Symphony Notes — Melinda Whitley

“We are stronger together” is an idea that has stood the test of time.

I keep being reminded of how corporate the symphonic industry is becoming. In my last article, I wrote about the organizational structure of the Musicians of the Nashville Symphony, and how that interfaces with our own management. Since then, some symphony musicians have told me that before they won their job, they had no idea what kinds of things happened behind the scenes in an orchestra of this size, not to mention the unique challenges they might encounter. Today I’d like to take a look at one type of challenge we’ve been facing, especially this year.

With so much varied music activity in our city, it’s easy to believe we foster a general inclusiveness, but is that really true? Here in Nashville, we have our own well-worn music traditions and industry practices that are constantly honored for their deep history and longevity. The symphonic industry is no different.

In order to maintain traditions and industry practices, new musicians have to know they exist and then choose to honor them. This doesn’t happen by accident. Not only do we have to teach them to new colleagues, but we have to include them actively on the team. None of us advanced in our careers with only a few technical or historical presentations to internalize on our own time, or by being left alone to figure things out. If you ask most of us how or why we became, and continue to be professional musicians, we’ll likely tell you about being inspired by the working relationships we experience.

But we can just as easily become uninspired. We can feel excluded or marginalized, even downright unwelcome. Those feelings are not limited to one group of people like the new members of an ensemble. They can just as easily be felt by others overwhelmed by change. In my recent study of systems theory, I’ve learned that too much change or stress can destabilize a system and cause seemingly unrelated problems. In our workplaces, we have federal laws protecting employees from many types of discrimination. Some orchestras like Nashville, also have a human resources department, and with the agreement of our union, establish workplace policies that address other behaviors often appearing in stressful times. These laws and policies can go a long way towards promoting professionalism and self-awareness.

Local 257 Symphony Steward Melinda Whitley

However, it’s normal under stress to react from an emotional place. When we, as an industry, face extra-scarce resources, the competition for those resources can distract us and cause us to forget the importance of our individual professionalism and self-awareness, both on and off the stage. That’s not an excuse, but it’s normal human behavior.

Sometimes in order to grow as a group, we need to feel discomfort. We need to look at our own behavior and allow others to do the same in a supportive environment. Our industry is not the only one experiencing a massive change in personnel. “The Great Resignation” we’ve all heard about has hit our city hard. The hospitality and food industries have especially suffered. The entire music industry has taken a big hit too. From artists to managements, our ensemble is no different. We’re slowly coming back from a very difficult time, but right now, we have so many openings on stage, that this moment is full of issues we’re not accustomed to handling.

We can’t produce concerts with lots of vacant chairs. Someone has to be in those seats producing that large orchestral sound or we cease to be a full orchestra. We have very detailed, bargained-for contract language about how an audition must be executed in order to fill a position permanently. We’re proud that our process in Nashville is a leader in our industry for fairness and the reduction of bias throughout the process, but that doesn’t help us fill multiple vacancies quickly.

It used to be that an orchestra experienced very few vacancies in a season. Due to events outside our influence, we currently have many openings and we can’t possibly fill them quickly enough to ignore the effects on our ensemble. We have one large section in the orchestra with six vacancies, including major leadership roles. That’s unprecedented. Some smaller sections have had to perform regularly with only one-third of their members being permanent musicians. This is not normal for us and I don’t know of ensembles in other genres that perform regularly when missing so many key personnel.

Like other orchestras, we’re lucky in Nashville that the pool of qualified musicians interested in performing with us is so deep. We’re fortunate to have filled our large and unusual number of empty chairs with many long and short-term temporary players. We’re lucky that performing with us gives those musicians something they want and need as well. It’s a complementary relationship and all relationships sometimes need a little extra care.

“We are stronger together” is an idea that has stood the test of time. Remembering to take a moment in stressful times to seek professionalism and self-awareness helps us all to safeguard the strength of our togetherness. Not only do these practices deepen our connections with each other, but they cross the proverbial fourth wall to our audiences and wider communities. They strengthen our performances and the workings of all our professional music organizations, even the AFM.