San Fran Symphony sacks top talent
NewsJanos Gereben of San Francisco Classical Voice has learned of the abrupt departure of Oliver Theil, the SF Symphony’s Head of Digital Innovation and the driving force in its emergence as a major player in the streaming world.
It has taken several days for the SFSO to confirm this odd dismissal.
Today they issued this bureaucratic equivocation:
Changes were made last week to the structure of the Symphony’s administrative team. The Marketing and Communications departments were merged to better support the organization’s work in audience development and concert promotion. The in-house video department was dissolved in a strategic move towards working with independent contractors with specialized skill sets, catered to the bespoke needs of future digital projects. The changes were part of a strategic internal restructure and will not impact the audience experience or any of the organization’s public-facing programs.
It looks like the orchestra’s bosses have cut off its cutting edge.
Theil, who joined SFS in 1991, created the award-winning Keeping Score series and moved into his present job just two years ago. He is talent, home grown and internationally recognised. They should have done more to keep him.
Here’s the latest from Janos.
No opinion. I would say the “Keeping Score” series had various degrees of success and ‘less than success’. It’ll be interesting to see how they move forward from here. An eventual successor to Salonen will be THE big issue in S.F. The programming has actually been fairly interesting this year. That, in turn, is just an opinion.
Oliver is a fantastic colleague and innovator. Whatever decision was made here is a real shame for him and his family.
I read the article about Oliver Theil. There are a few facts that I need to correct. Oliver was a valuable part of the team for Keeping Score however it was a creation of Michael Tilson Thomas and me when I was at the SFS as Director of Operations and Electronic Media and later, as General Manager. For that reason, the credits of the later Keeping Score videos list MTT and myself as Executive Producers. SFSMedia was also born under my tenure and supervision with a staff team that courageously took on an ambitious project. The Emmy that Oliver is holding is from the back side of the award. The front reads “ 2011-2012 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA EMMY AWARDS, Historic/Cultural – Program/Special “San Francisco Symphony at 100” – JOHN KIESER, Executive Producer, KQED 9/SFS Media/Janette Gitler Productions.” Oliver succeeded me as the head of media in 2015 and I am very sorry to see his tenure come to an end.
Congratulations John Kieser, you’ve succeeded in making this about you.
I’m sure with his resume Mr. Theil will land on his feet and do quite well.
Additionally, as part of the SFSO workforce adjustment program, the active voice in announcements was reduced with a corresponding new emphasis on bespoke freelance passive voices.
Translation please. English is my first language.
Interesting timing, given the release of an imaginitive video of Stravinsky’s “Soldier’s Tale” on the SFS site and YouTube. I’ve enjoyed several SFS Media CDs but wonder if they’ll continue; could Salonen”s recording contracts. long-range artistic plans or preferences have a bearing on this change, or are finances dictating the decision?
If you think, as I used to, that orchestras were about music, think again! They’re about money and politics. Music is entirely irrelevant.
With the departure of MTT after his long tenure, there is likely going to be a host of departures over the next year.