On Thursday, January 7 MAA  put forth a press release which included several misleading statements.    We provide them below along with our responses:

“The official work week is 20 hours.”
If the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra did not prepare extensively at home for these “20 hours” it would not sound anything at all like The Cleveland Orchestra.    There are many more hours of preparation, practice, making reeds, etc.
This statement exhibits either a gross misunderstanding of what we as musicians do,  or an intentional effort to mislead the public.

“Management is seeking short-term concessions”
There is nothing short-term about their proposed slashes in health insurance or  their desire to drastically reduce our compensation, for radio broadcasts, Internet broadcasts, video taping and audio recording.   While the pay cut proposed is temporary,  the end of the contract does not restore us to first-tier orchestra status.   We would remain in the second tier … indefinitely.    Do we want The Cleveland Orchestra to become a training orchestra for Boston, Chicago and NY?

“Music Director Franz Welser-Most and Executive Director Gary Hanson volunteered reductions in compensation of 20% and 15% respectively.”
And we thank them for that.   Franz also conducts elsewhere, and it should be noted that this is only a portion of his total yearly salary.
As for Gary,  he just renegotiated a new contract.  He declined to share the details with us.