A friend pointed this out to me and it seemed to be well worth sharing.
January 3, 2011 Respect and Success Karl Pituch was appointed Principal Horn of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Along with numerous activities in the horn world, Karl has served on the DSO's Conductor Search and Artistic Advisory Committees, and the musicians' Orchestra and Negotiating Committees. Recently, I had the privilege to perform three weeks with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. While some things were different, there were many similarities to our own orchestra here in Detroit. The Boston Symphony is undoubtedly one of the best orchestras in the world. The Detroit Symphony is one of the top orchestras in the United States. The musicians of the Boston Symphony actually liked each other and the morale seemed very good. Likewise in Detroit. The musicians here get along with each other very well. Symphony Hall in Boston is one of the best in the world accoustically. Likewise, Orchestra Hall in Detroit is also a great hall. The people that I met who worked for the Boston Symphony were very nice people, from the security guards to the management people. So are the crews and many of our staff here. The difference that I noticed was one mainly of attitude and respect. It was the way top management and the Board of the Boston Symphony regarded their musicians. It was evident from inside Symphony Hall and outside of it that they held the musicians of the Boston Symphony with the utmost respect, recognizing the countless hours spent practicing instead of going out with friends, the many hours of studying recordings and scores, the money spent taking lessons with top teachers and attending seminars in an effort to push oneself to be the best. When our management talks about us working a 20 hour work week, proposes getting rid of tenure, proposes a multi-tier wage scale and addresses us as players and not musicians, it is showing its disrespect for us as musicians. That disrespect filters down from top management and the Board and infects the community, at least those foolish enough to believe it. This kind of attitude towards the musicians really harms the entire institution.
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