Double Times
The Florida Philharmonic Bankruptcy appears to be almost over, although there were some troubling 11th-hour developments. The archival recordings have been in the possession of audio engineer Peter McGrath, and when the Local tried to secure those recordings from future exploitation, Mr. McGrath voiced objections. In the end we were able to secure a court order allowing him to store the recordings, but requiring him to notify the Local of any attempt to access the recordings, and requiring the Local's consent before the recordings can be used for any commercial purpose. Violation of this order would place him in Contempt of Court, so there would be strong penalties if the recordings were misused.We have finally reached a settlement with the Florida Grand Opera over misuse of a recording by Martina Gavrilova. Ms. Gavrilova had somehow obtained a recording of her performance with the FGO and was using it in her promo pack. While the contract language protects against any recording, regardless of how and by whom it was made, there was some question as to how a judge would view the penalty. We met with the FGO and came to the conclusion that it would be better for all parties to settle this outside of court. The FGO agreed to pay all of the affected musicians an amount equal to the rate for a single low budget session, including benefits, or nearly $200 per musician. We hope this is the beginning of a positive relationship with the Opera.
You may have heard that the nonunion Key West Symphony, which has been outsourcing musicians, primarily from New York and Baltimore, has been putting downward pressure on the Key West Pops, which has been filing contracts and paying union scale. Local 802 (New York) graciously agreed to publish a notice on our behalf in their July newsletter. We also sent letters to all of the musicians who have performed for the Symphony in the past two years, letting them know what scale is and asking their help in putting pressure on the Symphony to raise the pay. We've received positive feedback from a number of musicians, and were even contacted by Key West Symphony Music Director Sabrina Alfonso. We hope Sabrina will begin a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship with the Local, and we hope to have the opportunity to discuss with her the standards that the musicians of south Florida have established.
After six months of work, we were finally able to secure a contract and pension payments for the Salute to Vienna gig this past New Year's. Thank you goes to Arthur Grossman for agreeing to "do the right thing" for the musicians who performed.
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