Chiff and Fipple Forums

Mr.Gumby wrote:

Lads, in the world of professional-grade musical instruments, $7800 is beer money.

How about $30k for a bassoon? Or $300k for a violin?

30K bassoons and 300K fiddles come with a different earning potential as well.

Really? I'll let my bassoonist friends know- they'll be thrilled!

I've read that players in the really big symphonies (L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, etc..) make pretty good money. I read that in S.F. they average about 165K per year, which I don't think is unreasonable for a person who has probably spent nearly every waking hour of their life since childhood practicing! But I fancy that a lot of similar positions in less exalted locations don't pay anything near that and that they make a very modest living. That's pure guesswork on my part, by the way. But I think many of them still have top of the line instruments. For Boehm flutes players, both professional and serious students I don't think it is unusual at all to have a flute with a 20K price tag on it. There are great flutes to be had for less than that, of course, but that price is not even especially high for a silver flute from a top maker. Some of the price tags I saw at the NFA convention a couple of years ago were enough to make my eyes bulge. And these were being bought by students.

Here's a link to some pro grade bassoons: https://www.charlesmusic.com/cgi-bin/th ... 20Bassoons
Now these are used, but certainly nothing to make a working musician blush.

Bob

No one said you couldn't be a bassonist and and not have a sense of humour. This link will take you to a photo of a group touring as The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet: https://www.facebook.com/LegereReeds/ph ... =3&theater

Bob

My other half is a bassoonist and yes, a halfway decent, second hand one (good amateur level) costs about £20k, so that would be somewhere around $27k at current exchange rates. Professional grade instruments, bought new, cost more. A lot more.

Not sure about the sense of humour thing. I'll let you know when it shows itself ...

Ah, yes! The BWBQ. Those are my classmates from the Eastman School of Music from back in 2008. The person standing in the back middle of the group was my girlfriend for about four years, actually. When we were in school together, she was going through the painstaking process of finding a new instrument. Every time she wanted to do a trial from a private seller, she'd have to pay shipping and insurance, both ways, for an instrument. It was like $600 out the door every month until she finally found the winner. And it was a $45K horn.

A bit pricey for the proverbial "farting bedpost" IMHO.

That band has a great sense of humor and they are all fantastic musicians, with masters degrees from Juilliard and the like, but to Mr. Ellis' point, they haven't landed a spot in a major orchestra yet, which means they're probably pulling in as much as an average public school teacher in the states. Contrary to popular opinion, musicians are not in it for the money...

an seanduine wrote:Here's a link to some pro grade bassoons: https://www.charlesmusic.com/cgi-bin/th ... 20Bassoons
Now these are used, but certainly nothing to make a working musician blush.

Man, you just made me spend fifteen minutes ogling used bassoons. Heckel #6274 and Fox 660 #22292 both look like very nice instruments. Don't have $18,000 to spare, alas.

benhall.1 wrote:My other half is a bassoonist and yes, a halfway decent, second hand one (good amateur level) costs about £20k, so that would be somewhere around $27k at current exchange rates.

Ummm... I don't want to cause relationship discord, but that's rather inflated IMO. I've been playing bassoon as an amateur for decades, and I'm fairly certain I've only twice played with someone who had a bassoon that cost more than $10,000. One a doctor, one a dentist, and both with very expensive bassoon habits. (The latter has a Heckel as his main instrument, a plastic Fox in case he is asked to play outside, and a Fox contrabassoon -- probably at least $50,000 worth of instruments.) Absolutely the Fox 660 listed at the above link for $19,000 would do for a professional orchestral musician, I believe that's the model Bob Williams of the Detroit Symphony was playing when I bought mine. (It definitely was a 600-series Fox.)

My own bassoon cost $5000 new, looking at the Charles site it looks like they are listing them at $8000 now. It's a great horn, I've got no complaints other than that they started selling them with fancier bocals about six months after I got mine, and I'm too cheap to spend $500 to upgrade one piece of the bassoon when I could get several great whistles for that price.

PS The BWBQ are great! There is a long tradition of bassoon quartet humor, going back to the Bubonic Bassoon Quartet in the 1960s...

Professional flutists paid less?


http://slippedisc.com/2018/07/why-pay-a ... pal-flute/

Best wishes.

K.

keithsandra wrote:Professional flutists paid less?


http://slippedisc.com/2018/07/why-pay-a ... pal-flute/

Best wishes.

K.

An interesting case, although one that I think will be very tough to prove. Mr. Ferrillo and the flautist are good friends, and knowing him personally I know that he's a fair guy when it comes to this kind of thing (with a daughter in the business he'd better be!). I dislike the fact that they're seemingly set in opposition to each other in the article, although I get that she needs some kind of benchmark for her complaint. There's a brand new law here in Massachusetts to address this kind of thing, which is why it's coming up now, but as far as I know principal oboists are commonly among the highest paid members of the orchestra.

However it comes about, I say give her a raise; she's a really brilliant player!

Here's another fine keyed Olwell flute up for sale on E-bay: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Irish-Wooden-Ha ... 2359150670

Already advertised here:

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