This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Maestro Roberto Minczuk has been a lightning rod for controversy in recent weeks, and he is coming to conduct the Utah Symphony the weekend of April 15.
He is currently embroiled in a controversy that has many musicians upset. He is proposing an evaluation process with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra that will include all of the musicians in the orchestra to re-audition, among other things. As many as 42 musicians were reportedly dismissed.
I conducted an e-mail interview with him and couldn't ingore the elephant in the room. So here was my question, and following was his response:
Do you have anything to say regarding ongoing controversy with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra? What is your view point and your position in the situation, so that the Utah audiences and musicians can know your point of view?It is a very complicated issue. As we made known to all musicians, it was never the purpose to dismiss anybody, but to have a broad artistic project that included a new contract with over 50 percent raise in salaries, a much broader concert season with an entire semester dedicated only to the chamber music, performed by all players, local and international auditions to fill 13 positions that have been open for over two years (the OSB has two principals for each section) and the evaluation process for all musicians in order to give them feedback for the individual and collective artistic development . These evaluations were also meant to solve problems of musicians who in the past were admitted to the orchestra or to the positions they hold without proper auditions. These were internal issues which musicians themselves asked the administration to address. These evaluations were a requirement of the Board. Contracts are very different of those in North America or in Europe. There are five professional orchestras in Rio, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB) is a private institution and contracts of private institutions according to the Constitution do not offer possibility of tenure. I am perplexed by the present situation. The musicians who unfortunately were dismissed were not for any artistic reasons, but for legal reasons with the institution. The institution is still seeking solutions for this problem.
I recently published a blog before I posed the questions, and it generated a firestorm of heated responses: