Last night, the Belgrade Philharmonic started the concert like never before: it addressed the audience with a statement about the very difficult conditions in which it lives and works. Its acting director replied that they had no reason to be dissatisfied
The Belgrade Philharmonic has existed for a hundred years. Last night's concert, regular on Fridays in the hall of Kolarc's endowment, started like no other so far: the orchestra addressed the audience with the intention of pointing out the conditions in which they live and work.
They said that "even after more than two years since the death of Ivan Tasovac, the Belgrade Philharmonic is still in VD status, celebrating its centenary with the lowest salaries of orchestral musicians in the region, with a shamefully small budget year after year, without a director, without advertising, without renewed concert uniforms for ten years and without firm convictions that our new hall will be built."
They received an extremely big round of applause, and so far more than 200 letters of support.
Response from the acting director
When "Vremena" asked the acting director of the Belgrade Philharmonic, Darko Krstić, to explain more concretely the reasons for the artist's dissatisfaction, he replied:
"As for salaries, given that they have been increased by 10 percent since January, I do not currently have the latest data on the average salary in BF," and he offered precise information on Monday.
He pointed out that "the average salary in the Belgrade Philharmonic was at the level of the average salary in the Republic of Serbia", as well as that the terms of the duration of the acting status "are prescribed by the Law on Culture, but you have to take into account the fact that the Government of the Republic of Serbia, when in technical mandate, he cannot make any appointments".
Why has the Government not resolved this issue? Philharmonic before it became technical, he did not mention it as a problem.
Darko Krstić answered the musicians on the website of the Belgrade Philharmonic.
"The resolution of the demands presented in the statement is already in the process of implementation or their implementation will be initiated very soon", is the essence of his answer.
Formation of a working group
He informed them that "as far as the new concert hall of the Belgrade Philharmonic is concerned, the project for the construction permit has been completed, so after obtaining the construction permit and drawing up the project for the execution of the works, construction will begin in 7-8 months."
He specifically referred to salaries. "Everyone agrees that salaries in culture are low, so a working group was formed at the level of the ministry to work on increasing the salary coefficients of employees in culture. Requests to solve these problems are in fact 'knocking on an open door', for which the Ministry of Culture is ready to help solve them."
Highly educated, low valued
From last night's artist announcement, we'll quote the following:
"By spreading the name of our city and country around the world, each time we face more and more the fact that in our city and in our country we are so highly educated, but so low valued." That we play so well and a lot, and that we are paid so little and poorly. That the dream of a new Philharmonic Hall of our metropolis is fading more and more, while the audience in Skopje, Podgorica, Tirana is enjoying the auditoriums that befit capital cities. We warned the Board of Directors of the Belgrade Philharmonic about all of the above at the end of October last year with a warning strike."
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