Symphony's musical chairs must be resolved

It's been just six months since Seattle Symphony Orchestra announced it would have a quartet of rotating violinists in the concertmaster chair, but it is redefining the position after discovering the arrangement violates terms of the musicians' collective bargaining agreement.

After a three-year search for a new concertmaster — the orchestra's top violinist, who has a unique standing in the orchestra — music director Gerard Schwarz decided last August to split the job among four players: Seattle's then-associate concertmaster, Maria Larionoff; Detroit Symphony concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert; Milwaukee Symphony concertmaster Frank Almond; and soloist/Yale professor Ani Kavafian.

Whenever one of the latter three players is in town, Larionoff has occupied her former position of associate concertmaster (second chair). When none of the other three players is present, Larionoff has been concertmaster, and other first violinists have moved forward to occupy the positions below her.

But by terms of the musicians' contract, if Larionoff is concertmaster, she can't also be the orchestra's second chair.

"According to the contract, there is one person for each job, and no one can be both associate concertmaster and concertmaster," explains Schwarz. "This was brought to our attention by the musicians, who wanted the letter of the contract adhered to, and they are absolutely correct."

Timpanist Michael Crusoe, chairman of Seattle Symphony and Opera Players' Organization, notes: "The main focus of the talks was the fact that our contract doesn't allow part-time positions. But that was what we had when four concertmasters were hired. The orchestra contract calls for one concertmaster."

Also at issue in the talks, Crusoe said, is that all musicians have benefits, including health insurance, life insurance and pensions. Those would have to be paid to all four concertmasters.

So what happens next? Schwarz gets to decide, but he has not tipped his hat — publicly, at least. He will not say whether he has offered Larionoff the concertmaster position, or whether she prefers (given the choice) to remain associate concertmaster, a job that has tenure. The concertmaster job does not. If Larionoff remains associate concertmaster, Schwarz says, the orchestra can reopen the concertmaster search, and it can have guest concertmasters, including the three other violinists who share the concertmaster job with Larionoff. If she is offered the concertmaster spot and accepts, then the orchestra will hold auditions to fill the associate spot.

"I know what I want to do," says Schwarz, "but I can't talk yet.

"Guests, concertmasters — for me the title is not relevant. At this point, all our concertmasters are loving this arrangement, and I couldn't be happier. It's going splendidly."

Larionoff calls the process of redefining the concertmaster role "a clarification," but she adds she is not ready to discuss what will happen.

The orchestra's executive director, Tom Philion, says he has been working with members of the musicians committee in "a very positive way" on the concertmaster situation, calling the work "a series of technical issues about how we are in conformance with the agreement. Some of it is semantics. I think we're very close to resolving this, but it is premature to talk about it yet."

Both sides characterize the discussions as friendly. Crusoe says the talks were "not combative, but just looking at the contract to see how we resolve the issues."

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com