According to the latest publicly accessible returns, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra president Stanley Romanstein was hired in April, 2010 at a salary of $314,000. That’s $24,000 less than Joseph Bankoff, who runs the entire Woodruff Arts center (Robert Spano, the music director, was on $528,171).
The orchestra had losses of $12 million when Romanstein arrived. It will be $20 million in the red before the season’s out – if, indeed, there is another season.
Romanstein wants to lock the orchestra out next week if the players won’t take a $20,000 pay cut. So far as we know, he has not offered to match that cut in his own take-home. ‘We’re playing Russian roulette with the future of the Atlanta Symphony,’ says Romanstein.
He can say that again.
Source: Norman Lebrecht, Arts Journal
