Australian contrabassoonist, watchmaker and performers’ rights pioneer Martin Foster has died.

A longtime champion of the rights of Australia’s orchestral musicians, Foster was Principal Contrabasoonist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) between 1967 and 2002, and also served as the founder and President of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Musicians’ Association (SSOMA).

Martin Foster. Photo courtesy of Matthew Wilkie and Noriko Shimada/Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Notably, Foster led negotiations as a representative for orchestral musicians with the ABC, which  resulted in the first national agreement between the ABC and its musicians, working for the state symphony orchestras.

He was also a key player in the establishment of the representative body Symphony Orchestra Musicians’ Association (SOMA), the state orchestras’ divestment from the ABC during the 1990s and the resulting agreement between the SSO as an independent corporation and its musicians in 1996.

During his time with the SSO, he contributed to a research project comparing international and Australian orchestral industrial agreements and working practices to establish best practice benchmarks for the orchestra’s working conditions.  He was also an early advocate for noise-related injuries amongst orchestral musicians.

“Martin was a pathbreaking, visionary advocate for musicians’ working lives...