The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc in artistic and cultural life. However, as the WSWS has repeatedly argued, the pandemic is in many ways acting as an accelerator or an amplifier, speeding up processes already underway. This is also true in the cultural field.

In the United States, for example, the leadership of various orchestras, opera houses, museums and other cultural institutions and organizations are taking full advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to advance their demands as part of an offensive on wages and other cuts. which has been going on for over a decade.

As early as 2010, the WSWS reported that salary cuts had already been “imposed on symphony orchestras in Phoenix, Houston, Cincinnati, Seattle, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Atlanta, Virginia, North Carolina and Utah, among other cities and states. . “Orchestras in Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago and elsewhere have since faced major attacks, before the coronavirus outbreak.

In the current crisis, musicians and others are no doubt hoping that with the end of the pandemic what has been abandoned will be restored. This remains to be seen, but it is certain that nothing will be regained without a huge struggle, with far-reaching political and social implications. The management could well side with Lady Macbeth, who felt that “what is done cannot be undone”.

The musicians of the San Francisco Symphony are among the most recent to fall victim to the combined effect of the pandemic and management action. The Chronicle of San Francisco recently reported that the musicians would “face a 30% pay cut for the remainder of 2020 under a newly ratified contract review” which went into effect on October 18.

Management announced on November 2 that the symphony had recorded a “cumulative loss of revenue of $ 40 million at the end of the 2020-21 season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” All orchestra concerts up to the end of the calendar year have been canceled.

The the Chronicle and the conductor of the symphony take it for granted that musicians should see their standard of living reduced. The Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, however, is not an anonymous institution carrying out inevitable actions in an impartial and divine manner. It is largely made up of extremely wealthy individuals, many of whom could afford to make up for lost income out of their own pockets, without noticing the difference.

By choosing the members of the symphony board almost at random, one comes across enormous wealth. One of the members, for example, is Gordon P. Getty of the Getty oil family, one of the richest people in America, with a net worth of $ 2.1 billion. Another member of the board is Gregory E. Johnson, of Franklin Resources, who is a permanent member of the Top Paid Executives list, whose total compensation was $ 10.4 million in 2019. John D. Goldman, a multimillion-dollar insurance executive and leading donor to the Democratic Party, also sits on the board.

Michael Anders, also a member of the Board of Governors, is the founder of Iconiq Capital, referred to in the media as the “family office of tech billionaires,” the most prominent of which is Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. John S. Chen, who was awarded by BlackBerry in 2018 with a five-year contract including compensation valued at nearly $ 150 million in total, is also on the board of directors of the symphony orchestra, alongside Kausik Rajgopal, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, the leading management consulting firm, and Max Levchin, software engineer and American businessman of Ukrainian origin, with an estimated value of $ 300 million.

Meanwhile, the financial drain on artists continues. In September, members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra were given a 50% pay cut under a contract amendment. Opera General Manager Matthew Shilvock said the organization was “deeply grateful to the Orchestra for its partnership in dealing with this pandemic.”

However, according to the the ChroniclePercussionist Patti Niemi, speaking on behalf of the musicians, said the musicians “faced a grim choice between ratifying the deal and losing their income and health benefits entirely.” Niemi noted that the musicians “were hoping to collaborate” and came to an agreement that only covered the period when they weren’t performing, “But suddenly there was this pivot to issues like vacancies. orchestra that are not related to COVID. She further stressed that management “also opposed a contractual provision that would restore wage cuts if ticket sales rebounded in 2022-2023”.

Dozens of orchestras suffered significant pay cuts and time off in March and April, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and many small ensembles. Some have come back for more.

Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra approved a deal in mid-October that reduced their compensation to 75% of regular pay retroactively to September 12 and through to mid-March 2021.

Members of the famous New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra have been without any income since the start of the pandemic. On Facebook in mid-October, the musicians claimed they were “the only world-class orchestra in America on leave without pay since April 1.”

The Facebook post explains that already some 30 percent “of the orchestra’s members have had to relocate outside the #NewYorkCity area, with many other families forced to make tough decisions every day due to lack of economic compensation. from the Metropolitan Opera and the lack of economic support from the federal government. The Met musicians point out that “the global reputation of the opera company and the cultural landscape of New York City would be devastated by the loss of artists of this caliber. The social, educational and economic impact of these musicians on their communities is immeasurable. “

Management responded by saying that the opera “has paid for 100% of the cost of health care since the start of the pandemic and has also offered financial assistance until the summer under long-term contract proposals. “.

Met Orchestra third horn Brad Gemeinhardt on a Zoom call from Michigan told NBC News bluntly that “I would call this a huge crisis in the arts world in New York.”

The main flute of the Met Orchestra, Chelsea Knox, told Classic FM: “I gave birth during the last performance at the Met on March 11, 2020. I had just been established for my job in the spring of 2019 and for me, the Met Orchestra is my dream. work. “When the pandemic struck, she explains, Knox and her husband, also a musician,” were suddenly faced with leaving our apartment and moving in with my parents to sort out our plan for the future as a family. “

“Emotionally, the loss of identity has been as difficult as the loss of income,” Knox observes. “I expected the new motherhood to be life changing, but being isolated with a baby and with no performance scheduled for next year, it was difficult to find a balance. I don’t know what my future as a musician looks like right now.

It is an increasingly universal experience.