After they raised their voices, the technical prime minister invited the representatives of the Belgrade Philharmonic and the Serbian National Theater to a meeting and promised them that a working group would be formed to deal with their problems.
An old political rule reads: when you don't know what to do, and you don't really intend to deal with a problem, form a working group. One gets the impression that you are doing something, that you met someone, but you did not commit to anything.
Technical Prime Minister Ana Brnabić is with the delegation on Monday Belgrade Philharmonic discussed the challenges they face in their daily work and the problems they face and expressed their willingness to support initiatives that will contribute to a better position of artists and employees, the Government announced.
The invitation from the Government followed ten days after the Philharmonic started a concert in the hall of the Kolarc Foundation like no other before: the orchestra addressed the audience with the intention of pointing out the unworthy 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 in acting 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 large round of applause.
And the Prime Minister promised to form a working group of the Ministry of Culture that would address their problems.
A separate meeting with the management of the Serbian National Theater
Yesterday, at a separate meeting, Brnabić also received the management of Novi Sad Serbian National Theatre.
The topic of this conversation was the problems of artists, and the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of the cultural sector and the role of the Government in supporting artists and cultural institutions. At the meeting, it was said that at the upcoming session of the Government, a Working Group of the Ministry of Culture should be formed, which will have the task of developing a plan and strategy for a systematic increase in the wages of all employees in cultural institutions.
It was agreed that the meetings in that format would continue in the coming period, already next week, in order to establish a regular dialogue through which all open issues would be resolved quickly and efficiently.
Brnabić emphasized that the doors of her Government are always open and that cooperation and regular meetings will continue in order to find the best solutions for improving the cultural sector and supporting artists in Serbia.
Attempt to suppress the rebellion
The only question is why the governments of Ana Brnabić, in the shadow of Belgrade on the water and projects like the construction of the national stadium, allowed key cultural institutions to decay.
Brnabić became interested in social and other problems in the Serbian National Theater only when the members of the opera raised their voices.
A week ago, before the performance of the opera "The Barber of Seville" in Novi Sad, they addressed the audience and, like their colleagues from the Belgrade Philharmonic, made public their difficult social and material situation.
They said that the current salary they receive as members of the orchestra "significantly lags behind the national average, as well as in comparison with the wages of orchestras in our region", that the building in which they work is not adequately maintained, that they do not have oxygen and air circulation on stage.
They also complained about the lack of opportunities to hire prestigious guest conductors and soloists, which limits their ability to achieve the top performances that audiences deserve.
"This is not only our fight, but a fight for the integrity and reputation of our cultural institution and the entire artistic community", announced the musicians of the Opera of the Serbian National Theater and invited other artists from their theater - soloists, choir, ballet and drama artists - to stop. with them.
Announcement of the Serbian National Theater Opera and ballet dancers
That's what they did.
The press release of the Opera of the Serbian National Theater and ballet dancers is transmitted in its entirety:
"In the last few days, the public was stirred up by a series of speeches by professional artistic ensembles, which followed an impressive appeal by musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic.
Choir of the Opera House of the Serbian National Theater and ballet dancers of the UJ Ballet of the Serbian National Theater
theaters join this action by providing support to their colleagues from other ensembles in our country, and especially to their closest collaborators, the ensembles of our theater.
We will point out several problems of a different nature, which, from our point of view, have been making it difficult for years or
endanger the work and development of our artistic units, as well as the personal life of the performers.
Low income certainly has the greatest impact on the private lives of employees and their families.
Most colleagues are forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Earnings from
month by month, it is increasingly lagging behind the national average. We do not understand why our work
devalued so much. We want, as performers from the big stage of our oldest theater,
let's ask the question where is culture in our country?
More than ten of our young colleagues from the choir have been working part-time for years with miserable compensation, which they receive with greater delays, while the number of permanent employees has been reduced by more than twenty percent.
In ballet, the situation is even more drastic. Young male and female dancers, who carry the repertoire of our house, have been living in the precariat for years. Unsettled retirement status puts ballet dancers in an impossible financial position at the end of their short but extremely intense careers. This further results in a lack of jobs for active players.
Our ensembles have a great reputation built on decades of high-level performance. We are very proud of that and strive to maintain that quality. This kind of behavior does not lead to that.
On this occasion, we would like to express our solidarity and concern for colleagues employed in technology
SNP, whose salaries are scandalously low, and the responsibility that those jobs carry is often
very high.
For many years, the most common factor of direct disruption of the work process is i
certain technical problems with the theater building. It is necessary to solve them as soon as possible.
Also, we believe that the staff of our theater is needed to use its full potential
a more generous budget for productions, as well as enabling timely planning is key.
It is especially important for us to emphasize how much we care about the relevant ministry
we perceive as our ally. We notice and appreciate every move in the direction of improvement and
we do not deny the efforts and investments of certain institutions and individuals, but the facts are that our salaries are in decline compared to the national average, working conditions continue to hinder rehearsals and performances, and the number of permanently employed singers has significantly decreased.
We would like to thank all citizens, and above all our loyal audience, for their support and
understanding. The audience has always been our most important ally."
All these protest announcements were followed by Ana Brnabić's call, apparently due to the assessment that a protest at the Belgrade Philharmonic and the Serbian National Theater could ignite a rebellion in neglected cultural institutions. And it cannot hide from the public: a large number of citizens go to the theater.
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