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RE: LA Phil best paid!

Hi all - a couple of comments on some things mentioned in this thread. First, believe it or not, the LA Phil, despite being the highest paying symphony orchestra in the country, still often loses players to the recording industry, as the very top studio recording musicians in LA make FAR more than $150,000 a year. Just to give you an idea, in 1990, the top studio horn player, Jim Thatcher, told a group of students I was part of that he was going to make $300,000 that year, and that figure is undoubtedly much higher now, as that was 25 years ago, perhaps even to the day, now that I think about it. Even the concertmaster of the LA Phil may not have been making $300,000 25 years ago. Certainly no wind principal anywhere in the country was getting anywhere near that figure back then. Breaking into the best paying recording work in LA is the absolute most money a symphonic player can make anywhere in the world. But there are only about 300 musicians total that we are talking about that make that kind of money. They are some of the very best musicians on the planet, especially with regards to sight-reading, as you might imagine. Unless they are having to record something truly difficult, they generally only read something once, twice at most before the red light goes on....

Second, on the average price of the instruments. The trumpet is indeed probably the least expensive wind instrument in the orchestra; however each trumpet player will own at least four or five different instruments at a minimum. Also, the price of brass instruments in general has jumped dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years. When I bought my world class horn in 1997, I paid a little under $7000 for it (this is for a new one). At the time, this was the most expensive of it's type in the world. Now, however, the most expensive horns of the same type cost $15,000. Now I am a rarity in that I only own one instrument - most players have at least two.


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