Oakland Symphony Files to Liquidate

Burdened with a $900,000 debt and unable to coax deep wage concessions from its union musicians, the Oakland Symphony on Friday filed to liquidate under federal bankruptcy laws.

“The Oakland Symphony is history,” said orchestra lawyer Allan Berk.

The symphony, formed in 1933, had been asking the union to renegotiate its contract for three months. The union waited until Friday morning to make its opening offer, a 32% wage cut, but orchestra officials decided it was not enough.

Couldn’t Meet Demands

“They couldn’t come up with a contract that would fit in with our budget,” said symphony spokeswoman Janine Gregory. “We just couldn’t afford to pay them what they wanted.”

Musician’s Union Local 6 spokesman Pat McCarthy could not be reached for his comments on the symphony’s plans to fold.

The symphony had filed last month under a different chapter of federal bankruptcy law to try to reorganize its operation, restructure its debt and void its union contract.

The three-year contract was signed just last year after a six-week musicians’ strike. Orchestra officials had proposed a new contract that would have cut by almost 50% the number of paid musicians and the number of concerts to be performed.

$12,500 to $5,800

For musicians left on the payroll, the change would have cut salaries, paid on a per-performance basis, to about $5,800 a year from the current $12,500. Union members rejected this in balloting Thursday.

Gregory said the vote convinced orchestra administrators that the symphony could not be saved through reorganization and must be put out of business.

She added that the orchestra has not yet decided how it will handle season ticket holders and other creditors.

“The answer to that I don’t know,” she said. “We never expected to come to this bridge, and now we’ve already crossed it. We’ll have to decide all these things in the future.”