How Much Money Do Orchestra Musicians Make?


How much money you make if you are a musician in an American orchestra depends entirely on which orchestra you are in. At the top of the salary range, pay for a member of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra starts at a little over $150,000 per year. Salaries for musicians in the Pasadena Philharmonic average a little over $4,000 per year. Many musicians in community orchestras are not paid at all.

The American Symphony Landscape

There are over 1,200 symphony orchestras in the U.S. At the top are the traditional "big five:" Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland. The big five’s position at the top is often challenged by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and another dozen orchestras that all qualify as "major."

Alongside these are another 50-to-100 orchestras with stable budgets, well-known conductors and top-notch players. The salaries may be a bit lower, but dozens of players in these orchestras will cycle into one of the majors at some point in their careers.

A notch below these orchestras, especially in terms of budget, are several hundred symphonies playing in smaller cities, playing for smaller audiences in major cities or playing in specific regions near major cities, such as the Santa Monica Philharmonic, not to be confused with Philharmonic Santa Monica.

There are hundreds of minor community orchestras with minimal budgets where only the principal players are paid or none of the orchestra members are paid at all.

A Dream Job?

If you are a skilled musician who plays an orchestra instrument, landing a job as a member of a major American orchestra, such as the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra or the New York Philharmonic, can be a dream job come true. Working conditions are good, especially in orchestras led by conductors the musicians like and respect. Major orchestra salaries range by the orchestra from a little over $100,000 to a little over $150,000. Principals, the ranking member of each orchestra section, can make a great deal more, in some instances more than $400,000. And most major orchestras play for a season lasting only about nine- months a year.

Nevertheless, commitment to an orchestra schedule requires attending rehearsals as well as performances and daily practice, typically four-to-six hours each day. Younger orchestra players often belong to chamber groups or take part in contemporary music performances; others compose. During the concert season, most orchestra musicians end up with long and intense work-weeks. For many orchestral musicians, preparing for the job began when they were children, and most have been studying intensively since their early teens or even earlier. The upside is that most of them are doing what they want to do most. It is less a job and more a musical way of life.

Orchestra Instruments

The first requirement for an orchestra musician is that she must play an orchestra instrument – not all musical instruments are. Orchestra instruments are divided into groups by function: strings are the violins, violas, cellos and basses; brass are the trumpets, trombones, French horns and tubas; reeds are the flutes, clarinets, oboes, English horns and bassoons; percussion are the drums of every sort, pitched percussion instruments like marimbas and also keyboard instruments such as pianos and celestas.

Within each category, musicians master one or more specific instruments, for example, bass clarinet, piccolo trumpet and contra-bassoon.

Qualifications for Symphony Musicians

The primary qualification for a symphony musician is, "how well do you play?" Orchestra musicians are hired on the basis of "blind auditions." They may perform behind a screen so that members of the hiring committee who are musicians already in the orchestra have no way of knowing the gender, race, age or any other attribute of the performer, including their education.

But while no specific educational attainment, such as a B.A., is required, most orchestra musicians graduate from four-years of college with a strong music program. Some of these are private schools dedicated entirely to arts education, such as Juilliard, Eastman and Curtis. Others are state universities with historically strong music programs, often with renowned teachers. Among these is the University of Indiana, UCLA and Cal State Northridge. While it is possible for someone to qualify as an orchestra musician at a major orchestra without this background, it is unlikely. The field is extremely competitive.

Is It a Shrinking or Growing Industry?

There is a predictable trickle of op-ed pieces forecasting the end of symphonic music. These same forecasts have been around for many years. The reasons are the proliferation of other media and the dominance of musical genres that appeal to younger listeners.

Despite this, the number of symphony orchestras in the U.S. has steadily increased since World War II. Many major symphony performances sell out. Summer programs in large venues present symphonic music, often for free, to diverse audiences. Most major orchestras no longer play only "the standard repertory" that begins (however gloriously) with Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. When you attend a Gershwin program at the New York Philharmonic, the soloist may be Herbie Hancock, a renowned jazz musician. Employment in the music industry of every kind worldwide continues to grow; in 2017 by over 5 percent.

Realistically, in an age of increasing automation and machine learning, employment of symphony musicians may be affected far less than every other occupation. For someone who deeply loves music, and wants to make it their life, playing in an orchestra is an excellent job.

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