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In what's sure to be the classiest courtroom battle, a Juilliard-trained composer is suing the Brooklyn Philharmonic for butchering his piece back in 2004. The NY Post reports that Nathan Currier paid over $70,000 to have the troupe perform his two-hour-long magnum opus, only to have the musicians stop short and exit the stage. CEO Catherine Cahill had told him during an intermission that they were in danger of going over and incurring overtime fees due to union rules. After frantically editing down the piece so it wouldn't be a total disaster, the orchestra ended up ignoring the new version and simply stopped short when someone signaled the time limit. He told the paper, "It had a huge impact on me, both psychologically and in a very direct, nuts-and-bolts way. I moved out of New York to write this thing, and assumed it would change my life when it got put on. But it was like the kiss of death to my career." Indeed, the NY Times declared the piece to be nothing more than "dreadful music." Meanwhile, Currier says he would drop the suit if they would play it again.
Composer Sues Brooklyn Philharmonic For Ruining Career
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In regards to your article: http://gothamist.com/2009/11/28/lawsuit_dirty_st_vincents_equipment.php
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(Sigh)
Union Bashing to begin in 5...4...3...2...
" due to union rules "
need i say more ?
Wait, he paid them to play his composition?
What you said.
But all in all, his demands don't seem to be unreasonable. I'd be kind of curious to hear it myself.
Yeah, the Post article and the old Times review contradict each other. If the Brooklyn Philharmonic is cash-strapped they wouldn't be commissioning expensive compositions. If they were commissioning a piece you would think they would work with the composer to make sure the piece fit in to whatever time constraints the orchestra had.
Well, it wasn't a BPO commission, that's for sure. The piece was apparently funded by third-party sources (including the "Earth Day Network"?) Here's the original web site for the project.
It's what you'd call a "rental" - rent the space, hire the orchestra, etc. (That BPO was playing at Lincoln Center is your clue that this is the case.) BPO obviously wasn't willing to eat the extra expenses, and there was clearly a lack of respect for Currier or the backers, so that's why they did what they did.
Nice detective work! So, the EDN commissioned the piece (and a rather ambitious one at that), but didn't allocate the proper funds for its performance - ? There are so many unanswered questions here.
I checked out the site, esp. the page announcing the performance. It turns out that 've worked with several of the people involved. I'm curious to find out what happened, but wonder if they'd even be willing or able to discuss. This looks like a very touchy subject .
No one knew him before, and now that it's all over the news, I doubt this guy will gain any fans.
you can say that again!
No one knew him before, and now that it's all over the news, I doubt this guy will gain any fans.
But they're cash strapped now, it seems. Not back in 2004 when they performed it.
Besides, if a critic didn't like what they had heard, would they have changed their minds by the performance of the last bits? My guess is "no."
If he was paying the Brooklyn Phil, then it wasn't a commission. If it were a commission the *composer* would be getting the money *from* the Phil.
Composers hire out orchestras all the time (well, composers with money do) for performances and recordings. It's more common to take this sort of thing overseas, though, to avoid union issues. And pay a heck of a lot less. Prague is a popular place for this. A good number of film scores are recorded there.
But the NYT says that he was commissioned by the Phil. So which is it? And why did he wait so many years to bring the suit? Was he denied tenure at his new gig, and now he's fishing for cash?
Plenty of times, I've seen union musicians pack up and leave rehearsals when they run over, and overtime wasn't agreed to in advance. I've never seen a situation where it wasn't warranted. It was always because some bozo from the administrative office for the company or hall, a guest conductor, or an egotistical soloist or neophyte composer (or vice-versa, or both/all) wasted valuable rehearsal time earlier on in the session.
I've never seen this happen in performance, but I've seen it *almost* happen a number of times (it almost happened on one of my conducting gigs years ago). The conductor was able to avoid it each time with snappy tempos and careful cuts.
There was probably a very good reason why this went down the way it did, and I doubt it had anything to do with the union musicians.
Disclaimer: I'm not a member of Local 802, although I work with a number of people who are.
fuck unions