Two US orchestras are heading for the mattresses over pay
NewsMusicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra last night rejected the company’s ‘best and final’ pay offer.
And Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, out of contact for almost a year, have written to the board saying the only pay rise they have received in the past five years is … $14 neach.
Here’s the letter, leaked to slippedisc.com:
Dear Prisca and Members of the Board,
The Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony are proud to be members of
one of the world’s greatest orchestras, now in an exciting new chapter
with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. We the Musicians have maintained
a 100+ year tradition of artistic excellence and the highest performance
standards, sustained by support from each of you. We recognize and
greatly appreciate the dedication you have shown for the Orchestra over
many years. Without the Musicians and Board working together to maintain
this standard, we wouldn’t be the world-class ensemble that we are
today. Thank you for this commitment.
The SFS has been hailed as a visionary institution due to innovative
series such as American Mavericks, Keeping Score, and SoundBox, with
cutting edge programming and a diversity of composers and curators. The
partnership between the SFS and Esa-Pekka Salonen has continued to
propel us into elite media projects, international collaborations with
exceptional guest artists and conductors, and innovative explorations
into new music. All of this builds upon our rich history with MTT, whose
unique vision and historic 25-year tenure resulted in 15 GRAMMYs for the
Symphony and sold-out concert tours around the world.
However, at this critical juncture, we now find our current partnership
with the Board to be under duress. We are in a unique situation with
close to 20% of our membership choosing to retire or consider employment
elsewhere. The pandemic has affected orchestras worldwide, yet the SFS
remains the only ensemble among our peer group that has not been
restored to pre-pandemic salary rates. With many other symphonic
organizations now thriving with effective marketing, restored salaries,
and returning audiences, we are forced to question why and how we have
been left behind when other Boards have successfully found ways to
fundraise and compensate their musicians fairly in alignment with the
industry standards.
A musical legacy such as ours, combined with an endowment boasting a
staggering third of a billion dollars, should result in offers that are
highly competitive within our industry. Instead, we find the current
proposals from Management at the bargaining table to be unrealistic,
unsustainable, and insulting. None of the offers we have received over
the past 10 months are close to our big-city peers such as the Los
Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony. Management’s refusal to
acknowledge and discuss cost of living and inflation at our bargaining
sessions has put us in a position where we are unable to offer
competitive salary and benefits packages to prospective musicians of
international acclaim.
When weighing pay vs. cost of living in the top 7 US orchestras, SFS
ranks last, making it harder to compete for superior talent. These
offers also leave our current membership with about 16% less spending
power in a city that is known to have one of the highest housing costs
in the world. Conversely, Management and Staff have rightfully been
restored to their pre-pandemic salaries since 2021, leaving only the
musicians behind. There appears to be money for special projects, media
endeavors, and building enhancements, but when it comes to compensating
the Musicians, our current salary is only $14 higher than our
agreed-upon 2018 rate, while inflation has risen 21% since that time.
After a year of careful analysis of returning audiences, market growth,
and ticket sales which exceeded projected revenue, the question remains:
why does an organization in rich financial health demand a pay cut from
its lifeblood? We are, and have always been, the critical foundation of
this organization. We are hailed as world-class by our executives and
Board during fundraising efforts, and yet the shrinking resources
designated to the Musicians undermines our ability to remain a
first-class orchestra. Despite this and the rigors of learning and
performing new programs on a weekly basis, many of us volunteer our time
on orchestral committees in order to facilitate positive communications
among the three arms of the organization. In our capacity as
representatives and volunteers, we are often approached for ideas on how
to best market the orchestra to our Bay Area audiences, highlighting the
lack of vision and competency in leadership.
Many of us started our training before kindergarten and due to the
nature of our highly competitive field, all of us have made great
sacrifices throughout our careers in order to reach the level of an
extraordinary orchestra such as the SFS. We implore you to remember that
the Musicians are the heart and soul of this world-renowned cultural
organization. Without the Musicians, there is no San Francisco Symphony.
