[Note that because of the slow release of such information, these figures - just published - are actually two years old.] Barenboim, Maazel top $2 million salary mark By John von Rhein Tribune music critic July 2, 2007 In what is believed to be a historic first, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Daniel Barenboim was one of two American symphony music directors to earn more than $2 million in annual compensation in the 2004-05 season, according to an industry blog. Barenboim, who has since departed, earned $2,044,679 as music director of the CSO that season, according to Drew McManus on his classical music industry blog, Adaptistration. Barenboim was nudged from being top wage-earner at a U.S. orchestra by the New York Philharmonic's Lorin Maazel, who was paid $2,638,940, according to McManus. This is believed to be the first time a music director at an American orchestra has topped the $2 million salary mark. The CSO Monday confirmed the Barenboim figure, which included solo performances with the orchestra. The music director salaries nationwide were taken from Form 990s filed with the IRS by symphony orchestras for 2004-2005 and are the most recent to be made public. Salary figures do not necessarily reflect compensation for outside performances or activities. Here, according to McManus, are all music directors in America who made more than $1 million in 2004-05, in descending order: Maazel; Barenboim; the San Francisco Symphony's Michael Tilson Thomas, $1,636,218; the Boston Symphony's James Levine, $1,592,000; the Philadelphia Orchestra's Christoph Eschenbach, $1,546,000; the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Esa-Pekka Salonen, $1,339,500; and the Cleveland Orchestra's Franz Welser-Most, $1,232,515. Also, about executive salaries (from other sources): Even though the overall average for executive compensation slipped, that didn't prevent those at the top of the list from setting new compensation benchmarks. Here's where the money went in 2004-2005: 1. Los Angeles Philharmonic's Deborah Borda - $1,325,542 (on an $80m budget) 2. New York Philharmonic's Zarin Mehta - $767,807 ($51m) 3. Cleveland Orchestra's Gary Hanson - $559,227 ($43m) 4. Cincinnati Symphony's Steven Monder - $530,383 ($34.7m) 5. Boston Symphony's Mark Volpe - $476,122 ($73m) 6. Atlanta Symphony's Allison Vulgamore - $443,812 ($29m) 7. San Francisco Symphony's Brent Assink/* */*//*- $406,000 ($52.5m) Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask] *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html