Executive Pay at Major Cultural Institutions

[miliosr]

I haven't seen this topic discussed elsewhere so I thought I would post it here. The Wall Street Journal ran an article by Jacob Hale Rusell in its February 11-12 weekend edition about top earners at 40 major cultural institutions. They analyzed a five-year period ending in fiscal year 2004. Thirteen dance company heads made the list (in order of placement):

11 Peter Martins (New York City Ballet)

16 Helgi Tomasson (San Francisco Ballet)

17 Judith Jamison (Alvin Ailey Dance Company)

22 Kevin McKenzie (American Ballet Theatre)

29 Mikko Nissinen (Boston Ballet)

31 Gerald Arpino (Joffrey Ballet)

32 Kent Stowell (Pacific Northwest Ballet)

34 Stanton Welch (Houston Ballet)

35 Jim Vincent (Hubbard Street Dance)

36 Roy Kaiser (Pennsylvania Ballet)

37 Terrence Orr (Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre)

38 Tina Ramirez (Ballet Hispanico)

39 Martin Freedmann (Colorado Ballet)

What a surprise -- eight of the bottom 10 (places 31-40) were dance company heads!!!

[drb]

Some rated higher up also run major schools. Was that factored in? Also, hard to make a point without seeing who (and which Arts) were in the other positions. For example, The Met Opera is a much larger business (albeit very unsuccessful in bottom line business terms) than any ballet company. And the nature of the job is very different at, say, a major museum. Were museums included in the list?

It is very hard to make a point re ballet companies unless the rest of the list is included. Is there a website you could reference for the rest of the list?

[miliosr]

I'm sure the article is available at the Wall Street Journal's Web site. I didn't link to it because I believe you have to register to access their site.

I don't believe museums were included on the list. As I recall, the institutions were all symphonies, opera companies or dance companies.

I do have a hard copy of the original article and I would be happy to post the complete list if enough people are interested. Also, would people be interested in seeing the actual salaries?

[Helene]

We would have copyright issues if the entire list, including salaries, were published on the board. However, noting the salary ranges in general -- ex: top 10 made between X and Y, while bottom 10 made between A and B, that would be within copyright guidelines.

[sandik]

I'm sure the article is available at the Wall Street Journal's Web site. I didn't link to it because I believe you have to register to access their site.

I don't believe museums were included on the list. As I recall, the institutions were all symphonies, opera companies or dance companies.

I do have a hard copy of the original article and I would be happy to post the complete list if enough people are interested. Also, would people be interested in seeing the actual salaries?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could you make a synopsis? I've very curious about this.

[carbro]

I'm sure the article is available at the Wall Street Journal's Web site. I didn't link to it because I believe you have to register to access their site.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, miliosr. Unless it's changed, you actually have to be a paid subscriber to have access to WSJ on-line articles.

Most on-line newspaper sites do require registration but don't necessarily require payment for access to any/all of their articles.

[drb]

To bypass WSJ, New York Magazine (September 20, 2005) says NYCB's AD Peter Martins' salary is $619,000. What they don't say is whether that includes SAB or choreography. So it may not be unreasonable at all, especially considering the solid financial state of the company and school, and the (only relative to any other company) fair salaries paid the dancers.

[kfw]

New York Magazine (September 20, 2005) says NYCB's AD Peter Martins' salary is $619,000. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do we know, for a published fact, what Balanchine made by the time he died?

[drb]

The WSJ issue seems mute, inasmuch as the article is posted for free on the WSJ website:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1139...MTYxMTE0Wj.html

#1 Daniel Barenboim, the AD of the Chicago Symphony, earns about 3 times Peter's salary, which itself is about twice that of the AD of ABT, Kevin McKenzie.

[Helene]

Considering that Kent Stowell and Francia Russell split the job, it's pretty sad that each made about $85K/year for running a company the size of PNB, and that a Microsoft developer not too many years out of college probably earns about the same (in salary). (Of course all three earned about $.92/hour at those rates.)

[drb]

Actually, to the right of Stowell's name it says that Francia Russell was paid the same amount as he, so their combined salary was comparable to that of SFB, and greater than that of ABT.

Making comparisons within this list is tricky. It looks like Orchestra leaders are way overpaid compared to Ballet AD's, but they are also chief conductors, and thus are the major performing artists for their orchestras. In ballet, the AD's contribution to the total package can vary greatly, vis. Balanchine, Bejart, ...

[Hans]

Considering the large number of summer programs ABT has and the amount of performances it does (two seasons in New York, not to mention Orange County and the Kennedy Center) I'm surprised that McKenzie's salary is so low.

[Helene]

Actually, to the right of Stowell's name it says that Francia Russell was paid the same amount as he, so their combined salary was comparable to that of SFB, and greater than that of ABT. 

Thank you, drb. I misread that thinking that they split the salary. It would have been clearer if they both had been listed next to each other.

[miliosr]

It seems like everyone was able to find some or all of the salary data. Is there still any interest in a summary of salary ranges (as Helene suggested so as not to run afoul of copyright laws) for those people who don't want to register at the Journal's site? (From the link above, it looks like you still have to register, even if it's for free.)

[drb]

Sadly, the above link only remained free for a few hours after posting. While interesting, there were too many open questions. For example, Lorin Maazel (who has brought the NY Philharmonic to a new level of excellence--for the first time ever forcing me to subscribe) and James Levine (Met Opera) were just behind Mr. Barenboim. But Mr. Levine's income from his post at the Boston Symphony Orchestra was not included, and one would guess that that alone would have placed him well over a million in the lead. Nor was reference made to his Met Orchestra concert conducting, with its ticket prices far higher than those of any other American orchestra.

In ballet, different AD's have differing responsibilities: some have schools, some choreograph, some disfigure classics, some teach.... It was not given whether these functions received extra compensation or were included in the salaries. Odd that Paul Taylor and Merce Cunningham did not make the list (or have I forgotten?): perhaps choreographic fees and royalties were not included!

[Helene]

I'm assuming the figures come from the annual financial disclosure that all 501©-3 organizations must file and are available to the public, usually through public and university libraries. These figures wouldn't come from the income tax statements of the individuals, so that what, if anything, Paul Taylor, Peter Martins, etc. make from royalties wouldn't be listed, and from what I remember from reviewing those statements over 20 years ago, if royalties were mentioned as an expense, they'd be aggregated will all royalties paid to everyone. Also, the chart listed the Music Directors and Artistic Directors, not Principal Guest Conductors and other "sub" positions that many MD's, like Levine, hold.

I don't know if Peter Martins has a different type of deal, but one of the reasons companies look for artistic directors who choreograph is that they don't have to pay them extra or what they pay for choreography is token. (Ib Andersen even did the sets for Mozaik, and he's designed costumes for several ballets he's choregraphed.) Kent Stowell said many times over in Q&A's that he needed to choregraph for PNB, particularly the money-making full-lengths, because the company didn't have the money to pay other people.

I noticed that the link reverted to subscription-only access the same day I was able to access it the first time.

[aspirant]

For those curious, Guidestar publishes the reported tax documents for 501c3 organizations and it is open for anyone to look at once you've registered (free). You can get the general operating budgets as well as salaries for several of the top employees and other noteable information.