October 1, 2009

Mr. Hollenbeck,

Thanks you for your email. Having the Boston local on our
side was was a great boost for our confidence. It is my
belief that, tragically, the orchestra of the NHMF was put
into a no-win situation and that we (with your help) did the
best we could which really amounted to NOTHING. Management
will go through with their plans, the best we have achieved
with the "agreement" is a partial one year reprieve. The
gallows still loom for 2011.

In order to negotiate in good faith BOTH sides have to
respect each other and the management of the New Hampshire
music festival NEVER really respected us. They might have,
as the summer progressed, feared our pull with the
community, but they never intended to alter their plans,
which really never included the "incumbent" musicians.

If it was up to me, the orchestra would have packed up and
gone home sometime in the middle of the summer. The ONLY
card we ever had was to stop the organization from going
forward. I believe we should have crippled the NHMF as best
we could, making it impossible for them to ever realize
their dreams. It sounds petty, but if we couldn't have the
NHMF no one should. We should have taken our ball and gone
home, shutting them down. Injuring them to the point where
they would have never been able to raise a cent from the
community. That was our only "winning" strategy.

This position is extreme, but when something that you have
LOVED is taken away from you, you tend to assume a
vindictive posture.

Jay Lichtmann
NHMF trumpeter since '83

Please read my take on the summer posted here.