Adaptistration releases 2011 reports on pay for music directors, orchestra executives
Given all the discussion in this country about executive salaries and bonuses in the corporate world, it's a particularly good time to look at the situation in the symphony orchestra portion of the nonprofit sector.
Thanks to Drew McManus' invaulable orchestral watchdog site Adaptistration, which keeps tabs on such things so efficiently that some of us get too lazy to do the digging ourselves, you can see what the financial picture looks like here in Baltimore and across the country.
People on the podium are still doing quite well, regardless of the recession, according to ...
the 2011 Compensation Reports: Music Directors, released Wednesday -- the data comes from the 2008-2009 season (it typically takes a couple years for public record information from orchestras to make it into the open).
From my quick glance, it looks like a lot of music directors of the biggest orchestras are getting more or less 10 times the base salary of the players. That includes the Baltimore Symphony's Marin Alsop, whose compensation was reported to be $711,626 (base pay for BSO players, $78,500).
At a time when private sector CEOs are bringing home 400 times the average wage of their workers, the symphony scene doesn't seem out of line -- not that rank-and-file musicians would necessarily agree, of course.
As for orchestra executives, that picture is quite varied. Given the sad state some orchestras are in financially, I well imagine that compensation on the management side is a particularly sore issue for players -- the Adaptistration report on executives, released Tuesday, shows those salaries rose on average about five percent over the previous year.
Baltimore Symphony CEO Paul Meecham's salary is reported at $294,481. The CEO's at the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics continue to lead the pack with $1 million-plus compensation packages.
Comments
Your article on compensation of Alsop & Meechem was interesting. It would be nice to have comparisons to other comparable orchestras. (e.g., Cincinnatti )
Just click on the links and you can compare dozens of orchestras. TS
Posted by: Tom Spence | June 23, 2011 5:25 PM