Just rewards?

Orchestras in Britain don't make a lot of money. It's been said that you have to love music to be a classical musician: you'll probably earn more doing pretty much any other job.

The financial difficulties of classical music are reported around the world, but in America there still seems to be more money sloshing - the orchestral players are more comfortably paid, and they have larger admin departments to run things. What I didn't realise is quite how much the people running the orchestra are taking home.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the most successful orchestra boss is Deborah Borda, executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who received an amazing $1.3million in 2004-5. Other Big Five Orchestra bosses have salaries around the $400k - $700k mark.

Mind you, these executives have the difficult task of holding the collection tin out to businesses and wealthy individuals, but can raise $10m or more each year. And it seems that hiring the right candidate is hit and miss that when you find a star you want to be sure to keep him/her.

But, really, is the business person who guides the orchestra really worth that much more than the tremendously talented musicians on stage?