Rick Mabry responds to his own hyperbole...

I should let it drop, and should never have aired it in the first place,
but in the interest of accuracy, I have a slight correction and update
to the following:

> There are, at present, a luckier "core" of 24 players (down
> from 30) who are paid a whopping $12K per year for their symphony playing.
> The rest are paid "per service".  This amounts to $30-60 for each of four
> or five "services" for each of the 8 or 9 monthly symphonies, and the
> occasional extra pops condert or whatever.  I am told that you can, if you
> play all that the symphony offers, haul in a hefty $3600 per year. I
> checked the numbers above --- no typos.

The per-service amount is actually "$60.15 per concert or rehearsal,
whether they have a contract guaranteeing they play a certain number
of services or are hired on as-needed basis."

The update is that the board is proposing doing away with salaries
altogether and having all musicians paid on a per-service basis. Many
see this, of course, as disastrous.

"The board's proposal would switch core players to a per-service structure,
increasing the per-service rate in increments of 15 percent for year
one, 5 percent for year two and 5 percent in year three.  The sum would
equal a 25 percent increase in the per-service rate for 43 services a
year.

"However, OPUS said, the proposed increase would actually only equal 7.3
percent if you factor in the 7 percent per-service rate cut in the 2005-06
season.

"The total per-service rate increase would equal an annual income of
$3,279.61, a 75 percent cut to the core players' annual income."

The quotes above are from the local paper:

  http://tinyurl.com/5a6zj6

OPUS is Orchestra Players United of Shreveport-Bossier:

  http://www.shreveportmusicians.org/

Interesting dialog is here:

  http://tinyurl.com/66cek6

I consider all of this to be simply an example for the list and not a
plea or call to action in this particular case.

Rick Mabry
Shreveport, LA

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