Symphony Notes September - December 2022

BY MELINDA WHITLEY

As I write my first Symphony Notes column, I’d like to extend my thanks to Kevin Jablonski, who has served as the Nashville Symphony Union Steward since 2019. He has set the bar incredibly high, and I’m sure it will take me quite a while to discover all the ways we will miss his excellent work. Kevin served in a variety of symphony leadership positions over the last few years, and was shop steward during the tense time of our 18 months away from the stage that began with the pandemic in March 2020. His leadership culminated last season with Kevin completing the triple crown of symphony musician leadership, taking on the additional duties of Orchestra Committee Co-Chair and as a member of the Negotiating Committee, both very large time commitments. Luckily, Kevin is still a colleague in our incredible bass section and I’ll continue to work with him every day while seeking his advice as I try to fill his shoes.

How NSO musicians take care of business

Since I’m giving a nod to our internal leadership, this might be a good opportunity to pull back the proverbial curtain and share how extensively the Musicians of the Nashville Symphony (MOTNS) are organized. Within the city of Nashville, I don’t know of any other type of music performance work that maintains this much opportunity for input by the musicians with their employer regarding working conditions and the direction of the organization. What the organization chooses to hear is not up to us, but we take the opportunity seriously. In this regard, The Musicians of the Nashville Symphony are just like other unionized professional symphony orchestras across the nation.

Every spring we hold an election to fill positions on the Orchestra Committee, a group of seven players who serve on behalf of all musicians onstage as liaisons to our management and board of directors. Five members serve alternating two-year terms and two members serve alternating four-year terms. The reason being we don’t want to turn over an entire committee all at once and lose our continuity of leadership! The two four-year terms are occupied by the musicians who serve as the union steward and the delegate to ICSOM, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, just one of the players’ conferences within the AFM.

“We hope our colleagues and guests who join us on and off the stage will feel more comfortable knowing how we work as our own team at the symphony.”

As per our collective bargaining agreement, the musicians both elect and appoint other colleagues to serve on various internal committees that interface with the management, staff, and the board of directors of the Association. Such committees give musicians a large degree of input and a place at the table where decisions are made. Association operational committees include: artistic planning, travel, and insurance. Standing committees on the board of directors include: executive, governance, strategic planning, marketing, development, external affairs, finance, education, Equity Diversity Inclusion & Belonging (EDIB), Symphony Center, and a joint oversight committee dedicated to our new Community Week outreach activities.

In addition to those contractual committees, the MOTNS maintain our own structural committees since we also function separately from the Association as a 501(c)5 labor organization. These committees are overseen by the Orchestra Committee with musicians serving as treasurer, and on committees for our newsletter, kitchen, wellness, website, public relations/social media, and a sunshine committee that focuses attention on supporting each other in whatever emergency needs a musician might have in the moment, such as when a musician or their family has a baby or a surgery.

The orchestra committee meets regularly with upper management to discuss work rules and issues like lighting and audio, in addition to how rehearsals and concerts are scheduled. I often wonder if our guest artists and their technical crews have been briefed that our union musicians have helped create the boundaries for things like decibel levels and light usage. As a union workplace, we adhere strictly to the clock for how time is used for rehearsals, concerts, overtime, and break schedules. We even have special clocks, both onstage and backstage, that run backwards like a timer, counting down our time until a break is over!

Article 1 of our contract states “The Association…recognizes a Union Steward and a committee of musicians…(referred to as “Orchestra Committee”) who shall assist the Union in the negotiation, enforcement and administration of this Agreement.” The same article also states that we should be free of recrimination or harassment for our activities on behalf of the Orchestra Committee or Union and that we have the right to meet as needed to discuss with the Association, it’s representative, and the Music Director in all matters covered by the Agreement. If you’ve ever had a job where you had no say in what happened at that job, you might recognize how fortunate we are to have the voice and the relationship we have developed with our employer, because of the safety net that comes from a union contract.

Now that you’ve seen behind the curtain, we hope our colleagues and guests who join us on and off the stage will feel more comfortable knowing how we work as our own team at the symphony, thus allowing us all to relax and perform at our best.