We remain grateful to each of you for all you have done over the years
to keep our organization healthy, and we are committed to reaching a
fair and reasonable settlement, one that reflects the generous health of
our endowment and protects our status as one of the best orchestras in
the world.
We strive to reach an agreement that acknowledges the need for salary
restoration and the extreme challenges brought on by inflation and cost
of living in the Bay Area. Acknowledging these realities by implementing
meaningful improvements into our next contract will demonstrate your
commitment to continuing the legacy of one of California’s finest
institutions. We look forward to creating exceptional music for you as
we move forward together into an even brighter future.
Respectfully,
The Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony
Money problems for influential orchestras in Philly and San Fran? This is not “good news” for the classical music world! And it appears to be only the tip of the iceberg…or, rather, the beginning of an epidemic!
“ making it harder to compete for superior talent.”
This might be the weakest argument in the whole essay. It is no secret that elder, tenured musicians are not playing at the Rama’s level as top level fresh graduates, or recent hires of lower tier orchestras. To use this argument is nothing but the work of an ego inflated by its own flatulence.
When writing a request, the union needs to use hard numbers. The orchestra’s financials are readily available, no? In that case show where the money comes from.
SFS has recently hired at least one great player this past year. One should doubt, highly doubt, no player of high caliber would turn down SFS when their current position is something like a tier three orchestra because that’s all that was available to them after a Masters at Juilliard. According to my niece: it happens!
“When writing a request, the union needs to use hard numbers.”
Agreed. Is this a Union letter though? The arguments are repetitive, weak and frankly come across as entitled. The number of times I’ve heard musicians say “I’ve trained long and hard so I deserve my salary + X”, but that just displays a chronic lack of understanding of the market factors governing salary.
A Masters at Juilliard (or any other top conservatory) is relatively meaningless in the job market. By that, I mean that there is so much incredible accomplishment and talent in the pipeline that superior credentials are commonplace. An elite conservatory education does not mean that a job is waiting. In fact, depending on instrument, there may be no job offerings, i.e. auditions, at all for years at a time.
Your niece is passing on info well-known to working musicians.
Credentials in the orchestral-job market are useless, period. It’s all about how you play. No degree or diploma is a guarantee of the quality of one’s playing.
High-Note- This statement strikes me as flawed for two reasons: First, how impressively you play is at least somewhat related to who you got to study under, and therefore which school you are from. You don’t get an Ivan Galamian or a Dorothy Delay or a Gary Graffman or some other superstar mentor if your degree is from Buzzard Butte State. You might be good, but probably won’t reach the same level. Second, the odds of someone even listening to your tape or inviting you to audition will be affected by your sçhool, and the reputation of your teachers, and maybe alumni networks you can leverage to get a shot. So I think where you go matters. How many of those in top orchestras came from outside the first tier of music departments?
The problem is competing for tip top players who are highly desirable and do have other options. SFS has had principal audition winners turn down offered positions and has lost several young players recently to peer orchestras in the US.
I am aware of only one auditioning player who turned down a principal job, the principal flute position, and that was in favor of the Berlin Phil. Would you mind elaborating?
At least one great player? They have like 20 vacancies.
Also, some titled players in the orchestra could go elsewhere. Hard to say the orchestra is top tier if musicians are routinely fleeing to other orchestras.
The fact that there have been a large number of vacancies in San Fran in the last few years has been misinterpreted to mean people are leaving en masse for other positions, when in fact it happens that an unusual number have reached retirement age in the last few years. This is just coincidence and has no negative implication.
Totally – they need to use hard evidence. Enough of these lofty letters. The Board is comprised of very smart folks who know that there are other super capable folks waiting in the wings to play there and would be more open if there was hard evidence with the financials. Also, haven’t they been playing and talking for a while?
Presumably, the salary numbers (the “hard numbers” missing from the letter) are perfectly known to the Board and management, so the letter hardly needs to waste space listing them. The fact that those numbers may be of interest to, and unknown by, the public puts us at a disadvantage, but we are not the people needing to reach agreement with the Board or with the Union.
