Orchestral music is best exhibited when everyone’s on the same page, but for the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra sour notes have been emanating over the past several days in the wake of what several musicians have termed “musical warning termination letters.” Steven and Susan Dietrich-Reed and one other musician who were among five getting such letters from Musical Director & Orchestra Conductor Robin Fountain have elected to resign from the orchestra rather than travel “the route to improve,” alleging age discrimination is at the core of the issue.
Executive Director of the SMSO, Sue Kellogg, says “Nobody has been fired, in fact we’re right in the middle of contract negotiations today.” She was flanked by the Symphony’s Lawyer Mark Wilkinson, who confirmed that the five musicians in question had, in fact, not be terminated, rather had received the first letter from Conductor Fountain, in what is a multi-step process to seek performance improvements from musicians who find themselves in a probationary status.
The Reeds are well known and accomplished performers and musical instructors in the community with decades of service, but they have elected to tender their resignations from the Symphony in the wake of the controversy as they argue age discrimination is clearly evident in the fact that all of those getting deficiency notices were over the age of 65. This is from her Facebook page:
In case you wondered, the 5 SMSO musicians over age 65 that received musical warning termination letters included Steve & me. No musicians left in SMSO over 65. 84 yrs between us means nothing…
In defense of Conductor and Musical Director Fountain, Kellogg argues that “Robin doesn’t know the age of anyone in the orchestra, in fact one musician played until well into his 90s and was still a member until the day he passed.”
Kellogg also says each of the five musicians who received the deficiency warning letters from Fountain were recently offered contracts, “but they (the Reeds) elected to resign rather than proceed with the improvement process, dictated by the union.”
The letter received by five musicians is just the first step in that process, which also includes remediation steps, a trial period, a second letter, and even peer reviews by fellow musicians all the way up to a formal union vote if the union were to elect to hold one to accept or overturn the decisions of the Musical Director. Here’s how Kellogg describes the process:
“Under the labor contract, sending an artistic deficiency warning letter is merely the first step in a multi-step process that includes private (with union representation if desired) meeting with the music director of the orchestra to fully explore the problem issues, followed by a trial period of several concerts during which the musician may demonstrate the improvements required, and then a second letter follow-up letter from the music director to evaluate the musician’s performance. If this second letter is negative, the musician may appeal to a specially convened peer-review committee comprising orchestra musicians chosen by secret ballot of their peers. The peer review committee may overrule the music director’s decision about the musician’s performance. So, ultimately, as the process sounds (peer-review) the SMSO musicians themselves determine the outcome of the process.”
She adds, “Again, we want to emphasize that no musicians were terminated as a result of the process outlined above. Unfortunately, when a few musicians received a warning letter they chose to resign rather than work to improve. We understand that criticism can be hard and sometimes people react very differently to critiques.”
Attorney Wilkinson says that all decisions need to be made based on evidence, so the letters sent were preliminary and not actual termination notices.
There has been overwhelming chatter and support for Steven and Susan Dietrich-Reed thanks to their outstanding track record with multiple organizations in the community, but they are standing by their accusations of age discrimination. I reached out to them for comment but have not heard back at the time of this story.
