San Fran Symphony is silenced by strike
OrchestrasThis weekend’s season opening concerts of Verdi’s Requiem have been called off after chorus members called a three-day walkout.
Ticket holders for last night’s concerts were given two hours notice. Some were already on their way in to the hall.
The orchestra of San Francisco Opera issued an imediate solidarity srarement:
San Francisco has long been home to one of the most distinguished classical music communities in the world. We stand in support of the members of the Symphony Chorus in their actions for a new contract, not only because it is needed to ensure that they can continue to live and create art here, but also because the draconian cuts they face threaten the future of the artistic culture in San Francisco.
It’s back to the mattresses.
Why the picture of CSO?
Pictured is Melissa Kleinbart of the SFS
The San Francisco Symphony (Salonen’s orchestra) and the orchestra of the San Francisco Opera are separate entities.
Which doesn’t prevent the Opera orchestra musicians from putting out a statement of solidarity, which is what they did.
Not if the Geeslin’s have their way.
Are they a full time chorus that is salaried? Do other symphony orchestras have choruses that could strike? I’m just asking because it seems to me that very few orchestra concerts I go to seem to involve a chorus.
I think that some orchestral choruses have a core of paid singers and a regular larger group of auditioned volunteers. That’s largely because any given piece the orchestra plays may need only a small women’s chorus or a large mixed chorus, etc. But even at a busy orchestra like the CSO the chorus may only get 5 or 6 concerts.
Apparently SFS Chorus members were getting a lot more work than CSO chorus (and others)- and the CSO chorus is busy! Works with chorus are expensive and the SFS is having to cut back, etc. Shouldn’t they take care of their orchestra musicians first?
American and European choruses generally have a salaried corps of singers, it’s just in the UK we expect most of us to do it for free and for love!!
Not salaried – but apparently the SFS Chorus got/get(?) the most work and pay out of any of the symphony choruses in the country! EXPENSIVE!
Verdi Requiems are a bit difficult to do without a chorus.
To answer some of the questions people have – I’m a retired choral and opera singer. In SF and Chicago, both orchestras have their own resident choruses, majority are paid singers, and have AGMA union contracts. SF I imagine specifies number of concerts in contract; CSO gives about 12 choral performances a year, not counting summer, usually about 4 separate programs. “Paid” doesn’t mean full time salary as it does with orchestra, but per concert for rehearsals and performances. Other symphonies in US have a variety of choral arrangements. Some regularly contract with an outside chorus; some have their own with various amounts of paid/volunteer, not always union. So SFSO and CSO are close parallels. Yes, both cities have opera companies with their separate orchestras and choruses. Artists often support each other in labor disputes; they also supported the Hollywood writers and actors strikes.
I’m in the SF Symphony horn section and I can tell you this is all fake news. All performances took place and the chorus are just being a chorus. Next season will be HUGEEE
Incorrect:
The singers voted to strike one performance, and the Administration immediately cancelled all 3 Verdi Requiem concerts.
https://www.sfcv.org/articles/music-news/sf-symphony-chorus-strike-opening-night-canceled
https://www.sfcv.org/articles/music-news/was-strike-sf-symphonys-season-opener-inevitable
The SFO dissolved slowly after MTT retired. He was the glue from 1995-2020. Salonen never was ablemto win over the board, nor did he really move to San Francisco as MTT did and become party of that vibrant city. At this point is seems they have an ineffectual board whose leadership need to change. They also need to look at tours and recordings which bring in monies so they can pay the musicians better wages. The next Music Director should be selected not just on musicianship, but it should be someone who will live in the City, be willing to put themselves out as a city leader and should not hold a multitude of posts at least to start.
Tours by major orchestras almost never “bring in monies….”
And neither do commercially released orchestral recordings, although compared to tours by orchestras they are at times relatively inexpensive.
If you think tours and recordings bring in monies you have no business commenting on orchestra management. They have other benefits for sure but in 2024 do not put pennies in the bank.
I disagree. Salonen started with rocky footing due to the impact of COVID. His innovative programming took the orchestra to a new level, and his rapport with the musicians was solid. It was the Board that canceled tours and told Salonen they would no longer fund his creative vision. The same board that has not restored musicians’ salaries to pre-COVID levels after they were cut. The Board is resisting dipping into its $315 million endowment while at the same time submitting plans to the city for a $150 million building renovation & expansion. Where is SFS’s priorities?
