Who’s making how much at the NY Phil
OrchestrasThe accounts are in for the fiscal year ending August 2023, and here are the top earners:
Music director Van Zweden (via Bajada Productions) … $1,525,711
Executive director Deborah Borda … $1,317,344 plus $400,000 bonus
Incoming CEO Gary Ginstling … $117,262 plus $55,000 bonus
Concertmaster Frank Huang … $361,713 plus $548,139 in bonuses
Principal oboe Liang Wang (pictured) … $253,524 plus $326,520
Principal clarinet Anthony McGill $394,715.
Notes to the accounts:
Van Zweden earned a huge parallel salary at the Hong Kong Philharmonic and was guest conducting energetically to secure another post.
Ginstling quit in the middle of his second year.
Wang was suspended amid sexual allegations.
Search slippedisc.com for more details.
‘Wang was suspending amid sexual allegations’….not in the year ended August 2023 he wasn’t. Re-instated in 2020 and suspended again after the NYT article in April 2024.
van Zweden was certainly earning annual fees for his years with the HK Philharmonic, but I cannot believe it was as much as his NY Phil pay. Hong Kong still had some of the world’s strictest covid restrictions until the end of 2022 with many arts and entertainment events cancelled. It seems very unlikely he conducted many concerts – if any – prior to the opening up. This of course presupposes that in Hong Kong he was on an annual salary (perhaps including a fixed minimum number of concerts) plus fees for additional concerts. So the assumption has to be that his annual pay since the start of covid restrictons and up to the start of 2023 would be reasonably less than in, say, 2023/24.
Besides, one rumour going around is that he gave up the HK Phil for considerably better terms & conditions offered by the Seoul Phil.
My violin concerto was beautifully played to a full house in November 2022, but the orchestra only paid half of the commission fee. So, there will have been some money problems there and it’s always safer to reduce the composer’s payment.
It seems like their administration did not see some of the truly vile comments you made on this site prior to programming your music! If you want to engage in ranked competitive racism you could try video games like Call of Duty
I never make vile comments, and least of all at SD, where my comments are always educational. But they can be too difficult for some readers, of course.
Perhaps his strengths were maxed out in Hong Kong. His authoritarian style was much needed when he arrived, but his artistry is always muted. Furthermore, the market for classical music in Hong Kong has never been particularly enviable. Seoul, by contrast, is, along with Tokyo, the most bustling classical music scene in Asia. I would venture to say Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, and even Singapore are ahead of Hong Kong as classical music hotspots.
The HK Philharmonic’s home is a truly puzzling place—at the city’s dilapidating Cultural Centre. (Visit the restrooms there, it’s just a little bit better than a typical American gas station restroom except that borrowing a key tied to a stick is not required—the stenches, the not flushed toilets, the lack of airflow, it is hard to believe this atmosphere can be coupled with $125 US tickets to a concert).
Seoul has first rate halls and appreciate audiences who are ecstatic to hear a homegrown artist returning from a long European or American concert tour.
The 1980s was the time to be in Hong Kong.
It’s unfortunate that the New York Philharmonic missed its JvZ makeover, because the orchestra sorely needs it. They’ve already slipped behind BSo, after my impressions at a few concerts last year.
The best conductor is no conductor.
Van Zweden’s superb Ring box for Naxos has been praised everywhere, and it was drawn from complete concert performances with the HK PHil, demonstrating it to be a great orchestra, especially considering that the orchestra had never played the Ring. It was entirely new to them and they mastered the challenge vey well – how come? maybe the conductor had something to do with it?
https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.660428-31
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Jan/Wagner_ring_8501403.htm
The HK Cultural Centre is not dilapidated at all; for a 35-year-old facility, it’s in very good shape, and is very well maintained. Furthermore, unlike most older (read: European) halls, it projects an eminently democratic, anti-elitist atmosphere in which anyone can feel comfortable. While its restrooms aren’t elegant, they’re clean; it’s just that they’re not perfumed. And while the acoustic quality of the concert hall’s seats is variable (to say the least), the stage is roomy and clear. Its main fault is the lack of windows looking out on what would be a fantastic harbor view. I love working — rehearsing and performing — there.
