San Fran Symphony threatens concertgoer
NewsAn audience member who held up a rude sign in Finnish during an Esa-Pekka Salonen concert ten days ago has been threatened with disciplinary acction by the orchestra management.
Laura Leibowitz brandished the sign below. Loosely translated from the Finnish it means ‘F*ck the board’.
Impractical and unpleasant as this may be, Ms Leibowitz was contacted by senior director of operations Andrew Dubowski and warned about her ‘disruptive and offensive’ action.
‘Displaying of any signage inside Davies Symphony Hall is not permitted,’ the senior flak informed her, adding: ‘Should this conduct occur again, you will be subject to further disciplinary action, up to and including removal from Davies Symphony Hall and/or suspension of privileges to enter and attend activities of the San Francisco Symphony.’
This amounts to a new orchestra management strategy: don’t like the feedback? change the audience.
Doncha just love the and/or?
UPDATE: The composer John Adams tweets: The SF Symphony is one of THE great orchestras. Alas, their board’s grim austerity plan & willingness to lose Esa-Pekka Salonen risks ruining both morale of the players and overall artistic quality. This in one of the wealthiest demographics in the world. What gives?
Taking inspiration from Emma Stenning of the CBSO! Except she sent a threatening letter to someone who asked her social media photographer to be quiet.
Oh, don’t start with the Birmingham executive here. Enough already.
Somehow I seriously doubt anyone was offended by this, seeing that virtually nobody in the audience could understand it.
Oh for heaven’s sake let it go!
It must take so much courage to brandish a sign in Finnish.
Not at all. It is fun.
All Americans are addicted to their phones. A translation can be made in seconds.
Anyway, an (elderly?) lady with a saucy banner threatens cultural life in San Francisco!
SFS is so desperate for paying customers it can’t even ban protesters, if management was smart, it should designate the orchestra’s concerts as “the Bay Area’s premier safe space for free speech, all protesters welcomed whatever your protest” … so long as they pay for their seats.
This is not true. Ticket sales are up. It’s the donors that need to step it up!
Or……..turn it into a homeless shelter?
I disagree with Mrs. Leibowitz. In my opinion, dissent and criticism can be expressed safely outside the concert hall, but the concert should absolutely not be disturbed, not even at the beginning or in the breaks between one piece and another. But I confess that I would very much like to attend a concert in which not only one spectator but all 2000 people hold up a sign, not only in Finnish but in Russian, Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Spanish, etc.
“… Chinese, Indian, Arabic, …”
Hmm. What is “Indian” language ?
It’s like African language, but not as hard to learn.
Very good! (Dummkopf-Amerikaner)
In an old John Wayne/Ford (take your pick) movie: smoke signals? And maybe “scary, distant drumming”, against a fiery sunset?
Mr. Adams needs to know that just because the SF area is very wealthy that doesn’t always translate to interest in supporting the arts. The old money and the families who really did care about great music, the ones who brought Pierre Monteux to town are long gone. The younger billionaire tech gurus have shown no interest in classical music. In the meantime, the downtown area continues to crumble into a cesspool thanks to generations of voting Democrat.
. In the meantime, the downtown area continues to crumble into a cesspool thanks to generations of voting Democrat.
Please explain to a European who has never been to San Francisco.
Will Steve Bannon and Tr**p solve the problems?
Peter, you don’t know wnat you are talking about. The ninth circuit court of appeals decided that moving the homeless was cruel and unusual punishment, therefore the cities hands were tied. As of this week, the Supreme Court has freed them to remove the homeless encampments in Grants Pass v. Johnson. California and Washington State joined that Oregon case.
As far as Bannon goes, he’s the town drunk wherever he goes. A loud mouth without any redeeming qualities. He is now spending his next four months in Club Fed. Meanwhile, he is being prosecuted in New York State Court for fraud over a plan to build a wall, where the donated monies went to buy luxury items for himself and his cronies.
So if you plan to pipe up on something, come equipped with knowledge. Otherwise you look like the village idiot.
I think you have misread Peter X’s comment. The first line is being quoted from J Barcelo.
“town drunk”. Perfect description for Bannon!
“Peter, you don’t know wnat you are talking about.”
Exactly and thanks- I asked for information and quoted the Retired cellist.
It is all very sad and makes me feel desperate.The USA and at least half of the world is ruled by lies and intimidations, cruelty and hate. Even sublime music won’t change that.
They will not. It’s the mayor’s and local council’s job to do so.
Have Biden, Harris, London Breed and / or Newsom et al.. all of whom have had more than enough tells and pushback to address the ills of America managed to do anything these past 4 years? Your social myopia is glaring as is your foolish posturing as an EU.
I’m curious how you think a Republican-led city/state would handle (or indeed avoid altogether) social problems such as drug use, homelessness, etc., you observe in San Francisco. Please provide examples of such places. I hope you respond. I really do want to learn where this line of thinking comes from and whether it holds any water.
