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Orchestra salaries make top-10 lists in national survey

Cleveland conductor's $1.2 million is 7th highest; concertmaster, administrator also near top of charts

By Elaine Guregian
Beacon Journal arts and culture writer

Everyone likes to peek at other people's paychecks.

Orchestra consultant Drew McManus offers a chance to look at the salaries of executive directors (administrators who oversee the orchestra's business side), music directors (conductors) and concertmasters (the first-chair violin player in each orchestra, who acts as second in command to the conductor onstage). McManus is reporting the results this week in his 2008 Orchestra Compensation Report, found at his culture blog, Adaptistration.com.

Since McManus drew his report from IRS Form 990 documents, the salaries are two seasons behind, giving details of the 2005-06 season. It's still fascinating stuff.

The largest U.S. orchestras fall under the category of International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM). The Cleveland Orchestra, one of the largest ICSOM orchestras in terms of budget ($42.5 million in 2005-06), paid its music director, Franz Welser-Moest, the seventh-highest rate in the country.

With IRS-reported compensation of more than $1.2 million in 2005-06, Welser-Moest ranked behind maestros Lorin Maazel (New York), Daniel Barenboim (Chicago), Christoph Eschenbach (Philadelphia), Michael Tilson Thomas (San Francisco), Esa-Pekka Salonen (Los Angeles) and James Levine (Boston), but ahead of Neeme Jarvi (New Jersey), David Robertson (St. Louis) and Osmo Vanska (Minnesota).

For the 2005-06 season, the Cleveland Orchestra's concertmaster, William Preucil, made more than $396,000 according to the report, making him the fifth-highest-paid concertmaster in the U.S. (San Francisco, New York, Boston and Los Angeles paid more; Philadelphia, Chicago and Pittsburgh followed Cleveland.)

Cleveland was also near the top of the charts with its executive director pay. Cleveland's Gary Hanson reportedly made more than $513,000, putting him third in the country, behind Los Angeles' Deborah Borda ($1.15 million) and New York's Zarin Mehta ($776,000).

Among the executive directors for smaller orchestras, whose umbrella group is known as the Regional Orchestra Players Association (ROPA), executive directors at two Ohio ROPA orchestras placed in the top 10. Toledo's executive director was first, paid more than $235,000, and Dayton's was fifth.

Where did the Akron Symphony rank? For most of the 2005-06 season, this ROPA organization had an interim executive director, Bill Glaeser. Margo Snider followed Glaeser in May 2006. The pay in Akron in 2005-06 was $72,800 — considerably less than the top Toledo pay. Then again, Toledo's budget of $14 million was significantly bigger than most ROPA ensembles, including Akron's, at $1.5 million.

Akron Symphony audiences will remember that the 2005-06 season was a year of guest conductors auditioning to be the next music director, so there will not be a meaningful salary figure for that position in the report.

McManus is releasing full reports daily, with salaries for ICSOM executives named on Monday, ICSOM music directors today, ROPA executive directors on Wednesday, ROPA music directors on Thursday and concertmasters on Friday. Visit http://www.adaptistration.com.


Elaine Guregian can be reached at 330-996-3574 or eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com

Everyone likes to peek at other people's paychecks.

Get the full article here.


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