The Sacramento Philharmonic started its 2015-16 season with a bang: a 60 percent increase in subscriptions since the 2012-13 season. This followed the cancellation of the company’s 2014-15 season, and its re-emergence last spring under the umbrella of the new Sacramento Region Performing Arts Alliance, which also presents the Sacramento Opera. Also announcing positive ticket news was the Kansas City Symphony, whose ticket sales for 2014-15 rose to $2.8 million in subscription revenue and $2 million in single-ticket revenue. The Nashville Symphony reported ticket sales totaling $9 million in 2014-15, exceeding the previous season by more than $250,000. For the 2014-15 season, the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra reports a 33.7 percent increase in ticket revenue. The Florida Orchestra, Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society, and the Minnesota Orchestra all reported balanced budgets for fiscal 2015.
This fall brought multiple announcements about new musicians contracts. The Binghamton Philharmonic (New York) reached a two-year agreement with the musicians, following the cancellation of the first 2015-16 concert during negotiations. The previous contract had expired on May 21. Under the new contract, wages are frozen at $85 per service, and musicians will be reimbursed 33¢ per mile for travel, a key issue during negotiations. The contract creates an ongoing committee that includes musicians and management to discuss the orchestra’s long-term future. The California Symphony, based in Walnut Creek, has a new three-year contract with its musicians, calling for a wage freeze in 2015-16, a 1.4 percent increase in 2016-17, and no increase in 2017-18. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has a new three-year musicians contract that provides for annual salary increases of 1 percent in 2015-16, 2 percent in 2016-17, and 2 percent in 2017-18, with a rise of 4.3 percent in pension benefits and no changes to healthcare. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra announced a new two-year contract with musicians that calls for a 3 percent annual increase in base wages in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s new two-year contract with musicians calls for annual raises in 2015-16 to $22,813 for 29 weeks, up from $18,880 for 24 weeks, as well as a new provision for community engagement by musicians. At the Philadelphia Orchestra, a new one-year contract with musicians calls for a 3 percent increase in the minimum base salary, and increasing the size of the ensemble to 96 musicians, up from 95. New York’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has a two-year extension to its current four-agreement with musicians. It includes a salary freeze in 2015-16, a 2.6 percent increase in 2016-17, and flat wages in 2017-18; contracted weeks will increase to 38 weeks in 2016-17 and to 38.5 or 39 weeks in 2017-18. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has a new musicians contract through June 30, 2018. Musicians making less than $80,000 per year will receive a $4,000 raise in the first year and $2,000 in the second, with higher-paid players receiving a raise in the second year; the guaranteed minimum salary will go up to $66,000 in 2018, and the ensemble size will remain at 28 musicians. At press time, contract negotiations were ongoing at the Fort Worth Symphony and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