I, for one, would like to see a simple list of base salaries for, say, all orchestras with annual budgets exceeding $30 million, as well as relative cost of living indices, but I can see why the former are considered confidential.
The hard numbers are known to the world, including individual player and management salaries. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/941156284/202241959349301779/full
Note these are base minimum salaries — most players work outside as teachers or otherwise. At least one principal doubles the annual income noted.
Entitled whiners indeed.
If it is true that they are the only orchestra “in their peer group” not to have musicians salaries restored to pre-pandemic levels, then that is truly shameful. Also, look at some of the senior administration salaries vs base musician pay too in some of these orchestras. I never have understood such a discrepancy that exists in many organizations. I stand with the musicians….in both of these orchestras. I hope they both can reach agreement.
Nowhere are any actual figures given as to how attendance has or hasn’t rebounded since Covid. Nor is any figure given as to the actual orchestra budget, and how it compares to before. It is very hard to judge the fairness of the situation without this info. We are not comparing today with decades ago, only a few years. It is unlikely that the trend in SF would be much different from what other elite orchestras are seeing. If they are able to restore musician salaries, SF should also be able to. If they had the money before Covid, things should be at least returning to something close. The question is, are they unable or just unwilling, and if so, why? Do they have new management? Most of the suggested reasons cannot explain such a change over a short amount of time. The musicians should not be asked to sacrifice without a convincing explanation. The issue needs more information to draw conclusions.
Good points. Some (not all) of your desired information is here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/941156284/202241959349301779/full
Oh yes, yes! As the music director has shown in Chicago, heading for the mattress is a way of life! Even jollier if the appropriate mattress equipment is provided for by the president of the institution, for life!
Lothario, please, can you refrain from using sex and the mattress in this issue? Why has the management staff had their salaries reinstated to pre-Covid levels if the same can’t be done for the musicians. Aren’t they one team?
Sounds like the Big 3 automakers whose CEOs compensation increased 40% (GM’s leader now makes $29 million vs. $18 million proud years ago.) “Ah sir, times are hard” says Mrs. Lovett.
Mattresses are important in the us classical musak scene
For all the Bay Area dot com wealth, and all their very publicized philanthropic foundations, not a single one of these dot com billionaires (in the last 50 years) has ever shown the slightest interest in classical music.
Even in China, building an opera house in every backwater province was the way the nouveaux riches signalled their arrival.
Not in the Silicon Valley. (Hospitals yes, opera houses no.) There is simply no cultural cache in showing up on opening night at the symphony, in fact, there is negative cultural value inviting mockery if a dot com employee were to be seen in a tuxedo at the opera.
Conclusion: Sorry San Francisco classical musicians, you’re on your own, old money has dried up, and new money is not interested.
They could go the pop music route and split themselves off from the charitable donation method. Just put music out there that’s new, that’ll get people interested, and make all your revenue from touring and merchandise sales. It can be done, there’s nothing to suggest that today’s public don’t like the sound of the orchestra, they would rather just not listen to the cannon repertoire if they had that choice, and that’s perfectly fine!
Here’s a thought exercise: suppose that for the duration of a conductor’s contract with an orchestra they were obligated to stay in the city and work with them year round. Imagine now if the conductor were also a composer and rather than put on weekly concerts they spent the year building a touring program of original works that would make all of its revenue on the road. Now you’ll have people clamouring to come back to a classical music concert.
“For all the Bay Area dot com wealth, and all their very publicized philanthropic foundations, not a single one of these dot com billionaires (in the last 50 years) has ever shown the slightest interest in classical music.”
No, they haven’t. They’d rather snort coke or take ecstacy at a rave while a tatted hooker with a fauxhawk and a grille for teeth dances on their chest.
Obviously the dotcoms give to hospitals because a wing or treatment center has their name one it. One name is all an opera house or symphony hall gets. They are SOL!
There is one bright side to a possible Philadelphia Orchestra strike — fewer Florence Price performances.
It’s amazing how each of the top US orchestras, according to their press releases, can be last among their peer orchestras. What an incredible coincidence that the top 7 or 8 orchestras are all always tied for dead last.
