NY Phil finds ways to pay its players

In contrast to the Met, which won’t.

The Philharmonic has just cancelled the rest of its season with this announcement:

Members of the New York Philharmonic will retain all health benefits through their current
contract (September 20, 2020). All members will be paid minimum scale from April 1 through
30, 2020, then 75% of scale through May 31, 2020. (The Philharmonic staff is working from
home during this period in which concerts are cancelled and the Lincoln Center Campus is
closed.) To help the Philharmonic reach out to its community during the crisis, the musicians
have agreed to allow the Philharmonic to use all the assets in its considerable media archives, to
be distributed through a newly developed, free portal. Currently, the New York Philharmonic is
projecting incremental operating losses of approximately $10 million directly due to the COVID-
19 pandemic.
President and CEO Deborah Borda said: “The decision to cancel our concerts was particularly
painful: music is a powerful source of comfort and healing, and we know that this closing is as
profound a loss for our audiences as it is to our musicians and, indeed, the institution. As the
situation continues to rapidly evolve, we are developing plans to address the ever-changing and
unpredictable landscape. In our 178-year history, the New York Philharmonic has weathered the
US Civil War and two World Wars and survived the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. We will be
back!”