The following is a statement from the Musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra

January 17, 2010

You may quote Jeffrey Rathbun, oboist and chair of the musicians’ negotiating committee

As musicians, going on strike was never something we imagined when we were in music school, and certainly not when we were fortunate enough to be selected to join the legendary Cleveland Orchestra. We expected this to be the last and best job we would ever have. Unfortunately, in recent times that has not been the case.

We are sorely disappointed that management has not acknowledged the sacrifices we have made in compensation and benefits in our last two contracts, or our offer to continue to work for the next contract year with no increase in salary or benefits. They want more cuts. They have taken reductions and say we need to feel the pain yet again — “shared sacrifice” they call it — going beyond the impact we’ve been feeling from the concessions we gave in our last two contract negotiations. We may be considered to be amongst the best in the world musically, but we are a far cry from being compensated that way or treated that way. In our judgment, if we were to accept management’s offer it would be the beginning of the end of The Cleveland Orchestra as one of the leading ensembles in the world.

To remain competitive, and to retain the great players we have, we can’t keep slipping behind. Our reputation is at stake and we have to stay competitive in compensation in order to stay competitive in quality. Our decision to strike is not about the money in the short term. It’s about the integrity of our brand; our reputation as musicians and our pride in representing our home town, Cleveland, Ohio, as we perform around the country and around the world. As one of our members said in a recent meeting, “I came here to play with The Cleveland Orchestra, not some orchestra in Cleveland.”

We are officially on strike effective at midnight tonight. Starting tomorrow we will be picketing in front of our beautiful home, Severance Hall. The acoustics of the hall are amongst the best in the world so we expect our protest to reverberate loudly and, hopefully, to resonate with music lovers everywhere.

We regret that it appears we will not be going to our residency at Indiana University and we send apologies to the students, faculty and alumni. We also regret that we will not be playing in our winter home at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and trust that our friends and supporters in Miami understand that if we played, it would be a great series of concerts in the short term and the beginning of the end of the quality that they, and people everywhere, have come to expect from The Cleveland Orchestra.