The latest victim is the nation’s oldest orchestra organization, the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Boston Symphony Orchestra principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe has filed a lawsuit against the orchestra, claiming that she is making substantially less each year than her closest peer — a man.

Rowe’s suit was filed in Massachusetts’ Suffolk County Superior Court on Monday morning, the day after a new, statewide equal pay law went into effect. Her suit may be the first gender pay equity claim filed under the Massachusetts Equal Pay Law (MEPA). She is asking for more than $200,000 in unpaid wages from the orchestra.

Rowe’s lawyer, Elizabeth A. Rodgers, says that her client has met repeatedly this year with the BSO administration in hopes of resolving the matter, including providing them with documentation of MEPA. The statute passed in 2016 but did not take effect until this past Sunday, specifically so that companies had ample time to audit and remedy salary and wage gaps.
— NPR, 7/5/18

A little background with my perspective is in order.

After a couple of summers working as a stage crewman for the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, I was hired by the BSO in 1977 as a Press Office Assistant and in-house Graphic Designer. During downtime that coincided with auditions, I would sit in the darkened second-level back row and watch dozens of talented musicians from around the country show off their ability, most of the time, for one open seat.

Rowe’s complaint, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court on Monday, one day after the law went into effect, alleges that since she was hired in 2004, the BSO “has discriminated against Rowe on the basis of gender by paying her an amount less than other comparable males.”

Rowe, who won a highly competitive audition to earn her coveted post at the BSO, is seeking more than $200,000 in unpaid wages.
— Boston Globe, 7/6/18

“Other comparable males”…? How could she conclude that?

I mentioned my experience watching numerous auditions at Symphony Hall because, at least back in 1977-79, auditions were only between those evaluating and the person auditioning. It wasn’t like all of those who sought an opening were standing side-by-side, freestyling, and being able to clearly see who comparibly was better than the other.

And yes, skills do diminish over the years in any profession. Elizabeth Rowe’s time will come and seeing how the lead violinist (“concertmaster”) is normally be the highest paid, one would think she should be damned grateful to be the top paid principal female as a flutist.

I say this because when Ms. Rowe claims she was offered less money than her “comparable” male counterpart.

Rowe says that she is currently the top-paid female principal player in the BSO, while the BSO’s principal oboist, John Ferrillo, is the symphony’s top-paid male principal musician. According to the BSO’s 2016 IRS Form 990, Ferrillo was paid $286,621, the largest salary paid to any BSO principal musician.

John Ferrillo was hired by the BSO in 2004 at the same time Rowe was. If you observe supply and demand, finding and keeping a good oboist could give that person better bargaining power than a flutist, of which there probably a lot more to choose from. Just sayin’.

(Violinist Malcolm Lowe — the orchestra’s concertmaster, who serves as something of a liaison between the symphony’s musicians and its conductor — earned $415,402 in 2016.) The BSO’s three other highest-paid musicians — its principal trumpet, principal viola and timpanist — are all male.
— NPR, 7/5/18

Like the affirmative action argument, if blacks aren’t hired for certain jobs, was it really racism or the amount of blacks who applied for that job. During my time at the Berkshire Music Center where students got expert tutelage from BSO musicians, I can’t remember seeing many female trumpet players or percussionists and that’s always explained the current gender disparity in those positions.

I guess we can no longer say a male at the Boston Symphony might be better and/or more senior than a female.

As playing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its subsidiaries has always been a great honor for a classical musician, it’s not like the BSO is only place Elizabeth Rowe could’ve worked. Some people looking for to work for a particular company do some research and have a rough idea of how much said position earns before they walk into an interview. If you don’t like what that employer is offering, you go somewhere else. Elizabeth Rowe accepted the amount offered. Maybe she negotiated up, but if she had an issue with compensation, she should have said something during the hiring process; not sue a day after an equal pay goes into effect.

What are the possible ramifications of Rowe’s suit?

Females who audition for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a nonprofit that probably meets that liberal stereotype, will now have to be really good where they maybe didn’t have to be because it was all about hiring women. Males may not be tasked with doing as much because it will now be all about “equality” and them not earning more than women for equal work.

Back in the day, people’s wages were a personal thing and not for public consumption outside of the high-priced world of sports and entertainment. Now, there will be personal evaluation and scrutiny of the wages of the artists, not just within the BSO but all entities with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and if you don’t think there will be wage-envy, scrambling to pay women and minorities hire wages regardless of their performance, you just wait.

I was turned on to Emerson, Lake & Palmer in the mid-70s. As a former drummer-turned-percussionist, I was in awe of drummer Carl Palmer, but the group as a whole was nothing but pure genius. (BTW – Despite six platinum-selling albums, including 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery, ELP STILL is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.)

In the late 70’s I was a stagehand at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and because of my attending a rival high school, got the opportunity to meet and strike up a friendship with legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein who also told me the correct pronunciation of his name: “Have you ever heard of a Steen-way piano?” He told me how, back in the day, he played piano with Billie Holiday for $10 a night and it was then I discovered that many conductors are also virtuoso pianists.

Subsequently, I asked Mr. Bernstein who his favorite keyboardist was and he said without hesitation, “Keith Emerson. He’s a genius.” While Edgar Winter was credited in making the synthesizer a recognized rock ‘n’ roll instrument, Keith Emerson took it several levels higher and set the standard.

Shortly after the ELP “Brain Salad Surgery” release, my best friend and I saw them perform at the old Boston Garden and I was even more impressed by the musicianship that almost fully translated from the album to live performance. Seriously, how many keyboardists play several parts AND the bass on foot pedals simultaneously live? Think about it….

It was quite sad to find that in the later years of his life, Keith Emerson was being dogged by the anonymous cowards on social media, who were criticizing his performances in ignorance.

His right hand and arm had given him problems for years. He had an operation a few years ago to take out a bad muscle but the pain and nerve issues in his right hand were getting worse. He had concerts coming up in Japan and even though they hired a back-up keyboard player to support him, Keith was worried. He read all the criticism online and was a sensitive soul. Last year he played concerts and people posted mean comments such as, ‘I wish he would stop playing.’
— Mari Kawaguchi, Emerson’s girlfriend

ALL musicians are ultimate victims of age. Singers transpose their hits down a step or two because they can’t hit the notes they could when they were in their 20’s and 30’s. If you listen to the speed and accuracy of Keith Emerson back in the 70’s and 80’s, one could easily understand how age could affect his performances in his 60’s and beyond, but that was no reason to bully (using the verbiage of today’s social media “victims”) him to the point of suicide.

He was tormented with worry that he wouldn’t be good enough. He was planning to retire after Japan. He didn’t want to let down his fans. He was a perfectionist and the thought he wouldn’t play perfectly made him depressed, nervous and anxious.

In the age of autotune and sampling, Keith Emerson was a great musician who on his worst day could blow away some of today’s “artists” and for cowardly, no-talent punks to troll him to the point where he felt the need to abandon all is one of the great tragedies.