New deal: San Fran symphony pay will start at $165,000 a year
OrchestrasJanos Gereben has received details of the current pay offer:
The SFS administration describes its latest proposal as a “three-year contract that keeps the San Francisco Symphony among the top three highest-compensated orchestras in the United States. Members of the orchestra are currently compensated at a minimum salary that is already higher than those in Boston and New York — other cities with a very high cost of living.”…
The minimum-salary figure provided by the administration as part of its proposal: $165,000 in the first fiscal year, with multiyear increases to more than $177,000 by the end of the contract.
Another figure is “average annual contractual compensation, inclusive of minimum base salary, contractual overscale, seniority, and other forms of compensation,” here offered at “more than $193,000 in the first fiscal year, with multiyear increases to more than $203,000 by the end of the proposed contract.”
Other components of noncontractual compensation bring the total average Symphony musician salary under the proposal to more than $213,000, with multiyear increases to more than $229,000.
Read on here.
Nice work if you can get it!
Nice work if you deserve it.
And the C.E.O. makes $900,000. Now THAT is nice work… if you can get it!
For 2021, it was $968K…that’s closer to $1M.
You mean, “Nice work if you’re good enough to get it.”
165k a year (pre-tax, mind you, in one of the highest-tax states) to step over drugs addicts and psychotic homeless in feces encrusted streets in a failed, filthy Democrat hell-scape? No thanks. Then again, I love it when Dems have to live the results of their values.
So where do you live?….and when did this become political…strangely perverse comment in a musical column…
He/she/it is a hardcore Trumper who posts this way in every thread they participate in.
So many downvotes. Absolute truth. Go visit if you don’t believe him. Better yet, go live there for a while.
Mr. Rand: Who knew that poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, and unemployment existed only in blue states, with red states a wonderland of idyllic innocence and prosperity? Shocking!
Oh… I never suggested such. Every red state is plagued with blue cities. That said, San Francisco is indeed a remarkable accomplishment for the Left – the most beautiful city in a paradise of a state, brought to complete, feces encrusted ruin by Progressive policy. The least you could do is own the results of your values.
The amount of rent cities, delipitated houses, drug needles and human excrement in the streets—no thanks . Keep the 165k pre tax
Heard the symphony last night on a visit, SF is still a beautiful city, beautiful weather, although very high cost of living. The orchestra was fab and the homeless situation is no worse than most other large cities in the US. I know, I live in another one myself. And where do YOU live? Your comments are consistently tiresome.
This is mgts’. PR posting – not agreed to by Local 6 and the SFS musicians. Read the whole article.
The headline is misleading. Musicians and management are in negotiations; there is no firm deal by any means. Musicians contend that management’s proposed minimum salary is over $15,000 per year less than that set forth in the contract that expired this past November. Viewers need to read the linked article from Classical Voice to fully understand the complexities of these negotiations.
You missed the story here. The orchestra says these are misleading figures and management is demanding pay cuts. Negotiations have broken down and orchestra is on cusp of strike before European tour next month. Total debacle including musicians protest from stage last night and both sides giving leaflets to arriving audience.
But the program was excellent. Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Aimard was riveting, and EPS’s Selections from Romeo & Juliet brought down the house. We are truly fortunate to have this orchestra as a part of the Bay Area’s cultural offerings.
Not funded by taxpayer dollars, but by the generosity of donors and some ticket revenue. Much less parasitic than the European classical music model that WE the taxpayers have to pay for, but that we started to rebel against.
Please define ‘we’. I guess you live in Europe as I do.
This interesting piece is quite old, and I don’t have any means to check the details, but assuming it is still valid today.
https://orchestramanagement.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/berlin-philharmonic-a-most-successful-business-model/#:~:text=Ticket%20sales%2C%20hall%20rentals%2C%20merchandizing,34%20Mio%20Euro%20per%20year.
Basically the BPO cost to the city of Berlin (i.e the taxpayesrs, as you and me) 15 Mio. Euro per year. The rest, to cover the annual 34 Mo Eur budget, comes from ticket sales, sponsors etc.
So if I lived in Berlin (around 3.5 Mo people) I would be more than happy to know that the exorbitant amount of 4 eur/ year of my taxes go to the BPO.
Real parassites these BPO players…
When they begin calling the public funding of the arts „parasitic“ you know they lost the plot of what makes being human meaningful.
Go eat your (donated) money and also put it into your brain. Then have a nice life.
That model is far more advanced than the U.S. approach – and in part explains the greater resilience of classical music in Europe.
Im sure its that, and nothing to do with legacy culture and such…
Pray ticket prices and sales can keep pace.
Quote from high school band teacher: “Playing the Symphonie Espagnole well is pretty good for a junior in high school, but almost no one can make a living on the violin.” Thanks for the encouragement!
My piano teacher told 10th grade me… “If you’re not planning to be a piano teacher, then don’t bother with all that theory & classical stuff; let’s just have fun.” All she wanted to “teach” was show tunes and completely downplayed a career or even a dream of being a professional pianist.
In college, I completely regretted dropping classical theory & practice when I walked past the music block where I’d overhear the fine arts students practicing.
Problem sonny is that today there are a lot of 6th graders who can play the Lalo pretty well…..
