BSO Negotiators Meet With Freelancers

This morning, the Boston Musicians' Association met at the Belmont Lions Club to let players ask questions about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new trade agreement. The issue is that members of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the group of freelance musicians who you probably know from their playing the July 4 Pops concert on the Esplanade, are upset because their pay is going to be cut for dozens of concerts in the upcoming season. At the same time, BSO players' salaries will rise.

Naturally, we were eager to hear the chat. But just as the meeting was about to begin, musicians union president Barbara Owens - who has been criticized by some freelancers for failing to support them in the negotiations - asked us to leave. It was not a public meeting. A few players stood, asking we be allowed to stay. Being adverse to conflict, we chose the door.

No action came out of the meeting, we're told, as only about 25 players showed up. BSO players Ron Barron, Fenwick Smith and Larry Wolfe, who negotiated the deal as members of the orchestra's Players Committee, took questions.

We spoke with Barron after the meeting. Here's how he views an idea floated by some to have the freelancers negotiate for themselves with BSO management, instead of letting the Players' Committee represent them.

"Frankly that's up to them," Barron said. "I'm going to be very surprised if the Boston Symphony is interested in having more than one collective bargaining agreement."

On the tone of the meeting: "People were understanding. People listented to what we had to say. Naturally, if they do one of these Pops jobs they're not going to be paid as much as last year. I can't expect anybody to be happy about that. But I think we did everyting we could to protect the rates."