Klarinet Archive - Posting 000613.txt from 2000/04

From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: doubling
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 12:09:50 -0400

--- deborah shaw <theshaws@-----.com> wrote:

> I have been doing some doubling the last couple of years on bass for
> the North Arkansas Symphony and have not been paid extra for it. I
> am just paid as a utility clarinet. It has gotten very frustrating.

Are you suggesting that you should receive base pay plus a doubling fee
for playing only your secondary instrument in a given concert?

> We recently did a performance of Carmina Burana and not only did I
> double, I had to cover parts on the 3rd clarinet part also.

It would be helpful if you provided your definition of "doubling."
I've always defined it in terms of whether or not I was required to
play an instrument beyond Bb/A clarinet at a given concert. Merely
playing a Bb and/or A part beyond my assigned seat in an orchestra has
never constituted doubling, in my mind.

> Here is a question for you bass clarinetists. If you play bass in
> Nutcracker (which I do every year) do you get principal pay for that? I
> just get the same pay as if I were playing second clarinet, but I
> believe that I should get principal pay. What are your thoughts on
> that.

During my four years on clarinet and bass clarinet with the Irving Symphony
and Ballet orchestras in Texas, I received principal pay whenever playing bass
clarinet -- and I always felt rather guilty about it. Bass clarinetists do not
typically receive principal pay in any of the major orchestras -- that's reserv-
ed for the principal *section* players, and the bass clarinet is not its own sec-
tion. Out of respect for my 2nd clarinet colleague, I told the orchestra manager
to change my status to a regular section member (with corresponding pay) when play-
ing bass clarinet, but he said that it was simply their policy to pay the bass
clarinetist principal scale. This included annual Nutcracker gigs. On the other
hand, I was not paid a doubling fee when called upon to play both soprano and
bass clarinets for a given concert, so perhaps in my case it all balanced out.

-- Neil

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