NY Times: Freelance Musicians Hear Mournful Coda as the Jobs Dry Up

[prodigals0n]

"Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle."
-- Albert Camus

Freelance Musicians Hear Mournful Coda as the Jobs Dry Up
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: December 3, 2010

"IN New York’s classical-music world most of the attention falls on the big boys: the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the major international orchestras that pass through Carnegie Hall, the glamorous soloists who can earn tens of thousands of dollars an appearance.

But night after night highly trained players traipse from Washington Heights or the Upper West Side or northern New Jersey or Long Island to play church jobs and weddings, Lincoln Center and Broadway summer festivals and fill-in jobs at the Met and the Philharmonic. They occupy the ranks of a dozen freelance orchestras, put the music in Broadway musicals and provide soundtracks — or at least they used to — for Hollywood and Madison Avenue. They form the bedrock of musical life in a great cultural capital.

It was a good living. But the New York freelance musician — a bright thread in the fabric of the city — is dying out. In an age of sampling, digitization and outsourcing, New York’s soundtrack and advertising-jingle recording industry has essentially collapsed. Broadway jobs are in decline. Dance companies rely increasingly on recorded music. And many freelance orchestras, among the last steady deals, are cutting back on their seasons, sometimes to nothingness.

Contracts for most of the freelance orchestras expired in September, and the players face the likelihood of further cuts in pay, or at least a freeze. All these orchestras rely on donations and, to a small extent, government grants. The Great Recession has taken its toll, putting a number of them under severe financial pressure."

Read the complete article at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/arts/music/05musicians.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a28

[Crazy Dave]

1. That is sad

We will have no arts left in this country in 20 years. All anyone cares about anymore is their iphones and their Facebook account while everything around them is falling apart.

[Brickbat]

2. Freelance work -- so highly touted in the 1990s -- is drying up for almost everyone, regardless of

trade.

[murielm99]

3. This is the work my daughter does.

If you think it is drying up in the East, try the Midwest. It is worse here.

My daughter is applying for a job at the conservatory where she did her undergraduate work. She hopes to replace her old flute professor there, who is retiring. She has that lady's support.

We don't know if this will work out, because she has no PhD. They want all the training and experience in the world, from all of us, and they pay a pittance.

[Pwnzerfaust]

4. It's kind of ironic

This article was forwarded to me by a friend mere minutes after I received a phone call from a prospective gig giver, informing me that my rate "is too rich for their palate."

[Xenotime]

5. This is why we have to let tax cuts expire. otherwise there is no funding for the arts.

[grasswire]

6. Nietzsche and Camus

"Without music, life is a mistake." .......Nietzsche

[enough]

7. Beautiful. (nt)

[hayu_lol]

9. The easy dependable gigs are drying up...

top performers and groups are actually doing better now that the garbage...whoops...garage bands are falling off the tree limb.

Here in the boondocks of Oregon, the number of pay gigs is increasing. Live music may not be as much in demand, but when it is, the gigs are for money. This is one of those places where a musician may get lots of calls, but when he/she mentions money...the caller gasps and hangs up. Takes time to realize freebies are now a thing of the past for the most part. Wanta play? Gotta pay. Want to get paid? You gotta be good.

Son is a 2nd generation musician. Good at what he does. Plays: Horn, viola/amplified viola, violin, keyboards, bass guitar and conducts local symphony. Uphill road here to make people understand that live music will cost them. Club owners are finding that good musicians/groups double or triple their take for any given night. Advertising is essential. As I've said, the past was all free...'for the good of the community.' But, ya know, it costs real money to wear appropriate clothing, use top quality instruments, have transportation to and from the gig and maintenance on all.

Another 5 years of this, and we'll need a local booking agent for the first time in well over 100 years.

This is for freelancers. Contract players are a different species, as are soloists.

[MilesColtrane]

8. Another example:

New Years Eve gigs used to be a given at double and sometimes triple scale. Live music was so desired on that night that leaders would call freelancers and lock them in 9 months to a year in advance.

For the past two years I didn't get a call for a New Years gig until a couple of weeks before, and the pay was 30 to 40% less what it used to be.

Three and a half weeks away from the 31st this year and I haven't received one call for that night yet. And I'm not the only one.

[prodigals0n]

12. Sucks man. Musicians, dancers, actors, etc. have a hard enough time making a living

In a country that prizes sports above all else, where the vast majority of people consider American Idol the gold standard for talent and entertainment (they cycle these people in and out of Broadway parts now, for god sakes), the recession and phony reproduced music make matters all the worse.

I remember reading the liner notes for the first time on Clifford Brown with Strings. That masterpiece was all done in full takes. No overdubbing others' tracks. All the musicians were in the same room playing together at the same time. In those days UNION RULES left no other option. If you wanted to record music you had to do it the same way you performed it. Live. Together. In person. Not some synthesized bullshit and sampling.

[Ron Green]

10. The 20th Century was the age of live music,

from the beginnings of jazz, the rise of the great American orchestras and the growth of Vaudeville until the slow death of music education from about the 80's until now.

Corporate control of recording eventually so homogenized and weakened the "product" that I doubt even the Internet can save it.

[grasswire]

11. the lesson for those of us who are not musicians...

...is to support our local musicians whenever we possibly can. Even when it is a choice between staying home broke and going out to a live venue where we can toss a few bucks into the tip jar, we need to do everything we can to support the music we love.

Another important facet for citizens is supporting music education in schools. My nephew is in his high school's marching band and jazz band, and I need to do more to support those bands. I can raise money. I can be there. I can remember to buy him that Louis Armstrong CD of archival music.

[grasswire]

13. Ellington on right now, streaming on your computer

Oregon jazz radio station KMHD. Playing Ellington as we speak.

www.kmhd.org