ASO musicians and management agree to resume talks
‘We hope we can return to the music stage very soon.’
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management and Player’s Association are headed back to the negotiation table. Both parties have agreed to continue Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) talks using federal mediator Allison Beck.
If Beck’s name sounds familiar it’s because the deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) served as the mediator during the Metropolitan Opera’s labor dispute last month.
The ASO’s current labor dispute has kept the musicians locked out since an agreement couldn’t be reached on a new contract, which expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 6. Since that time, the ASO canceled concerts through Nov. 8, and even put a hold on the Youth Orchestra. ASO President and CEO Stanley Romanstein acknowledged the news as a step in the right direction toward saving the symphony’s 70th anniversary season.
“We are all musicians or music enthusiasts at the Atlanta Symphony, and we are all striving for the same thing — a thriving classical music community that will flourish for decades to come, ” Romanstein said in a statement. “We hope we can return to the music stage very soon.”
Once management and musicians can come to an agreement, the hope is that the season will resume shortly thereafter. Click here for a full breakdown of the talks and proposed deals.
UPDATE, 1:57 p.m. According to the ASO Player’s Association, they’ve yet to be contacted by the federal mediator.
Here’s their statement in response to ASO’s “misleading information”: