BSO Extends Health Insurance For Employees During Lockout

From Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday, June 27, that through generous contributions from members of the BSO Board of Directors and other loyal donors from our Baltimore and Montgomery County communities, medical and dental benefits will be provided for BSO musicians throughout the lockout during the months of July and August 2019.

"The Board of Directors and management greatly appreciate and value the members of our orchestra. This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for the Baltimore Symphony, and we are glad to continue providing health insurance for our musicians during the ongoing negotiations this summer as we work to reach agreement on a new contract," stated BSO President and CEO Peter Kjome. "We are deeply grateful to members of the Board and other friends of the BSO for supporting this important effort."

Donors have provided the required resources to continue the benefits, which were due to end on June 30, 2019. Life insurance benefits had already been extended through this period. The BSO is working with its Long-term disability insurance provider in an attempt to extend coverage during the lockout, and musicians already on Long-term disability will continue to receive those benefits.

Musician members of the BSO Players Committee, along with representatives of Local 40-543, were aware that efforts were underway by BSO management to ensure that musicians have health, dental, life insurance, and other benefits during the lockout.

The Baltimore Symphony intends to open its 2019-20 season in September 2019, and plans to resume its schedule of rehearsals and performances beginning the week of Monday, September 9, 2019. Work will be provided for musicians beginning on that date, with benefits continuing as musicians return to work.

About the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

For over a century, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has been recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras and one of Maryland’s most significant cultural institutions. Under the direction of Music Director Marin Alsop, the orchestra is internationally renowned and locally admired for its innovation, performances, recordings and educational outreach initiatives including OrchKids.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs annually for more than 350,000 people throughout the State of Maryland. Since 1982, the BSO has performed at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and since 2005, with the opening of The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, the BSO became the nation’s first orchestra performing its full season of classical and pops concerts in two metropolitan areas. More information about the BSO can be found at BSOmusic.org.