By Ethan Balakrishnan, 1st Vice President

Who is a “freelance musician”? Defined most broadly, probably all of us are; nearly every OCSM musician gigs or teaches on the side. For our purposes, we might narrow it down to subs and extras — those colleagues on stage one week who may or may not be there the next. They are the unsung heroes of our orchestras. 

Often engaged on very short notice, orchestral freelancers must quickly prepare their parts to a high standard and adjust to a potentially unfamiliar group dynamic, while juggling an often hectic and uncertain schedule. Rarely do we hear them complain, and many of us may have at some point been (or maybe still are) in the same situation ourselves. So, we might be forgiven for thinking that everything is fine the way it is. 

However, freelancers face significant barriers to adequate representation. They might be unwilling to advocate for themselves and others for fear of gaining a reputation as a “troublemaker”. They may not even have the luxury of the extra time and stability required for union activism. There’s also the fact that an important motivator for union activism is a sense of belonging to a collective whole, which is often lacking for freelancers who split their time between various orchestras. Freelancers are of course nominally represented by their unions, but usually only permanent musicians can ratify a contract, and their own conditions understandably attract far more attention in negotiations. 

This lack of representation puts them in a precarious position. With essentially no protection offered in most CBAs, a regular freelancer may, at any moment, find themselves out of work with an orchestra, without knowing the reason. Perhaps their preparation and ensemble skills weren’t up to par. Perhaps a new section leader decided that they would rather give priority to their own students. Or, maybe they just needed to shower more often! More concerningly, a non-contracted musician might choose not to report harassment experienced in the orchestra for fear of reprisal.

Regular freelancers are also often discarded like ballast when financial cutbacks or other crises necessitate reduced programs -- we saw this on a large scale during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Freelance musicians were a hot topic at the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) Conference in Malmö, Sweden, which I attended this October. A panel on the subject, composed of musician union leaders from Australia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, inspired a great deal of comments from conference attendees, and discussion even seemed to spill over into the following panel. Participants spoke about the various realities lived by freelancers around the world, linked by the common thread of poor representation:

• In the Netherlands, freelancers find themselves losing work as they age, an unintended consequence of national labour law requiring higher pay with greater experience. 
• In Swiss orchestras, weak union laws and a social safety net entirely dependent on permanent employment have caused freelancers to work under terrible conditions. As a result of a new law, some are even forced out of work due to pregnancy, while unable to access maternity benefits. 
• In Australian orchestras, freelancers have often lacked representation and the respect of permanent musicians. 

Australia’s Symphony Orchestra Musicians’ Association (SOMA, Australia’s equivalent of OCSM) and Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance have begun a genuine effort to buck the trend, and create effective protections for freelancers. 

Following a national survey of freelance orchestral musicians conducted by SOMA, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is on track to ratify new language benefiting their extras, the product of a collaborative effort between the permanent musicians, their regular freelancers, and their management. According to Lachlan Bramble, president of SOMA and violinist in the ASO, one of their freelancers’ main concerns was the lack of transparency in hiring practices, manifesting in an inability to plan their lives due to uncertainty of getting work, frustration at an uneven and possibly unfair distribution of work, and sudden unexplained loss of work. The ASO’s draft language therefore includes the following three main points of improvement:

• An equitable and transparent casual audition process
• A set of merit-based criteria used to determine who on the sub list will be offered work
• A meaningful commitment to communicate regularly with extras, providing performance feedback as well as advance notice on the availability/likelihood of future work

Mr. Bramble specifies that this process is only a start, and that they will likely go further in this direction. He also highlights the importance of including freelancers themselves in the creation of the process, allowing them to apply their special insights and feel a sense of ownership. 

I believe this is a development to keep an eye on, and perhaps an example to follow. Solidarity with freelancers benefits permanent members as well, and anything we can do to make freelancers’ lives easier and less stressful can only improve the performance of the entire group. Our subs and extras are an essential part of our orchestras -- why not treat them with the respect they deserve?