NY musician wages: a view from Chicago
OrchestrasFrom a correspondent:
I am a retired full time chorister who worked at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from the mid-1970s until recently.
When I started, I made $125/week for 13 weeks and about $4/hr prior to that for music (room) rehearsals held about 3 times/week. No benefits (health/pension).
After decades of negotiations the salary and benefits improved sharply and when I retired a 30 week contract netted about an annual salary of $70,000 plus individual health (NOT family) and pension benefits. A standard work week was 24 hours.
One of the ongoing issues in the performing arts is one you mention: is the employer paying for time worked or TALENT. Generally, unions’ position are both. Time, to be sure, but certainly talent is the primary qualifier. A regular chorus position opening at Lyric, the Met, or SFO regular attracts hundreds of superb singer musicians. Recent chorus hires at the Met included artists who sang PRINCIPAL roles at other companies (Met chorus annual salaries can exceed $200K). Choristers may have a “short” work week but contractually must be available Monday to Saturday 10am to midnight and Sundays about noon to 7. They also, contractually, must be available on short notice.
I appreciate your postings very much. Here in Chicago we’re looking forward to the Fidelio dress on Monday. Dress rehearsal passes are the one Retirement benefit.
So, the choristers must be available on call for 14 hours per day Mondays–Saturdays and 7 hours on Sundays, which gives a total of 91 hours per week. Presumably, given the contractual requirement for being “available on short notice”, this precludes the choristers from accepting external engagements for any span of time within those 91 on-call hours. Or, at best, a chorister wishing to accept an external engagement in that span would have to obtain prior permission from the employer, which would, presumably, be granted only for occasional one-off gigs at quiet times of year?
In other words, the choristers are /de facto/ prohibited from undertaking a substantial 2nd job. In those circumstances, regardless of the actual hours worked, it would have been indefensible for an employer to mandate exclusivity of this kind and not pay a “full-time” salary.
Does anyone know if the Lyric Orchestra is still paid half the CSO average on the grounds that they were just as good buit played half as much? Or was that just a legend? They certainly play far less than the CSO nowadays. Mind you, I think they should get good wages, I am just being realistic.
They are paid around $70-$80k, so a little less than half of the CSO or the Met.
The Met’s official salary is $150-170k for around a 40 week season. San Francisco Opera (currently in negotiations) was $105k last I checked for 30 weeks, and Washington National Opera is $75k for 25 weeks. I’m not sure if LA Opera has a salaried contract, but opera musicians in the US are paid very well weekly and somewhat poorly for an annual salary.
For those unfamiliar, the US has a very strong symphony orchestra culture and not a very strong opera culture outside of big cities. I’d say maybe up to 50% of auditioning musicians I know would not even consider an opera job.
You don’t get what you deserve…you get what you negotiate. The CSO-folks brags about a 400million to 500million endowment…everybody is getting screwed…
If it weren’t about talent, but merely about time spent on the job, many orchestras would have essentially the same pay as rehearsal schedules tend to be rather similar in terms of weekly services.
Does one judge the value of a work of art merely according to its physical size? Is a Leonardo etching worth less than a giclee painting bought at a department store simply on account that it might be smaller?
The value of something is based on quality, not quantity. Excellence should therefore be better rewarded than mediocrity, and for the most part usually is.
These musicians in the NYP just need to get off their high horse. Most of the rank and file string players feel they are entitled to live in the same area codes as bankers and surgeons. Can someone explain to me what is behind this reasoning…..?
It’s always instructive to compare NY to other large US cities. In Chicago, some people don’t have difficulties making end meets. Take the CSO as a random example. According to June 2023 filings posted on Probublica (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/362167823), these were the compensations of specific individuals:
– Jeff Alexander: $741,177. Mr. Alexander presided over what we believe could very well be the biggest multi-year audience erosion of any large city orchestra in the western hemisphere. It’s a bold hypothesis, and we welcome any correction. In November 2013, the organization reported 269,982 tickets sold in the fiscal year compared to the pre-covid peak of 347,502 tickets sold in the 2017/2018 season. Alexander really earned his salary. Mr Alexander also distinguished himself for, at best tolerating, at worst enabling what we understand to be very questionable conduct of the music director with a certain CSO staff. We welcome any correction on this point too.
– Riccardo Muti: $942,263 Before you worry about whether the Italian Stallion can make ends meet with “only” a six-figure number, keep in mind that – to the best of our understanding, and we welcome any correction- this number does not include concert fees, which we believe to be roughly $45k per concert in the US, and $50k per international concert. In addition to the above-mentioned highlights, Muti distinguished himself for a PR anti-Putin stunt; and for partnering with and personally rehabilitating Putin’s supporter Abdrazakov multiple times including this month in Japan: https://operawire.com/riccardo-muti-putin-supporter-ildar-abdrazakov-team-up-for-japan-attila/ Muti also drove out key top musicians (see more below)
– Robert Chen: $536,137 As it was widely reported, Mr. Chen played a concert in Taiwan with his daughter, at the time also employed by the CSO; a performance which was not authorized by their Chicago employer. The story did not end well for the rising daughter, but Mr. Chen is doing well it seems from these numbers.
– David Cooper: $329,091. Mr Cooper was kicked out of the orchestra by a handful of jealous colleagues and ultimately by Muti who made the final decision. Many concerned people would have gladly saved Muti’s salary and kept Cooper instead (he’s much cheaper and attracted audiences with his phenomenal playing, instead of driving them away in droves)
– Stephen WilliIamson: $324,361. Some people think that for this salary Williamson should be able to play louder and be heard. That is not always the case in Symphony Hall.
– Esteban Batallan: $322,407. He was playing loudly enough, and a real thumb in the ears for Chicago’s audiences. Luckily his salary will be on the Philaldephia’s books this coming year.
– Cristina Rocca, VP of artistic planning, compensation wasn’t on the filings as far as we can see. Her work on the programming side, in partnership with Muti and instrumental to achieve the audience erosion, is unfortunately well known (remember the “Russian blast Muti farewell season”?). We do not believe that she is struggling to make ends meet.
In conclusion, NY musicians should eye Chicago. True, it would be a downgrade artistically, but it may be well worth financially.