Innocents Abroad

The LSO is considered by London standards to be one of the better paid orchestras. The range is approximately £30-55k. Our salaries are about average compared with others but they are by no means high. Owning a house in central london is not possible on these salaries. Most of us own our own homes (in outer London) – houses and some apartments. Many of us have lenghy commutes – tube, train, bus.. and commuting is not cheap. London has a car congestion charge for each weekday journey into the center of the capital. Some of us supplement income with other chamber work and conservatory teaching jobs. The flexibility of lower percentage work commitments works very well. As freelancers we do not have a pension scheme and we can’t claim state sick pay though we are somewhat compensated by a trust set up by the musicians benevolent fund. We receive 4 weeks holiday pay and all of us have access to the state funded National Health Service and are provided with additional private health insurance by the company.

It is a little ironic that I am playing under per service freelance conditions here – the very conditions in the states which I fought so passionately to improve. Sometimes I do wonder about that!

The musical culture is different and players do train surrounded by a freelance work ethic. Many in London feel that freelance and self governance bring the most consistently high levels of performance and some are fearful that the process of moving to a contract will bring worse financial conditions as they will loose their freelance tax benefits. Others feel that standards may drop as jobs are taken for granted. I think these are both myths and are perpetuated by a fear of change. Unfortunately the union is not strong. I do feel that the LSO offers good job protection. As a self run orchestra we look out for each other. We deal with our own personnel issues. I hope and believe that this happens in a very respectful and satisfactory manner. The audition process is done by the players as is hiring of the chief exec and conductor. This is empowering and I do not sense the cynicism that is sometimes present in non self governed orchestras.

So all in all this is a good situation. I still believe that a contract is a better working basis than freelance, but I would keep the self governance. It is important to have strong forward thinking player directors who can cope well with the ever increasing challenges of a modern day orchestra.