This memo - it's a bit long - was sent by the Bellevue Philharmonic orchestra committee to the board of directors on November 12. It is a detailed description of what has been going since the new executive director started in March. I urge everyone to read it.

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Dear BPO musicians,

The following letter was emailed to the Board of Directors yesterday for their attention at the Executive Board meeting.

November 12, 2008

Report to the Board

From: Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra/Negotiating Committee – David Cole, Carol Colwell, Rebecca Evans, Martha Garrett, Kirsten James, Mary Kantor, Linda Peragine and Bryce Van Parys

To: Dale Miller and Members of the Bellevue Philharmonic Board

Please take a few minutes to read our report. The musicians have made a sincere effort to communicate in a clear and truthful manner the issues that concern us currently. We greatly appreciate the time and effort the BPO Board is putting into keeping the organization viable. The reason we are giving this report to you is to facilitate communication and attempt to resolve problems in order to be able to perform at our best.

Thank you, Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra/Negotiating Committee

Union Recognition:

The musicians of the BPO have overwhelmingly voted (89%) to have the Musician’s Association of Seattle – American Federation of Musicians Local 76-493 represent us. If the board has any doubts about this level of support, we would be happy to have this figure verified to your satisfaction. A common way to do this is to agree on a neutral third party to verify the number of signed cards compared to the orchestra roster. Jennifer McCausland has refused to recognize Local 76-493 as our bargaining agent with no other reason other than she “doesn’t have to.”

Jennifer McCausland approached the president of the International Guild of Symphony, Opera and Ballet Musicians (the Guild) and told him that she would recognize the Guild as our bargaining agent. The Guild is a local union run by musicians of the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet. This was a highly inappropriate act by Jennifer McCausland because it is not supported by the musicians and the president of the Guild declined Jennifer McCausland’s offer. The musicians of the BPO do not want to affiliate with the Guild because the Guild is not a member of the American Federation of Musicians.

Personnel Manager:

Kirsten James, personnel manager for the last 10 years, was dismissed on November 3 and told her duties would be taken up by three different people: Jennifer McCausland, John Kim and Lyndee White. Jennifer claimed this was due to “budget cuts”. Kirsten’s salary was only $500 per month. It seems like a poor tradeoff to dismiss a very experienced personnel manager and split these duties between three people.


John Kim was already hiring and un-hiring musicians several weeks prior to Kirsten’s dismissal. Neither he nor Jennifer McCausland communicated to Kirsten or anyone else in the orchestra about this issue. Only after many musicians responded to his attempts to hire them with questions about circumventing Kirsten did he finally send out a confusing e-mail. In that e-mail he wrote that the instrumentation for the December Pops concert had been reduced and excluded 31 previously hired musicians. The elimination of Kirsten’s position has caused much confusion and turmoil in the orchestra and musical community.


Office Staff:

The musicians would like more information about staff changes and e-mail introductions to the office staff.Jennifer announced Don Thulean as Artistic Administrator on September 24. He was introduced at our dress rehearsal on October 2. The orchestra has never heard from him since. Is he still working for us other than conducting the Messiah? What are his administrative responsibilities? Weren’t these previously handled by the ED? Is it not reasonable to assume that in a time of economic crisis that these duties should be handled by the ED?


Masterworks Concert 1:

The musicians felt that their part in this concert went very well considering the music was not ready in time, there were many last minute changes and scheduling problems with the soloist resulted in very little concerto rehearsal time. Positive comments made during the concert by a board member and the congratulatory e-mail and letter sent out by Jennifer affirmed these feelings.This concert included 12 of the 14 musicians Jennifer put on notice to re-audition.
Attendance for these concerts was down. The musicians wonder why they were not offered discounted tickets to fill empty seats as they would have been happy to have friends and family attend.

This concert also included a larger string section than normal for the BPO, but smaller than normal for a full-sized orchestra. More string players always improve the sound of an orchestra. The musicians have been struggling with the issue of an undersized string section for years. The musicians enjoyed and appreciated the larger string section. The musicians realize that economically, times are not good, but when it is possible, the musicians would love to see a larger string section because of the better sound.

Masterworks 2:

The musicians are very worried about the music not being available in time to adequately prepare. The violins are also concerned that the concertmaster has not bowed the parts as he has been on vacation. Bowing changes made during rehearsals are time consuming and frustrating for all the orchestra members. Some musicians have driven great distances to get a hold of a copy of the Copland as all the parts for this concert are rentals and are not easily and legally available to individuals. The musicians are planning to perform at the highest level possible given the circumstances presented us. We are very happy to have a guest conductor and are looking forward to more guest conductors.

Messiah:

This concert is a complete fiasco due to scheduling problems, John Kim’s hiring practices and the constantly changing conductor. The board should be aware that hiring musicians in December is very challenging due to all the groups with conflicting performances. The Messiah has always had two rehearsals plus a dress rehearsal. It might work to cut a rehearsal if only the regular string players of the BPO were playing the concert, but the addition of a new conductor and many young and inexperienced string subs is a recipe for disaster.

Holiday Pops:

There is much confusion regarding this concert. Many musicians turned down work to comply with the stricter attendance policies Jennifer insisted upon this season. Thirty-one musicians have been un-hired for this concert without even an apology from Jennifer or John.

Sound Adventures in Schools Program:

The chamber ensembles’ team leaders have not been contacted about the school shows. We normally have a schedule and a concert theme by this time as the shows have always started in January. It is our understanding that this program was funded by a specific grant – has this grant been renewed? Is this something the ED is capable of doing? What is her grant writing background? Is this program still in existence?

