A Ford in Their Future

While Kondrashin & Co. were celebrating the joys of collectivist music making last week, the Ford Foundation announced grants totaling $85 million to U.S. orchestras. It is the largest amount ever given at one time by any foundation to any of the arts.

The gift is the result of an eight-year study that explored the pathetic plight of the American musician. The average annual salary for musicians playing with the 25 major orchestras (defined as those with budgets over $250,000) is $5,267; for those with the 33 metropolitan orchestras (budgets over $100,000 but under $250,000), it is $1,174. In the vast majority of cities, elementary and high school teachers are paid better than the symphony musicians, most of whom moonlight at everything from teaching to selling used cars.

The grant will be divided among all 58 of the major and metropolitan orchestras, in sums ranging from $600,000 to $2,500,000. One-fourth ($21 million) of the grant will be an outright gift, the remainder ($64 million) will be endowment funds, which the orchestras must match over three-to five-year periods. Large as it is, the foundation emphasizes, the grant will cover only about 10% of projected orchestral costs during the next decade. "We hope," said a foundation spokesman, "that the very discrepancy between the size of the grant and the enormity of the need will awaken more people to the plight of the artist in our society."

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