Symphonic Wage Charts 2006-2007

[Nonsense Eliminator]

There have been a number of recent threads discussing orchestra salaries, so I decided to spend a couple of minutes and compile a more up-to-date list from the wage charts which are published by the AFM each year. (The fact that I have them in electronic form helps!) I've included all ICSOM, ROPA, and OCSM orchestras which list a minimum annual section base salary -- this excludes three OCSM orchestras (Hamilton, Regina, and Saskatoon) and about fifty ROPA orchestras. The orchestras are listed together in alphabetical order. I make no warranties about the accuracy of my cut-and-paste job, so don't go basing your life on these numbers! All figures are in local dollars, which at the moment doesn't really make much difference because the Canadian and US dollars are basically at par.

I compiled a similar list on Trumpet Herald in 2003, using the wage charts for 2001-02. You can see that post here, if you want to compare:

http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=61828

(Just to be difficult, I organized that list by player conference. Maybe in five more years I'll arrange it by latitude or something. Of course, the biggest difference for me is that the Canadian dollar used to be worth only 65 cents US!)

Principal fees vary by orchestra, but tend to be in the range of 25-50% over base scale, sometimes significantly more in larger orchestras. Many orchestras, particularly large ones, also pay assistant or associate principal premiums. The flip side of this is that in some smaller orchestras, there are no trumpets in the core orchestra, so these numbers may not always apply to the trumpet positions. I have rounded a couple of figures to the nearest dollar because I didn't like the way the cents made the chart look, although since tabs don't seem to work properly it looks like the dog's breakfast anyhow. Worth exactly what you paid for it!

Alabama Symphony...........................$34,494
Atlanta Symphony..............................$74,100
Baltimore Symphony..........................$70,000
Boston Symphony.............................$118,040
Buffalo Philharmonic...........................$40,209
Calgary Philharmonic .........................$35,526
California Symphony............................$3,472
Canadian Opera Company Orchestra....$23,999
Charleston Symphony ........................$20,903
Charlotte Symphony...........................$36,000
Chicago Lyric Opera ...........................$54,210
Chicago Symphony...........................$111,670
Cincinnati Symphony..........................$88,260
Cleveland Orchestra.........................$107,640
Colorado Springs Philharmonic..............$6,823
Colorado Symphony...........................$44,333
Columbus Symphony..........................$54,372
Dallas Opera......................................$15,307
Dallas Symphony...............................$77,376
Detroit Symphony..............................$98,800
Edmonton Symphony.........................$40,947
Florida Orchestra...............................$30,090
Florida West Coast Symphony.............$27,000
Fort Wayne Philharmonic....................$23,659
Fort Worth Symphony........................$55,182
Grand Rapids Symphony....................$35,208
Grant Park Symphony ........................$10,850
Hartford Symphony............................$21,840
Honolulu Symphony............................$26,800
Houston Symphony.............................$70,805
Indianapolis Symphony.......................$72,800
Jacksonville Symphony.......................$38,036
Kalamazoo Symphony........................$20,750
Kansas City Symphony........................$39,359
Kennedy Center Orchestra...................$57,840
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.............$21,817
Knoxville Symphony...........................$23,477
Los Angeles Philharmonic...................$117,520
Louisville Orchestra.............................$25,575
Memphis Symphony............................$23,951
Metropolitan Opera............................$125,320
Milwaukee Symphony..........................$54,210
Minnesota Orchestra............................$90,168
Nashville Symphony............................$42,183
National Arts Centre Orchestra.............$76,866
National Ballet Orchestra.....................$20,760
National Symphony...........................$103,792
New Jersey Symphony........................$41,360
New Mexico Symphony.......................$19,944
New York City Ballet Orchestra............$64,000
New York City Opera...........................$47,850
New York Philharmonic......................$112,060
North Carolina Symphony....................$47,236
Omaha Symphony..............................$29,177
Orchestra London...............................$23,223
Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal......$13,254
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal....$66,976
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec......$29,076
Oregon Symphony..............................$40,941
Philadelphia Orchestra.......................$114,400
Phoenix Symphony.............................$35,877
Pittsburgh Symphony..........................$99,501
Richmond Symphony..........................$29,415
Rochester Philharmonic.......................$37,630
Saint Louis Symphony .........................$75,000
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra..............$63,950
San Antonio Symphony.......................$26,000
San Diego Symphony..........................$46,412
San Francisco Ballet............................$41,959
San Francisco Opera...........................$66,178
San Francisco Symphony...................$114,400
Shreveport Symphony.........................$12,693
Spokane Symphony............................$14,058
Symphony Nova Scotia........................$24,486
Syracuse Symphony...........................$30,282
Thunder Bay Symphony......................$15,206
Toledo Symphony...............................$24,898
Toronto Symphony .............................$68,502
Utah Symphony..................................$57,720
Vancouver Symphony..........................$36,075
Victoria Symphony..............................$22,554
Virginia Symphony..............................$24,753
Windsor Symphony.............................$22,000
Winnipeg Symphony............................$32,476
_________________
Richard Sandals
NBO

