We, the undersigned, are supporters of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.  We represent long-time subscribers and casual concertgoers.  We represent donors, small business owners, teachers, parents, students, and your friends and neighbors.  We are lovers of art and music.

We realize that the pandemic has presented serious challenges for performing arts organizations, and we look forward to the day when the pandemic will end.  However, we feel the actions recently taken by Philharmonic management endanger the future of our local professional orchestra.

We call upon the management of the CSP to reinstate its contract with the musicians.  The existing contract ensures a high-quality, professional orchestra for our community.  In April of this year, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic management reached an agreement with the Musicians for a 5-year contract that set the organization on an amazing upward trajectory.  The contract offers wages more competitive with other Front Range professional orchestras and commensurate with the quality of orchestra this community deserves, helping attract musicians who make our orchestra stronger every year. This stability helps musicians establish lives for themselves in Colorado Springs and enables them to fill vital roles in our community.  We strongly urge the management of the Philharmonic to honor its commitment to the musicians by reenacting the contract that all parties agreed to.  

We call upon the management of the CSP to negotiate short-term adaptations to the contract necessitated by the pandemic, not long-term structural changes.  Acknowledging the challenges that the pandemic forces upon performing arts organizations, the musicians have demonstrated that they are more than willing to accept temporary modifications to the contract during this unprecedented time in order to ensure the long term health of the organization.  We believe the board members were misled in order to secure their votes based on an alternate agenda designed to use the pandemic to force long term changes.  In order to bring music back to the community, the musicians have agreed repeatedly to accept financial concessions, even proposing their own pay cuts during the past three months of negotiations.  They deserve to have assurances that such cuts will be temporary and that the orchestra will return to the previously-ratified contract once the pandemic has ended.

We call upon the management of the CSP to honor its mission statement “to reflect the greatness of our community and the best of human potential through musical excellence, creative discovery, and civic leadership.”  A history of strong contracts has allowed the Philharmonic to attract and retain musicians from across the country.  Under the leadership of our esteemed Music Director Josep Caballé-Domenech, the orchestra has seen rapid and sustained artistic growth. The orchestra on stage with Itzhak Perlman this past February was an example of a group of the highest caliber, the artistic integrity of which is the direct result of a rich history of strong contracts.  Let’s not jeopardize this progress.  

We value this orchestra and what it provides to our community, and we expect the Colorado Springs Philharmonic not only to exist, but also to thrive once we get through this pandemic together.