Hello accompanists and their 'users'. Just wondering how much is the going rate? I suppose a lot depends on the quality of the music / event etc but could you give me some ball park figures? (Non London prices please!) I'd be interested to know what people charge or pay for exams / festival performances / concerts etc (especially singers)
Thanks

Hi,
I use several different accompanists, therefore the prices vary a little. I usually pay £10 per half hour, sometimes I pay by the number of pieces i'm doing (usually music festival pieces). Something like £10 a piece (gr.8 standard). With one accompanist i've paid £30 for half an hour.

Northern Ireland - £25 per hour

My pupils pay £10 to the accompanist for exams, which included a practice. I persuaded her to make it £10 for the exam now and £5 per practice. It seems fairer.

How long is a piece of string? A little while ago I asked on the forums how much to charge for accompanying a diploma exam. The replies varied so much that I've had to decide for myself how much to charge and hope it's accepted. Most recently I've charged £25 for a grade exam, to include one half hour rehearsal, any more rehearsals charged at my teaching rate of £10 a half hour. I now get paid £15 an hour for accompanying a Youth Choir (I did it free for about 6 years cos there was no money to pay me). I'm giving my services free for a concert next week cos it's local and it's for a charity.

I think my piano teacher charges the same as he would for lessons, ie £10 per half hour, plus I think £10 for the exam... not sure though (he's yet to charge me )

Mine does but calculates how much time (including travel) the exam will take up.
She shares this cost out if there is more than one candidate at the same visit.

The exam accompanist charges £52.50 at college and I think that is how much I will be paying for my diploma exam

Round here most accompanists who are worth using charge £40-50 for a rehearsal and duties on the day (even for low grades). I've just had one of my pupils use same for a Grade 7 exam and they got almost 2 hours of rehearsal and the exam itself for the fee. Seemed very fair rate to me.

ISM rates (when they were allowed to make them) were £24 per hour. We now pay £27 per hour (same as his teaching fee).
In practice, as our accompanist travels a 50 mile round trip, he charges £25 for a grade exam, including rehearsal.

Through the Music Service we pay £5 for the practice and the exam. This time I paid privately and it's £10 per half hour, it was well worth it as the time slots are just too short when you only get one shot at a practice.

The lovely elderly lady I use charges £20 for two half hour rehearsals and the actual exam. Refuses to charge if an extra rehearsal is needed, and won't have a pay rise, however much I tell her she's undercharging. I encourage people to give her flowers, and tell them which are her favourite chocolates.

She says she really does it for the love of it, and only charges because everyone tells her she should . . . She loves to see pupils coming back for another exam, delights in their progress and is always really supportive and encouraging. I dread to think what I will do when she's no longer available.

In contrast, a friend of mine paid £100 for a 'specialist' jazz pianist for her son's Grade 6 saxophone exam. Said he wasn't really interested . . .

Wow, some big variations there. Thanks for the info.

One forumite to my surprise charges the cost of the exam plus 50% for grade 8 and diploma. Thats for one rehearsal and the exam apparently......£225 for diploma .......YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!

For my grade exams I used this accompanist who charges £40 for as many sessions but usually 2 and lessons in aural and the performance...BARGAIN!

For my diploma I am using the Birmingham Conservatoire accompanist who is also a flautist, she does all the BFS competition accompanying too. She knows pretty much all the repetoire well enought just to play without practice! She charges £30 and hour.

I've never had to pay one before - my teachers have always done it.

As I said further up the fees vary wildly - looks like from paying nothing at all to £225. For the diploma I mentioned, in the end I settled for £100 to include the exam and 3 hours worth of rehearsal. Anything over that to be paid at my teaching rate. I told the instrumentalist he could think of it in many ways:

£100 for the exam and 3 free rehearsals
£40 for the exam and 3 rehearsals at £20 per hour
£60 for the exam, and £40 for the 3 rehearsals on a '3 for the price of 2' basis Whichever way he looked at it I reckoned it looked reasonable.

If I was really familiar with the pieces already either through playing them for someone else's exam, or for a concert, then I think I'd have charged less. But, I don't know them and I will spend a lot of time learning and practising them and I think it's reasonable for this to be factored in to the fee charged, even though it'll still be nothing like the amount I'd get if I charged per hour for the hours I spend learning and practising myself.

I ask my husband to accompany any kids I put in for exams. He reluctantly took £5 per rehearsal. I say reluctantly, because he wasn't expecting to get paid, and he doesn't charge for exams. Each run through was meant to last around 15 minutes, but we've easily spent nearly an hour before now going through everything and making sure the candidate is happy.
I must admit, I've been a bit surprised by some of the replies in this thread.
May be I'm out of touch, may be it's also because I've never had to pay for one

I asked someone who was accompanying several candidates at our local AB centre how much he charged and he said he charged official AB rates - apparently there is a list, and it is charged according to grade . I was interested in grade 3 as my teacher has recently charged an accompanying fee and I was surprised as she didn't charge me for grade 2 and hadn't mentioned it. What she had charged was quite a bit above the AB rate (£15), which I wasn't that happy with as my accompaniments were very easy (she only asked for the books the day before) and she didn't need to put in any extra time on practising. As the exam was at her house she didn't have to travel either.

Do you know where the list is published?

No - I would suggest ringing up to find out.