Mark Likes Music

Yesterday, the Minnesota Orchestra board offered its musicians a new agreement to end the year-long lockout: while the base pay for musicians would see base pay shrink by 25% after three years, the board did offer a one-time $20,000 payout to mitigate the shock. This is an improvement over previous offers, but the musicians union didn't take kindly to management circumventing mediator George Mitchell to make the offer directly to them, and certainly didn't appreciate that it went public. “We are further offended that they have again broken the confidentiality of the mediator’s process,” said spokesperson Blois Olson. “We encourage management to stop playing games and work through the mediator." At least that's not a "no,"right?

Back in January, halfway through the 2012-13 season, t he Cleveland Orchestra announced that its student-ticket sales were up 55% over the previous year, helping to account for a 24% increase in earned revenue. On May 30, the orchestra released its final numbers : a 65% season-over-season increase in student tickets sold, and a 27% increase overall increase in ticket sales. These are great numbers, but it's important to note that Cleveland has a $20-million fund to help cover the discount that students receive. Not all orchestras have that cushion to help them absorb the added cost of marketing to students, a notoriously fickle and transient group.