At some point, classical musicians are going to have to face reality: the music you make is not popular and is getting less so every generation. Younger people of considerable wealth do not have the sense of noblesse oblige that their parents or grandparents did. The high tech billionaires are more interested in Rock ‘n Roll than Mahler or Beethoven. In the USA there is not a single leader who has ever expressed any interest in classical music. Add to it that thanks largely to failed leadership by Democrat mayors, both San Francisco and Philadelphia have become very uninviting, often dangerous, places for would-be fans to go to. SF may have a world-class orchestra, but does the population there still appreciate it the way they did when Monteux or de Waart were at the helm? There are plenty of billionaires who could easily fund the orchestra forever, but obviously they have other priorities.
Pair the orchestras with visionary composer-conductors. It’s not the sound of the orchestra that modern audiences are turned off by, they’ll watch big blockbuster movies and get a thrill of adrenaline when the horns blast in during the big climatic scene. What they don’t like is the music: it’s tired, done by just about everyone on Earth and is no longer representative of contemporary culture nor do audiences want to sit silently for 3 hours.
Let the visionary conductor composers take the helm and put on their own music, something new to draw in the crowds the way it USED to be before conductors became overpaid stick wagglers that they are today.
> Pair the orchestras with visionary composer-conductors
Who do you suggest? In some sense the SFS already has a visionary composer-conductor in Esa-Pekka Salonen but that’s not solving their problem.
Is EPS still composing actively as much as he did with LA Phil? That era was a stunner in terms of audience draws! The point here is that when classical music was really really popular in past centuries, living composers would hire orchestras to perform their music and many actually performed with them/conducted them. Best example of this was the premiere of Beethoven’s 5th, which had him conducting 2 of his own symphonies and performing his own concerto. You don’t get this anymore, Thomas Ades does it *sometimes* but even a concert titled “Ades conducts Ades” has a Tchaikovsky piece as the main headliner… If we really want this music to survive we have to do two things:
1) stop pretending like there aren’t any living composers worth listening to
and
2) stop making conductors re-hash old music that’s been done before, either they focus on field-testing new music to see what will stand out above the rest and become the new cannon repertoire, or they write their own music, but at this point it’s no longer enough for conductors to be ONLY conductors. That was fine in the 1900s when conductors were treated like superstars and people UNDERSTOOD what they were doing on the podium and how to differentiate interpretation X from Y, but that’s no longer the case. It’s almost a running joke among musicians that the conductor can be literally anyone and they’ll play the Beethoven the same they always have.
We need a fresh new direction, otherwise orchestras around the world will face the constant battle of appealing to audiences for support during strike action such as this only to be met with “why should I care?”
Other side of the coin now: why bother engaging composers-in-residence when they’ll only ever be commissioned a handful of pieces per season?
As much as there is a need for conductors who compose, there is equally a need for composers who conduct their own works, and that is who should be at the helm of our major orchestras. Not some baton-for-hire who is relegated to 14 weeks per season while collecting a full year’s salary.
I attended 80% of the 2022 season and saw every conductor on Earth. And ESP only once. He seems disconnected.
Oh yes – you had to bring your trash-talk about “Democrat mayors” into this discussion. Bah Humbug!
“Roll Over Beethoven”
Yes, no one wants to go to San Francisco now — that’s why the cost of housing there is so high!
Bill, The Bay Area has indeed lost a quarter million residents since 2020, regardless of the stubbornness of the housing market:
https://sfstandard.com/2023/03/31/san-francisco-bay-area-california-population-decline-census-pandemic-covid/#
One would have to have their head in the sand to not notice the cascade of businesses fleeing downtown.
I live in the Bay Area. Business fleeing downtown San Francisco is a completely different kettle of fish than people wanting to actually live in the city. My friends selling residential real estate would be happy to have more properties to sell.
Mike Moritz’ journalism certainly can’t be accused of bias, no sirree: https://missionlocal.org/2023/02/michael-moritzs-strange-and-terrible-diagnosis-of-san-francisco/
Billionaire Republican has a bone to pick. Who could see that coming?
