Who Is The Highest Paid Music Director In The USA? Really!

[stenka razin]

List of the top six below:

1 Jaap Van Zweden, Dallas, $5m

2 Riccardio Muti, Chicago Symphony $2,309,837

3 Christoph Eschenbach, NSO, $2,274,151

4 Alan Gilbert, NY, $1,751,570

5 Gustavo Dudamel, LA Phil, $1,661,493

6 David Robertson, St Louis Symphony $1,043,313

- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2016/06/the-most- ... 9ODlw.dpuf

Regards,
Mel


Comments, please.

[some guy]

Peanuts.

I kept telling these guys, when they were young, to go into sports. But did they listen to me?

Nah.

[IcedNote]

I was surprised not to see MTT near the top...and then realized that whoever made that Top 6 simply missed him.

-G

[maestrob]

Jaap van Zweden surprised me: I had no idea that Dallas paid so much. He sure has worked wonders with that group judging by recent recordings: I can't wait for him to get started in NY.

[stenka razin]

Jaap van Zweden surprised me: I had no idea that Dallas paid so much. He sure has worked wonders with that group judging by recent recordings: I can't wait for him to get started in NY.

Will maestro van Zweden ask for more or will he accept less In NY? Why is he leaving Dallas? How is the NYP supposed to pay him the way Dallas is? I don't get his salary in Dallas. Is he a sports figure in Dallas, too..........


Regards,
Mel

[John F]

The $5 million for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's music director in 2013-14 is not believable. According to the same source that Norman Lebrecht (NB) gives for these numbers, Drew McManus, he received $1,505,052 for 2012-13.

And indeed the number is misleading. According to Denise McGovern, the orchestra's Director of Communications, "The Music Director’s salary for 2013 was $1,788,997, with the bulk of the remainder being a signing bonus for a long-term contract extension executed in 2013. The long-term contract extension now goes through the 20/21 season and includes three years as conductor laureate." In other words, it did not apply to the 2013-14 season but to the next seven seasons, four as music director and three as laureate. This was before the New York Philharmonic signed him.

http://www.adaptistration.com/blog/2016 ... directors/

Why the Dallas Symphony thought it right and proper to pay such a huge signing bonus for a little known conductor who was concurrently music director of two other orchestras, and who was already being paid more than the music director of the New York Philharmonic, would be for them to explain. Neither McManus nor Lebrecht does.

[maestrob]

Jaap van Zweden surprised me: I had no idea that Dallas paid so much. He sure has worked wonders with that group judging by recent recordings: I can't wait for him to get started in NY.

Will maestro van Zweden ask for more or will he accept less In NY? Why is he leaving Dallas? How is the NYP supposed to pay him the way Dallas is? I don't get his salary in Dallas. Is he a sports figure in Dallas, too..........


Regards,
Mel

The prestige of working with NY far outweighs Dallas's meager reputation, that's for sure. I agree with JohnF that the $5 million figure is suspect, particularly in this age of mediocre oil prices.

[jbuck919]

Jaap van Zweden surprised me: I had no idea that Dallas paid so much. He sure has worked wonders with that group judging by recent recordings: I can't wait for him to get started in NY.

Will maestro van Zweden ask for more or will he accept less In NY? Why is he leaving Dallas? How is the NYP supposed to pay him the way Dallas is? I don't get his salary in Dallas. Is he a sports figure in Dallas, too..........


Regards,
Mel

The prestige of working with NY far outweighs Dallas's meager reputation, that's for sure. I agree with JohnF that the $5 million figure is suspect, particularly in this age of mediocre oil prices.

I have no additional info on his salary in Dallas, a ridiculously inferior position for the new director of the NY Philharmonic, but I will say that no normal human will accept a cut in salary for the sake of a superior job. If they threw in a lavish Manhattan apartment, a free limo, etc. then things might be different.

[maestrob]

JohnB:

Then how does the MET constantly get singers to sing there for less than they can earn in Europe? Really!

[John F]

It will be interesting to see if this continues now that James Levine is withdrawing from the scene. During the '80s and '90s I heard that working with him was a special incentive for singers. Of course the Met remains one of the most prestigious houses in the world, a feature of any top singer's resume (though quite a few never sang here, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau among them), but whether that will still translate into lower fees for top singers we will have to see.

Another organization from which performers have always accepted nominal fees is the Bayreuth Festival. This was more striking when the performers were more famous; nowadays, only some of the conductors have international reputations when they come to Bayreuth. And even they have not gone as far as Toscanini who conducted at Bayreuth for no fee at all.