What conductors are paid in London’s West End
NewsThe Musicians Union has issued the latest rates for contracted music directors, starting this month:
– A minimum of 1.5x the fee to the Keys 2 player (or equivalent, if no further keyboards are included in the orchestration) is payable
– The additional rehearsal and captive time paid in addition to this at the applicable MU rehearsal pianist rate (currently £46.50p/h).
Is that a living?
Well, it’s way more than what you’d get paid at McDonald’s.
When I was a West End MD in the 1990s I was paid £110 per conducted show plus around £25 per hour for rehearsals. How does that compare with the current rate?
MINIMUM of 75k plus pension. Yep, it’s a living.
Given that it’s 1.5.times the pay of the Keys 2 player and that musical theatre ‘conductors’ are basically there to start the show then take a bow at the end- yes, it’s a living.
It sounds pretty good to me when the average professional Classical musician struggles to earn more than a pittance. Prey tell what a keyboard 2 player minimum salary would be? I know. And it is considerably more than most orchestral musicians earn…
If you compare it to the inflated fees of top conductors working in the Classical world, it’s not brilliant…but maybe the problem lies elsewhere….
A quick google reveals this is the rate for a cover conductor and the minimum weekly salary for a player under the Solt/MU agreement is £1104.23. You don’t think 1.5 times that is a living wage?
West End MDs are not conductors!
I would beg to disagree…. Many have trained classically and work in both opera and music theatre genres; it’s unfair to disparage in such a generalised manner
What would you call them then? Prey tell? As someone who’s had to suffer the tremors of Gergiev and witness several self-basting windmills attempt to control an orchestra, by comparison many West End conductors are a dream!
That’s pretty good considerating one has a health care system and real benefits baked in by a govt.
In contrast, in the US empire, many USians are paid 7.25 to 11$ per hour without ANY benefits whatsoever. There’s no health system in the US empire. All privatized for profit insurance corporations. That’s “greatness” and “exceptionalism”…