Year: 2020

The Difference Between Per-Service and Salary-Based Musicians

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Following yesterday’s article that referenced per-service and salary-based musician employment, a number of readers reached out asking about the difference. To that end, I’m certainly guilty of assuming too much from time to time and this is decidedly one of those issues that can be very confusing if you aren’t already familiar with the distinction. What’s A Service? Within the context of professional orchestras, a service typically consists of one rehearsal …

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Upcoming Stress Tests For Musician Governance

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“Never let a good crisis go to waste” is one of those quotes that comes as a razor-sharp double-edged sword. It’s been crossing my mind as of late with regard to some of the larger challenges orchestra musicians are likely to face in Covid era negotiations. First off, there are going to be no shortage of legitimate reasons why budgets will be stressed but history is full of examples where executive …

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Embracing Innovation Over Hibernation

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There’s a fabulous piece making the rounds written by Seth Pinsky that was originally published in the 6/13/2020 edition of cnn.com. Pinsky, the former head of New York’s Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Bloomberg and the CEO of the 92nd Street Y, provides the cultural sector with exactly the right advice at exactly the right time. Now that we’re starting to see the very beginnings of cancellations from larger budget orchestras …

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State Of Employment Poll & Review June 15 – 21

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After 10 weeks of tracking data, we’re beginning to see administrators and per-service musicians settle into consistent employment status ratios while salaried musicians continue to shift from one week to the next. Currently, approximately 27 percent of respondents across all stakeholder groups indicated they are still working and/or being paid their regular salary. Weekly Report For the third consecutive week, responses from Administrators were steady. There’s a nearly equal division between …

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The 2020 Orchestra Compensation Reports Are On The Way

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Just a quick note today to say that in the wake of receiving several messages from readers asking if the orchestra compensation reports are coming soon, I wanted to post an update to confirm they are indeed on the way. Having said that, they may be a week later than usual but one way or another you can expect them either the week of June 22 – 26 or June 29 …

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