Just as the Cleveland Orchestra kicked off Franz Welser-Möst’s last season, it has come to a halt.
For the first time in a decade, orchestra members have gone on strike, as of midnight Friday morning. All unionized members and dozens of supporters ushered in support in a formal press conference on the steps of Severance Hall as the orchestra canceled its planned performance in Ann Arbor.
Signs held reading “Don’t Stop The Music” and “Save Your Orchestra!” cut to the point one of the world’s most famous orchestral group has been making since early July: We deserve to be paid on par with our peers in New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.
“Our music director and our president and CEO are among the highest paid in the country,” said Elayna Duitman, a violinist and chair of the orchestra’s negotiating committee.
And “our musicians are expected to accept pay that doesn’t even keep pace with inflation,” she said. “This is not how you invest in a top-tier artistic institution that’s a pillar of Northeast Ohio.”
As Duitman and others have argued during tense talks with the Musical Arts Association, the orchestra’s governing body, members’ base salary is some $15,000 behind inflationary rates. Your average trombonist or cellist clocks about $163,000 a year; members are demanding at least $178,000.
That’s still far away from what peers have recently won in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago or Philadelphia, where raises of tens of thousands have been agreed upon to keep up with the rising cost of living. Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians top the list, with base salaries reaching $250,000 for the 2028-2029 season.
During negotiations, orchestra members have been backed by the Cleveland Federation of Musicians, with support from the AFL-CIO and SEIU.
Many on Friday morning contended there was a big mismatch between what Cleveland offers the world and what the workers that do that offering are delivered in their paychecks.
“They are the very best at what they do that has ever been [done] on this planet,” Leonard DiCosimo, the president of Cleveland Federation of Musicians, said at the podium.
“What the very best need is leadership, whether it comes from the administrative offices or from the podium,” he said, “that respect these musicians, that give them dignity in the workplace.”
Friday’s strike effectively cancels the Cleveland Orchestra’s tour that would’ve kicked off Monday, along with a concert scheduled Friday in Michigan. Ticket holders can apply for a reimbursement or a ticket exchange, a press release said. Non-orchestra events at Severance will go on as planned.
Orchestra performances and salaries are funded through a $360 million endowment fund, donors and ticket sales. Duitman and others noted on Friday that the fund has been steadily growing; members’ salaries have not.
“To paraphrase what a supporter recently wrote on social media,” Meghan Guegold Hege, a French horn player, said. “When the lights come down in the hall, none of the audience came to hear the endowment.”
“They came to hear the musicians,” she said.
In a statement Thursday, orchestra admins claimed the desired 25 percent increase in salaries over the next few years was simply “not sustainable.” Wins for parental leave, work stress, touring details and hiring procedures seemed for them to go under-recognized.
“We are deeply disappointed by the union’s decision to strike after we clearly communicated that we had more to offer and wanted to keep negotiating,” Orchestra CEO and President André Gremillet said in the release, hinting that more sessions are to come. “This strike is as premature as it is unnecessary.”
A negotiation was scheduled for Friday afternoon, Duitman said. It’s unclear how many are planned for the following week.
But orchestra leadership said they’re hopeful Cleveland’s gem will be picking up their reeds and bows soon.
“Our pledge,” its site read. “Keep bargaining in good faith.”
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