Claims vs. Facts
During the course of negotiations to arrive at a fair and equitable agreement, there have been a series of allegations and mischaracterizations that require correction and/or clarification. MN Opera will continue to update this page as needed.
Claim
A radical shift in priorities, initiated under President and General Director Ryan Taylor, continues to reduce programming, shrink the public’s access to opera and minimize this world-class orchestra through freezing musicians’ salaries.
Source: Minnesota Opera Orchestra Musicians’ Substack post, Sept. 22, 2026
Facts
MN Opera responsibly reduced its seasons from pre-COVID levels to financially stabilize operations in response to rising costs and declining support. Other opera companies nationwide have been forced to take similar steps to sustain their operations.
MN Opera’s latest economic proposal to the TCMU (Twin Cities Musicians Union, which represents our orchestra musicians) offers 4% annual raises in scale pay over four years, compounding to a 17% increase overall.
Claim
Minnesota Opera musicians have been working without a contract since July 2026.
Source: Minnesota Opera Orchestra Musicians’ Substack post, Sept. 22, 2026
Facts
MN Opera Orchestra musicians, represented by Twin Cities Musicians Union (TCMU) are currently working under the “status quo,” which is defined by law and the terms of the recently expired collective bargaining agreement. MN Opera offered to extend the now-expired contract while negotiations continued, but the Union declined, stating they preferred to work under the “status quo” after the contract expired.
It is worth noting that the orchestra musicians have no work services scheduled with MN Opera until Oct. 20, 2026.
MN Opera has offered numerous dates to continue negotiations since expiration. However, the Union repeatedly claimed unavailability, agreeing to meet for only one partial day during July and August and for three short sessions in September. The Union’s refusal to engage in meaningful good faith bargaining led MN Opera to file an Unfair Labor Practice charge against TCMU with the National Labor Relations Board.
Claim
Minnesota Opera spends more on its top 4 highest-paid employees than the entire 46 members of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra combined.
Source: Minnesota Opera Orchestra Musicians’ Substack post, Sept. 22, 2026
Facts
While this statement is true for some but not all years, it is extremely misleading. MN Opera Orchestra musicians work for the organization for roughly 3 weeks per year, leaving them free to earn compensation through teaching and performing in other venues. The top earners at the company are all full-time executive-level employees.
Currently, members of the MN Opera Orchestra make almost $80 per hour, which is higher hourly rate than all but two members of the entire administrative staff. MN Opera has offered to increase this hourly rate by 4% each year of a new 4-year contract. This increase exceeds that provided to MN Opera administrative employees, who have received 2% annually in recent years.
While we are happy to provide this context for the Union’s claim, we will continue to focus our efforts on providing fair compensation for the talented musicians of the opera orchestra without such apples to oranges comparisons to employees who have completely different roles and responsibilities to the company as a whole.
Claim
Our previous contract negotiations, which concluded in May, 2023, were difficult and protracted. We worked for 9 months without a contract and narrowly averted a strike.
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack, 10/3/26
Facts
It is true that the previous contract negotiations were difficult and protracted. It is misleading to say that the orchestra musicians worked without a contract. While bargaining to reach a successor agreement in 2022 and 2023, MN Opera Orchestra musicians, represented by the Twin Cities Musicians Union (TCMU), worked under the “status quo,” which is defined by law and the terms of the expired collective bargaining agreement on June 30, 2022. Orchestra musicians were compensated under the terms of that expired agreement with the mutual understanding that a new agreement would retroactively apply to compensation for all previous work for that season.
Claim
Programming was drastically reduced (from 5 Ordway productions to 3) and Minnesota Opera Musicians faced cuts of more than 35%.
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack, 10/3/26
Facts
MN Opera responsibly reduced its seasons from pre-COVID levels to financially stabilize operations, but the assertion that MN Opera made 35% cuts to the orchestra is false. The size of the orchestra has remained the same at 46 core musicians since 2001.
At no point in the last 40 years has MN Opera reduced contracted rates of pay for the orchestra musicians. Any decrease in compensation that musicians have experienced has been a result of reduced programming, which impacts all of our production-specific artists and personnel.
Claim
We ultimately came to a concessionary agreement with management through the establishment of a salary of $12,500 for all 46 core members of the orchestra.
This salary was meant to create job security to retain the orchestra. Musicians were told that MN Opera was intending to build back programming which would add cost of living increases to our total compensation each year of the 4-year agreement. Unfortunately, management did not build back programming and musicians’ compensation remained flat for all 4 years.
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack, 10/3/26
Facts
Minimum salaries were newly added to the contract beginning in the 2022-2023 season, and the parties agreed on one minimum level throughout the term of the contract. The Union stated during those negotiations that it wanted each of the orchestra musicians to be guaranteed $50,000 over the span of the 4-year contract. With the Union’s agreement, MN Opera elected to spread that amount out equally over the course of those four years to help stabilize costs for the organization. However, the per-service pay rates and pension contributions increased over the term of the contract.
