Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Next: A strike by a leading symphony is the latest in a string of labor and financial headaches for the nation's orchestras.
NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels has the story.
SPENCER MICHELS (Newshour): The San Francisco Symphony, under its conductor and musical director, Michael Tilson Thomas, canceled all its San Francisco concerts for the past few weeks, and called off an East Coast tour that included a performance in New York's Carnegie Hall.
Instead of performing, musicians milled about in front of Davies Hall in San Francisco and refused to play, until they got a contract that met their demands for higher pay and paid health care benefits comparable to other top orchestras. It was just the latest trouble on the national classical music front.
Since 2002, classical music performances have seen a decline in attendance of 13 percent across the country. Season ticket sales decreased as well, forcing orchestras to market single tickets, an expensive proposition, and to search for new audiences by finding new approaches to concerts.
Last year, Chicago Symphony musicians struck, asking for more pay and better health care. That strike was settled quickly, with modest pay increases, but larger health care payments. In Detroit, the symphony went out for six months in 2011. The musicians finally accepted a 25 percent pay cut. The celebrated Philadelphia Orchestra emerged from bankruptcy protection last year, and still faces financial problems.
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