Dear friends,

Opening night of our 2015-16 season is nearly upon us, and we couldn't be more thrilled. It is shaping up to be a marvelous season full of incredible, spine-tingling moments, and we look forward to seeing you -- our dedicated fans, friends, and colleagues -- in the house at every possible opportunity.

It is also a wonderful time to reflect on how far we've come in a year; 14 months ago, it seemed all but certain that we would be locked out and deprived of the joy of making music, possibly for a very long time. Now, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal report that the Met Opera not only achieved a balanced budget last season, it actually posted a $1M surplus. Such headlines were almost unthinkable last summer.

Moments like these compel us to examine how such extraordinary progress was achieved. The excellent arts blogger Scott Chamberlain wrote eloquently about this following these financial announcements, and gave voice to what many orchestra members have been feeling: our insistence on management efficiency is paying off. The Met was able to trim $18M from its budget, the majority of which savings came from "management expenses," and not from the players, singers, and craftspeople that make the Met the greatest opera house in the world.

Our contention all along has been that the Met's budget grew needlessly large, and that it got that way because of wasteful spending and inefficient management. Therefore, we were certain that a more sustainable path could be found by focusing cost savings on management spending. These recent financial results prove that absolutely correct, and vindicate the imperative to preserve the artistic heart of the Met.

But while we are heartened by the recent financial news, we must remain vigilant, doing all we can to ensure the Met operates in a fiscally responsible manner while placing top priority on the highest artistic standards. Last summer, we wrote that "the Met's finances will be subject to unprecedented oversight, with powerful new mechanisms put in place for enforcement and accountability.... An 'Efficiency Task Force'...will have direct input on spending" in order to achieve the mandated $11.25M reduction in management expenses. It is due in part to the ceaseless vigilance of these union task force delegates that the Met balanced its budget. And we want our fans to understand that as we work tirelessly to present masterful musicianship, much work remains behind the curtains to ensure the music continues.

In the end, this progress is not just good for the MET Orchestra, Chorus, or even the entire Met Opera -- it's good for opera lovers the world over, because we are charting a more sustainable course for opera in the 21st century. Grand Opera was never dying, it just needed efficient management and mechanisms of accountability.

See you on September 21st!
Sincerely,

The MET Orchestra Musicians