Brass Junkies Extra: Tubist Aubrey Foard of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on the state of the lockout
In this special episode of The Brass Junkies, Aubrey Foard catches us up on where things stand with the BSO lockout.
From his bio:
Aubrey Foard is the principal tubist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2018. He also serves as Lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and as Artist Faculty at the Brevard Music Center. Mr. Foard was most recently principal tubist of the Charlotte Symphony, where he had performed since 2012. He has previously held principal tuba positions in the Santa Barbara, West Virginia, Canton, Youngstown, and Albany Symphonies as well as with the Britt Festival Orchestra. He has performed as a guest musician with several other orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, Arizona MusicFest, and as Acting Principal Tubist with the San Diego Symphony.
Aubrey gives us an inside look at how the lockout has impacted the musicians over these last few months.
We discuss:
- Expiration of their contract
- Summer bargaining sessions
- His first act as a member of the BSO
- Management's offers vs. the players'
- Cancellation of the summer season and the start of the lockout
- Lack of progress in negotiations
- Aubrey taking 47 auditions before landing the BSO gig
- Taiwan Tubamania
- Finding Baltimore Symphony recordings in Taipei
- Individual overscale negotiations
- Leaving the Charlotte Symphony
- The impact of previous management decisions on today's situation
- The difference between a 40-week and a 52-week orchestra
- Playing with the San Diego Symphony in the summers
- How uncertainty of the future of the orchestra has impacted him personally
- Having to hit the road to make it work
- The impact on his family
- 15-20 other cities have already reached out to have Baltimore Symphony players sub with their orchestras
- ICSOM Call to action has provided over $250,000 so far
- "The BSO without the O is just BS"
- Lessons from the experience (stay united and get involved)
- Throwing a mega-brass concert to support the musicians
- Collecting data for the creation of a fact sheet and data project
- Michael Kaiser, make great art and market it brilliantly
- Places and people who are doing it right in the industry
- Aubrey Bergauer of the California Symphony
- Deborah Borda of the New York Philharmonic
- Mark Niehaus of the Milwaukee Symphony
- Phil Munds and Andy Balio on The Brass Junkies
- Future Symphony Institute
Here's a link to a recent article from Baltimore Sun outlining the state of things:
"BSO and musicians in marathon contract negotiations as deadline looms"
Here's a link to the musicians' Facebook page:
BSO Musicians Facebook page
And their website:
BSO Musicians Website
The players' GoFundMe page:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-the-o-in-bso