A Playbook for the Musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra: How Orchestras Have Fought Back — and Won

The musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra have done what musicians almost never do: they have spoken publicly, unanimously, and without ambiguity. They have called the firing of Andris Nelsons "artistic suicide." They have described "institution-wide dysfunction" and "inability to articulate any artistic vision." They have stated that they received "no reassurance that there is a path to rebuilding trust."

These are not small words. Coming from the musicians of one of the world's great orchestras — people who have spent careers avoiding institutional politics and focusing on music — they represent something close to an emergency declaration.

But words, even powerful ones, are not a strategy. And the BSO's board has demonstrated, across three weeks of silence and corporate jargon, that words alone will not change their course.

So what will?

A petition on Change.org — started by George Whiting and calling on Chad Smith and Barbara Hostetter to host a public town hall — has been gathering signatures. Red rose brooches have appeared outside Symphony Hall, pinned to the coats of concertgoers as a symbol of solidarity with the musicians and with Nelsons. At his March 20 return to the podium, Nelsons received rafter-shaking ovations from a packed house. At his March 28 performance, the audience erupted again. The people who fill Symphony Hall have spoken. The people who control it have not listened.

This article examines the historical record of orchestra musicians who have fought bad governance — and won. It draws on labor law, nonprofit governance frameworks, and documented precedents from the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and others. It is not a call to action. It is a map of the terrain, drawn from public sources, for anyone who wants to understand what options exist.

What History Shows: Three Orchestras That Fought Back

Chicago, 2019: The Strike That Worked

In March 2019, the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra went on strike. The issue was existential: management wanted to eliminate the musicians' defined-benefit pension and replace it with a 401(k)-style plan. The musicians refused.

The strike lasted seven weeks. It was the longest CSO strike since 1991.

During the strike, the musicians did something that changed the public narrative: they performed free concerts around Chicago under the name "Musicians of the CSO." They played in churches, community centers, and alternative venues. They maintained a professional website and active social media presence. They framed their fight not as a labor dispute but as a battle to preserve a great American institution.

They won.

The final agreement preserved the defined-benefit pension. Base salaries increased. Health benefits were maintained. The CSO board chair stepped down within the following year. The musicians demonstrated that when public sentiment is on their side — and it overwhelmingly was — even the most powerful boards cannot hold.

The key lessons from Chicago: perform for free, control the narrative, frame it as saving the institution rather than a wage dispute, and don't blink.

Minnesota, 2012–2014: The Lockout That Backfired

The Minnesota Orchestra lockout is the most instructive precedent for the BSO.

In October 2012, management locked out the musicians for 16 months — one of the longest work stoppages in American orchestra history. The stated reason: a financial crisis requiring 30–50% pay cuts. The musicians argued the crisis was manufactured — that management had spent lavishly on a $110 million Orchestra Hall renovation while claiming poverty for salaries.

The musicians' argument resonated because it was supported by the numbers. Sound familiar?

A community-musician alliance called "Save Our Symphony Minnesota" (SOSMN) organized donors, audience members, and community leaders. Musicians personally contacted major donors to share financial data that contradicted management's narrative. Multiple significant donors publicly stated they would withhold contributions until the lockout ended and management changed.

President and CEO Michael Henson resigned in January 2014. The musicians returned with smaller concessions than originally demanded. The board underwent significant turnover. Multiple board members who had supported the lockout resigned or were replaced — some by donors who had sided with the musicians.

The key lessons from Minnesota: organize donors, provide financial transparency, build a community coalition, and outlast the people who think they can wait you out.

Berlin: The Orchestra That Governs Itself

The Berlin Philharmonic is the proof that a different model is possible.

In Berlin, the musicians elect their own chief conductor by vote. This is unique among the world's top orchestras. When Simon Rattle's tenure ended, the musicians voted for Kirill Petrenko. When a principal position opens, the musicians vote on the new member. The orchestra has formal representation on its foundation's governing board.

The Berlin Philharmonic also owns its own media company — Berliner Philharmoniker Medien GmbH — which operates the Digital Concert Hall streaming platform. Revenue from the media company is shared with the musicians as profit distributions of approximately €10,000–€15,000 per year per player. The musicians create the content. The musicians share in the revenue.

This model exists. It works. It produces one of the finest orchestras in the world. And it did not require a revolution. It required a governance structure that recognizes a simple truth: the musicians are the institution. Everything else — the board, the management, the brand — exists to serve the music. Not the other way around.