Contracts:

The musicians and officers of Local 76-493 are currently redesigning the contract/policies in preparation for swift and amicable negotiations. We would also like to point out one more time that no one was sent a copy of “Attachment A – Policy Guidelines” for either the current season or the past season. These contracts referred to Attachment A three different times and Jennifer McCausland and Dale Miller are still referring to this document even though we were never given a copy. Musicians sent contracts for just the MW2 concert are being penalized for not returning their MW2 contracts in time. These contracts stipulated a three-day deadline. Nevertheless, it is general practice to allow late contracts in the music world. A simple phone call or announcement from Jennifer might have cleared things up. Jennifer has fired one of our top violinists because of this.


John Kim is not abiding by the letter that Dale Miller sent us. John is hiring outside of the orchestra before asking members that played the October concert. We feel this is a punitive policy and ask that all the regular members of the BPO (those sent incomplete contracts in September) be given first priority and offered their official chairs in the orchestra for the rest of the season. We have attached a copy of Tacoma Symphony’s CBA negotiated by the TSO musicians and Local 76-493. This document makes responsibilities of musicians and management very clear and easy to understand.

Interim Music Director – John Kim:

The appointment of John Kim to this position does not seem like a wise choice. He is not a conductor nor does he have ANY experience as a music director. John has rarely shown leadership skills in rehearsal and has alienated a large majority of musicians in the Seattle area with his recent callous treatment of musicians in the BPO. We have not been given any clear information on what the duties of John Kim as Interim Music Director will include. How does this position differ from Don Thulean as Artistic Administrator?

Executive Director – Jennifer McCausland:

The musicians are appreciative of the hard work Jennifer and the board has done regarding wage increases. However, as more and more services are cut, and musicians are fired from the orchestra, from individual concerts and demoted from their principal positions, they now see that the wage increases were actually decreases in terms of the entire season for all but the concertmaster.

Jennifer’s communication with the musicians is extremely poor. Many musicians have indicated that Jennifer uses threats and intimidation as a means to her personal agenda. We wonder if the board is fully aware of how she conducts business with the members of the orchestra. Does the board condone her actions and tactics? Where is the stability? Announcements are constantly being retracted, policies changed, rehearsals changed, concerts changed, conductors changed and management changed. There seems to be no concern for the smooth operations of this orchestra as Jennifer has either forced loyal employees to quit or ultimately fired them when they wouldn’t quit. We realize that good often comes from change, but this is complete chaos. Please recognize what is happening here – we raise these concerns because this style of management has had a devasting effect on this organization in just the few short months the ED has been with the orchestra.

The musicians are very concerned about Jennifer’s interpretation of events on the evening of October 21 and would like to present their side of the story. On October 21, eight BPO musicians along with Motter Snell, Warren Johnson, and Josh Rawlings of Local 76-493 were participants in an impromptu meeting at the BPO office. Contrary to Jennifer’s version of what happened, fists were not pounded or slammed on the table, nor were voices raised. Motter Snell, President of Local 76-493, is a consummate professional, a much sought after mediator in the Seattle area and the former principal harpist of the BPO.

Jennifer is known for inappropriate and outright illegal remarks concerning gender, appearance and race. This cannot be allowed in the workplace and we request that she be required to attend an anti-discrimination seminar for management.

Marketing:

We are hearing from friends and family that are season and single-ticket subscribers that none of them have received any current mailings from the BPO. Is management purposefully excluding them or just using incomplete mailing lists? What role does the ED play in boosting concert attendance? What specifically is being done to market the orchestra?

Budget Cuts:

The BPO has endured many times of financial difficulty. Every arts organization goes through times like these. If you treat your employees with respect and trust they are more willing to help out in a financial crisis.The musicians feel we are being mismanaged and request a complete financial audit of the orchestra’s expenses since the arrival of Jennifer McCausland.

Conductor Search:

This should be in full swing by now. Why has there been no advertising for this position? Starting the process this late in the season will only delay this process one more year. We have begun to suspect that our current ED is not interested in finding a permanent Music Director. Is this understood and sanctioned by the board? We do not feel Jennifer is qualified to run a conductor search. This is an extremely important position within the BPO. Every possible step should be taken to ensure that we find the best conducting candidates available and offer them the best possible experience during their audition. If the BPO is to be taken seriously we need to run this search like professionals. Please do some research on how to hold a proper conductor search. Or better yet, invite all of the musicians to give input on how they think this should be run. Many of us have participated in conductor searches in other orchestras. It is important to us that we choose the right person for the job. This organization has a long, rich history and is located in a very progressive, financially successful region of the country. We believe that there is a deep talent pool who would consider a Music Director position with the Bellevue Philharmonic very desirable.

The musicians realize that this is a difficult time for the organization, we appreciate the board’s time and effort on behalf of the BPO and it is our sincere hope that this exchange of information will help the Board.

Thank you,

Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra/Negotiating Committee [QUOTE]

quote:

We believe that there is a deep talent pool who would consider a Music Director position with the Bellevue Philharmonic very desirable.

Or perhaps not, after reading this letter.

Well if you take the talent pool of conductors as a whole, and eliminate the ones with any spark of human empathy, a code of ethics, or a conscience, then you'd be left with only... about 98% of them

You have to hope that people will make a distinction between the Bellevue Phil musicians and the woman who is the executive director, causing all of the problems. I've heard the Bellevue Phil play and they have many excellent musicians in the band. I would think that it would be a good gig for a music director,once they get a new e.d.