I wonder if the salary difference doesn’t account for some of the grumpiness we find in orchestras.
Tim Smith, of the Baltimore Sun, points to the latest data about orchestra compentsation in this article:
People on the podium are still doing quite well, regardless of the recession . . .From my quick glance, it looks like a lot of music directors of the biggest orchestras are getting more or less 10 times the base salary of the players. That includes the Baltimore Symphony’s Marin Alsop, whose compensation was reported to be $711,626 (base pay for BSO players, $78,500).
At a time when private sector CEOs are bringing home 400 times the average wage of their workers, the symphony scene doesn’t seem out of line — not that rank-and-file musicians would necessarily agree, of course.
John Howell says