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Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Chamber Players
They’re Keeping Music Alive in New Ways for Future Generations
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
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eth Welty said the musicians just wanted to play.
With the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s leadership and musicians locked in a labor dispute in 2021 and 2022, the players were willing to perform under the old contract until a
new one was settled, but the SSO wouldn’t agree.
“At this point, the pandemic had subsided enough that all the other
orchestras in the Northeast had come back to work, audiences were showing up, and we decided we needed to do something,” Welty said. “We were very worried if there was no symphonic music in Springfield — out of sight, out of mind — people would forget about us. We had to keep this going.”
So the musicians started staging shows on their own — both at
Symphony Hall and at smaller venues around the region — churches, the Westfield Atheneum, anywhere they could draw an audience.
“We were playing at all these little places, constantly expanding to new communities and venues, and bringing live chamber music to as many people as we possibly could in Western Mass.,” said Welty, an SSO violinist who headed up the effort known as MOSSO, or Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
Well, you might know the story after that — the SSO and the musicians’ union struck a two-year deal last spring to bring full symphony concerts back to downtown Springfield, which proved gratifying to SSO President and CEO Paul Lambert, who never considered the musicians his enemies as they
worked out their labor differences.
“I grew up in the Actors’ Equity Association. I’m a union member. And
I believe in organized labor, especially in the performing arts. You want to make sure that everyone is well taken care of,” he said. “At the same time, I’ve been a businessman for a long time, so I’m very well aware of the economic realities and challenges that the performing-arts business is going through, especially in these eccentric times we’re still living through.”
The relief on both sides, in fact, was palpable. But the return of concerts to Symphony Hall was only part of the story. The other part was the continued existence of MOSSO under a new name — Springfield Chamber Players — and its continuing mission to bring smaller chamber
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BusinessWest
Springfield Symphony Orchestra President and CEO Paul Lambert and Springfield Chamber Players Chair Beth Welty.
“We were very
worried if there was
no symphonic music
in Springfield — out of sight, out of mind — people would forget about us. We had to keep this going.”