I thought that former (or current) patrons, friends and fans of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra would like to know what one member of the orchestra has been up to since the ASO shut down in mid-season some five years ago, and why I am joining the ranks of other former orchestra members who have declined to accept the “new” ASO’s offer to move back to Birmingham to try to start over.

 

My No. 1 reason for not returning is financial.  Let’s talk numbers — the public has a right to know how much symphony players were offered to return.  My offer of $22,440 a year was 10 percent higher than the minimum of $20,400 (because I held a “titled” position in the orchestra).  In my best year in Birmingham (eight years ago), I grossed about $30,000.  It seemed like I had a future there, until the orchestra was forced to take a series of pay cuts.  When the orchestra was shut down, the players were firm in their resolve not to accept any further cuts.  Obviously, the vicissitudes of time and financial hardship have softened the resolve of a majority of the players.  Congratulations are in order for starving into submission most of the players who for whatever reason decided to stay in Birmingham and wait for the orchestra to be reborn.  

 

I can certainly sympathize with those people who took other kinds of work to support their families and I know how difficult it is to make even $20,000 in today’s tough economic climate.  We had 12 married couples in the orchestra when it went belly-up, and I realize that a combined income of $40,000 plus is enough to have a modest existence in Alabama, and I bet these couples represented a large voting block when it came time to vote on accepting the ASO’s offer to return to work.  It took a year for me to decide to leave Birmingham.  I was not making enough money freelancing there, even though I won auditions to play principal bass in the other symphonies (in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa).  I convinced the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations that I could make a living freelancing in Florida, and thus, the state of Alabama paid my moving expenses to the tune of $1,200.   It seems ironic that the state would pay for an artist to move “out” of Alabama rather than “into” Alabama, but I’m told that no such program exists today and I would have to pay my own moving expenses to come back to Birmingham.

 

The new ASO’s offer is a 2-year deal.  In the second year, we would get a raise of 2 percent.  Therefore, 2 percent of $20,000 is $400, assuming that this level of growth continued for 10 years, I would be making less than $30,000 in the year 2007!  This certainly does not paint a picture of an organization committed to continued growth

 

Very Challenging

The second reason for not returning is artistic, and that is inextricably tied up with the financial end.  It is very challenging to play high-level classical music, especially in a group beaten down by pay cuts and an unpromising financial future.  I love to let my imagination feed on the wonderful musical ideas of the great composers, but the thought of unpaid bills keeps creeping into my mind as I grapple with the pathos of a Beethoven symphony or the charm of a Mozart serenade.   Since moving to Florida, I have had the opportunity to play with many fine artists – everyone from Placido Domingo to James Taylor, from the Bolshoi Ballet to Joel Grey.  And, I’ve done a bit of traveling as well.  I toured the “inside passage” of Alaska with the Princess Cruises, went on the “ultimate jazz cruise” – a tribute to Oscar Petersen – aboard the Majesty of the Seas in the Caribbean, toured the Baltic and Mediterranean on the Crystal Symphony and I just returned from the trip of a lifetime – a six-month cruise odyssey to Russia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the South Pacific (my favorite), the Mexican Riviera, through the Panama Canal, up to New Orleans and then I flew home from Puerto Rico (about one month ago).

 

Incidentally, I played in the Puerto Rico Symphony for four years before coming to Birmingham, and it was nice to talk to my musician friends there – note, their orchestra is state-supported and very secure.  I also had the great artistic pleasure of playing the complete Ring cycle with the Arizona Opera (I don’t think that these operas will be performed in Birmingham in my lifetime), and I was blessed to be able to take part in this monumental event.  Now that I am back home, I have resumed my duties as principal bass of the Palm Beach Opera (next week is Madame Butterfly by Puccini).  I was in Nagasaki, Japan in September and I visited the Glover Mansion, the setting for this great opera.  Maybe my visit there will add some nuance of expression to my interpretation.  Also, next week I will be performing Haydn’s Creation at the Bethesda by the Sea, a gorgeous old Episcopalian church on the island of Palm Beach.  Also, next week, several jazz gigs, including one with Duffy Jackson, drummer with the Count Basie Orchestra.

 

So, my pay next week will be a little better than what the ASO offered (the opera pays more than $1,000 a week, the Creation almost $500, and the jazz a couple hundred).  Of course, it is not a “steady” job, and freelancing is usually a feast or famine, but I think I would rather live on the edge artistically doing things I could never do in Birmingham rather than be poised on the edge of mediocrity with a $20,000/year symphony mob and a 2 percent annual growth rate.  I heard ASO raised $15 million to start back up; I guess management figures that if it pays the players only $20,000, it can practically guarantee not using up all those millions right away, and can continue to “serve” Birmingham’s classical music needs via a third-rate symphony with the esprit de corps you would expect from a group of musicians almost starved into submission.

 

Therefore, if you buy a ticket to the ASO and it doesn’t sound exactly like your CD recording of the Atlanta Symphony, remember that the players in Atlanta voted to strike instead of taking a pay cut.  In the arts, like everywhere, you “get what you pay for,” and for $20,000 a year, doesn’t expect great players to move to Birmingham.  Ironically, I still believe that “Bubba doesn’t need no Mozart” (a double-negative, which really means that “Bubba does need some Mozart”).  So, please – go to the ASO concerts; I truly hope you will enjoy the efforts of my former colleagues.