Gerry Feinstein’s post seems to make a number of errors. First, JvZ took over an already fine orchestra that had been honed by Edo de Waart for around 8 years.
Second, I totally fail to understand why he – like another commentator here who teaches music in an HK university – considers the 1980s were the time to be in Hong Kong. Having lived there at that time, that’s just plain nonsense! And third, to suggest $125 is the regular price for HK Phil tickets is also quite wrong. For regular subscription concerts the top prices are either $67 or $87 with lowest around $25.
But I totally agree with Gerry Feinstein’s comments on the ghastly Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The Concert Hall shaped rather like an oval with a kink was always going to deliver weird acoustics – one reason I praised the Naxos engineers who created a much better sound than the hall deserves. The background to the failures in design and construction of that space is fully examined in a recent book titled “Backstage in Hong Kong”. It examines why the Cultural Centre was a chapter of disasters from the outset. Extraordinary to think that at this same time when Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou had built or were building hugely successful and acoustically excellent concert venues, Hong Kong entrusted its exterior and interior designs to a Chief Government Architect who knew precisely nothing about music! And on one of the great harbour views in the world, the HK Cultural Centre complex has absolutely no windows! Its masive lobby has been described as looking like a vast public toilet.
Now of course with another plethora of new concert halls in China with exciting designs and greater concert goer experiences as in Harbin, Suzhou and Wuxi, Hong Kong is stuck with a total dud.
even the person who sat opposite me at work knows that Singapore’s MD, Hans Graf isn’t very good, and it’s often that the singapore symphony can only fill 60-70% of the 1500 seats
As far as I can see, Singapore only came into this discussion as a result of Gerry Feinsteen’s (name misspelled in an earlier post – apologies) comment about Singapore being one of the more musical hotspots in Asia compared to Hong Kong. The SIngapore Symphony and its MD have not before been mentioned. But I agree with the sentiment. Hong Kong with its two professional symphony orchestras and many other professional arts companies is considerably ahead of Singapore. Singapore’s Concert Hall is far better than the dreadful Hong Kong Cultural Centre. At the end of JvZ’s closing performance of Gotterdammerung, the editor of one site wrote “The uncomfortable seats, irregular acoustics, and horrid public areas are bad enough . . . If only it were the twilight for the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, this city would finally get a performance venue worthy of its world-class orchestra.”
How on earth Jerome Hoberman can say of any concert hall that it is “in very good shape” when he then admits “the acoustic quality of the concert hall’s seats is variable (to say the least)”. From the audience perspective, the Concert Hall has always been a near disaster as a venue for symphonic concerts.
It’s disgusting seeing how inflated the executive salaries are compared to the players. Borda and her cronies are nothing without the players. Where’s the bonus for the players? Outrageous. What is music without musicians?
Unlike the players, the management doesn’t have tenure. People usually take less money if they can’t be fired (absent bad behavior). Borda was running a major institution with a $90+ million budget, several hundred employees, a $500 million hall renovation, and a $300 (?) million endowment. There aren’t a lot of people who can do that job. There are more people who are qualified to play in the Philharmonic.
The players don’t do so well without the management, either. Take the next graduating class at Juilliard and form an orchestra with no management. See how well it does, even though the players could probably outplay many of the NYPhil crew individually. The ticket holders go to hear the music, but there are many people who don’t play a note involved to make it possible!
Obscene that the music director should earn five times what principals earn – for a job that requires a fraction of the number of weeks and not making a sound. This industry needs help.
Not only obscene, music directors can and usually do have multiple positions. They get pampered wherever they go. JvZ NY salary was probably just a fraction of his overall earnings. A fair bit it probably swallowed by his agent, but still, it’s a considerable amount of money to earn for a job that is low stress. They are merely acrobats of the upper torso; I certainly doubt few of them could jump for more than three or four times.
Conductors and President Trump have a lot in common.
They’ll be elected President?
Low stress? Shows you know nothing about Jaap or conductors in general. Never seen Jaap NOT stressed out. Lol
As a non-American, could somebody enlighten me as to the nature of bonuses and their causes ?
