© 2025 New England Public Media

FCC public inspection files:
WGBYWFCRWNNZWNNUWNNZ-FMWNNI

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@nepm.org or call 413-781-2801.
PBS, NPR and local perspective for western Mass.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Springfield Symphony Orchestra will play again, at least twice

 Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Greg Saulmon
/
The Republican / MassLive.com
Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra has announced two live performances scheduled at Symphony Hall.

The concerts are scheduled for April 22 and May 13, according to a statement from the SSO.

This comes as the symphony and its musicians remain locked in a very public contract dispute. A sticking point has been the lack of a 2021-2022 season.

The musicians plan to play the spring concerts, which were part of a National Labor Relations Board decision, according to Martin Kluger, the principal timpanist.

"As soon as we get [individual musician] contracts from the SSO," Kluger said, "we plan on performing those two concerts in April and May."

The National Labor Relations Board agreement also stipulated that the SSO pay musicians more than $270,000 in lost wages.

As for a future musicians contract, Kluger said the players look forward to meeting the SSO's new interim director, Paul Lambert, and they hope to get back to the negotiating table.

The musicians also plan to continue performing as the separate entity they established during the labor dispute, Kluger said.

Jill Kaufman has been a reporter and host at NEPM since 2005. Before that she spent 10 years at WBUR in Boston, producing The Connection with Christopher Lydon, and reporting and hosting. Jill was also a host of NHPR's daily talk show The Exchange and an editor at PRX's The World.
Related Content