[pelirrojo173]

Awesome work - thanks!

[pfeifela]

That's grat work. Really interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post - much appreciated.
_________________
Larry Pfeifer

[Derek Reaban]

Richard,

Based on some numbers that you posted from a post called Major, Regional, Metropolitan Orchestra Definitions back in April 2004, I sorted that data decreasing based on salary. The data was from the 1999 / 2000 timeframe.

Just for comparison, I put your new numbers against that older data to show how much salaries have increased. The percent change is total percentage for the 7 year period, not an annual percentage.

No.___Salary (06-07)__Salary (99-00)__%Change__Orchestra
1_____$125,320________$104,276_________20.2%______Metropolitan Opera
2_____$118,040________$95,420__________23.7%______Boston Symphony
3_____$117,520________$94,900__________23.8%______Los Angeles Philharmonic
4_____$114,400________$95,420__________19.9%______Philadelphia Orchestra
5_____$112,060________$95,940__________16.8%______New York Philharmonic
6_____$111,670________$95,940__________16.4%______Chicago Symphony
7_____$107,640________$92,820__________16.0%______Cleveland Orchestra
8_____$103,792________$86,060__________20.6%______National Symphony
9_____$98,800_________$85,800__________15.2%______Detroit Symphony
10____$90,168_________$83,410__________8.1%_______Minnesota Orchestra
11____$88,260_________$82,550__________6.9%_______Cincinnati Symphony
12____$77,376_________$70,720__________9.4%_______Dallas Symphony
13____$75,000_________$73,645__________1.8%_______Saint Louis Symphony
14____$74,100_________$63,440__________16.8%______Atlanta Symphony
15____$72,800_________$65,000__________12.0%______Indianapolis Symphony
16____$70,000_________$70,720__________(1.0%)_____Baltimore Symphony
17____$57,720_________$54,600__________5.7%_______Utah Symphony
18____$54,210_________$55,748__________(2.8%)_____Milwaukee Symphony
19____$41,360_________$38,772__________6.7%_______New Jersey Symphony
20____$40,941_________$41,125__________(0.4%)_____Oregon Symphony


Canadian Orchestras (Canadian Dollars):
1_____$76,866_________$64,676__________18.8%______National Arts Centre Orchestra
2_____$68,502_________$50,243__________36.3%______Toronto Symphony
3_____$66,976_________$60,996__________9.8%_______Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal


Very interesting! Thanks for posting this updated information.

NOTE: This Top 20 list was originally based on the budget of orchestras (from the 1999-2000 data). For some reason the Pittsburgh Symphony didn't show up, but they would clearly be on this list in the Number 9 position at $99,501. Same with the San Francisco Symphony which would be tied in the Number 4 position with $114,400. Also some other groups would be here, i.e. New York City Ballet at $64,000, but it would be a lot of work for me to go through this (I don't have it electroncially like Richard).
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest