ENO office worker earns twice as much as orchestral players

ENO office worker earns twice as much as orchestral players

Opera

norman lebrecht

October 30, 2024

The latest job vacancy at English National Opera – head of a  team of Executive Assistants – is to be paid £50-55,000 p.a. with plenty of extras and expenses.

There are string players in the ENO orchestra who earns less than half that amount.

Apply here.

Comments

  • oui says:

    good thing I re-trained

  • J says:

    If you’re suggesting that string players in the orchestra are working *full-time* in London for £25,000, then said musicians are fools for working for that amount.

  • V.Lind says:

    “A team of Executive Assistants”? EAs to whom?

    The scent of bureaucracy is potent.

  • Anthony Sayer says:

    Is anyone surprised? Really?

  • MWnyc says:

    The Executive Assistant position is full-time, isn’t it? And aren’t ENO’s orchestra musicians contracted per performance, or at least per production?

    • Opera Goer says:

      No they aren’t. Until recently they were also employed full-time. But after a “fire and rehire” carried out by the management, they are now only contracted for a fraction of the year.

  • Secret ex singer says:

    Not true. All the information is on line. A tutti contract for 7 months (about 100 days of work) is worth over £28k, and leaves the player able to find other employment. Extras are also payable by ENO and expenses refundable.

    A senior PA – £50k is the market rate – is a full-time gig. Expenses are not extras. They are refunds of necessary costs incurred.

  • Alexander Hall says:

    A glance at any ENO programme will enlighten visitors as to the value of some of its staff. As part of its Executive Office it employs a Director of People, a People Business Partner, a People Administrator and a People Assistant. Whatever happened to plain and simple HR?

  • Susan P says:

    Crazy. Priorities are totally wrong.

  • Kiara Argenta says:

    Just depressing. There are some theatres where job titles such as Audience Development Analyst and Individual Giving Officer exist. One set of minutes from a meeting I found said; ‘there will be a meeting on Tuesday at 13.00 to discuss the date of the next meeting’.
    I kid you not.

  • Dragonetti says:

    ‘Twas ever thus and always will be. Music is a profession which seems on the one hand to be held in a certain amount of awe by other people, but also one which they just can’t seem to understand. We all know how long it takes to learn to play to a reasonable professional standard and then maintain said standard, to say nothing of the expense of tuition, instrument purchase and so on.
    How though does one put a value on it without being priced out of a competitive market? It never ceased to amaze me that people are willing to come to a concert because they admire those skills and probably could never rise to that standard themselves. Those same folk would blanch in horror if I quoted them a price to play in a concert or give lessons.
    And yet, because I couldn’t do it myself, I didn’t blink at the fee charged to fix my washing machine. It was something I didn’t feel competent to do so I paid a specialist. His fee for an hour’s work was about £60 less than I would expect for a freelance engagement with an afternoon rehearsal and an evening concert.
    Hmmmm….

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