myauditions.com
blog entry #2

Recently, I’ve found myself thinking about Dawn Weiss every night while I take my dog out for our nightly walk. Dawn is the long-time principal flautist of the Oregon Symphony who is in the process of being fired.

( http://www.kdfc.com/new/music_news.cfm?id=1296&rownumber=3 )

Here’s what I think: ‘THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I’. Folks, the industry average for ICSOM musicians is a total career of 1.5 jobs. That means you are more likely to stay in the same job you started in than you are to hopscotch up to the big leagues. That’s certainly my situation- I’ve been with the Honolulu Symphony since 1977- that’s now 28 years. Sure, we all know of musicians who have gone from one job to another- but those are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

And after year after year of the same old same old, the challenge becomes very real to keep one’s music making fresh and vital. Especially if you’ve had the same music director for 25 years, like James DePriest in Oregon. Conductors should come with expiration dates. Even the best ones (Ozawa, for example) spoil on the shelf if they sit there for too long.

If you think about it, where else in 21st century Western culture does anyone have as much personal power as a conductor? There is an inherent cognitive dissonance that goes with the 19th century institution of ‘Der Kappelmeister’ leading the modern non-profit business behemoth that today’s orchestras have become. You’d think that with all of this institutional power that a Music Director has that there would be no need for a play for ‘alpha male’ supremacy. But here is yet another example of that- ‘Hey, you pathetic peons- I’m here now and I’m in charge so cower in fear’ message. How retro! What machismo! So rude and crude.

This is why musicians have been forced to have unions, and powerful unions at that. Every contract has evolved in it’s unique way in each orchestra due to past abuses from management. Sometimes orchestra committees will refer to a particular clause with the name of the musician who’s case inspired putting language in the contract to ensure that similar problems do not re-occur! For example, non-musicians have trouble understanding why musicians are so obsessed with time and will stop a rehearsal in mid-phrase if the clock ticks past the allotted time. It’s the only way we can endure the ‘learned helplessness’ of the rehearsal- by having control over when the rehearsal ends.

( www.soi.org/harmony/archive/2/Stress_Discontent_Levine.pdf )

If Ms. Weiss is being fired partly because she insisted in the contract being upheld, she has grounds for a grievance- and a successful one at that. In many orchestras the contract specifies that one cannot be fired for union activity if one is on the committee.

Many years ago, the former Principal ‘Cellist of the Oregon Symphony, India Zerbe. played with the HSO for a month or two, right around the time that the Oregon Symphony was going about it’s transformation from the part time Portland Orchestra to the full time Oregon Symphony. She said something that I have never forgotten- that when an orchestra grows, inevitably people (i. e. musicians) get hurt.

And this situation with Dawn Weiss seems to be just that.

In my orchestra, when Donald Johanos came aboard as music director of the HSO in the late 1970’s, he staged a similar massacre to what is happening in Oregon. (Note that there are two other musicians affected in the OSO- and likely more in the future.) One year Johanos fired 7 musicians, the next year, 5 more. This was an incredibly painful episode for all concerned. The orchestra was divided and horrified (& paranoid!) The fired musicians attempted to start their own orchestra (which failed), and bad feelings were generated about the orchestra that people in the community remember to this day.

Partially in response to those episodes, the Honolulu Symphony’s contract has very specific and elaborate language regarding the firing procedure. We have a secret peer review committee- so secret, the people who are on it don’t even know they have been elected to the review committee unless it becomes activated. It takes two years to fire an HSO musician- notice must be given by December of the first year, then a series of meetings must be held to address the specific concerns of the music director. If after a year there has not been sufficient progress, then notice of dismissal must be given by a specific date the following December, and then the musician has the right to play for the review committee. If the management misses deadlines, they have to start all over. And they HAVE missed deadlines, believe it or not.

Speaking of the review committee, statistics show that review committees generally tend to uphold the music director rather than favor the musician. Not an encouraging thought for the musician in question.

The crux of my argument here concerns whether it is necessary to fire musicians in order to improve an orchestra. Is there a guarantee that the incoming replacement will be better than the fired player? No, one never knows how a player is going to fit into an orchestra until they are actually there on the battlefield. How bad must a musician be to have the music director consider so hopeless as to be discarded after decades of service?

Why else would a music director come in and fire people to try to improve the orchestra? Perhaps there’s other factors at work- the intimidation factor, for example. ‘There but for the grace of God go I’ is a thought that many musicians will have when three people are fired in one year. Perhaps the intent is to put the entire orchestra on notice. But is that really the best way to make music? Doesn’t that undermine the fragile trust that the musicians need to have in their leader? Is fear the best way to motivate? Or is this a cultural thing- a European leading an American institution? How is the Portland musical community going to react- can the orchestra afford to have such a public and negative scene? This is really a risky move that the new music director is attempting. It could potentially damage not only the musicians in question, but the institution as a whole.

That’s what happened in Honolulu after our ‘massacre’.

Is six months really enough time to ‘fix’ the perceived problems? It would seem that Ms. Weiss has put in a good faith effort to improve herself. Would it not be fair to give her one more season to see if her efforts bear fruit? As I said, once you have been in an orchestra for so many years, with one music director, you develop habits. And habits are hard to change- but not impossible. But it takes time, which Ms. Weiss does not have the luxury of having.

As we all know, once a person reaches middle age, it’s harder and it takes longer to achieve these kind of goals. It’s not easy changing habits that have taken years to develop.

And then there’s the parent factor. As the parent of two children, (now teenagers) and being married to another symphony musician, I can personally attest to the difficulty of playing well the day after being up all night with a teething baby, or having to get up at 5:30 am to get the kids to school after playing an Opera that ended at 11:30.

This whole thing stinks. Even if she was an awful person and an incompetent player, six months is just not a humane amount of time- especially given that she can demonstrate that she is trying to remediate the (rather vague) charges made against her. The power of the Kappelmeister appears to be overly heavy-handed here. And in this profession, it’s not like leaving K-Mart to work at Wal-Mart. Chances are great that she will not win another audition. You never know, but as one gets older it’s just plain harder to take those auditions. And it can’t help to have ‘fired’ on one’s resume.

Disclaimer time for me- I’ve never worked or played with Dawn, but I have met her on a few occasions, I know her brother David, (retired) Principal Oboist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and I have taken a few lessons from her brother, Abe, Principal Bassoonist with the Rochester Philharmonic. All three of them are hard-working, civilized and decent people. That she is a part of such a family should give you an idea of her musical talent and background.

I don’t know the situation there in Oregon other than what I read in the article. I’ve only heard her play on recordings. But it does seem to me to be a real shame to toss out a long-time principal player for such subjective reasons, so quickly.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Everyone loses in this situation.


http://www.kdfc.com/new/music_news.cfm?id=1296&rownumber=3

www.soi.org/harmony/archive/2/Stress_Discontent_Levine.pdf