In the seventies, in my district, it was uncommon to be playing anything of that sort. Even in the regional honor orchestra covering many high schools, not a given. So what has changed?
Rich corporate capitalist fat-cats, the lot of ’em. This is why the Americans need a more progressive tax code.
If you think that’s high, consider the minimum and average pay for players for the Giants, A’s, Forty-Niners, and Warriors.
All of which have “performance venues” that accommodate about 40 times as many ticket buyers. And television broadcast revenue. Yes, let’s compare the orchestra industry with the big professional sports leagues.
They actually earn it.
They should build a hi-rise for their musicians to live in instead of having to compensate them for the high cost of rent.
A few blocks form symphony hall.
Build it big enough to rent half to civilians and it would be a money maker.
“rent half to civilians”??? Unless you raised your right hand to volunteer in the military, you are all civilians. Orchestra membership does not entitle you to some special status, nor does it subject you to the whims of the military industrial complex.
Believe it or not some of the musicians still want the American dream of owning their own home, maybe living in the suburbs with a partner and kids, and the income to support that. Not living in employer owned barracks.
If they love the long commute, they can do that but I suspect many would opt for the subsidized company digs and the extra hours to practice, teach or otherwise enjoy life.
Ha ha! The majority of SFS musicians are long-time members, with 30 or more years of service. Two members joined in 1977! They bought their homes decades ago. But the Principal Cellist just joined last year. He’s renting no doubt.
Considering the context of their demands, Cleveland is still the highest paid orchestra.
Yes, but they have to live in Ohio.
MacroV: You make that sound like a bad thing!
Hallucinating, what has happened to salaries and the cost of living in America.
A clarification: The remark made about almost no one being able to make a living on the violin was over 45 years ago. The remark about encouragement was thus meant as sarcasm. It’s a little late now.
Think most non musicians believe this. Offensive as if one plays well can make a very good living indeed. Ignorance abounds as ever, this shall ever be!
Lot of unions to work with. Doesn’t seem like a fun job if you ask me. Give in to one and the rest will expect more.
But if the endowment is increasing, why not share it with the workers?
Totally irresponsible headline. It’s not a “deal”, it’s an “offer” from management, and an unverified “leak”, at best.
First of all, this is not very high compensation given the cost of living in San Francisco — one of the most expensive cities in the US. It is much lower compensation than for instance orchestras such as Cleveland or Chicago, which have a much lower cost of living and yet relatively high salaries. The cost of living point being made by management is highly misleading, as it relies on sheer numbers while conveniently and carefully failing to disclose the actual economic reality behind such numbers.
Second, the “averages” argument, which is routinely touted whenever a labor dispute might be on the horizon, is another highly misleading point made by management. Basically it computes an average taking into account the highest paid (and usually titled) members of the orchestra and then attempts to portray such average as representative for the entire orchestra. It is an insult to people’s intelligence, nothing less.
It has always been interesting to me how top administrators in these organizations are somehow shielded from the very sacrifices they demand from their employees — from those who actually are responsible for the product being sold and whose quality work makes the very organization these administrators run sustainable in the long run (and, one could easily argue, ensures these administrators still have a job to come to). You probably won’t see top management here lead by example and take, say, a 40% pay cut in order to help the very organization they are running stay afloat. 40% off 900K would still seem somehow manageable financially for most people, even in a city such as SF. If the argument being made is that cuts are necessary, and that such cuts are not as a reflection of the quality of the work being produced, but simply unavoidable out of economic necessity, why should administrators not do their share and lead by example in clear and significant fashion? The fact that they won’t shows their argument to be simply disingenuous and highly manipulative. It seems the main qualifications of top admin these days lies in sheer rhetoric and sophistry, as well as in a callous capacity for manipulating public opinion and misleading their own donor base. Absolutely shameful — but this story is just another avatar of the law of eternal return, as it keeps coming back again and again, and sadly is no big surprise.
The CEO in 2021 was Mark Hanson; which is where the $900K figure comes from the 990 from that year. Spivey was recently promoted from within and surely didn’t require $900K. Check your facts.
I can only go by what SFS lists on their own website. I would surmise though that $165K, which is being touted as a paragon of fairness and generosity, is but a fraction of the current CEO’s salary. Do you understand the amount of talent and work it takes to make it into an orchestra of the caliber of the San Francisco Symphony? These musicians are among the very best in the entire world. Not only have they worked very hard for decades, but they also have an innate talent and ability which no amount of work could possibly overcome if one doesn’t have it to begin with. Again, if management’s argument is based on need and not on merit — in other words, the musicians would deserve more, but the money allegedly just isn’t there — the entire administration (not just the CEO) should be leading by example and publicly volunteer sizable pay cuts in order to support their argument in the eyes of public opinion. If they don’t (and I can guarantee you they won’t) they simply have no leg to stand on and are simply playing the public’s gullibility.
Spivey’s figure is a bit less than Hanson (who took the money and ran) but still the better part of a million.
Where is that info? How do you know? This guy has incredible experience…and is a former musician, as his wife. You think he wouldn’t be trying to make the most for the orchestra musicians??
Chicago REQUIRES to be the highest paid.