http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/arts/music/atlanta-symphony-orchestra-music-director-backs-performers.html 2014-09-24 00:56:24 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Backs Performers Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony, has made a public plea on behalf of his locked-out performers, an unusual step for a conductor. === When the well-regarded Atlanta Symphony Orchestra “This is a dire and critical juncture for the city of Atlanta, which is in danger of losing the flagship of its culture,” Mr. Spano said in his first interview since the orchestra’s musicians, who accepted significant pay cuts two years ago, were locked out this month after balking at a proposal that would further erode their take-home pay. “If the The labor battle in Atlanta has not been only about pay and benefits, but also about the size of the ensemble itself, as the orchestra’s management and its parent organization try to cut its costs to end a string of persistent budget deficits. Mr. Spano lamented that “our brilliant and creative musicians, who need to be intimately involved in the creation of our path to the future, have been asked to leave the building — and Atlanta is left with a deafening silence.” In speaking out publicly, if guardedly, about the lockout, Mr. Spano was breaking with tradition: Music directors typically remain silent when labor troubles erupt between their employers and the musicians they lead. But Before the lockout, he and the orchestra’s principal guest conductor, Donald Runnicles, with whom he shares a close working relationship, In the interview, Mr. Spano acknowledged that he had helped cover the costs of the tour. “There was basically a movement to cancel our appearance,” he said, “at which point I marched in to one of our symphony board meetings and said this is not going to be canceled — there are people who think it should be canceled, I don’t agree with them, I’m putting $50,000 on the table right now. Who’s going to join me? I then started calling people all over the country, and we garnered the support for that engagement within a week.” Some members of the orchestra board tried to raise enough money to end the lockout. Management has said that its Ron Antinori, a relatively new board member, said that he had held an informal meeting to try to end the lockout, in which he asked other board members to write unsigned pledges on sheets of folded-up paper of how much they were willing to contribute. He said that the pledges topped $800,000 but that when he met with board leaders, they declined to end the lockout. He resigned. The orchestra’s management said that while it was thrilled to have donors and would be happy to accept $800,000 in gifts, such a donation would not resolve the short- or long-term problems. “We’ve been trying short-term fixes for more than a decade without success,” said Randy Donaldson, a spokesman for the orchestra’s management. “We need a long-term solution that will allow the A.S.O. to balance its artistic and financial goals.” The orchestra’s parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, is a nonprofit that also houses the Alliance Theater and the High Museum of Art. When Moody’s Investors Service Mr. Antinori said in an interview, “To me, the musicians really have the high ground,” but the arts center “holds the purse strings.” The musicians agreed to reduce the ensemble’s size in the last contract to 88 players from 95, but there are now fewer than 80 because of departures. Mr. Spano said he was troubled by a provision in the latest management proposal that would give it discretion over whether to fill positions, which could further shrink the ensemble. Mr. Spano said that reducing the orchestra’s size made it rely more on hiring substitute players. “And no aspersion to their gifts, but that means that the orchestra’s quality suffers,” he said. He said the size of an orchestra matters in ways that may not be immediately obvious. “It’s not as simple as, well, in Mahler, you need a big orchestra, but in Mozart, you don’t,” he said. “In fact, for the health of an orchestra on an ongoing basis, you need those numbers not only for repertoire reasons but for health reasons and workload reasons and for engagement reasons — what you’re able to do outside of the hall, in the community.” “Would you want the Falcons playing with one quarterback?” he asked. Now the orchestra’s management has canceled Thursday night’s season-opening concert, which was to have featured the pianist Jeremy Denk, and all concerts through Nov. 8. The orchestra’s musicians plan to play free concerts on their own, beginning Friday at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. As he reflected on the curtailed season, Mr. Spano said he was especially anxious to resolve things in time for a November concert featuring Vaughan Williams’s “A Sea Symphony” — which he learned at the request of the chorus and later won a Grammy Award for — paired with a new composition by Jonathan Leshnoff. He has made new pieces, and the work of what has become known as “That’s been an important part of our identity as an orchestra,” he said.