US orchestra agrees to 13.5% pay rise
OrchestrasThe Charlotte Symphony has put on a happy face before the arrival of a new music director Kwamw Ryan.
Here’s the small print of the new agreement:
• Salary Increases: 13.5% increase in weekly salary for all full-time musicians over the
three-year term.
• Season Expansion: The addition of one week beginning in the second year of the
contract, increasing the number of working weeks from 38 to 39. This expansion allows
the Symphony to bring more music to the community and provide a more stable work
environment for musicians. With the salary increase, and the additional week of work, the
minimum salary for musicians rises from $45,861 to $53,709 over the course of the
contract.
• Industry-Leading Tenure Process: Updates to the tenure process that align with and
support the CSO’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. These new provisions
offer additional support for musicians during the probationary period, with clear and
transparent feedback mechanisms. The changes were heavily informed by guidance from
the Black Orchestral Network and the study of best practice in the League of American
Orchestras, both of which aim to increase diversity in American Orchestras.
• Increased Flexibility: Updated work practices that allow for more flexibility in planning,
enabling the CSO to be more collaborative and responsive to the evolving needs of the
community, while preserving CSO musicians’ ability to organize their working lives
effectively, including other personal performance and teaching opportunities as residents
of the Charlotte region.
Just to be clear, that’s an average annual increase of about 4.3%.
Congratulations! Contract negotiations are very difficult since covid. Audiences are slow to recover.
So, in effect, a 17% increase over the 3 years. Has their board and development director indicated how they plan to raise the additional money?
Congrats on the pay raise!
On the funny note, anyone else reading “Updates to the tenure process that align with and
support the CSO’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion…. The changes were heavily informed by guidance from the Black Orchestral Network and the study of best practice in the League of American Orchestras, both of which AIM TO INCREASE DIVERSITY in American Orchestras”.. as
“Since DEI has become the new hiring standard in today’s society, artistic quality and suitability for the job are no longer the measures to be considered when deciding tenure because our regular audience apparently doesn’t care for quality and as a result we won’t be losing donors and subscribers. People belonging to groups and backgrounds currently favored by DEI will be granted tenure despite any and all shortcomings, so we can please the diverse part of our imaginary audience that doesn’t actually attend our concerts. Meanwhile the more prominent groups within the industry, such as Caucasian women, Koreans and Chinese, will be subjected to more rigorous tenure process to increase chances for more DEI hires. White dudes need not apply, you have been cancelled for the rest of the century.”
To those who have no sense of humor, don’t understand sarcasm or are too emotionally invested in being politically correct, I’d like to offer my condolences
Humor and sarcasm are irrelevant to your comment, which is fact-based and reasonable and very much needed to be said. I admire your courage for speaking the truth. I only wish there were millions more with your clear vision. Maybe over time the pendulum will start to swing back, though I fear it may be too late. Keep fighting the good fight
And with the %20 inflation of the last few years, they will still be making less than before….
The rise is over 3 years. This might have been mentioned in the title.
I won’t comment either way about DEI but as to the communication and transparency process during the probationary period, that was added many years ago and it was followed. It had been lacking in the contracts before then. Multiple meetings and checkpoints required between all the necessary parties and it was a great thing to have added.
Charlotte is a cultural backwater. It lacks any cultural institution of note. Yet the city will spend hundreds of millions of dollars building and rebuilding sports stadia for billionaire team owners. Enough money has been spent to endow several Symphony orchestras to operate in perpetuity. The Symphony has been a joke for decades. Come for the soloist, leave at intermission for the after party. Commitment to DEI but where’s the committement to world class music making? Clevelan may be the “Mistake by the lake” but they laugh at places like Charlotte culturally.