Now We Know

Geffen Hall

Courtesy of the NYPO

It's just about four years since the New York Philharmonic announced that Deborah Borda would return to the orchestra from her wildly successful time at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I wrote about it then, in a post called I Did Not See This One Coming. 

Matthew VanBesien's departure had been announced in January, and somehow, in the interval, the orchestra had managed to get Borda under contract. (Yes, I did wonder whether VanBesien had been shown the door, but he resigned to take a job elsewhere, so that seems doubtful.)

Anyway, I quoted Anne Midgette on the subject of why Borda accepted a job with an orchestra that was not in great shape, to say the least, and among the reasons she mentioned was the Board offering her "boatloads of money."

The 990 forms have been published for the period ending in August, 2019, and Borda's salary is published there, along with that of Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden. Borda was paid $1,431,771 plus an estimated $23,823 in "other compensation." Van Zweden made $816,375 as MDD.