With their permission, we are sharing an email written by three Central City Opera directors that was sent directly to CCO President & CEO Pamela A. Pantos on December 10. These directors are contracted for the three 2023 productions and have written Ms. Pantos alerting her that they cannot move forward until the issues with AGMA are resolved. AGMA did not request that the directors take this action, but we support and applaud them. Thank you for this strong display of solidarity!
Text:
Dear Pamela,
I have been wrestling with myself about our potential meeting on Monday. I find that I cannot currently, in good conscience, move forward with plans for the summer of 2023 at CCO until the issues raised by AGMA have been resolved. I am particularly concerned about the money owed to the young artists and the clauses the company is wanting to eliminate citing racist performance practices. I am also very concerned that the company has hired the same law firm that Starbucks used to break their union organizers. It breaks my heart to have to take this (I hope) temporary stance as after 21 years of working there, Central City Opera is a part of my artistic being. There is nothing personal against anybody at the company but as artists, we have so few professional and personal protections, I deeply feel that I have to stand with my artistic colleagues.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. This decision was extremely hard [to] come by.
Sincerely on behalf of Dan Wallace Miller, Ashraf Sewailam and myself,
Ken Cazan