ok, my sympathy for orchestra musicians is gone

[acroyear]

at least, the "big ones"Soho the Dog: In the ballpark:

Reading that the Boston Symphony Orchestra management and players have agreed to freeze salaries at their current minimum of $128,180, Thomas Garvey asks—more to the point, asks why my Globe colleague Geoff Edgers isn't asking, "Why is the BSO so overpaid?" The answer? Because they're not. Here are the starting salaries for either the last or the coming season for the traditional Big Five, plus San Francisco and Los Angeles:

* New York Philharmonic: $129,740 (2009-10)
* San Francisco Orchestra: $129,740 (2009-10)
* Los Angeles Philharmonic: $129,585 (2008-09)
* Boston Symphony Orchestra: $128,180 (2009-10)
* Chicago Symphony Orchestra: $127,637 (2009-10)
* Philadelphia Orchestra: $124,800 (2009-10)
* Cleveland Orchestra: $115,440 (2008-09)

The BSO is right in the middle of that pack.

Comments

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

Hm -- puts them in the top 5% of all personal incomes in the United States. Not bad.

Then again, $75,000 is enough to put you in the top 10% -- and $50,000 is enough for the top 30%.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

If you compare their training and experience with people in other fields (most of those musicians have master's degrees and 30+ years of experience in a very specific skill), they are being paid about on par with other professionals.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

point being 'on par' generally also includes the demand for said professionalism and the level of competition. aside from 'first chair' (the ones that play the concerto solos, and even then it is often a guest performer), would anybody in the audience know if one of them was missing and replaced by someone new?

there are plenty of other "professional" fields, with masters degrees as minimum requirements, that still pay less than a 3rd of that as the FINAL salary, nevermind the starting salary.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

Soloists are either paid separately or get a bonus if they are a member of the orchestra. As for replacing people - yes, the audience could probably tell as the orchestra could tell and that will affect their performance. You just can't take any competent musician and plop them into the middle of an orchestra unnoticed. It's like changing players on a sports team. The number of guys that can hack it in the top leagues is small and it takes a while for the team to adjust when the roster changes. Good orchestras form synergies that allow them to play at the top levels and achieve a level that goes beyond what you see with just a competent group of musicians.

The point being is that those 5 orchestras are in the top 20 orchestras in the world. Competition for spaces is fierce and musicians have to be at the top of their game to even get an audition, let alone get a spot. Compare them to the top companies in the world. Someone with at least a master's degree and 30+ years of experience is going to be making a hell of a lot more in a Fortune 50 company than someone with the same amount of experience and education at a lower ranked company.

Most musicians don't make anywhere near that. They do session gigs, Broadway shows, weddings, and bar mitzvahs. They don't have a steady income, get hit with self-employment taxes, union dues, and paying all of their own health care and retirement.

Permanent orchestra/band gigs are like the golden ticket for musicians. Plus these guys are also responsible for buying and upkeep of their instruments. I've played oboe for nearly 30 years now. When I started, reeds were $5 and new instruments costs about $2000. Now reeds are upwards of $25 and new instruments are $6000-$8000+. Professional flutes can reach $10,000+. Violins are in the 10s of thousands. All musicians have at least 2 instruments - one regular and a back-up. We also spend at least a couple hundred a year on tune-ups and repairs. Then there are union dues, music lessons (yes, even pros take lessons), concert formal wear, etc. You're not just paying some guy $125K per year to play music. You're paying some guy to bring his $10,000 horn and sit in his $500 tux after spending tens of thousands on music lessons for 30+ years and probably upwards of a million hours of practicing to play his horn.

[eac.livejournal.com]

They've spent their entire lives training to do this and unless they become celebrity musicians they're at the very top of their field. Seems totally reasonable to me.

[eac.livejournal.com]

Right. Deb said it better than I did.