Ask An Expert: Of Tuners, Oboes, Employers, and Missing Musicians

A three-pack of quick hit questions for you this time around. First off, Hoa wants to know...

Q: Who, exactly, does a philharmonic orchestra musician work for?

Well, it depends on which orchestra the musician plays in. In America, most orchestra musicians are employed by the non-profit corporation that runs the orchestra. (For instance, our orchestra's musicians are employed by the Minnesota Orchestral Association.) The corporation is run by a volunteer board, which oversees the organization and hires managers and music directors. There is no single owner of an orchestra the way there often is for, say, a baseball team, since we are not operated as for-profit concerns.

Next up, Steve Curnow was wondering...

Q: What's the reasoning behind the orchestra tuning to the oboe?

Well, they tried tuning to a viola once, but the guy couldn't remember how to play his A-string from memory...

...[crickets]...

Nothing? Really? Fine. Basically, the oboe is a loud, piercing instrument that we can all hear even when everyone is tuning. Also, the tuning A sits nicely in the middle of its register, and oboes are capable of sustaining steady pitches for an extremely long time without much strain.

Finally, our old friend Don Picard is back with this complicated query...

Q: How are concert assignments handled? I.e. which concerts do permanent members of the Orchestra play? I noticed (I think) that Burt Hara wasnt playing at the ITC concert Thursday, but Jorja Fleezanis was, whereas (if I remember correctly) in an earlier ITC concert, Ms. Fleezanis wasn't there but Mr. Hara was. Does the union contract require X number of concerts per year, and the musicians can choose which? Or is it up to the conductor who plays? Or...

There are actually entire pages in our contract devoted to sorting this type of thing out, and you'd all be bored to tears if I reprinted them here. So the simple answer is that every musician gets a certain number of "services" (a service is a rehearsal or a concert) off each season. For most of us, it's not very many, since we also get several paid vacation weeks per year. The number of "relief services," as they're called, varies from musician to musician: strings get more than winds and brass (because we play on nearly every piece of every concert,) titled players get more than section players, veterans get more than rookies, etc, etc.

As for when each of us gets to take time off, we have the right to make specific requests for our relief assignments, and they tend to be granted unless there's a compelling reason that they shouldn't be, such as several other members of the same section already having been granted relief for that time period, or the request falling during a week when the music director wants as few substitute musicians as possible in the ranks. Most of us wind up taking our relief on weeks when the orchestra is playing something other than a regular subscription concert, since Young People's Concerts, pops shows, and such often don't require the full orchestra complement.