive, the citizens of Detroit (and all of Michigan) need to really consider what is lost if the symphony cannot retain these extraordinary musicians.  It is not just the economic contributions that a symphony makes to a region.  Remember, most of these musicians are also probably working as private studio teachers, helping another generation reap the many benefits of classical music training.  Most of them are also married, so not only do you lose the musician, you lose the spouse's job and economic contribution to the city.  Now add their children into the mix, as well as relatives who visit for holidays, etc. and you can see the economic impact in ever widening circles.

Why not give it a try?  Detroit has everything to gain by keeping this workforce in Detroit.  This is your last chance.  If the cultural institutions go under, then Detroit might as well resign itself to becoming a ghost town of America's industrial past.

Best Christmas Sheet Music for String Students

Parents and Teachers,
Performing holiday music for friends, relatives and in church services is a wonderful way to motivate your child to practice and help them build a sense of pride in their accomplishments. Playing holiday tunes is also a wonderful way for students to develop better reading skills.   Here are our suggestions for the best Christmas sheet music with links to purchase.

Suzuki Late book 1 students

Christmas and Chanukah Ensembles.  This collection of 23 holiday favorites will not only motivate beginning string students in the classroom, but will also encourage home chamber music sessions. The flexible format allows the book to be used with any combination of instruments, from a solo player with piano accompaniment to a full string ensemble. Correlated with specific pages in the Strictly Strings method.  $6.95

Christmas and Chanukah Ensembles for violin
Christmas and Chanukah Ensembles for viola
Christmas and Chanukah Ensembles for cello

Suzuki book 2/3 students

Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 1 by Robert Frost.  Orchestral Collection or  Ensemble. This collection is in friendly keys and is written in score form for 3 violins (or 3 celli or violas)  The score format can be a bit of a problem for new readers but the font size is large and usually children can easily adjust.  The great thing about this collection is that it can be played as a solo, duet, trio or with a single instrument and piano. (you must purchase the piano accomp. part)  The parts are interchangeable, so the cello parts can combine with violin or viola parts.  $3.95

Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 1 for violin
Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 1 for viola
Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 1 for cello

Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 1 piano accomp.

Suzuki book 3 students

Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 2 by Robert Frost.  Orchestral Collection or  Ensemble.  See description for volume 1.  Keys become a bit more challenging for strings (flats) and more complex rhythms and meters.  $3.95

Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 2, for violin
Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 2 for viola
Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 2 for cello

Christmas Kaleidoscope, vol. 2, piano accomp.

 My Very Best Christmas (17 Violin Solos, Duets and a Play-Along CD on Christmas favorites) Arranged by Karen Khanagov. Violin songbook and accompaniment CD for violin solo (or duet) and piano accompaniment. Beginning. 82 pages. Published by Mel Bay Publications Inc.  $15.96 includes piano part and CD acccomp.

My Very Best Christmas, violin (piano part and CD included)

My Very Best Christmas, viola (piano part and CD included)

My Very Best Christmas, cello (piano part and CD included)

Suzuki book 4 and up

Festive Strings for Ensemble arranged by Joanne Martin. Published by Alfred Music Publishing $6.95
Festive Strings is a collection of well-known Christmas and Chanukah melodies arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and orchestras. In order to provide flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations, all of which are compatible with each other. Accessible keys have been used and shifting is kept to a minimum. Titles are: Jingle Bells in D Major * Joy to the World * Chanukah * Away in a Manger * Jolly Old Saint Nicholas * God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen * S'Vivon * Jingle Bells in A Major * Lo, How a Rose * O Christmas Tree.

Festive Strings for violin ensemble
Festive Strings for viola ensemble
Festive Strings for cello ensemble

Festive Strings, piano accomp.


More Festive Strings is a collection of well-known Christmas and Chanukah melodies arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and orchestras. In order to provide flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations, all of which are compatible with each other. Accessible keys have been used and shifting is kept to a minimum. Titles are: O Chanukah * Angels We Have Heard on High * We Three Kings * Silent Night in D Major * We Wish You a Merry Christmas * O Come All Ye Faithful * Dreydl * Silent Night in G Major * Good King Wenceslas * What Child Is This (Greensleeves).

More Festive Strings for violin ensemble
More Festive Strings for viola ensemble
More Festive Strings for cello ensemble

More Festive Strings, piano accomp.

Reason #45,692 that Classical Music is important

I just finished reading Robert Sternberg's op ed article in the Washington Post called "College Admissions, beyond the No. 2 Pencil."  In it, he discusses how colleges could improve their selection process by looking beyond SAT's and high school grades.  As a professional musician and music teacher, I was thrilled to see that he was advocating that schools look for qualities that musical training nurtures in children.

