Cologne Orchestra – Opportunity Or Exploitation?

Musicians of the New Cologne Philharmonic are freelancers and earn less than their European union colleagues. “While other major orchestras charge anything from $21 to $72 for a seat, the Cologne New Philharmonic has just one price — $24. It opts out of the familiar European formula of state support and job security, gets no state subsidies and relies on box-office receipts alone. The influential French and German musicians’ unions contend that his use of mostly Eastern Europeans at nonunion wages amounts to exploitation.”