Jonathan Ellis wrote:

>[...] Anner Bijlsma, the Dutch cellist, [...] had this to say
>about conductors: "Frankfurters with a lot to say for themselves and who
>earn far too much, especially when you consider that you never hear them."

One joke about conductors told to me by a violinist in the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra, which I only vaguely remember, says an orchestra is
like a bull turned backwards, in that a bull has the horns in the front but
I forget what at the back, whereas orchestras have the horns at the back
and ...well, as I said, memory fails me.

In this same thread, re the earnings pulled in by some 'star' musicians,
Don Satz said:

>I really do not understand the hostility that some folks have to a few
>classical artists reaping large pay-offs.  This is the world of
>entertainment.

I doubt if many people harbour such hostilities.  Rather, I think few
people simply don't _know_ what musicians earn.  At the same time, we
do hear plenty about musicians' grievances and strikes and the money
difficulties suffered by this and that orchestra (ballet, etc.), and their
near or final collapse under the weight of accumulated debts, etc.  The
impression many are left with, quite understandably, is that there's
something very strained about running orchestras, that it can't really be
done without hat-in-hand appeals to a largely indifferent public, that all
of that belongs to some bygone era, etc.  Ergo, musicians in these
orchestras must also have to struggle to make ends meet.

One query I raised about a recent posting helped disabuse me of this
notion.  Mind you, I was corrected by the nil response of the one who'd
posted the article that raised the subject, and then, more concretely, by
the sarcastic reply from one who apparently knew better.  Again, it was
assumed that some sort of blanket resentment against musicians earning a
good wage IS OUT THERE.

For my part, I'm always glad to learn that you don't have to be a
technocrat, hit man or dentist to earn a decent living, because some people
do manage by following their artistic bent ...and, sometimes, they even
even prosper.  Along with Mr. Satz, I, too, would "...like to see fees
and salaries keep going up, and not just for the "stars.""

And, by the way, no: I don't think all conductors are ***holes.

Bert Bailey