Thanks to reader Steve for sending the link to an interesting portrait, in the Denver Post, of the life of your average non-Big-Five musician, with numbers:
For example, the Colorado Symphony musician's core 43-week salary hovers around $47,000 a year, about the same as similarly sized orchestras, such as the Oregon Symphony in Portland.But section musicians in comparable cities with older, larger orchestras and more established reputations make considerably more. The basic annual salary at the St. Louis Symphony, for example, is $73,500 for a 42-week season, and in Baltimore, it's $76,700 for 52 weeks.
More typical here are musicians like Paul Nagem, principal flutist of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, where annual salaries for most members range from $9,600 to $11,500 for 103 concerts and rehearsals. Because the position is not full time, he has no choice but to take on an assortment of other jobs as well.
"It's a necessity, because a small orchestra like the Colorado Springs Philharmonic doesn't pay a person enough to just do that," he said.
Nagem also teaches part time at Colorado College and gives lessons in his home. In addition, he freelances with the Denver-based Colorado Chamber Players and Colorado Ballet Orchestra and substitutes occasionally in the Colorado Symphony.
The biggest problem for him is that none of these jobs provides health insurance.
Universal health care, of course, would be a Bolshevik idea and is then to be shunned at all costs.