Let the music begin!
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the ASO Players Association and union have reached a two-year labor agreement that means the 2012-13 season at Symphony Hall will begin Oct. 4 as scheduled.
The concerts — on Oct. 4, 6 and 7 — will feature Music Director Robert Spano (left) at the podium for his 12th season and renowned violinist Midori playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto-Third Movement. The program also features Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
The new collective bargaining agreement runs through Sept, 6, 2014, and amounts to $2.4 million in annual contractual savings. Additional savings will come as a result of ASO senior staff compensation — which will be reduced by 6 percent for the duration of the two-year contract — as well as unfilled staff positions, and savings from foregone wages and benefits from the musicians.
ASO management must still generate at least another $2.5 million in earned and contributed revenues to balance the annual projected budget deficit gap of $5 million. The orchestra’s accumulated deficit is approaching $20 million — its annual operating budget is $45 million and its annual revenue is about $40 million.
The orchestra will go from 93 to 88 full-time musicians, which already has been achieved through attrition. The players annual base salary this season will be $73,876.63 for 41 weeks of work; next season it goes up slightly, to $75,936.06, for 42 weeks of work. Details, tickets.
