Re: Re: Re: Re: A nice symphony story


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Posted by Rick Denney on May 29, 2001 at 11:00:58:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: A nice symphony story posted by Two for one? on May 29, 2001 at 10:31:00:

I stand by the notion that average 55-year-old orchestral trumpeters make about twice as much as average entry-level trumpeters in orchestras that hire entry-level musicians. But they won't be in the same orchestras--if they are as good as the kids were at that age, they will have moved up.

But still, the best person gets the work. That's the way it should be, it seems to me.

On the larger issue: As long as there are ten high-quality musicians for every one job, low pay and poor job security will be the norm.

The solution is to find a way to make orchestral music relevant again, so that normal people will pay for it. Orchestras who are trying to get the best talent for the available resources are not the problem--they are a natural reaction to the problem.

I'm 43, and I feel the age bias in my high-technology industry. The younger computer professionals just don't think that I could know as much about their narrow specialty as they do. They are right. But I keep my position because I maintain a superior understanding, based on progressive experience, of how to effectively use not only my skill, but theirs as well. I work at this; it isn't easy and I have to routinely justify my higher rate.

If I were an older professional musician, my response to the younger players' ability to play higher and faster would be to be so much more musical than they that the music director cannot bear the thought of me leaving. If I can't do that, then it's time for a new profession. I'm sorry to sound so harsh, but to retire as an old orchestral musician, you have to stay valuable to the organization. And it isn't just true of musicians--most people who work live with this pressure daily. If I lose my backlog of customers willing to pay my rate for consulting--I'm unemployed. It's as simple as that.

Rick "who has been unemployed before" Denney


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