Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

San Francisco Symphony

An Updated Look At Top-Tier Musician Compensation 2016

Thu, Sep 9, 2016
Currently, two of the top eight orchestras with the highest base musician annual salary are negotiating new collective bargaining agreements: National Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra. Interestingly enough, both of these ensembles are in positions where the outcome of those negotiations will likely have a larger impact on their future competitiveness than some of the upcoming

Let’s Take A Look At Big Eight Musician Compensation

Tue, Dec 12, 2015
Big 8 Base Musician Salary
Now that Cleveland has settled, we can begin to get a sense for how base musician compensation compares across the highest tier of big budget orchestras, which we’ll call The Big Eight (Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, LA, National, New York, Philly, and San Francisco). Granted, we’ll be updating this chart with Cleveland’s figures once that data

Alex Ross Couldn’t Be More Right

Wed, Nov 11, 2013
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In an 11/25/2013 article from The New Yorker, the ever sharp Alex Ross vents some frustration toward the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA) leadership, the growing difficulty of mid and smaller budgets org to pull funding from the name brand institutions, and the ennui that is political concerns about culture. Ross doesn’t mince words and goes

A Difference Of Opinions In San Francisco

Tue, Apr 4, 2013
Following up on yesterday’s post about the assertions made in a San Francisco Symphony (SFS) musicians’ statement that the SFS attribute their decision to go on strike due, in part, to ineptitude on the part of the board’s negotiation team. I contacted SFS Director of Communications, Oliver Theil, to see if the SFS had any

Ratified But Unresolved In San Fran?

Mon, Apr 4, 2013
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Over the weekend, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (SFS) and its musicians finally wrapped up the contentious labor dispute that led to a strike and tour cancellation. Details of the agreement have been trickling out in edited press release format but any meaningful analysis won’t be possible until the complete agreement is made public. Nonetheless,