Who Sits on the Board

The BSO's board decisions are made by the following people. Their names are published on bso.org. They are public figures serving in governance roles over a public charity.

Chair: Barbara W. Hostetter — co-founder of the Barr Foundation, former president of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum board. The driving force behind the "transformation" mandate.

Vice Chair: John M. Loder

Treasurer: Joshua A. Lutzker

42 voting trustees including: Noubar Afeyan (founder of Flagship Pioneering/Moderna), Thomas E. Faust Jr. (former CEO of Eaton Vance), Todd R. Golub (director of the Broad Institute), Jeffrey Leiden M.D. Ph.D. (former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals), M. Lee Pelton (president of the Boston Foundation), Wendy Shattuck, and Nicole M. Stata.

27 life trustees including: Susan W. Paine (former board chair), Ray Stata (founder of Analog Devices), and others.

These are accomplished people. Many run or have run major institutions. They understand governance, fiduciary duty, and accountability — or they should. The question is whether they are applying that understanding to the BSO, or whether they have deferred to a chair and a CEO who have led the institution into the most divisive crisis in its modern history.

Every one of these trustees received the musicians' statement describing "institution-wide dysfunction" and "inability to articulate any artistic vision." Every one of them has had three weeks to respond. The musicians reported that they received "no reassurance that there is a path to rebuilding trust."

The trustees who remain silent own the outcome.

The Legal Landscape: What Tools Exist

The following is based on Massachusetts law (M.G.L. Chapter 12 and Chapter 180), National Labor Relations Board precedent, and standard nonprofit governance frameworks. This is not legal advice. It is a description of the legal tools that exist in the public record.

1. The Massachusetts Attorney General

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Non-Profit Organizations/Public Charities Division has broad oversight authority over charitable organizations. This authority includes:

• Investigating financial management of nonprofits
• Reviewing executive compensation for reasonableness
• Examining whether boards are fulfilling fiduciary duties (duty of care, duty of loyalty, duty of obedience)
• Petitioning courts for removal of directors
• Seeking injunctive relief to prevent waste of charitable assets
• Requiring independent audits and disclosure

Any person can file a complaint with the AG's Public Charities Division. The process is straightforward:

• Phone: (617) 963-2101
• Email: Charities@Mass.gov
• Website: mass.gov/orgs/the-attorney-generals-non-profit-organizationspublic-charities-division
• Complaint form: mass.gov/how-to/file-a-complaint-about-a-charity-or-non-profit

Documentation can be attached after the initial complaint is submitted. Multiple complaints from different stakeholder groups — musicians, donors, subscribers, community members — signal a systemic problem that warrants investigation.

The complaint would document specific concerns: the board's decision to fire a Grammy-winning conductor without articulating an alternative artistic vision, the financial trajectory that shows $618 million in net assets while claiming crisis, the $100 million in reserve draws against $180 million in net asset growth, executive compensation during the transition period, and the board's refusal to explain its "future vision" to the musicians or the public.

The AG is more likely to act when the complaint is framed around mission failure — that the board's actions are degrading a world-class cultural institution's ability to serve the public — rather than as a labor dispute.

2. The National Labor Relations Board

If management engages in any of the following, the musicians can file Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the NLRB:

• Refusing to bargain in good faith
• Making unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment
• Retaliating against union activity
• Failing to provide requested financial information during bargaining
• Surface bargaining (going through the motions without intent to reach agreement)

ULP proceedings create legal leverage, establish a formal record, and can result in orders requiring management to cease and desist from specific conduct.

3. Collective Bargaining Agreement Provisions

The BSO musicians' CBA — negotiated between the musicians (represented by AFM Local 9-535) and management — contains provisions governing working conditions, compensation, audition procedures, and grievance mechanisms. Any violations of the CBA can be pursued through the multi-step grievance process, culminating in binding arbitration.

If the current CBA does not include provisions for musician input on music director selection or governance decisions, the next CBA negotiation is an opportunity to add them. This is how structural change happens in unionized orchestras: at the bargaining table.

4. Nonprofit Board Fiduciary Duties

Under Massachusetts law, nonprofit board members owe the organization three fiduciary duties:

• Duty of care: Acting with the care of an ordinarily prudent person, including staying informed about the organization's affairs
• Duty of loyalty: Placing the organization's interests above personal interests
• Duty of obedience: Ensuring the organization pursues its charitable mission

A board that fires a Grammy-winning conductor without a succession plan, without an articulated artistic vision, and without consulting the musicians — the people who produce the organization's core product — may face questions about whether it has met these duties.

