Posted by Mary Ann on March 24, 2003 at 11:06:26:
In Reply to: Accompanist Payment Issue Advice Neede posted by Matt A on March 24, 2003 at 07:56:26:
I think the crux of it is whether you are paying for "professional" services. Let's examine a similar situation: suppose I am hired to play a concert with an orchestra. At the first rehearsal, I have my part prepared, but perhaps not perfectly. However, I am able to play it well enough to not mess up the ensemble, and I have the rhythms, pitches, and general feel ok. That is assuming I had the music ahead of time. By the time the performance arrives, I will be able to blend my part in with the others to make a fine musical product. That is the purpose of rehearsals...to take the prepared parts and make music out of them. The purpose is not to learn our parts together. "Learning parts together" is, to me, the definition of a non-paid amatuer or community group.
Both kinds of groups have their place....but I don't think the paid group should show up with parts not completely learned.
However.....often this is not the case. Your pianist may have made the assumption that she would have the part learned by the performance. If I'm paying someone....this is not acceptable. I'm a little bolder than most....and I'm not a student who has to continue to get along with a particular pianist to avoid sabotage on my next recital. But for an individual who did this....I would tell her she had two choices: I would pay what she asked, and she would understand that I was unhappy and would not hire her in the future. Or, she could accept that she needed to prepare better, I would not pay her the extra, and we would work together in the future. It would be her choice, which gives her the power and will make her less defensive. In your situation, I would do as others suggested and go through your professor.
As a last point....I would not pay someone who could not play triplets properly, if I knew it ahead of time. So in my book, this person was not professional caliber and should not have been paid at all, except a fee for her time that was considerably below what a professional would have been paid.
Mary "many words today" Ann