Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
New for the 2014 Orchestra Compensation Review is the Big Picture overview of all stakeholder compensation. For the past two years, this has been one of the most requested features and I’m happy to provide it as part of this year’s reports. Consequently, in order to make room for all of the data, this post has to be published in a full page layout; it’s just that big… 13 Year Trends …
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 $654,679 in 2011/12; likewise, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster went from $507,063 in 2010/11 to $560,010 …
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 their earnings increase by at least 2.46 percent. The Data In order to provide information that …
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, Indianapolis, and St. Paul. Nonetheless, it was a great year for overall executive compensation with the average …
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 compensation for each stakeholder group increased, with increases among the executive class outpacing other stakeholders by …