I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s been going on in the broader orchestral world. It seems like there’s a disturbing new conflict reaching a head every week or so. As I wrote in the September Allegro, it’s starting to feel a lot like 2008, with orchestras across the country facing major cuts, shorter seasons, and existential and real threats from their own management. We’ve recently witnessed both San Francisco Opera and the Cleveland Orchestra go out on strike. Thankfully, both have now settled; the San Francisco Opera has commenced its season, and the Cleveland Orchestra left on its European tour. The latest stunningly bad news was the last-minute cancellation of the Nashville Symphony season, leaving musicians and support staff without income or health benefits. The orchestra has since received a last-minute reprieve in the form of a $10 million donation, which is helpful for the short term, but will not get them very far. That orchestra needs to do an in-depth post-mortem on how the situation happened, as well as a vigorous, renewed fundraising effort. Also this summer, the Boston Symphony Orchestra narrowly averted a strike; however, the musicians remain at odds with their board over the ouster of music director Andris Nelsons.

Closer to home, we’ve avoided a major strike in any of our freelance orchestras for a very long time, but I’m not sure that’s going to last. We just started a very contentious arbitration with the management of the New Jersey Festival Orchestra over improperly paid wages as well as other contractual violations. That orchestra has been plagued for years with poor management who disdain the contract and the union. We’re also in negotiations with the Westchester Philharmonic, where we remain far apart on our wage proposal.

Negotiations are underway with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Bronx Arts Ensemble. We’ll also be negotiating a new agreement for the ABT pianists whose contract expires in December. By early next year, we plan to start negotiations for a new contract for the ABT Orchestra.

As far as our finances go at Local 802, our general expenses are up for the period August 2025 through July 2026, mostly due to legal fees incurred last year. We’re saving on office expenses and have also saved a bit on personnel expenses, although we expect those costs to increase in the second half of the year as we fill some vacant positions.

Since moving Allegro from print to online, we’re spending almost nothing on its publishing costs. In fact, we receive a small amount of income from advertising revenue. We are aware that many members miss the print copies of Allegro; however, for context, in 2018, Allegro cost more than $100,000 a year to publish and mail as a hard copy. Were we to go back to that model, not only would we be paying about double the 2018 rates for publishing and mailing, but we would be forced to add several staffers to cover the added work created by the change.

On the income side, we’ve noticed a fairly large decrease in recording work dues due to the loss of a handful of TV shows and some motion picture recording moving out of state. Income from single engagement concerts is down due to the use of reduced orchestras and fewer concerts. Broadway, on the other hand, has been doing well, although here we expect to see a decrease in the second half of the year.

The news is not all bad. Our investments continue to do well, totaling $4.4 million, including the $1.1 million in our strike fund. Our bottom line is ahead of last year for the same period. Staying in the black is crucial if we’re going to have any chance of receiving a loan that will get us back in our building. Finally, membership is down a little bit. As of June 30th, we had 5,387 members, which is 186 fewer than last year.

If you have any musician friends or colleagues who haven’t joined Local 802 yet, please remind them of our current membership drive through Dec. 31: no initiation fee! Join at www.local802afm.org/join.