Fitting pieces together into a "Frankenstein" career
A section member of the Arizona Opera Orchestra earns anywhere from roughly one to six thousand dollars per opera season. Not every opera production requires a full orchestra and this accounts for the wide variance in income. The tuba and bass trombone, for example, are instruments that are only needed for operas past 1850. Because the tuba is a relative newcomer to the orchestra family, Mozart never wrote tuba parts. It had not been invented until long after his time had come and gone.
This income is one piece of a puzzle that makes up a complete income. For some musicians it is a small piece; for most others it is a larger piece upon which a freelance career is based.
The wages for the Arizona Opera Orchestra fall below the national average. Other opera orchestras pay musicians much higher wages compared to their respective cities’ cost of living indexes for a comparable 3-hour service. We receive no health insurance, no pension, no unemployment, and no instrument insurance.
(The Cleveland and Michigan Opera services also include a 10% pension contribution. For this chart, the national average for the cost of living index is 100; figures are based on a percentage of the national average.)
In order to make an acceptable living - to pay necessary bills like utilities and mortgages, support families, and buy food and gas - AZOOMA musicians supplement their opera income through a variety of means.
Gigs
Many of the Opera Orchestra’s musicians teach and play music in under many different circumstances and with many different roles. This includes teaching in public and private schools, colleges and universities and in private music lessons. Many musicians also freelance by performing with other ensembles.
The Arizona Opera Orchestra’s members play regularly with the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony and Flagstaff Symphony in addition to virtually every regional orchestra in the state.
Musicians typically call music jobs by a popular slang term - “gigs.” Contrary to some popular belief, this is not a derogatory term in any way. Musicians generally take their gigs quite seriously.
This use of slang for music jobs incidentally, is common throughout the world for musicians. In Mexico City for example musicians call a music job “un hueso.” This translates as “a bone” (as in “give a dog a bone” one supposes).
While many Arizona Opera Orchestra members teach and play gigs, others hold miscellaneous full-time and part-time jobs outside of music. Some do a little bit of both – a combination of gigs and part-time jobs.
Example freelance gigs might include:
- Playing with the local professional symphony as an extra or substitute musician when needed
- Performing with other community or regional ensembles like the Mesa Symphony Orchestra, Flagstaff Symphony or the Catalina Chamber Orchestra
- Forming a small ensemble with colleagues – like a string quartet, brass quintet or woodwind quintet – to perform church services, weddings, graduations and self-promoted concert recitals
- Working for (or as) a music contractor in Broadway shows, or as part of a backup group for a popular headline artist
- Substitute or part-time teaching general music, band or orchestra
- Studio recording work – music for movies, commercials and/or headline recording artists
1 comments:
And for some of us, our bread and butter, steady
income, is from those private music lessons we give. I generally carry from 25 to 30 students a week, ranging in age from 5 to over 70. They are indeed the future of music, hopefully to become the performers, audiences, and other supporters in the years to come.
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