Although the average concertmaster in the list of those reported experienced an average increase of 3.69 percent, that figure was skewed a bit by a handful of very large increases among a few of the top earners. For example, The New York Philharmonic’s concertmaster went from earning a reported $517,432 in the 2010/11 season to

For the average music director, the 2011/12 season was a good year financially and from a historical perspective, it was the first time that average annual compensation broke the half-million threshold ($517,649 to be precise). Although a few high profile positions left vacant brought the average increase down from previous seasons, most music directors saw

By many measures, at least non-artistically speaking, the 2011/12 season was one many within the field were happy to put behind them. Labor disputes in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Louisville were beginning to settle down but in Minnesota, the mother of all disputes (so far) was just getting under way with additional nastiness in store at Atlanta,

Much like the 2013 reports, this year’s compensation reports are all about context. For instance, the data covers compensation for the 2011/12 season, which managed to increase the amount of already record breaking austerity driven conflict between stakeholders. Brush fires turned into firestorms but in a turn that might be best characterized as puzzling, average