By: Michael Cooper
Source: NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/arts/music/roll-over-mahler-us-orchestras-are-shrinking.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
"Composers have long dreamed of bigger orchestras," says Cooper. Some American orchestras struggle in today's economy. "They are taking a page from the corporate world and thinking smaller: They are downsizing, shedding some full-time positions while making up the difference with less costly part-time musicians" (Cooper,1). The result became minimizing the size of the Atlanta Symphony, which had become known over the years for it's large-scale works which showed off the famous chorus formed by Robert Shaw. The Atlanta Symphony, whose contract called for 95 players a few years ago, had to lower it's minimum to 88 in 2012. The new contract will keep it this year at 77, where it has fallen after retirements, deaths and departures. In an estimation of four years the number will grow back to 88. “There are three elements which are each feeding off of each other,” said Tim Carter, a professor of musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Cooper, 1). “Larger performance spaces requiring larger orchestras, which encouraged composers to write music for larger orchestras — which required larger orchestras, which required larger concert spaces,” (Cooper,1). The size of the orchestras became a point of contention during the lockout in Atlanta. It ended when the orchestra’s management gave up it's goal to drop the requirement for "a minimum number of players from the contract and players agreed to let vacancies go unfilled longer" (Cooper,1). Musicians and management at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have reached agreement on a new labor contract after months of negotiations and a lockout, setting the stage for the ensemble's 70th anniversary season to start on Thursday. Appropriately enough, the first concert will feature Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."
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