Rolex gives $250k to Met chorus singers
mainThe luxury watchmaker has ticked off a quarter-million dollar donation to a find for members of the Met chorus who are striggling without work in Covid times.
The Met Chorus Artists fund is aiming to reach half a million by the end of July. So far, they have received 300 gifts.
‘We’re overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from our amazing fans!’ said Meredith Woodend, President of the Met Chorus Artists, Inc. ‘With the uncertainty surrounding unemployment benefits, the need of our Met AGMA family has reached a critical point. Now is the time to support the artists who make the opera come alive on the stage every night!’
What about the orchestra?
You must be typing too fast! First paragraph, two “i”s substituted for “u”s!
😉
The striggle is real. Spellung is duffucilt.
The fund was set up for members of AGMA who lost work from the Met. That includes dancers, supers, directors, chorus, extra chorus, soloists, covers and stage managers.
They also have actors and actresses.
I have little sympathy for the Met chorus, orchestra, and stagehands. They generally earn six-figure salaries and, pre-March 2020, they should have been saving some money for a rainy day. There are full-time Met employees that earn less than $50k per year. What about them?
A large number of people who will receive that money that do not make six figures. Far from it.
Except most, if not all MET choristers make over six figures.
average salary of a full-time chorus member is $200,000. see: https://www.wqxr.org/story/metropolitan-operas-tax-filing-reveals-salary-details/
Stagehands make more money than anyone else in the arts.
There are always people willing to be dissatisfied with anything.
I just reminded myself of a joke I read in an early 20th C. joke book.
“Are you the young man who saved my little boy from drowning in the river when the ice broke?”
“Yes ma’am, I sure am.”
“What did you do with his mittens?”
It’s about time!
That’ll cover two, maybe three choristers. It’s a start?
$250 K from Rolex isn’t all that much.