What the Precedents Suggest: A Five-Phase Framework

The following is not a recommendation. It is a synthesis of what has worked at other orchestras, organized by phase. Every situation is different. But the patterns are consistent enough to be instructive.

Phase 1: Documentation (Weeks 1–4)

Before any public action, build the foundation.

• Obtain and analyze all Form 990s for the past decade. The data is free on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 04-2103550). Document the financial trajectory, executive compensation trends, and reserve draws.
• Review the BSO's Articles of Organization (filed with the Massachusetts Secretary of State, public record) and, if obtainable, the bylaws. Understand the board's structure, trustee selection mechanisms, and removal provisions.
• Document every CBA provision that is relevant — especially any provisions regarding artistic consultation, music director search procedures, and governance input.
• Compile a record of management's public statements and identify any statements that are contradicted by the financial data.
• File a formal complaint with the Massachusetts AG with supporting documentation. Multiple complaints from musicians, donors, and subscribers individually strengthen the case.

Phase 2: Coalition Building (Weeks 2–6)

No musician committee has ever won alone. The coalitions that win include donors, subscribers, community leaders, and sympathetic board members.

• Personal donor outreach: Musicians who have cultivated relationships with major donors over years of post-concert receptions and private performances should use those relationships now. A principal player calling a major donor directly — not to lobby, but to share their honest assessment of the situation — carries more weight than any petition.
• Subscriber organizing: Conditional renewal pledges ("I will not renew my subscription unless the board addresses the musicians' concerns") create quantifiable financial pressure.
• Board allies: Even two or three sympathetic trustees can change the dynamic from inside. Identify them. Provide them with information. Give them cover to dissent.
• ICSOM and AFM national: The International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians and the AFM have resources, experience, and national networks that can support local efforts.
• Community allies: Elected officials, local cultural leaders, conservatory faculty, and civic organizations who depend on the BSO's presence in Boston. This is not abstract: a 2018 economic impact study found that the BSO generates $127 million per year for the Berkshire County economy through Tanglewood alone, supporting 930–1,100 jobs and $35 million in regional payroll. Statewide, the BSO's total economic impact exceeds $260 million annually. Every state legislator and Berkshire County official has a direct economic interest in the BSO's stability. They should know it is being threatened.

Phase 3: Public Pressure (Weeks 4–8)

When the coalition is built, go public with a coordinated strategy.

• Op-eds in the Boston Globe, WBUR, and national outlets: First-person pieces by musicians carry enormous credibility. Frame the story as "saving a great American institution" — not as a labor dispute.
• Alternative performances: "Musicians of the BSO" free concerts at venues around Boston. This is the Chicago playbook. It maintains the musicians' relationship with the community, generates media coverage, and demonstrates that the musicians want to serve the public even when management won't let them.
• Financial transparency campaign: Publish the data. Show the 13-year net asset chart. Show the $618 million. Show the musician salary comparisons. Let the public see what the board hopes they won't.
• Social media: Individual musicians sharing their stories — why they came to Boston, what the BSO means to them, what they fear losing — humanizes the cause and expands reach beyond the traditional classical music audience.

Phase 4: Governance Demands (Weeks 6–12)

The goal is not to complain about the current board. It is to change the governance structure permanently so that this cannot happen again.

• Musician seats on the board: Demand that the BSO amend its bylaws to include two or three musician-elected trustees. This has been done at other orchestras. It is the minimum standard for an institution that claims to value its musicians.
• Music director search committee: Demand formal musician participation — not advisory consultation, but voting membership — on the search committee for Nelsons' successor. The next conductor must have the trust of the musicians who will play under them.
• Independent financial audit: Demand a third-party audit of the BSO's finances by a firm selected by the musicians' committee, not by management. The $100 million reserve draw claim and the $618 million net asset reality need independent verification and public disclosure.
• Artistic advisory committee: Establish a standing committee with real authority — not merely advisory — on programming, guest artists, and artistic standards. The people who make the music should have a voice in what music is made.

Phase 5: Escalation If Necessary (Weeks 8–16)

If the board does not respond to documentation, coalition pressure, public advocacy, and governance demands, the tools of escalation exist.

