SPCO and musicians reach new contract

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Photo by Ann Marsden, courtesy of SPCO

President Bruce Coppock says the SPCO will have a 40-week season for the first time since 1993.

"The ability to negotiate a return to a 40-week contract for the orchestra was important for the musicians -- in terms of providing continuous employment between Labor Day and Memorial Day, and for the organization to be able to have six more weeks of performances to be able to present to the community," says Coppock.

The orchestra plans to expand its neighborhood concert series.

In the new contract, musicians also granted broader rights to use SPCO concert recordings on the air and on the Web. Coppock says in previous contracts, the orchestra's recording rights were much more limited.

"This agreement allows us to broadcast all of the material that was recorded from 1970 on until now, and then going forward into the future, in a vast array of formats," says Coppock. "So it's a truly modern media agreement, which should allow us to do a lot of very creative things."

Coppock says the new contract affirms the success of the SPCO's three-year-old management model, which gives musicians a larger stake in the orchestra's decision-making process.

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