[CAUT] Louisiana State SOM Position

[Richard Brekne]

Hi folks

Been reading some of the posts, still haven't gotten to the root of 
Jeff's departure but the discussion has obviously moved to a significant 
degree in the more general direction of CAUT working conditions and 
salaries, which is a theme we've all gone through many times.

I'd like to say right off that in principle I'm in support of the 
comments Jeff has put on the table in this context. Been thinking quite 
a bit about this lately really, In reality a CAUT position for a serious 
music institution SHOULD be one of the most prestigious, high paid, and 
demanding piano tech positions to be had. The real responsibilities such 
positions have clearly dictate that in my mind. Mind you, I'm talking 
about a serious music education institution that has commitments to very 
high quality education. To my mind of thinking such a position should 
have correspondently stringent requirements for the piano technicians 
qualifications, know very clearly both from what objective criteria are 
possible and from appropriate subjective criteria how to assess said 
qualifications, and allocate resources for employment of such a 
technician on the neighborhood of 250.000 USD a year.  And yes I mean 
exactly that much.

Of course for this to happen the collective <<we's>> involved are going 
to have to undo much of history and re-establish both in our own minds 
and in the minds of those in our immediate circle of professions the 
required respect and demands for higher education that entails.  And 
thats a very difficult task given the mindset around and in the midst of 
us.

I recently had some long discussions with two icons of similarly 
employed Steinway technicians. These two have followed some of the 
worlds most demanding pianists around the globe for much of their 
careers, for competitions, concerts,  maintenance on these privately 
owned pianos and factory supplied instruments. Doing concert work at the 
absolute highest level.  Just a month or so back one of these took a set 
of hammers he pre-voiced himself at a factory in Germany across the 
world to install and make ready on a completely different instrument. 
The job was to make the instrument <<perfect>> for this pianist and he 
had 3 days to do it in. What with balancing the keys to the new hammers, 
all the alignment regulation and finish voicing this entails to produce 
an instrument that this pianist would approve of for the instrument in 
question for the concert in question we are talking about an extremely 
valuable resource in <<the piano tech>> in question.  There are only a 
handful of people in the world who could accomplish this. And yes... I 
mean that too.  Years of working towards my own limits of excellence has 
taught me at least that much... we have far to little humility in our 
trade... but I digress. Does either of these two factory employed get 
any where close to 250.000 USD a year ?... nope. They don't even get 
close to what a reasonably successfully self-employed tech gets..which I 
loosely put a figure of 125.000 USD a year on.

The absolute best techs get their education through years of experience 
in very demanding environments.  Unfortunately most of this in todays 
world is accidental. There is little or no purposeful screening of 
prospects in early stages of development in demanding learning 
environments.  Probably the Hamburg Steinway factory, the CF department 
in Hamatsu, and perhaps just a couple other similar places in the world 
are left.  And the people who come out of these places rarely establish 
themselves as independents instead staying tied to their factories 
working for less then half they are worth because of the perceived 
prestige of their work. All the while their employers are really making 
whatever real money is to be made for these sames efforts.

The socialist experiments in the world with regard to establishing 
workers rights have by and large failed miserably in the long run. And a 
large element of this is because there was never built in any reciprocal 
accountability on the part of the workers to actually provide the 
quality and degree of work(manship) they were being paid for. Without 
that, there can be no long term respect and needed appreciation for 
these same and the only way to establish that is to make real demands 
for this workmanship on the workers.

Translated to our world... it simply means we have to establish much 
higher standards for ourselves, and break through that world of 
perceptions about us that refuses to acknowledge the value of 
technicians who have achieved those standards have.  A seemingly 
impossible task.

Yet for my part... I see no reason to throw in the towel of resignation 
and give up this strife.  But then I don't believe in the idea that I 
can make any earth shaking changes in the world.  I believe one can only 
do ones part...  and indeed does like it or not for better or worse. The 
only thing you can choose in this regard is what part you play.  And 
thats difficult as well. Difficult to see through all the forests of 
realities one needs to take regard to to make choices along the road.

Some wise fellow once said tho.... more or less and quite paraphrased.  
"Just do good.  Do the best you can for others and for yourself and 
leave it at that. Trust in the belief that following that path will alot 
you a plentiful and rewarding life... just do good" 

Perhaps thats all any of us can do alone.  What we can do collectively I 
have no idea.... but in the end I suspect the same basic principle applies.

Ok... long winded as I ofte times get.... but this is my 3 cents.

Cheers
Richard Brekne