I’m just a musician. I’m not a lawyer, a statistician, a businesswoman, a fundraiser or an arts manager. I do not come armed with statistics about other orchestras, other businesses, and other non-profit organizations, although I, as well as the community at large,  have been bombarded with unsavory news regarding the economic downturn.

But I do know one thing. The Cleveland Orchestra is not, as one colleague so astutely voiced at a recent meeting, an orchestra in Cleveland. The Cleveland Orchestra is a local, national, and international cultural gem, a true ambassador for Cleveland which serves to  represent our city’s and our country’s cultural and musical standards. It is comprised of musicians from all over the world who have dedicated, not 20 hours a week, but their entire lives, many since the age of 3 or 5 (like me) to being the most competitive artists for the top-notch, internationally recognized institutions. Many of us spent summers from the age of 10 or 12 in summer music programs, practicing 4-6 hours a day, playing in orchestra, playing chamber music, studying with the most eminent teachers and performers of our time. Then, those of us who continued on into musical careers, attended the most competitive schools in existence, practiciing 4-8 hours a day, continuing in prestigious summer programs, and training for weeks, months, and years, to enter into the orchestral world. I believe that it is essential for our management, the Musical Arts Association, who books us in the most sought-after concert halls in the world such as Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals, the London Proms, the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, and many more,  to prioritize the well-being and profile, both in the way of remuneration and benefits, of the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra. A modest and reasonable request for a temporary pay and benefits freeze should be met with gratitude and cooperation. If we work together, the sky’s the limit!

I respectfully and gratefully acknowledge the shared sacrifice of our colleagues on the staff, in management positions of different kinds, and of our music director, Franz Welser-Most, who generously committed to a percentage cut during 2009. But, being the outstanding musician that he is, with the ears, mind, talent and dedication to this Orchestra that he has displayed since day 1, he would be terribly disillusioned by a dwindling of his recent audition winners and of other talented musicians who would be snapped up by institutions with more satisfying working conditions. The decline in remuneration and accompanying benefits precedes the artistic decline and the latter will be an eventual inevitability. And the community of Cleveland will be the first to suffer.

One of our most esteemed and frequent guest conductors with whom we won a Grammy Award some years ago, received our applause with the comment, “but what is a conductor without an orchestra?” In our industry, no truer words have been spoken!

Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Violinist and Pianist, member of  TCO since 1979
The Cleveland Duo/The Cleveland Duo and James Umble