NEW YORK — Carnegie Hall’s Oct. 2 opening night gala featuring violinist Joshua Bell and the Philadelphia Orchestra was canceled due to a stagehand strike. At issue: a disagreement between the venue and IATSE Local 1 on whether an educational wing at Carnegie Hall, to be opened next year, would be employing the union’s workers.
The dispute prompting the strike, the first to cancel an opening night performance in the venue’s 122-year history, was resolved two days later, Oct. 4. The venue issued a statement noting that IATSE Local 1 would have “limited jurisdiction” in the expanded space. Reports noted that means one more full-time union worker in the venue, and perhaps more to be added as needed.
Currently Carnegie Hall employs five full-time stagehands, and also hires part-timers, as needed. It was widely reported that the average salary for each of these five workers exceeds $400,000 a year.
Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director, did not disclose the salary of the worker to be assigned to the educational wing, but suggested that it would be less. “It is a separate agreement,” he told The New York Times.
Even before the compromise was reached, Carnegie Hall was able to stage a performance by the American Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 3. Thwarted from the Carnegie stage Oct. 2, the Philadephia Orchestra quickly organized a free, family-friendly “pop-up” concert event at Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall. That event let audience members pick one of the pieces to be performed, and also invited Philadelphians to try their hand with the conductor’s baton onstage.
