“America’s classical music organizations fell silent for a year, but many are in decent financial shape thanks to individual donors, foundations, administrative furloughs, salary cuts for musicians and federal funding like the Payment Protection Program,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Thursday’s (7/22) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “While organizations like the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Opera have come through in one piece, however, independent musicians at smaller regional orchestras and groups took the brunt of the impact. Smaller ensembles could not continue employing them through the pandemic. ‘All of my performance income dried up just like that,’ said trumpet player Micah Holt, a 33-year-old South Side resident who performs in several regional orchestras including the Erie Philharmonic and the West Virginia Symphony and teaches trumpet at Slippery Rock University. The life of a contract musician follows the typical feast-or-famine patterns of the gig economy…. Thanks to the pandemic, many musicians are rebalancing their career portfolios with non-musical side hustles or even secondary careers…. ‘Classical musicians are not to be underestimated,’ said Paul Austin [president of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians and a horn player with the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan]…. ‘We’re resourceful people.’ ”
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