Additionally, the addition of the minimum salaries led to a significant increase in take-home pay for most of the orchestra musicians as compared to what they would have earned based on services alone.
For example, a core section orchestra musician contracted for 30 services in the 2022-2023 season would have made $6,480 at rates for that season. Because of the minimum salary provision, however, at the end of the season, MN Opera would pay a balance of $6,020 to that orchestra musician for work not performed.
To be clear, MN Opera is not currently proposing cuts to orchestra musician pay. It is proposing to keep the minimum salary steady, while increasing the per service pay rates and the compensation provided to orchestra musicians with leadership roles.
MN Opera has no incentive to produce less opera than what we are able to produce with the resources entrusted to us by our community.
A majority of the staff, including leadership, identify as artists – instrumentalists, vocalists, actors, visual artists, and many more – who are committed to quality, not just quantity of artistic work.
When MN Opera management has communicated its desire to increase programming to its orchestra musicians, it has done so passionately but with full transparency about the significant financial headwinds making that outcome difficult to achieve.
Claim
Titled musicians did not receive overscale to their salaried compensation (overscale is industry standard).
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack, 10/3/26
Facts
Titled orchestra musicians received compensation based on overscale rates established by the CBA. Because the amount of work varied from year to year, some titled orchestra musicians made over the $12,500 minimum guarantee and others did not. Neither party could have foreseen this outcome nor the specific financial headwinds we have explained in great detail to the Union.
MN Opera shares the Union’s concern that titled orchestra musicians be compensated for the leadership duties those positions require. We are proposing raises to overscale rates for those titled positions with the aim of providing compensation for those individuals that exceeds the minimum guaranteed to all over the course of the four-year contract. These raises were part of MN Opera’s most recent comprehensive economic proposal to which the Union, instead of countering, prematurely declared an impasse.
Claim
Our current proposal includes cost of living increases, corrected salary overscale and totals less than an $80,000 increase in year 1. This is less than 0.5% of the organization’s total operating budget. Last year the orchestra was at an all-time low of 5.8% of MN Opera’s total operating budget.
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack 10/3/26
Facts
The orchestra musicians’ proposal is a request for a 15% increase in the first year from wages earned in the 2025-2026 season.
A 15% increase across all of MN Opera’s departments is unsustainable, and a 15% increase to one group of artists in the first year alone would be privileging that group above their colleagues.
Additionally, the primary driver in the Union’s proposed pay increase is an increase to minimum wages, which would require MN Opera to pay more for hours not worked. MN Opera maintains that TCMU’s proposal is not in the best interests of the organization, given its current financial situation and the uncertain financial future faced not only by MN Opera but also by arts organizations nationwide.
Claim
Orchestra compensation has remained flat for the past 4 years. Management, however, initially proposed deep cuts to the orchestra and now proposes keeping our compensation flat for four more years without appropriate overscale on the salary for titled players.
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack 10/3/26
Facts
Orchestra compensation has not remained flat.
As mentioned before, the minimum salary was presented as a compromise in the previous round of negotiations. agreeing to one minimum level throughout the term of the contract.
Scale rates of pay and pension, however, did not remain flat. Scale rates increased 12.5% percent over the span of the recently expired CBA, while pension contributions increased to 9% in the most recent two years.
Claim
MN Opera, while cutting programming, has raised the salaries of its 4 highest-paid administrators by between 18% and 20%, according to the last four years of publicly available financials.
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack 10/3/26
Facts
The salaries of the highest-paid administrative staff only increased 2% from FY20 to FY25. The increases to which the Union refers represent a restoration to previous pay scales from voluntary pay cuts taken during the pandemic.
Claim
Between 2020-2025, MN Opera has seen its total assets increase by $13.8 million to $42.5 million, however programming has not rebounded. Despite claims of increased expenses, in 2025 they spent less money on productions than in any year since 2015 (excluding 2021).
Source: “Letter to the Public” posted on Facebook and Substack 10/3/26
Facts
Programming requires cash, not assets. While MN Opera maintains a strong asset portfolio due to its real estate and endowment, it has a growing and unsustainable structural imbalance between expenses and available cash to cover those expenses.
The $13.8M increase in total assets is largely driven by a $12.1M increase in the endowment. While the MN Opera feels incredibly fortunate to have donors who are building a sustainable future for the Opera, those funds cannot be used for operating expenses each year except for the annual draw which is regulated by the organization’s Investment Policy and federal and state laws.
Spending for programming has decreased since 2015 except for 2021 and 2022. The decrease in expense from prior to the pandemic was due to a shift from 5 operas per season to 3. In recent years, which are more comparable based on number of productions, fluctuations in cost are due to intentional cost-conscious measures, to include rentals of sets and costumes instead of building them, while still preserving titles that continue to delight our audiences. Additionally, preliminarily, programming costs will be higher in fiscal year 2026 than in 2025, demonstrating the variability that can exist across years.
Every opera MN Opera produces adds to the gap between expenses and revenue.