As a bit of background info., in 1997, Dr. Steinberg proposed a theory of "successful intelligence, based on the idea that people are meaningfully intelligent only to the extent that they can formulate and achieve their goals by synthesizing their creative, analytical and practical skills and their wisdom. People need creative skills to generate new ideas, analytical skills to determine if they are good ideas, practical skills to implement their ideas and wisdom to ensure that their ideas help achieve a common good." During his tenure as dean of the college of Arts and Sciences at Tufts Univ., he added optional questions to admissions applications that "were designed to assess creative, analytical and practical skills and general wisdom."  Using well trained adjudicators and "well-developed scoring rubrics," he has found that these types of questions (like "What if the Nazi's had won WW2?) "helped forcast which students would shine as active citizens and leaders on campus and virtually eliminated the admissions edge enjoyed by some ethnic groups."

Even though I always assert that the primary reason for a strong arts education has to do with esoteric notions like "enhancing the quality and meaning and life", I still will speak out on the intellectual benefits, if it helps people eventually arrive at a higher level of consciousness regarding the need for classical music in the lives of children.  (As an interesting side note, I just want to say that I have never seen any professional classical musician or music teacher reading or even discussing Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life."   We would be more likely to read something called "My Life is so filled with Purpose, I need 40 hour days.")

I ask you, what could be better than the consistent study of music during the course of childhood to develop the "beyond the grades and test scores" qualities that our society needs?  Science has proven that the corpus callosum is actually 15 percent larger in adults who started music lessons before the age of eight than in those who started later.  In other words, in the brains of these children the right side of the brain (creative) has better communication with the left side (analytical) and vice versa.  For a great book that goes into much more detail, but is still comprehensible to the non-scientist, try Robert Jourdain's "Music, the Brain and Ecstacy."

Musicians must constantly utilize creative thinking, (how should I shape the phrase, what is the feeling of this music), analytical thinking (what key is this piece in, how many quarter notes are in a whole note), practical skills (tuning the instrument, moving fingers or breathing correctly), and general wisdom (Bach was born in 1685 and wrote during the Baroque era).  Better yet, musicians are using these aspects of the mind simultaneously and interdependently.  

If you have any doubt that music builds the mind and can change the world, please read Shinichi Suzuki's autobiography called "Nurtured by Love"  In this book, Suzuki tells the story of a dinner party he attended in Germany where he had a conversation with Albert Einstein.  Einstein told Dr. Suzuki, that he believed that his study of the violin trained his mind in a way that allowed him to discover the theory of relativity. 

Meanwhile, college bound high school students, be sure to highlight your musical training on your college applications.

Detroit Symphony Strike, part 2

What about "Detroit's Economic Crisis" is difficult for musicians to understand?  I'm not clear as to why the Detroit Symphony musicians think that Detroit can continue to sustain a world class orchestra.  There is an excellent blog written on Sept. 1, 2010 by Austin McCoy called "Detroit: the forgotten center of crisis and hope."  In it Mr. Austin relates the following statistics.

Detroit has gone from being known as the “arsenal of democracy” to the poster child for government disinvestment, deindustrialization, and capital/white flight. All of these factors contributed to the city’s inability to adjust to broader economic restructuring.[iv] Detroit has lost almost half of its population between 1950 and 2002.[v] According to sociologist William Julius Wilson, the city shed 51 percent of its manufacturing jobs between 1967 and 1987.[vi] 


..less than 20 percent of the jobs are now located within three miles of the city center.”[vii] This explains why one notices that the central business district resembles a virtual ghost town after business hours.....Detroit has also closed almost half of its schools since 2005....

Now, couple this bleak data with the recent bailout of GM and Chrysler and I'm not sure how the Detroit Symphony musicians can justify or even imagine maintaining their $100,000/year plus salaries.  I'm sure the auto industry in Detroit has been a generous benefactor of the symphony in years past, but I can't imagine the public relations nightmare that would ensue if they continued this tradition after the recent federal bailout.  Explaining how they can give money away after a federal bailout would be cause for another tough round of testifying before a Senate committee in Washington.  

Let me be clear, musicians in world class orchestras should be paid a minimum of $100,000/year.  Becoming a professional musician is a long, arduous and very expensive process.  However, world class orchestras reside in world class cities, a title that Detroit can no longer lay a claim to holding.

Economic Reality Check for Musicians

The recent strike held by Detroit Symphony musicians brings a flood of thoughts to my mind.  I share these ideas constantly with my colleagues, but now I think it is time to go beyond the circle of friends who have been traditionally subjected to my "musings."

Before I begin, let me preface these thoughts with a notification that I am a professional musician in the Washington DC area.  I am a union member (but not by choice) and I am currently exhausted from a run-out concert that had me out until 1am last night and I am pumping myself up with caffeine in an effort to pull myself together for another performance tonight.  In short, I am in the trenches too and not delivering this sermon from some lofty podium or living some elite life that is untouched by the economic realities of life as a classical musician.

Ok, here it goes.....I have never been able to wrap my mind around the concept of musicians having a "strike."  To me it is the most self-destructive action any musician can ever undertake.  I was going to school in Baltimore while the Baltimore Symphony strike was occurring in 1989-1990 and to this day I believe that they have never fully recovered from the damage that was done to the orchestra during that strike.

