NY Philharmonic restores salaries to pre-pandemic levels

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Philharmonic is restoring salaries of musicians to pre-pandemic levels as it prepares to return to Lincoln Center’s Geffen Hall for the 2022-23 season.

A four-year contract agreed to in December 2020 during a season canceled due to the coronavirus had called for players to earn 75% of minimum scale through Aug. 31, 2023, which comes to $2,214 weekly. The figure was to rise to 80% of scale through the first six months of the following fiscal year and 90% for the following six months.

The orchestra said Monday that salaries will be restored to a $2,952 weekly minimum starting Sept. 21.

After missing the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic, the orchestra split this season largely between Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (46 concerts) and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater (28 concerts). The Philharmonic held 89 concerts in all and drew 90% capacity with attendance of 74,787, not including its free Memorial Day performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The Philharmonic returns to Geffen Hall on Oct. 7 after a $550 million renovation that reduced capacity to under 2,200 from 2,738 and cut rows in the orchestra cut from 43 to 33. The stage was moved forward 25 feet, allowing seven rows of wraparound seating behind the orchestra. About two-thirds of the third tier was eliminated.