Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Announces a New Labor Agreement with American Federation of Musicians Local 1

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Announces a New Labor Agreement with American Federation of Musicians Local 1

Five-Year Agreement Provides a Base Salary Increase of 23% Over the Life of the Contract, Adjusts Scheduling Parameters for Continued Flexibility, and Underscores the CSO’s Ongoing Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Through the Adoption of Industry-Leading Audition and Tenure Practices

CINCINNATI, OH (August 1, 2024)—The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) musicians and management announced a new five-year labor agreement today. Starting September 9, 2024, the new agreement provides competitive salary increases, flexible scheduling, and industry-leading audition and tenure practices, reinforcing the CSO’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“This five-year agreement underscores a deep commitment from both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra musicians and management to continue our work to deliver high-caliber, live orchestral music and music education to Cincinnatians and the global community. The stability that this agreement provides will enable the organization to be 100% focused on the implementation of our strategic plan and help ensure the success of Cristian Macelaru’s launch as our new Music Director in 2025,” said CSO President and CEO Jonathan Martin. “I commend our musicians and the management negotiating team, led by CSO Chief Operating Officer Robert McGrath, for their hard work that yielded this exceptional collective bargaining agreement.”

The new agreement cements the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s place in the top ten American orchestras in terms of competitive salaries for its musicians. The contract provides for a base salary increase of 23% over the life of the contract, ensuring that the CSO can maintain a competitive advantage as it seeks to recruit and retain top talent.

The contract also achieves improvements to scheduling parameters, creating elasticity that allows for artistic and economic opportunities. Workweek layouts can flex to meet varying performance needs as projects and circumstances require.

Furthermore, in alignment with the CSO’s ongoing commitment to DE&I, new contractual and policy provisions in the agreement adopt industry-leading audition and tenure practices that focus on transparency, equity, and support mechanisms, as recommended by the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS) and the Black Orchestral Network. Highlights include:

• The advancement of Sphinx Orchestral Partner Audition (SOPA) winners to the semi-final round of auditions
• The creation and execution of a formal evaluation process based on job-related criteria as well as the increase of support systems for musicians during the tenure process
• The implementation of protections against conflicts of interest in audition and tenure processes

“The identification of shared priorities early in our discussions, such as improvements to the audition and tenure process and a desire on both sides for a longer-term contract, established a collaborative spirit that carried throughout the entire negotiation,” said CSO Contrabassoon and Chair of the Players Committee Jennifer Monroe. “Both sides worked diligently to find common ground on important issues. The Players Committee is grateful to Paul Frankenfeld, President of the American Federation of Musicians Local 1, and musicians’ attorney Barbara Jaccoma and management’s attorney Joanne Bush for their important contributions to the negotiation process. We are also grateful to CSO management for their willingness to understand the musicians’ needs and concerns in finding creative solutions together.”

"These conversations between the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra musicians and management have strengthened our sense of partnership and set a new benchmark for what we can achieve together,” said CSO Chief Operating Officer Robert McGrath. “This successful collective bargaining agreement is a testament to our decades-long collaborative relationship, and I applaud the efforts of our Players Committee, our respective attorneys, and the rest of our management negotiating team for their valuable contributions. As we prepare for our next chapter with Cristian Macelaru at the helm of our Orchestra, we do so together with confidence as well as a renewed and focused commitment to serving our community and beyond.”

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

With a legacy dating back 129 years, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is considered one of America’s finest and most versatile ensembles. In the 2025-26 season, Cristian M?celaru joins the Orchestra as its 14th Music Director, after serving as Music Director Designate in the 2024-25 season, adding to the CSO’s distinguished roster of past music directors that includes Leopold Stokowski, Eugène Ysaÿe, Fritz Reiner, Max Rudolf, Jesús López Cobos, Paavo Järvi and Louis Langrée. Matthias Pintscher is the Orchestra’s Creative Partner; previous artistic partners have included Lang Lang, Philip Glass, Branford Marsalis and Jennifer Higdon. The Orchestra also performs as the Cincinnati Pops, founded by Erich Kunzel in 1977 and currently led by John Morris Russell with Damon Gupton serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The CSO further elevates the city’s vibrant arts scene by serving as the official orchestra for the Cincinnati May Festival, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet.

The CSO has long championed the composers and music of its time and has given historic American premieres of works by Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, William Grant Still and other prominent composers. It has also commissioned many works that ultimately became mainstays of the classical repertoire, including Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. The Orchestra continues to actively commission new work, amplifying new voices from a diverse array of backgrounds.

Deeply committed to enhancing and expanding opportunities for the children of Greater Cincinnati, the Orchestra works to bring music education, in its many different forms, to as broad a public as possible. These efforts include two youth orchestras, the Nouveau Program, Musicians in Schools, the CSO Brass Institute and one of the longest running Young People’s Concerts series in the United States, which was launched more than 100 years ago.

A leader in diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the industry, the CSO was one of the first American orchestras to create a Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer position on its administrative team and the first to endow the role, ensuring the absorption of best DE&I practices into every facet of the organization in perpetuity. In 2007, the CSO created the Nouveau Program, which has supported increased participation in classical music and provided equitable opportunities for music study and performance for more than 80 African American and Latine student musicians. The CSO is also an incubator for and partner to Equity Arc, a consortium of American orchestras, professional musicians and educators established to address the lack of racial equity in the classical music field by aligning resources and collaborating to strengthen the trajectory of classical instrumentalists of color at all stages of their pre-careers.

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