As an American and a New Yorker, I’d like to be enlightened as well.
Many businesses and even government organizations offer bonuses to employees as an incentive to reach certain defined performance goals. Like: increase attendance to an average of 90% capacity. Sometimes the goal is really elusive: an employee will have a 50% decrease in complaints about his attitude towards others. If the employee works hard and meets the goal, they get the money. Kind of a bribe in a way and clearly open for cheating.
“Bonuses” for orchestral musicians?
How, pray tell, does that work? Liang Wang and Frank Huang sold the most Philharmonic bitcoins?
Ahhh, is that what Alec Baldwin, Radio Host of the New York Philharmonic and Artistic Advisor of The Art of the Score (true fact!), tells the troops during intermission: “ABC. Always Be Closing!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7y6EOGY87U&themeRefresh=1
Alec Baldwin is pretty much a persona non grata nowadays, at least in New York (Manhattan…).
Ginstling quit because he was undercompensated. That’s got to be an incorrect number.
Or he was only there for a couple of months of the accounting period more likely.
Surely it reflected a partial year.
What I have learned from these figures is that while the NYP is bad at music making, they are good at wasting NYC liberal’s money. I hope that they are at the very least laundering money so that they can be shown to be of some sort of use to someone somewhere.
“[my parents] were suspicious of people who took more money than they needed”
– Michelle Obama
Poor MichelIe, it must be devastating to have your parents suspicious of you.
Curious as to what qualifies for as a bonus.
Is it just me or does the short-lived CEO’s salary seem absurdly low? I read elsewhere that Borda was paid around $1.7 million in her final year as CEO. No wonder he quit. Who would do that job for a measly $160k AND live on that in Manhattan to boot?
I thought the same thing, could it be for a partial year? Otherwise I would have quit if I were him based on it.
He only officially worked for one month so that’s only for one month of work
For a yearly salary of around $1.4 million. That makes a lot more sense.
If he started mid-2023, it probably represented only a very few months salary.
(It is totally possible to live well in Manhattan on $160,000 a year, BTW.)
Are these salary ranges the industry standard? Does anyone know? How can the incoming CEO get paid less than the players listed, even though he resigned midyear? And why is his pay so much less than the outgoing Exec. Dir.?
Couldn’t all that pay be put to better use, such as buying and installing a pipe organ in the concert hall?
Well to put it in context in the private sector for one example with which I am very familiar, the Exexcutive Director of a mid level USA Port Authority is paid a total package of $340K with a base salary of $200k. A vice President (admin) of a New York branch of a foreign bank is paid base salary of $125k.
How can the principal clarinet make more than the concert master? This can’t be accurate. Lol
When you factor in the “bonuses” that’s not true. I wonder whether you get extra for playing a concerto? (McGill may have played say the Copland or Mozart – I’m too lazy to check)…….does Huang get a “bonus” for playing Heldenleben or the solo in the 4 Last Songs? Curious……….
The mysterious “bonuses” …Perhaps Ms. Borda should explain in a footnote to the NYP tax returns?
While the violin has a range as a gradual continuum, the clarinet has the notorious ‘break’ between the chalumeau and clarino register which needs special care and may provide a challenge to nervous players, and on top of that there are the many transpositions in reading parts: clarinets in A flat, in E flat, in D, in C, in B flat, in A. Salaries are taking this into account – the more flat clarinets are played, the flatter the salary. Also the length of the E flat clarinet, which is smaller than the A and B flat clarinet, is being measured to calculate the different salaries in the right proportion (union requirements). This sort of thing always creates irritation with the number of times the flutist has to play the piccolo, which pays less in proportion to the regular flute.
Some of these numbers are highly suspect. The concertmaster is always the highest paid member of any US orchestra, hence that his base salary would be only about 360k, lower than the principal clarinet, is nonsense and that he would be receiving bonuses worth 540k, bringing the total to 900k, seems like an even bigger nonsense. You can actually look it up on Google and learn that his salary back in 2021 was about 630k and that’s the region where his salary will be today. Those numbers here may still reflect some conditions of their COVID agreements and the bonuses may be a back pay of unpaid salary during the time. But unless NY Phil has implemented some ground breaking contracts, unionized musicians get paid what their contracts are worth and no one in this business, especially concertmaster, would sign a contract where 60% of the value is bonus based.
