In good times, musician struggle. But Kansas City Symphony will be paid, with benefits

These are tough times for orchestra musicians. With the COVID-19 shutdown, concerts have been canceled and venues closed, giving musicians, many of whom struggle in the best of times, great anxiety about their financial futures.

The Metropolitan Opera, for example, laid off all of its musicians and chorus members in response to the outbreak.

The musicians of the Kansas City Symphony, however, can breathe a sigh of relief. They have been guaranteed that there will be no changes to musician salaries or benefits through the current 2019/2020 season, even though the Kansas City Symphony has had to cancel or postpone more than 20 concerts and has taken a concomitant financial hit.

“We are receiving a tremendous response from our patrons, offering new and increased philanthropic support for the Symphony during this unprecedented time by way of new gifts and donating unused tickets back to the Symphony,” said the Kansas City Symphony’s executive director Danny Beckley in a press release.

“With this generous support, we will be able to emerge on the other side of this crisis with inspired strength to perform great music for our community once again.”

Kristin Velicer, assistant principal second violinist with the Kansas City Symphony and chairwoman of the symphony’s musicians’ committee, said the musicians are extremely appreciative for the agreement, which she credits to the culture of trust and transparency that exists between the board and musicians.

“The musicians committee acts as the liaison between management and the musicians to work on contractual issues, so we have been in regular communication with management, and Danny (Beckley) let us know that they had an update on the financial outlook,” Velicer said. “So we had a meeting and they proactively presented a proposal, and we discussed it and went back and forth a little bit, but not too much, and it worked out really well.”

While the agreement guarantees that the musicians’ salaries and benefits will not change this season, the previously agreed to 4.6% raise scheduled for the 2020-2021 season will be delayed by a year.

“The agreement addresses both short-term concerns but also provides long-term stability for the orchestra,” Velicer said.

“That is in large part to the smart, wise financial decisions of our board and also to the culture of working together. We’ve had successful contract negotiations over the years, but all of the decisions have been very well thought out and carefully considered with always an eye to the future.”

The Kansas City Symphony has been staying ahead of the coronavirus curve with other initiatives as well. The organization recently launched a podcast “Beethoven Walks Into a Bar,” which features the symphony’s associate conductor Jason Seber, flutist Michael Gordon and education manager Stephanie Brimhall chatting about music.

Another podcast is also in the works. The symphony’s other musicians won’t be sitting on their hands, either.

“We’ve been asked to help with the development department and we’ve been asked to help the education department to work on videos,” Velicer said.

Education manager Stephanie Brimhall came up with an idea for the group to make instrument demo videos that can be sent out to schools and parents, “who might be losing their minds at this point.”

On social media, musicians are also creating their own videos.

But Velicer said that what she and all the musicians are looking forward to is the day they once again take the stage of Helzberg Hall.

“We really want our audiences to know that we are here and we cannot wait to perform for them,” Velicer said. “We miss playing together and we really, really are looking forward to that first rehearsal and especially that first concert on the stage. We can’t wait.”

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.

This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 6:31 PM.