Look at New York before and after Rudy Giuliani – before, alas, he became a Trump sycophant.
I lived in NYC 20 years before Giuliani and ever since his time as mayor.
There were MANY problems during his term. He was only temporarily redeemed in the media by the horrific deux ex machina of 9/11.
Rudy had fascist tendencies even then.
Yes, there were problems during Rudy’s terms, and I don’t disagree that he had authoritarian tendencies even then – fortunately tempered by New York’s political machine. But come on, he clearly left New York in much better shape than what he found it. Even if most of his subsequent activities were at worst disgraceful.
Humans are complex, you know…
As a European living in a very small country I get my information about the USa from reading and some research. It is a very cruel world where one has to choose between Tr**p and Biden. I hope the country can re-invent itself somehow (you need a miracle, so start praying) and find ways for a humane, socialy aware government. I stopped praying however and have no hope left.
this
Give N.L. credit for this inspired line immediately following “F*ck the board.”
“Impractical and unpleasant as this may be ….”
Yes, I agree, that line is inspired. However, how does anyone know if it is either impractical or unpleasant to do so? The only way one could know for certain if it is unpleasant would be if they’ve done it (or tried) and I doubt Mr. Lebrecht has the poor breeding, desperation, or bad judgment to attempt. As for the impractical part, how else does one become a board member of a major symphony orchestra? Besides it IS San Francisco. I’ll bet many a board member was disappointed to discover that ‘mf’ printed in music wasn’t the kind of instruction they thought it was.
Shades of “unebecoming”…
If this was an anti-Israel protest, or if the protestors would have been some of these eco-nuts, or any crap-leftist cause a la mode, the management would have been much more understanding.
Are you joking? SFS management booked the Israel Philharmonic for next year and takes barrels of donations money from Chevron Oil.
They may take their money, but this doesn’t mean that their sympathies are with the donor.
They should get this printed on t-shirts. #VittuJohtokuntaa!
What a WASTE of resources and energy to have such t-shirts. These folks need to come together and find solutions-not print horrible t-shirts regarding their $$ donors!! What is wrong with people thinking this is a good idea? Wear that t-shirt; let’s see what kind of $ comes in from the board then!
Generally, an orchestra’s retained counsel sends a pointed letter. It is rather bizarre that a staff member of the orchestra got involved in this. He now can be dragged into a lawsuit violating her 1st amendment rights. In California, he and the orchestra would likely lose in the way they handled it.
No one has a Constitutional right to free speech in a private concert hall. No, not even in San Francisco, not even in Berkeley.
Hello?
It’s a public concert hall owned by the City and County of San Francisco
As a longtime SFS patron, I find it silly that Leibowitz is being warned about the poster when most SFS concerts suffer from nearly constant use of mobile devices which are much more disruptive.
I’ve dramatically reduced the SFS concerts I attend because screen use is out-of-control. People have developed an addiction to device use and are unable to get through a concert.
I think SFS wants to embrace the screens as a path to creating new audiences so maybe it’s a smart move.
Is Mr. Adams an avowed choade huffer? It IS SF, after all.
There are jokes and then there is offensive humor. Congratulations, you crossed the line.
“This in one of the wealthiest demographics in the world…”
Yes but Mr. Adams it’s naive of you to think the nouveau-riche tech billionaires in SF would donate their wealth to the performing arts. Most arts donors are the old money types driving Hondas and Buicks.
Some comments seem a bit political. Which seems a bit odd. The elderly woman with the sign was not expressing anything political. Seem she was merely, it seems, letting the Board of Governors know what us concert goers think of them and their decisions.
So absurd and offensive, really, to call it “disciplinary action.” They have no authority to “discipline” this woman. She is not an employee. She is not a student. She is not their child.
They can probably forbid certain behavior on premises and kick people out for it. In the US free-speech rights don’t always apply in private settings. To what extent they might apply in this setting as a public accommodation, I’m not sure.
But whatever the case “discipline” has nothing to do with it. How do these bureaucrats come to Imagine they exercise some kind of personal authority over members of the public, who patronize the organization they work for?
Davies Symphony Hall is a city owned (government property) which may be relevant to free speech on premises.
Hate to say it, but shades of Stenning…
Mr. John Adams, with all due respect is late to the party as there isn’t really a party or any good to be made of blaming SFS for EPS’s departure or inspiring the board to try to get him back.
It became clear that EPS came in believing that his artistic vision could be realized and then when he was told they couldn’t afford his dreams, he bolted. It also became apparent from his actions that he wasn’t really on board for helping to revive and restore the financial stability of the organization through less expensive (but could still be creative?) programming. He wasn’t right for the org at this time, they came to find out.