What concertmasters earn

The final segment in Drew McManus’s annual chart of US orchestral earnings deals with the musician in the hot seat.

No big surprises here, except that the #1 earner for many years – William Preucil of the Cleveland Orchestra – got fired.

The rest of the leading concertmasters took a small pay cut in year ending July 2019, around 3.76% across the board. In the big five, half a million is now the benchmark, but it tends to be achieved after many years of service.

Malcolm Lowe has since retired at Boston. His successor will take years to match his final wage.

Here’s the top ten:

1 New York Philharmonic $629,738 (Frank Huang – pictured)
2 San Francisco Symphony $587,876 (Alexander Barantschik)
3 Chicago Symphony $573,698 (Robert Chen)
4 Los Angeles Philharmonic $564,237 (Martin Chalifour)
5 Boston Symphony $513,266 (Malcolm Lowe)
6 Philadelphia Orchestra $470,507 (David Kim)
7 National Symphony $424,158 (Nurit Bar-Josef)
8 Dallas Symphony $329,629
9 Cincinnati Symphony $310,708
10 Saint Louis Symphony $302,387