I feel quite torn about the current standoff between the musicians and management at the San Francisco Symphony.
On the one hand, the musicians deserve to be paid well for being so very world-class. The wages should rank more or less alongside the other top-tier orchestras in the land and it’s right for the musicians’ union to push for that.
On the other hand, today’s canceled afternoon concert and the threat of the upcoming tour being canceled as a result of the musicians’ strike, gives me pause for thought.
And it’s not as if the players in the ensemble are struggling financially like the workers who sometimes protest outside grocery chain stores and corporate hotels for the pittance that they earn for cleaning rooms and stacking cans of beans. According to The San Francisco Examiner, currently, San Francisco musicians make a base pay of $141,700 while those at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra bring in $144,040. Players with the Los Angeles Philharmonic net $143,260.
Sounds pretty great to me, even if The Bay Area is one of the most expensive places to live on Earth.
Hmm.