San Fran Symphony threatens concertgoer

An 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?