Take it with a grain of salt, I suspect some creative accounting for tax purposes behind these numbers and a general lack of clarity.
check out the LA Phil’s salaries in comparison – Dudamel earned a cool $2,365,194…..
How does one earn bonuses in this business. I can see a GM getting a little something for brining in New donprs, but I can’t figure how bonuses are calculated for concert master or principals. I dont begrudge them their money, but arts organizations always plead poverty and have their hands out. People work hard. We like to fantasize the money we give help to keep it going and keep them afloat.I dont think we like the idea that our $1000 donation goes to a fraction of someone’s bonus.
At the simplest, bonuses are used to reward employees for a good year, without committing the organization to a similar payout in the future, unlike giving someone a hefty raise. There can also be payouts for situations which aren’t expected to recur, like moving expenses for a new hire. Bottom line, the board decided that the recipients should get more money, but did not feel that they should commit to paying the extra money every year.
How much do you make Norman? How is it your, or anyone else’s business, to know how much any one person makes for any type of job. Sometimes I think you’re worse then pond scum.
It’s US tax law that these data are published about non-profit organizations. Norman’s income is nunya.
US charitable organizations are required by law to report details of their finances which often include the pay of their most highly-compensated individuals. The IRS filing is Form 990, and various sites allow you to view them. It’s essential reading for anyone contemplating a significant gift to an organization. In some states, government-paid salaries are also a matter of public record. Some feel that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” and welcome such disclosure. Others seem to think it is a great offense for their compensation to be disclosed. I’m in the camp of those who generally feel if the compensation is justified, disclosing it shouldn’t be an issue. But if you don’t want your pay disclosed, don’t take a job where it will be.
Considering that the classical music industry is always pleading poverty and demanding more public money, it is remarkable how much money is being trousered by many of those working in it.
Rather like the BBC.
Mitropoulos once mentioned in his private correspondence he was earning in NY 100,000 USD in 1955.
He earned it conducting the NYPO!
I have always found Drew McManus’ adaptistration.com website one of the best for comparing pay in US orchestras. It obtains its figures from the respective orchestras’ IRS Form 990 for each season. Unfortunately I can only find 2018/19 as the last reported year. As an example of basic pay, here are some numbers – first being the CEOs and second the Music Directors
NYPO: $1,455,594 – $816,375
Boston SO: $1,040,949 – $1,787,000
San Fran SO: $968,107 – $2,139,729
Cleveland: $952,954 – $1,485,371
LA Phil: $897,508 – $2,857,103
Chicago SO: $564,516 – $3,420,804
There is no CEO payment reported for Philadelphia as it did not have one for much of the 2018/19 season. Also some MDs are paid through corporations. I suspect JvZ did not work with the NYPO for the full season as he was completing his Dallas SO contract – but that’s just my guess.
Perks and bonuses wil be on top of basic pay and can include performance based pay, retirement contributions, executive health benefits plans, car allowance, vacation allowances, etc.
In terms of US Music Directors, therefore, the top earners that season were –
Chicago Symphony: $3,420,804
Los Angeles Philharmonic: $2,857,103
San Francisco Symphony: $2,139,720
Boston Symphony: $1,787,000
Philadelphia Orchestra: $1,672,167
But of course these do not represent total annual earnings. JvZ had Hong Kong and an orchestra in Europe. Yannick N-Z has the Met. Andris Nelsons has the Leipzig Gewandhaus and so on. All also have guest engageents with other orchestras. Only their agents and accountants will know exactly how much they earn – but it will be a lot!
Interesting timing on this news as their contract is up and musicians and management are supposedly nowhere close in negotiations. Their base salary should absolutely be just as high as Chicago, LA, Boston, but instead they are far behind, and in an incredibly expensive city. Principal players deserve to get what they can get, but those executive salaries are high when you consider current base is 154k. Still will be a coveted job, but management should do better.