Striking DSO members play to full church

Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Bloomfield Hills— The striking musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra played today despite their labor stoppage at Orchestra Hall and contract talks that stalled last month.

The televised concert from Christ Church Cranbrook may have struck a sour note with symphony managers, but a harmonious chord with hundreds who packed the pews to surround the musicians at the center of the towering Episcopal cathedral.

Although several regularly scheduled performances of the new symphony season have been canceled due to the labor dispute, Metro Detroit music patrons gave standing ovations to the striking musicians. The DSO players were joined in the rented facility by more than a dozen volunteer musicians from the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.

The live television broadcast on WADL, titled "The Musicians of the Detroit Symphony, Playing with Pride," was preceded by text disclaimers stating the event was not sponsored or endorsed by DSO management.

"Our purpose is not to take part in the labor dispute, but to showcase these fine musicians," former local television newscaster Emory King said in a message before guest conductor Joseph Silverstein and violinist Sarah Corker opened the concert with the familiar sounds of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The combined orchestras also performed Brahm's Symphony No. 2 in D major.

Musicians have said the final contract offer from DSO management, responding to the local economy's downturn, included drastic cuts in wages and benefits. The DSO is considered to be among the top ten in the nation, according to Caroline Coade, who has played viola with the symphony for 15 seasons.

DSO management issued a statement prior to the concert, objecting to the striking musician's, "Misleading use of the DSO name and mark to solicit funds and suggest that actions taken by striking musicians somehow support the DSO, when they are in fact adverse."

WADL offered to broadcast the concert if the musicians waived their normal performance fees. The broadcast had two sponsors, Dettrich Furs and Gardner-White Furniture.

King called the orchestra a community "gem that is in jeopardy."

Ticket sales from the event and three prior concerts by the striking musicians in rented facilities went to the union's contingency fund. Two more concerts by the union members are set for Nov. 7 at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Grosse Pointe Woods and on Nov. 21 at Temple Beth El, in Bloomfield Hills.