By JIM BROOKS
Cox's Creek Gazette

In show business, the old adage "The show must go on!" has one exception: when the show goes belly up.

That's just what ticketholders for the local September performance of The Louisville Orchestra currently face in the wake of a possible bankruptcy filing by the orchestra after contract negotiations broke down.

The Orchestra is scheduled to perform Tuesday, Sept. 19th at the J. Dan Talbott Amphitheatre as part of the "Live At The Park" concert series. According to a story in the Jan. 21st edition of The Courier-Journal, the orchestra may cut its season short and file for bankruptcy protection.

Orchestra management paints a dire fiscal picture: a projected $500,000 deficit this year; the orchestra has run out of available lines of credit and is not paying many of its bills. A $3.5 million fundraising drive was planned but stalled when the Dec. 31st deadline for a musicians contract passed with no agreement in sight.

According to the Orchestra management, the two sides are still about $2 million apart in negotiations. The Orchestra's board has hired a bankruptcy lawyer to examine its options for reorganization.

Major donors to the orchestra have withheld donations until the two sides has an agreement in place, the board said. The Orchestra laid off six employees last month and has no money to a have a seaons brochure printed.

The Orchestra is an important part of the arts scene in Louisville. In addition to its own concert series, it provides the music for the Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera.

Bankruptcy rumblings: Bargaining ploy or fiscal necessity?
One interesting part of the story about the Orchestra's fiscal fitness is found in the board's notification earlier this week to the musician's representatives. The board withdrew its most recent offer, and told them it "was going public with its concerns."

The Orchestra management know that "going public" with the contract dispute -- along with the bankruptcy rumblings -- will create an outcry among those who appreciate the arts in Louisville. It casts the musicians in a less-than-favorable light, too. Their defense seems to be "we didn't know anything about how bad the financial situation was." The musician's union representative makes it clear this is simply a ploy to put additional pressure on the musicians to accept what he calls a "substandard" agreement.

You have to love the diachotomy of union representation -- it's the ultimate poker game, but with much higher stakes.

You have management who are dealing the cards. The union members aren't holding cards -- they can only watch from the gallery as their representatives sit at the poker table with the cards in hand.

Whose bluffing? Which side is going to call the other's bet? Talk about reality TV at its most intense -- we're not talking small stakes, this means the livelihood (and indeed the future) of a metropolitan orchestra.

Perhaps a third party should enter the negotiations to add a reality check: The orchestra needs to continue, and both sides ultimately need to work together to make this happen. Say all the good things you will about labor unions, but the one thing they don't typical achieve is an environment of trust between management and employees.

In the end however, I don't believe a Chapter 11 reorganization will be swan song of The Louisville Orchestra. It's being portrayed as such right now, and yes, it might be a bumpy road for a while. I suspect in bankruptcy, the management will want to either set aside or renegotiate the musician's contract in a bid to get more favorable terms. For now we'll have to wait until the end of the month and see what happens.

I suspect there will be some additional negotiations taking place before then. And despite the headline I wrote, I would be very surprised if the Orchesta canceled its September date here. A lot can happen in nine months.

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