President Robert Fraser welcomes new OCSM members.
One of my strange habits is counting things in my head. I’m sure there is some sort of undiagnosed mental condition behind this practice. You might be thinking I enjoy counting rests because I’m a trombonist – I actually don’t have the patience for that (note to composers: write better cues in your parts). If I’m on a roll I’ll count the number of times a conductor uses a certain word, or look at my colleagues and count the number of companion animals I know of that live with them (in my case about 20 cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and even the odd working hen). I once counted all the babies born to colleagues since I started my job 35 years ago – that magic number is 53!
Recently I counted that since the emergence from the pandemic (which I mark at the beginning of the 2021-22 season) I have 18 new colleagues. A few of these have yet to be auditioned but hopefully will be chosen over the summer and will be joining us in the fall. That’s 18 out of 44 contracted positions. That’s a full 41% of my orchestra turned over in five seasons. For some of these people it’s not their first orchestral job, but for some it is – or at least their first chance at tenure in an OCSM orchestra. I know that this is a pattern that many of you are seeing – I reported both here and in the International Musician that almost 10% of the positions in OCSM orchestras were vacant a couple of seasons back.
So, for this issue of Una Voce I’m directing my column to our new members. Our amazing colleague, past President, and general Knowledge Keeper Francine Schutzman has written an excellent piece in this issue about OCSM’s relationship with its parent body, the AFM (in particular, the Canadian Conference of the AFM, or CanCon as we call it for short).
One thing I haven’t counted is the number of times (and the number of ways) I’ve explained to people just what OCSM and the other Player Conferences are. The AFM is a pretty big union, in fact, it’s the largest entertainment industry union in the world. It’s very multi-faceted – if you don’t think you have anything in common with Taylor Swift, think again; you’re both AFM members. A union this big needs sub-groups, especially suited to assisting members who make the bulk of their living under collective bargaining agreements. If you think of it this way: the Local is responsible for negotiating and maintaining your collective bargaining agreement, but to do that they need a strong connection to the people that work under that agreement. That’s why we have orchestra committees and stewards. We also need a way for these musicians to communicate with their colleagues in other orchestras, and that’s really how this whole OCSM thing got started in the first place. At one time, believe it or not, the union was pretty hostile to the concept of orchestra committees. I won’t go into that here, but I highly recommend (again) a book by former Minnesota violinist Julie Ayer, entitled “More Than Meets The Ear: How Symphony Musicians Made Labor History” – easily available however and wherever you get your books.
Having a collective body of representatives from each orchestra, led by a group of musicians, is a powerful tool. It gives us a voice within our union structure, our industry as a whole, and even in society at large (I remember a previous Vice-President from Canada of the AFM who said that he wished jazz musicians, indie bands, or other groups had the kind of organization that OCSM has).
Another way I often explain OCSM’s function is that it helps musicians navigate all the aspects of their job that they weren’t taught in music school. So I’m going to spend the rest of this column talking about some of the resources that OCSM helps connect you to.
The Symphonic Services Division (SSD) of the AFM: This is the most obvious one. The SSD staff maintain a huge repository of industry knowledge and information: all our collective agreements are available to you, a comparative database of working conditions is maintained in part by OCSM Delegates (and the other two Symphonic Player Conferences, ICSOM and ROPA), and guidelines for everything from how to run your orchestra’s player association, to audition and tenure/review procedures. If you are on an orchestra committee, make sure you have access to the members’ area of the AFM website (www.afm.org) so you can access all this material.
Orchestras Canada is another industry partner. (www.oc.ca). We are very fortunate to have a positive working relationship with the national association for Canadian orchestras. Even though musicians will obviously end up on the opposite side of issues with their managements from time to time, we work hard to ensure that both labour and management are working toward the same goals. I personally have learned so much about the operations of orchestras from taking part in OC’s conferences and online offerings (they hold webinars throughout the year that are open to musicians). Do go to their website and check out what’s there.
Health and Wellness Resources: OCSM has hosted presentations by dozens of health care professionals who work specifically with musicians and other performing artists. The pioneers in Canada were the Musicians Clinics of Canada (www.musiciansclinicsofcanada.com). Also check out the Performing Arts Medicine Association (https://artsmed.org/). I would also like to highlight the work in this area by Dr. Christine Guptill, who has presented at our conferences, and who is currently a co-director of the Canadian Network for Musicians Health and Wellness. Recent NYO alumni will know of Dr. Guptill’s work.
Western Financial Group Insurance Solutions (https://westernfinancialgroup.ca/MIIP) We have had a group musical instrument insurance policy with this organization for many years now. It is one of the only plans that covers loss of value if an instrument is damaged, and now offers a liability package especially tailored to musicians who teach out of their home.
These are just a few of the resources that OCSM connects you to. Back to my counting habit: this column is now at 1033 words. Just because I’m President doesn’t mean I can bully the Editor into allowing me more space (remember, we are an organization of equals!). So I’m going to leave it there and say welcome to all of you who are new. And if you’ve been in your orchestra for twenty years and read this, and thought: “Wow, I didn’t know this!” then hooray! Thanks for reading this.
