2012 Compensation Reports: Music Directors

The 2009/10 season was one of transition at a number of orchestras, especially the larger budget organizations. Several groups were amidst music director changes and/or in the middle of interim leadership and without those larger figures, the cumulative average compensation was lower than the previous season. However, if you remove the Top 10 Total Expenditure groups from the mix from both seasons, it is a different story. WHAT’S NEW FOR THE …

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2012 Compensation Reports: Executives

The 2009/10 season was the first to suffer the brunt of the economic downturn but its impact on executive compensation varied wildly from one group to the next. This season experienced some of the largest gaps between compensation extremes with some executives enjoying modest to healthy increases while others experienced sizable cuts. But in the end, and for the first time since the 2000/01 season, the average orchestra executive earned less …

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What's a Performing Arts Executive Worth?

I had the pleasure last week of recording a segment for WQXR.org’s Conducting Business program with host Jeff Spurgeon on the topic of executive compensation within the performing arts field. In addition to myself was Debra Oppenheim, the co-founder of Phillips Oppenheim, an executive search firm that specializes in arts institutions. It was a terrific discussion that didn’t shy away from a number of really tough issues related to this topic.

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