Commercial property values, measured by actual recent sales transactions, are down 30-50%; while residential pri es are more “sticky,” they’ll soon follow.
When you say no leaders care about classical, do you mean over US history, or just right now? First, because of the anti-intellectualism of the public, those leaders who did care about it would probably not make a point of it, and second, you cannot know what music they listen to privately. You are just speculating. We know many presidents have invited classical musicians to play at the White House. For example, Kennedy had Pablo Casals, Isaac Stern, etc. I believe Jimmy Carter and his wife are known to enjoy classical, being serious people. Chelsea Clinton studied ballet for years. Lyndon Johnson actually created the National Endowment for the Arts! You can’t do more than that! Truman and Nixon both played piano. Both Obama and Biden have been sighted at concerts in DC at times. The New Deal had an enormous array of programs to help the arts. So it is clear that your absolute statement is not true.
So true…going out at night, especially the Civic Center district of “San Fiasco,” is a truly hair-raising experience.
Pay is about what the market of available talent will accept, plus what the market will pay for their productivity and the health of an industry and/or company. I support unions but don’t understand why they use entitlement as a reason for higher pay.
You have a very biased definition of “entitlement” then…
This letter isn’t really *leaked* when it’s also publicly posted to the musician union website and Instagram.
I find it shocking that staff and management salaries have returned to pre-pandemic levels but the musicians’ salaries haven’t? I wonder how that can be justified? Not good optics.
The argument about not being able to attract top talent is specious at best. Orchestras in the U.S. have discretionary overscale that they can add to an overall compensation package to lure top musicians. Add that to an environment where 100-150 eminently qualified candidates apply for every audition, and the argument falls apart.
Using the word “specious,” he must be a board member, and certainly not a musician!
I was dismayed when I read this article and the letter to the board. Our Grammy award winning symphony is a shining bright star for The City. Our symphony makes us unique and stands as a pinnacle, artistic institution of The City. It is part of the top- notch cultural experience that only exists here, and no where else in The Bay Area.
San Francisco needs to desperately turn around its image and prove to all that it is an excellent place to be. Let the quality of our symphony be a prime example of who we are. Invest in the musicians and keep it at it’s high caliber!
This is exactly right. SFSO is a legacy orchestra on par with what used to be known as the Big Five (I’d argue that there are a big ten or more now). It is also doubtless that the orchestra is suffering the corollary effects wrought by the general deterioration of San Francisco, effects that will limit the ability of management to maintain the orchestra’s financial needs.
The musicians are not asking for too much. Most here have little idea of what it truly takes to become a musician at the elite level. The learning curve is far longer than that of medical doctors; the musicians deserve and have earned every penny of their recompense. Symphony orchestras deliver a human experience that can be had nowhere else and it is one that is unquantifiable in mere numbers. In choosing whether to fund these musicians we are choosing what kind of cultural life we will have and San Francisco has always had a superior one. That it should be preserved should be a no-brainer. Pay them.
You have a long way to go. So much of The City has been ruined. Block after block of stores closed. Homeless encampments everywhere. Public defecation so bad there’s a phone app to alert would-be walkers. A deplorable crime rate. Yes, The City desperately needs to turn things around, but as long as The Citizens keep voting for incompetent liberal mayors and city council members, The City is a lost cause and I won’t come back for the symphony or the opera until the situation is radically improved.
I hope these organizations can understand the caliber and value each musician brings to the ensemble and communities. The ability to prepare and perform multiple highly demanding programs week after week with world renowned soloists and conductors is similar to the talent, skill, and precision of top surgeons or other high-pressure performance occupations. The artistic legacy and unique styles that these ensembles have built over generations have come from daily dedication, artistry, and unique synergy that is difficult to even fathom.
The SFS musicians deserve to have a contract that keeps their compensation competitive to similar renowned organizations, while also accounting for inflation, cost of living, etc. That sounds completely reasonable to me.
