Polyphonic's FIM Live Blog

Final impressions

My overall impression of the 1st FIM Orchestra Conference was similar to that of the musician who, when asked to define 100 conductors at the bottom of the sea, answered “a good start.” One participant pointed about that we’ve had orchestras for over 400 years, but that there’d never been an international conference about orchestras before. While this was not entirely accurate (I had attended one in Salzburg in 2002 as the sole labor representative), it's certainly true that this was the first such a conference devoted orchestra musicians and their concerns. The most important thing about this conference is that it happened at all.

Day 3 - end of conference

Reinhard Pirstinger (Austria) moderated the panel on training and continuous personal development. The first panelist was Hubert Biebaut (Belgium). I was having serious battery issues by this time (there weren’t outlets in the meeting room), and I missed much of what he said. He seemed to spend a lot of time talking about a Belgian choir, but apparently the Belgian musicians union represents choristers as well as instrumentalists.

Day 3 morning Part 2

Tom Lee (AFM) introduced the panel on job security.

Day 3 Morning Part 1

The day started with panel on “contractual rights.” The moderator was Pál Tomori (Hungary).

Day 2 impressions

Day 2 was a big improvement over Day 1. No doubt I was in better shape to appreciate things today than yesterday, and I was probably not alone in that. But there was much more comment from the floor, today than yesterday, and much more specificity from the panelists. (The official version of Day 2 can be found here.

Day 2 Afternoon session Part 2

Moderator Julia Fallenstein (Germany) moderated a panel on different aspects of health and safety in the orchestral workplace. “We’ve already heard that it’s important to reduce stressors on the job. Noise is one, which our first panelist will cover.”

Day 2 Afternoon session Part 1

Laura Brownell, AFM SSD Director, moderated a panel on "working time, travel time, planning of rehearsals."

Day 2 Morning Session Part 3

Horace Trubridge (UK) introduced the panel on “the status of orchestra musicians in today’s society.” He said that we see ourselves as professionals, but often the public doesn’t. He then introduced ICSOM chairman Bruce Ridge:

I'd like to begin by telling you just a little about the organization I represent, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, or ICSOM. Our members are 4000 musicians in the 51 largest orchestras in the United States. If the "international" part of our name seems a misnomer, it is because when we were founded we were indeed international, having orchestras from Canada in our membership. But, in 1975, the Canadian Orchestras formed their own conference, and they are represented here in Berlin by my dear friend, Francine Schutzman.

Day 2 Morning Session Part 2

Anders Laursen (Denmark) moderated a panel on orchestras and social inclusion. He introduced panelist Rolando Goldman (Argentina), who talked about two programs in Argentina. The first was government funding for 50 youth orchestras and new funding for youth orchestras of instruments used in traditional Latin American music. The second was performances in factories. Argentina lost many manufacturing jobs in the 90s when hundreds of factories shut down. Some have been re-opened by the workers in co-op arrangements (called “recovered factories” locally). The national orchestra has played in many recovered factories to great enthusiasm. He mentioned one concert in particular by the Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich, which he described as “an unforgettable experience.”

Day 2 Morning session Part 1 (continuation)

The moderator introduced Dan Gottfried, president of the Israeli musicians union and a jazz musician, to discuss balance within musicians’ working lives. He pointed out that the FIM survey showed that 90% of orchestra musicians teach, but that some probably shouldn’t. He said the determining factors should be the scope of one’s orchestral employment (full-time with some security or part-time with no guarantees), and whether the musician enjoyed teaching. Some musicians pick other kinds of non-orchestra work in preference to teaching.