Looming Labor Talks Could Add to Nashville Symphony’s Woes

With the Nashville Symphony facing foreclosure on its concert hall, impending contract negotiations with musicians could further complicate the organization’s efforts to right its listing fiscal ship, writes the Nashville Business Journal.

Nashville players’ current collective bargaining agreement expires on July 31. The musicians’ union recently released a statement criticizing the cost of compensation for administrators, accountants, and lawyers in connection with efforts to rescue the orchestra’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

“The moment the board and/or musicians start to go at each others’ throats is when you will start to see the whole thing unravel, and unravel fast,” Drew McManus, an Oak Park, Ill.-based symphony consultant, told the Business Journal.

Bank of America, the lead lender on $82.3-million in outstanding debt from the 2004 loan that financed the Schermerhorn, has scheduled a June 28 foreclosure sale of the building. The symphony has until then to reach an agreement with creditors or file for bankruptcy, The Tennessean previously reported.