• Donor giving freeze: Organized redirection of donations from the BSO to a musician-controlled fund, to be released when governance conditions are met. This is the nuclear financial option. It was effective in Minnesota.
• Strike authorization vote: A formal vote to authorize a strike — even if a strike is not immediately called — signals to the board, donors, and the public that the musicians are prepared to take the ultimate step. The CSO's 2019 strike proved that musicians of a great orchestra can win.
• AG investigation escalation: Follow up on the initial complaint with additional documentation and support from other complainants.
• National media campaign: Pitch the BSO story to the New York Times, the New Yorker, NPR, and international outlets as a case study in institutional governance failure — relevant to every cultural organization in the country.

What Happens When You Don't Fight: The San Francisco Warning

For anyone who thinks the BSO can simply absorb this crisis and move on — that the institution's prestige will carry it through, that a new conductor will be found, that the controversy will fade — there is a recent, documented case study of what happens when an orchestra loses its music director, loses its artistic identity, and allows a board to manage by spreadsheet.

The San Francisco Symphony had 12 Grammy Awards under Michael Tilson Thomas. It had its own recording label. It had a PBS series. It was a top-five American orchestra.

Then MTT left. His successor, Esa-Pekka Salonen — one of the most respected conductors alive — quit after five years, publicly stating: "I do not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the Board of Governors does."

What followed: back-to-back deficits totaling $26.6 million. The chorus was told to accept an 80% pay cut. The orchestra authorized a strike. Innovative programming was gutted. The season was described by critics as a "Top Hits of Classical Music channel on Spotify." No music director. No plan. A hall so acoustically broken they hired Frank Gehry to redesign it — at a cost they cannot afford.

The CEO earns $724,000. The institution is in freefall.

This is not a hypothetical. This is San Francisco in 2026. This is what happens when a board drives away a world-class conductor, cannot articulate an artistic vision, and substitutes corporate language for musical leadership. The BSO is on the same path. The musicians of the BSO have approximately 18 months — the remaining duration of Nelsons' contract through the 2027 Tanglewood season — to change course before the trajectory becomes irreversible.

Eighteen months is not a long time. It is shorter than the Minnesota lockout. It is longer than the Chicago strike. It is exactly long enough to do everything described in this article — if the musicians start now.

The Hardest Truth

The musicians of the BSO have something that the board does not and cannot acquire: the ability to make music at the highest level.

A symphony orchestra is not a brand. It is not a building. It is not an endowment. It is the people who sit in the chairs. The BSO sounds like the BSO because of the specific human beings who have spent years learning to listen to each other in that room. Replace them and you replace the sound. Replace the sound and you replace the orchestra — regardless of what it says on the letterhead.

The board owns the name. The musicians own the art. And in the economy of cultural institutions, the art is the only thing that generates everything else — the donations, the ticket sales, the recordings, the reputation, the reason anyone cares about the name in the first place.

This is the leverage the musicians have. It is the leverage every orchestra's musicians have. And it is the leverage that, throughout history, has been used successfully by musicians who decided that the institution they love was worth fighting for.

The Chicago Symphony's musicians fought for seven weeks and won. The Minnesota Orchestra's musicians fought for sixteen months and outlasted a CEO who thought he could wait them out. The Berlin Philharmonic's musicians built a governance model that has produced one of the greatest ensembles in history for over a century.

The BSO's musicians have spoken. The question now is whether they are prepared to act — and whether the board is prepared for what happens when they do.

The petition is at Change.org. The AG's complaint line is (617) 963-2101. The Form 990s are on ProPublica. The board's names are on bso.org. The facts are in these pages.

The musicians made the music that made the institution worth saving. The institution should be worthy of the musicians who saved it.

This article is based on: M.G.L. Chapter 12, §§ 8–8H (Massachusetts AG nonprofit oversight). M.G.L. Chapter 180 (Massachusetts nonprofit corporation law). National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151–169. IRS Form 990 filings via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 04-2103550). ICSOM and AFM published resources. Reporting on the 2019 Chicago Symphony strike (Chicago Tribune, WFMT), the 2012–2014 Minnesota Orchestra lockout (Star Tribune, MPR News), and the Berlin Philharmonic's governance structure (BPO official documentation, Berliner Zeitung). BSO Players' Committee public statements, March 2026. ArtsJournal. Slippedisc. Drew McManus / Adaptistration orchestra labor analysis.