Compensation Reports

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 …

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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 …

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Rounding out a year of increases in the 2010/11 season, the average concertmaster did see an uptick in compensation but at 0.87 percent, it pales in comparison to executives and music directors. Nonetheless, the season did witness an anomaly by way of a new all time high concertmaster annual compensation figure of $829,470; earned by Dallas Symphony concertmaster, Emanuel Borok, who retired after that season. The Data In order to provide …

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For the average music director, the 2010/11 season was a good year financially. Experiencing an average increase of 12.02 percent in compensation, conductors gained more than either executives or concertmasters; in fact, the average music director compensation reached an all time high of $480,037. Worth noting is the 2010/11 high earner, San Francisco Symphony’s music director Michael Tilson Thomas, experienced a staggering 33 percent increase in his compensation; although that still …

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