Symphony takes 30% pay cut
Management cites $ 40 million revenue loss due to COVID19
The musicians of the San Francisco Symphony will take a 30% pay cut for the remainder of 2020 under the terms of a newly ratified contract revision that went into effect Oct. 18.
The announcement on Monday, Nov. 2, by the Symphony management cited a cumulative revenue loss of $ 40 million by the end of the 202021 season as a result of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. All of the orchestra’s live performances through the end of the calendar year have been canceled.
The collective bargaining agree
ment between the Symphony board and the orchestra musicians, represented by the American Federation of Musicians, Local 6, runs through November 2022. It will include base pay increases for the musicians during 2021 and 2022, as well as other increases tied to possible growth in concert revenue. Violist David Gaudry, the chair of the musicians’ emergency negotiating committee, declined to comment on the revised agreement.
This is the latest in a series of costcutting measures instituted by the Symphony in the face of the coronavirus-induced financial crunch. An across-the-board pay cut in April was followed in June by a second round of reductions for all employees earning more than $ 75,000 annually, including incoming Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The Symphony is among many performing arts organizations, both locally and nationally, trying to cut operating costs to accommodate lost performance revenue.
In September, the musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra agreed to a modified contract with a 50% pay cut. Musicians with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony have all taken significant reductions in salary this year.