On a string and a prayer:
Orchestra performers feel pangs of low CSO wages
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
As principal violist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Jan-Marie Christy Joyce plays a $30,000 instrument that earns her $24,000 annually.
Joyce bought her viola not long before CSO musicians’ salaries were slashed 18% to help the orchestra out of a deepening financial hole.
That happened in 2003. This year the musicians’ salaries were restored. The move added $200,000 to the struggling orchestra’s budget but didn’t address cost of living increases for orchestra members, some of whom have families and children.
For Joyce and her husband Tom Joyce, who plays bass trombone in the orchestra, the financial challenges of working as professional musicians are compounded by the fact that they have two children, Emma, 3, and Anthony, 5.
Tom Joyce came to Charleston 11 years ago because he needed the job.
“That’s pretty much the way it is with any musician, because jobs are so scarce,” Tom Joyce said. “One of the things about coming to Charleston was, I knew it did not pay a lot of money, but knowing it was a beautiful place and it was a good orchestra, I took the job.”
He also knew of the CSO’s reputation as a farm team for larger orchestras. Former orchestra members have gone on to perform with or conduct some of the world’s major orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.
While Tom Joyce knew the Charleston job didn’t pay well, he felt the 60-year-old ensemble would offer him a stable job without risk of the orchestra going under.
“When the pay cuts happened, it was quite a blow,” he said. “There are probably four or five (married) orchestra members and for those families, an 18 percent pay cut really hurts, because both wage earners are getting hit. An 18 percent pay cut to a healthy salary is one thing, but an 18 percent pay cut to an already low salary is devastating. To be honest, the last three years, I’ve been going into debt each year. If you have kids, at a certain point you just can’t reduce your costs any more.”
Even though salaries were restored last year, they are still a long way from comfortable.
“We got our salaries back to where they were three years ago, without any cost of living increases,” he said. “We’ve got to have sustainability. What’s critical for the business community and the general community to know is you’ve got people who are dedicated to staying in Charleston and being a part of the community. We’d like to be paid a wage that would allow us to do some fun things in life. It’s got to go up to somewhat of a living salary.”
Tom Joyce said he hasn’t considered other career options.
“It’s just a great thing to work and play with other musicians,” he said. “There’s a level of intimate cooperation that I really don’t think is found in many other jobs.”
But financial survival is more critical for the couple now that they have children, and Jan-Marie Joyce said she would have to leave if she was offered a better opportunity outside of Charleston.
“I don’t feel stability,” she said. “I don’t feel community support for the orchestra. For our family, as parents, we need stability for our kids.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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