Let's just start with "economics 101."

Let's say a musician in an orchestra is making $100,000/year from their orchestra salary.  If they go on strike for 6 months, they loose $50,000 worth of income.  (Note, I understand they get union subsidies during this strike, but that is the same as receiving an insurance payout.  Basically, you are just getting back what you have paid in over the years, so it is a break even proposition at best.)  If the strike is not advocating a raise, but just a maintenance of salary, it will take 10 years for an individual musician to recoup the income that was lost over 6 months, if indeed it is ever recovered.

Meanwhile, the strike has also cost the orchestra dearly in terms of public relations, fund raising opportunities, corporate support, not to mention the rancor and ill will that is generated behind the scenes between board members, the administration and even within the ranks of the musicians themselves.  In short, the strike just made it astronomically more difficult to achieve the very thing the musicians were demanding in the first place, namely long term economic security. 

I've also never understood the attitude from musicians that generates the statement "They" won't give us more money (or whatever is being negotiated).  Who is "they?"  Could they be talking about the board members who have volunteered and usually pay a fee for the privilege of trying to support an important community institution?  Remember that orchestras are not-for-profit endeavors.  In other words, when the workers are denied a raise, the "extra" money that is left over, does not go into the pockets of stockholders.  No one derives a benefit from not giving the musicians more money.  I cannot believe that any board member wants to have their name associated with economic or artistic failure of the organization they are supporting.  They are usually on the board because they are leaders in some segment of the for-profit world and understand the benefit of the institution to the community.  These are people who are unfamiliar with failure and do not like that word associated with their name and reputation.


I don't think the "they" is the administration either.  In the organizations that I work for, the administrative staff usually takes the first hit and suffers much earlier than the musicians.  They lose jobs, take pay cuts, etc. before the musicians are ever asked to sacrifice.   Since they are the first to go and the first to suffer, they have a vested interest in keeping the organization economically healthy.  That is not to say that there is not sometimes incompetency in administration, but hopefully the board is vigilant and will address that issue.  


I have much more to say on this subject and will continue to do so in the coming days, but since this is a blog and not a dissertation, I will stop here for now.  I welcome feedback and dialogue on this topic as long as it doesn't result in name calling and personal insults.  Let's keep it civil and useful. 

Classical Music Identity Crisis

Just read Anne Midgette's article about "Classical Crossover"  and it speaks to an issue that most classical musicians and the people who love classical music are struggling with for the past decade.  Namely, how do we now define classical music?  For years, recording labels have padded classical music sales figures by mixing in the sales from Broadway showtune albums, but I doubt there are many of us within the classical music industry who would really consider the theme from "Cats" as part of our genre. 
Now comes Renee Fleming with her new album "Dark Horse" and Sting with "Symphonicities."  Do we invite them in?  My mind immediately says "yes" to Renee Fleming, because, well, she is Renee Fleming and she is "one of us," so therefore it has to be "classical." The same goes for Yo Yo Ma.   I'm not so sure about Sting, however.   Andrea Bocelli gets a "maybe" in my book.  Yes, he does sing opera, but I never thought he was actually that good at it.  I think his success grew out of his appeal to the non-classical music audience, so I am left feeling skeptical.

Mark O'Connor is another artist who leaves me confused.  I have always felt a little naughty and guilty for my attraction to his music.  Two things tend to help me justify him as an genuine "classical music" artist.  First, he composes works for full symphony orchestras.  (This tends to justify my inclusion of Sting into our club, too).  Writing a composition for a symphony that includes multiple movements which are tied together in some meaningful manner is no small feat.  Mark O'Connor's album "Midnight on the Water" also helped me welcome him into the pantheon of classical music composers.  While it still has pieces like "River Out Back", it also has lots of Caprices.  The word "Caprice" is derived from the Italian word "Cappricio" which was first used in 1665, according to Webster's dictionary.  Any music that has it's roots in the year 1665 has to be classical.

Then there are classical musicians like Nigel Kennedy and Nick Kendall (Time for Three) who can take hard core classical music (Vivaldi's Seasons and Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in d minor, respectively) and somehow make them seem like pop music.  Talk about total genre identification confusion.....

So, I have come up my own personal criteria for how to define what is classical music.
1) Who is performing it?  Did they spend their first 10 years of their career on stage at Carnegie Hall or in nightclubs?
2) Have they undergone the rigorous, grueling, intense, often demoralizing, formal training at a highly recognized school of music?  (Hey I put in my years in music boot camp, and I'm not letting anyone else in unless they have suffered as I have.)
3) Question #2 among classical musicians, invevitably leads to Question #3, which is "who is your teacher?"  If you don't understand this question, then you are not a classical musician and neither is your music.
4) Does the music make money?  If the answer is "yes", then questions 1, 2 and 3 are now irrelevant and you are welcome into the classical music genre.

If you have comments, please share!