Levine is top-paid conductor in US

James Levine is not just among the most acclaimed music directors of his time. His combined salaries from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and New York's Metropolitan Opera make him the highest-paid conductor in the country, according to the most recent Internal Revenue Service filings.

The BSO paid almost $1.6 million for Levine's services during the 2004- 05 season, his first leading the orchestra, according to a tax filing the Globe obtained yesterday. The money was paid to Phramus, Inc., a New York-based firm. According to the Met's most recent filing, it paid slightly more than $1.9 million to Phramus, Inc., care of artist manager Ronald Wilford .

Mark Volpe , the BSO's managing director, said Levine deserves to be paid well.

``James Levine is unique in that he is leading not one, but two of the largest, most prestigious arts organizations in the world," Volpe said in a statement yesterday. ``There is no one I know of who is more committed to the art of music, and we are incredibly fortunate to have him at the helm of the BSO."

Levine's combined $3.5 million in salary makes him the highest-paid conductor in the United States. That doesn't mean Levine is the highest paid in the world. Many music directors have multiple appointments, splitting time between US orchestras, which are required to list salaries as part of maintaining their nonprofit status, and those abroad, where finances are usually not open to the public.

Levine, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, wasn't the only high-priced talent in the BSO's tax filing. The organization paid Tisbury Tours , Inc. $773,976 for the services of singer-songwriter James Taylor , who has often performed at Tanglewood, the BSO's summer home, in recent years. The BSO paid Isole , Inc. $739,894 for the services of Pops conductor Keith Lockhart .

A survey of major US orchestras shows Levine's pay is in line with those of other leading conductors.

Lorin Maazel , music director of the New York Philharmonic, was the highest paid by a single US orchestra, receiving $2.6 million for his services last year, according to the organization's filings.

According to 2003 figures -- which cover the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004 -- the Chicago Symphony Orchestra paid Daniel Barenboim $2 million to serve as both conductor and soloist. The San Francisco Symphony paid Michael Tilson Thomas $1.58 million, and the conductor earned an additional $545,000 from the New World Symphony in Miami. The Los Angeles Philharmonic paid Esa-Pekka Salonen $1.26 million. Levine's BSO salary covers his work as music director, pianist, and instructor at Tanglewood.

Such salary figures drew different responses inside and outside the symphony world.

``It is not surprising to me," said Joseph H. Kluger, the former president of the Philadelphia Orchestra . ``If you're asking me whether the conductors of symphony orchestras or opera companies are getting paid too much when they're getting $1 to $2 million a year, I'd say relative to what? You can argue that the second violinist in the Boston Symphony makes a whole lot less than the second baseman of the Boston Red Sox, and with fewer errors."

But William Crittenden , a professor in Northeastern University's College of Business Administration , said he was surprised by Levine's salary.

``Wow," he said. ``You have the elite stars both in sports and movies, and yet we often think of the elite stars in some of these other [artistic] fields as being more commensurate [in their salaries] with what we consider an average CEO of a small business, as opposed to some of the elite stars of the business community."

Robert Frank , a Cornell University economics professor and coauthor of the book ``The Winner Take All Society," said Levine's salary is in line with the market for top-notch music directors.

``From society's perspective, wouldn't it be better if the conductors all earned a little less and the teachers all earned a little more?" he mused. ``But if you ask one city not to bid for a talented conductor, it might be not be happy with what it gets. These are all arms-race issues, and the problem with an arms race is that no individual participant can solve it by himself."

During Levine's tenure leading the BSO, the orchestra has been rejuvenated artistically, observers have said. But Levine's programming choices have sometimes proved to be hard sells to the public. Recognizing this last year, BSO trustees, led by then-board chairman Peter Brooke, decided to fund a $40 million endowment to pay for more rehearsal time and help Levine expand the orchestra's repertoire.

Brooke was a member of the search committee that selected Levine in 2001 to replace longtime music director Seiji Ozawa, who was paid $937,921 during his final season, 2001-02.

``When we went through the search, the players felt that they had not achieved a level that they could achieve," Brooke said. ``And when we on the search committee asked them who could bring them to that higher level, Levine was the person they wanted to have lead them to that higher level.

``We've got what we paid for, and I don't think that's a question with anyone. And now we can take this organization and really think of making it the best in the world."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.