#The festival of living art guitarist plus
#The festival of living art guitarist professional

If the player is world-class, then the fee could be up to $2,000, $3,000, or more. A top quartet may earn as much as $5,000 or more.Ī U.S.-based concert producer answered, “$1,000 to $10,000.

#The festival of living art guitarist plus

One person who has been intimately involved in British concert production noted, “If the guitarist is unknown, then he or she can expect not much more than $200, plus some expenses. If he is an established player, he can expect $750, which is typical at an international classical guitar festival. Q: What is the range of fees a guitarist can expect for playing a concert? Not surprisingly, the fees that guitarists earn from performing in concerts vary wildly and depend on many factors, including the fame/reputation of the player, the venue and/or event (Festival? Guitar-society offering? Solo? With orchestra?), expenses expected to be covered, number of other acts sharing the ticket income, whether a foundation or other philanthropic body is involved, etc. What a guitar festival in an American city pays might be quite different from what a small venue in North England might pay the same artist for a one-nighter in a small, local church. Keep in mind that this is a small sample size and there will be many exceptions and variances from every generalized and specific figure you read below. This is not an exposé rather it is designed to present some collective wisdom about the state of the profession. In exchange for their candor, I promised to reveal no names or specific organizations this is not about who makes what, and how. By e-mail, I asked the same questions of each respondent and they answered the ones that were relevant to them. So, I approached some players at different levels of achievement, concert promoters, and teachers, and asked them to reveal details of how they earn their living, and the finances of the guitar world in general. “contentedly comfortable,” and many shadings and variations therein-whatever the case, if playing the guitar is your profession, congratulations! That’s a real accomplishment.īeing the curious type, I’ve wondered about the varied income streams that classical guitarists are tapping into, and I thought it might be interesting-and perhaps instructive to guitarists still hoping to make the leap from passionate hobbyist to full-time professional-to look more closely at some of these areas. Of course, one person’s definition of “making a living” can vary considerably from another’s-there’s “happy to just be scraping by” vs. It’s a little bit of money here, a little bit there, and with any luck (actually, a lot of hard work and creativity), it adds up to enough of an income to keep the wolf away from the door and to banish thoughts of having to find work outside of music. There are all sorts of avenues today’s guitarists can and do take. For the purposes of this piece, I’m going to discard the first and focus instead on the second, which is something that thousands of classical guitarists around the world are doing-in most cases by cobbling together a career from numerous music-related paths: performing, recording, teaching, writing and publishing new music, promoting concerts. “Getting rich” and “making a living” are two different things. For most, the rewards are mainly intangible, derived from the satisfaction of learning and mastering a beautiful and complex art form, the deep spiritual nourishment and sheer bliss that both playing and listening to great music regularly provide, and feeling the tremendous support and connectedness that runs deep in the classical guitar community. That isn’t to say that none become wealthy, but it’s hardly ever the reason a guitarist chooses to devote thousands of hours of blood, sweat, and tears to such an incredibly difficult and demanding undertaking.

#The festival of living art guitarist professional

I’m going to go out on a limb and state that almost no one aspires to become a professional classical guitarist to get rich. For most guitarists, it isn’t easy piecing together a full-time career in music