The idea that 3rd tier orchestra musicians are flooding the wings to play in San Francisco only supports the reality that there are, in fact, 1st tier orchestras. And what makes a 1st tier orchestra? Consistent and long-term commitment to striving to create an orchestra that can attract the best Musicians, guest artists, and conductors. And how does a 1st tier orchestra create such an attraction? By offering the best wages, benefits, and musical experience over a long period of time. The SFS Board of Governors has risen to that challenge over and over again for many years and needs to continue to commit to maintaining a 1st tier orchestra. When folks comment that Musicians are a money-grubbing, unappreciative, and self-serving group, let us not forget that since the 1960’s, the growth and improvement of not only top tier orchestra, but all orchestras, has been primarily a result of these Musicians agitating and advocating for better working conditions and compensation. Boards, on their own, rarely, if ever, decide to increase the length of the season, or provide a Defined Benefit Pension, or involve Musicians in the hiring and repertoire decisions. We should be more thankful for the efforts of our past Musicians in pushing arts organizations to constantly and consistently improve and therefore thrive.
While being an orchestra musician can be a unique and rewarding career, it is tough to face the reality of being dependent on the willingness of others to extend generosity in their direction. Individual musicians are wise to face that reality by taking responsibility for their own finances through saving, investing wisely, and developing multiple streams of income. When one is dependent on the generosity and willingness of others to donate, no matter how talented, they are not in control of their financial well being
One of the problems with arts managements is that the managers are not artists themselves; in my experience they have little understanding of musicians and musicians’ lives.
The head of a law firm is a lawyer; the president of a university is an academic. Those managers know the profession intimately, having come up through the ranks and being very competent in the same field as the people they are managing. A good comparison with an arts organization might be that of a hospital. In both cases you find highly specialized, talented people working for a management that is not qualified in the same field, who are, rather, bean counters whose bottom line is extracting the best “labor” for the least cost.
Let’s not forget that the “product” being produced by the orchestra is the music. The management should serve to further that in every possible way. In that sense the musicians don’t work for the management; the management should work for the musicians.
I find it hard to believe that with an endowment of a third of a billion dollars the management can’t restore salaries for some of the finest musicians in the country to a level commensurate with living costs in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Slipped Disc reported last spring on S.F. Symphony settling it’s contract. This letter was at the height of negotiations. They are now one of the 3 heightist paid orchestras in the US.
Is it true that base salary in Philly is around 140k??
Not too much pitty there – rather greedy musicians I would say.
You must be English. If that’s the case hi there! This isn’t argument for the Philly musicians getting paid less, it’s an argument for LSO/LPO/Philharmonia musicians to get paid MORE
Jon- popular entertainers who have spent far less effort and developed far less skill and talent commonly can earn as much, and often many times more, than the modest amount these musicians receive. Plenty of very average business people, athletes, and all sort of other occupations do as well. These musicians took many years of high dedication to attain that level. They enrich peoples lives. They are not greedy. Few people could ever reach what they have achieved. They have truly earned it, and more.
And there it is, outloud: “They have truly earned it, and more.”
“They truly are entitled” is always a bad financial argument. Because apparently, entitled they are not.
“We are often approached for ideas… highlighting the
lack of vision and competency in leadership.”
That’s right, a competent leader never solicits or listens to ideas. The nerve!
Where is Alex Ross when you need him? Get him to write a few articles telling everybody how great the programming at these orchestras are. The donations are going to flow right in (to the benefit of the administrators who make the programming decisions, of course).
Mattresses?
It’s not a Mob War.
90% of the SFS’s dilemma is the Biden recession/inflation and the collapse of the City of San Francisco via massive crime spikes and out of control living costs. With that formula, sadly, no land in sight for the players.
I’ve been looking for a good place to get some pearls restrung — any suggestions? Clutching is hard on them!
I can’t agree with you more…it’s not called “San Fecescisco” for nothing.
Such the dramatic, emotional, childish whine of a narcissist. Started training before kindergarten. Yes, you’re very special.
None of this false concern is for the organization or the ability to attract future musicians. It’s about entitlement and the price of cocaine.