MSO’s dark past of secret payouts, gag orders, buried complaints

A senior Melbourne Symphony Orchestra staff member who raised concerns about the conduct of then-managing director Sophie Galaise was given a $200,000-plus payout to quietly leave the organisation and not pursue a formal complaint.

Although the details of the concerns raised against Galaise are not known, authorisation of the payment by the organisation’s then-chairman, Michael Ullmer, is part of what current and former MSO staff describe as a troubling pattern of management and governance practices over the six years the pair oversaw the orchestra.

Sophie Galaise last month left her role as managing director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.Credit: Laura Manariti

This includes allegations that musicians and managers were sacked without warning or due process, non-disclosure agreements were used to silence former members, and some board directors were kept in the dark about significant expenditure of funds.

This masthead is aware of confidential settlements reached with a former artistic director, an acclaimed violinist and a former principal player who all abruptly disappeared from the orchestra. In two of those instances, non-disclosure agreements were used to gag departing MSO members. There is no suggestion that these employees made a complaint about Galaise.

Galaise resigned last month after losing the confidence of the current board, which is chaired by property developer David Li, following her decision to cancel the performance of concert pianist Jayson Gillham after he made politically contentious, on-stage comments about the war in Gaza.

The Gillham affair, which has escalated into a legal dispute between Galaise, Gillham and the MSO, publicly exposed fault lines opened years earlier between MSO musicians, management and the board.

Former Melbourne Symphony Orchestra chairman Michael Ullmer.Credit: Jesse Marlow

Two current MSO members, speaking at the risk of dismissal to discuss problems within the performing arts company, said Galaise’s management style created a “climate of fear”.

Steve Reeves, a former MSO musician who retired from the company after serving as principal bass player for 31 years, said while the MSO was an important institution that did fantastic work, Galaise was an autocrat who’d had a fraught relationship with the musicians under her charge.

“Her period has been a difficult one for the orchestra,” Reeves said. “She had a reputation before she arrived and it proved to be true. She was a genuine autocrat. There is no question about that. She didn’t take dissent very kindly.”

The MSO, one of Victoria’s most enduring cultural institutions, is a $40 million, not-for-profit incorporated company that last year employed 79 orchestra musicians and a similar sized management team, and received nearly $15 million in state and federal government funds.

Pianist Jayson Gillham is in a legal battle with Galaise and the MSO.

The episode involving the senior staff member who raised concerns about Galaise, confirmed by current and former MSO members following an investigation by this masthead, unfolded two years after Galaise was recruited to run the company by Ullmer, a corporate chieftain who served as chairman of the MSO board from 2016 to 2021.

In 2018, the senior staff member met with Ullmer at his Collins Street office and provided him with material which raised concerns about Galaise’s treatment of her and other MSO employees. The senior staff member asked to be treated as a whistleblower and protected from workplace reprisals.

The concerns of the senior staff member were not investigated by the MSO or formally put to Galaise. Instead, within two weeks of Ullmer receiving the complaint, he personally approved a payout – the equivalent to about 18 months’ salary – to the senior staff member, who agreed to resign with immediate effect.

As part of the settlement, the senior staff member signed a non-disclosure agreement, which remains in force, preventing them from discussing the matter. They declined to comment when contacted by this masthead. Galaise did not respond to questions about the episode.

The MSO, pictured in May, is the country’s oldest professional orchestra.Credit: Mark Gambino

On the day of the settlement, Ullmer informed his fellow directors the senior staff member was leaving the MSO, but did not tell the board about the payment or concerns raised about Galaise for another two months. Ullmer did not share with the board the material provided to him by the staff member.

When contacted this week, Ullmer declined to answer questions from this masthead. “I no longer have any official role with the MSO and thus it would be inappropriate for me to respond to your specific questions,” he said.

He added: “As a general observation, where a matter is raised and the individual seeks strict confidentiality, there are legal constraints that must be complied with at the time and on an ongoing basis.”

It is understood that before reaching settlement with the senior manager, Ullmer sought advice from David Krasnostein, a then MSO board member who previously worked as general counsel for the National Australia Bank, and an external workplace lawyer.

The episode ended in the board seeking a corporate mentor to serve as Galaise’s professional coach. It had a bitter postscript, however. After the senior staff member left the MSO, Galaise accused them of improperly deleting electronic files and emails from the company’s server.

The accusation, which arose when another employee was unable to locate some files and emails, was investigated by an independent IT specialist and found to be without substance.

The senior staffer’s unexplained exit increased disquiet among MSO staff and musicians already perturbed about how the orchestra was being run under Galaise.

In August 2016, just three months after Galaise joined the MSO from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, a principal player was called into work shortly before he was due to perform and fired on the spot.

The trigger was a ribald comment he’d made at 3.40am on a Facebook page. In response to a question by a younger, female MSO player about how to wind down after a performance, the principal player said he recommended alcohol, a bowl of steamed dumplings and tea.

“For the ultimate release and perfect cadence to the evening though I seriously recommend vigorous sex,” he added.

Although the younger player made it clear she did not appreciate the comment, the principal player was not made aware of a formal complaint against him or given an opportunity to explain his actions before he was dismissed and escorted from the building.

Backed by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the principal player challenged his dismissal before the Fair Work Commission and secured an undisclosed payout. He is also subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

The principal player this week declined to discuss his case but described MSO management as a “clown show”.

The relationship between Galaise and the MSO musicians reached a nadir in April 2020, early in the pandemic, when on the directions of the board, she stood down the entire orchestra and some management staff.

The decision, announced by Ullmer, forced orchestra members to subsist on JobKeeper payments despite the MSO that year receiving a guaranteed $19.3 million in state and federal government funding.

The 2020 accounts show that Victoria’s COVID lockdowns saved the MSO more in reduced expenditure than it lost in revenue, with $2.2 million in unpaid wages contributing to a final, $1.5 million surplus for the year.

After an unidentified orchestra member complained they were “blindsided” by the stand-down decision, the MSO imposed tighter media restrictions which gagged all musicians from discussing the affairs of the orchestra without management approval. The policy, introduced a year ago, prohibits MSO employees from “seeking out journalists or media organisations to discuss the MSO” and “making statements, offering opinions or sharing information that may adversely affect the MSO”.

The orchestra’s disaffection culminated in the musicians last month expressing a vote of no confidence in Galaise three days before she resigned. The musicians wrote in a letter to the board: “Whilst this motion has been directly related to the events surrounding the [Gillham] cancellation this week, we see it as the culmination of years of unresolved concerns, ongoing mismanagement, and a consistent decline in workplace culture that has undermined the wellbeing of employees and the long-term success of the company.”

A former MSO employee said the circumstances surrounding the departure of the senior staff member who made the bullying complaint against Galaise were broadly known within the orchestra.

“It was pretty awful,” he said. “[The senior manager] left quite abruptly. They had quite a tumultuous relationship with Sophie and then one day, they just weren’t there.”

Another MSO insider remarked: “It explains why Sophie thought she was bulletproof.”

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