Carnegie Hall's most anticipated concert of the year—the opening night gala—went on as scheduled Thursday night, despite being temporarily canceled due to strikes by union stagehands. 

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The opening night gala was to feature the Philadelphia Orchestra led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with guest appearances by violinist Joshua Bell and jazz musician Esperanza Spalding.

Opening night has consistently been Carnegie Hall’s biggest fundraising event of the year. Last year, opening night gala raised $2.7 million.  

Stagehands' role in managing scenery, lights, sound and props is essential to ensuring the shows go on. Their importance to Carnegie’s stages is the reason for their high earnings. According to Forbes, Carnegie’s Hall top stagehand, Dennis O’Connell, made $464,632. That amount is more than the earnings of the hall’s top executives. In 2012, the chief financial officer, made less than O’Connell at $429,259. 

However, the stagehands demanded more: jurisdiction over the new education wing to be opened above the hall in 2014. The wing is intended to have 24 music rooms for children’s practice lessons. The stagehands wanted these new rooms to fall under their authority. 

Leading the strike was the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One. The two sides had been bargaining for 13 months over the education wing. According to Carnegie executives in a statement, accepting Local One’s demands “would not only restrict education work within the new spaces, it would divert significant funds away from the Hall’s music education programs and into stagehand fees.”

After 24 hours of havoc, Carnegie Hall executives reached a bargaining agreement with Local One. The new agreement entails limited jurisdiction for Local One in the hall’s newly created Education Wing. 

The strike began last week with members of Local One holding picketed signs and chanting “contract now” and “no stagehands-no show.”

Reach Staff Reporter Christina Pecoulas here.