Orchestra legal bill tops $1m to defend against employee
MELBOURNE: The cost of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s defence of a workplace discrimination case brought against it has topped $1 million, as it fell to a second successive deficit in 2025.
The country’s second-largest symphony orchestra company lost $978,162 on an operating basis and $1,674,068 on an overall basis last year, according to its annual report released on Thursday afternoon.
The overall result was weighed down by one-off costs, including “case management and response costs” of $331,127. It did not itemise the expenses, which had amounted to $689,000 in 2024, but presumably most were paid to law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler to run its defence of a workplace discrimination suit filed by guest pianist Jayson Gillham.
The MSO has been in turmoil since August 2024, when it cancelled a performance by Gillham after he accused Israel of war crimes during a recital.
Then managing director Sophie Galaise and most of the board departed in the ensuing furore, in which Gillham sued the orchestra, claiming he had been unlawfully discriminated against for his political beliefs.
MSO’s defence is that Gillham’s cancellation was not due to the content of his speech but that it was unauthorised and had created a workplace safety risk. That will be tested in a trial set to commence in the Federal Court on May 18.
The MSO can expect another hefty legal bill in 2026. It has called 20 witnesses for the trial, resulting in it being extended to three weeks.
In better news for the orchestra, it reversed last year’s box office slump – in which takings fell 11 per cent to $15.7 million as bands like Jet and Cat Empire cancelled MSO collaborations in solidarity with Gillham – and improved ticket sales to $18.3 million.
However, sponsors and donors appear to be wary while the Gillham case remains underfoot, with their contributions falling to $6.4 million from $7.1 million in 2024.
The operating and overall results were, nevertheless, a significant improvement on the record 2024 deficits of $1.9 million and $3.3 million, respectively.
Neither the MSO’s new chair, Edgar Myer, nor chief executive Richard Wigley mentioned the Gillham case in their messages attached to the annual report.
Both praised the MSO’s five-city tour across the UK and Europe as a highlight, although neither mentioned the disruption of its Royal Albert Hall concert by pro-Palestinian protesters accusing it of “silencing artists”.
