Remember Rodney Dangerfield, the ever-downtrodden character who held a seashell up to his ear to hear the ocean and got a busy signal?   His frequent lament was “I get no respect.”  I often think that’s true of musicians in today’s society.

I was called by a company recently wanting to hire a group of musicians for a big opening event.  Depending on the setting and setup, there are a number of choices available, such as a brass or woodwind quintet, or perhaps a string quartet or trio.   We provided them with a menu of choices along with the cost of each.  Trust me, this was not going to break the bank.  But when they saw the cost, they balked.  I think they ended up hiring a single player.

A few years ago when I was working in another place, the city wanted the orchestra to perform for their fourth of July event.  We quoted them a rock-bottom price, no net gain for the organization – just enough to pay every musician the going rate.  They recoiled in horror.  “We can’t afford that on the city’s budget!”  Really?  Is the fireworks company donating their services?  I happen to know every rocket they fired off cost more than one of our musicians would have.

Another city built a brand new convention center and wanted to hire its local orchestra for the grand opening.  Although they had just spent millions of dollars on the new center, a rock-bottom quote of $18K was too much money, and they engaged the local youth orchestra instead.  Kids play for free, and aren’t they cute?  And they’re too young to know when they’re being exploited.

One of my staff members is a professional musician who gigs all over the area on weekends.   He recounts frequent jobs where the band plays the gig and then at the end of it the person who hired them “forgot the check.”  “We’ll mail it to you.”  Really?  Can you get away with that with your caterer?  Your decorator?  Your event coordinator?  His group now insists on being paid in advance, or they don’t play.

Then there’s the “musicians as sonic wallpaper” syndrome, where they’re hired to play at an event and then people talk all the way through the performance and basically ignore them.  I’ve seen this happen countless times in my career, often at events that are supposed to be full of music lovers and performing arts aficionados.

I get intensely irritated at ballets when the audience chatters all the way through the overture.  It bugs me when the church service ends and people talk through the organ postlude.  This guy has been grinding out dreary Protestant hymns for our warbling pleasure for the last hour, and now he actually gets to play something real and you ignore him? 

People are continually surprised when they learn that the musicians in the TSO are paid for what they do.  You mean this isn’t just a hobby?  No.  Most of them do this for a living, performing with numerous ensembles, teaching privately or in schools.  They put in hours and hours of practice every day to stay in top form.  They put together an entire two-hour performance in just four rehearsals.  Many of them have instruments that cost more than your house.  This is no avocation.

I’m not writing this to make anyone feel bad, but I do hope this causes people to stop and think about how musicians are treated in our society.  They are one of the most tragically undervalued community resources in our midst.  They don’t just show up on stage magically being able to play that music – they’ve put in years of work to get to this moment.  They give our lives meaning through their art.  They teach our children.  They demonstrate to all of us the meaning of teamwork and cooperative endeavors.  What would our lives be like without the musicians in our midst?

At the TSO, one of our organizational values is that musicians are professionals and deserve to be treated as such.   Let’s never give them cause to feel, along with Rodney Dangerfield, that they get no respect.