PSO musicians helping out in Columbus
I know of at least two PSO musicians -- first violinists Sarah Clendenning and Susanne Park -- who are driving to Ohio this weekend to play in a benefit concert (info here) for the musicians of the ailing Columbus Symphony, which yesterday announced it had canceled the beginning of its fall concert season. Rather than fumble through a description myself and upset both sides, here are the first two paragraphs of yesterday's Columbus Dispatch article detailing it:
With contract talks with musicians going nowhere, Columbus Symphony management said today that the 2008-09 classical concert season won't begin as usual in October, and that at least 10 performances through early December have been canceled.
It's an unfortunate situation, to say the least. You can read the musicians' side of the story at the musicians Web site, and both sides in the excellent Dispatch coverage over the last year.
Of course, I hope there a positive resolution to this turmoil soon, but I also am impressed that, even as the PSO musicians are in a "contract year" themselves, they would help out other orchestra members. Now, don't go reading into this posts any "side-taking" by me concerning PSO contract negotiations -- I am a neutral reporter on this issue. I simply want to make you aware of the strong character that exists in the PSO, something I don't write about in concert reviews and such, but certainly deserves praise. It's really one of this orchestra's greatest attributes (one that PSO management readily will point out), along with its top notch musicianship.