I don’t believe that EPS’s innovations or creative vision are anywhere near as popular as a few people on here seem to think they are.
The SFS submitted the renovation plans to the city because there was an approaching deadline after which Davies Symphony Hall would get some sort of landmark status which would make getting approvals for changes to the building more complex and expensive.
SFS management has been clear that they have no plans to spend any money on construction while the orchestra is in this financial situation. They just wanted the plans to be submitted before the landmark status went into effect.
This is so unimaginable that such a tiny half million dollar budget of chorus can cause such a crisis, I had to review their last 6 years of financials. First time ever as a concert goer. I don’t notice anything unordinary in their income and cash flow statements, so the press is right, there’s no financial crisis to justify this.
However, I did notice a huge shift in their investment portfolio approach in 2022. They used to allocate 2/3 or 66% of investment portfolio in market traded Equity funds. In 2022, they reduced that into about 45% of total assets. Instead, they increased the portion of non-traded assets from 22% in 2021 to almost 40% now. Particularly they seem to have invested $40 million in hedge funds in 2022 (which appeared in 2023 financials). Their market traded equity funds also moved away from domestic funds to global funds (domestic funds are more conservative normally).
I was just speculating before, now am wondering if this crisis is really something to do with endowment funds not doing well since the beginning of this year….
I now got enough of this, I listen to some good music instead.
If you think that tours and recordings “bring in monies” you really don’t know this business and should refrain from commenting.
not sure I agree that SFS “should” tour–if the tours are profitable, then, YES, but if not, at this time, no.
BUT you are totally right (I’ve been preaching the same thing) about what SFS should look for in its next musical director. absolutely. embed in San Francisco, as MTT did (and Blomsted did before him, to some degree), get involved with local scenes, commit to our community (communities) in a big way
While the Salonen incident is certainly unfortunate, I feel it’s unfair to pin this declining situation in S.F. upon him. He’s not been with the orchestra long enough to earn the position of ‘fall guy’, in my opinion. Like major sports franchises, big cultural institutions in big cities have their up cycles and down cycles. S.F. is in a down cycle, and I think it has more to do with the entertainment and cultural choices of the younger generation – the ones who are supposed to replace us old farts – than it does with the homeless and the decline of retail in the Union Square area (everyone’s favorite whipping boy). It’s not going to be an easy fix. My fear is that it’s going to lead to many more John Williams big screen movie nights. Enough already. Find a conductor everyone can proclaim to be second coming of the Messiah, just like every other city wants to do. Here’s a clue . . . women make up a big percentage of the work force in S.F.
Opening a season with a Requiem (even Signor Green’s estimable opus) is rather like holding a rave in a crematorium – it kills the upbeat atmosphere totally. (And yes, I have been to more than one rave in a crem, so I know what I am talking about…)
But Salonen knew it was a prophetic piece to open the season with.
The Verdi is a ‘pot boiler’. Everyone loves it. I don’t like it at all – except for the bassoon quartet section – but that’s not the point. I doubt very few people opened their brochure and said, “oh, they’re starting with the Verdi Requiem. What a downer!”.
This is so disappointing. We were so looking forward to Esa-Pekka conduct Verdi Requiem. I remember Esa-Pekka said in his interview when he came, one of reasons why he came to SF is because of the in-house professional chorus, that was started by Seiji Ozawa and cherished by MTT.
I think it’s irrelevant if other symphonies pay their singers or how many choral works other symphonies do a year. That sounds like a cost-cutting consulting firm advising water bottle companies. Each symphony can and should pursue their individual artistic uniqueness. One symphony may spend more money on the brass section and another may recruit better string players. One may do a lot of semi-staged works and another may do a lot of films. MTT used to do wonderful semi-staged works with the chorus, and we hoped Esa-Pekka will even innovate more on such.
Now Symphony obviously has no money. They don’t even look for a new director. What happened to their financials? Maybe, doners are even more disengaged now due to these program cuts, so they got even less money than they cut. Maybe, they mismanaged their endowment and now cash flow from it or little principal left. Based on their press release for this cancellation, professional chorus singers are costing only a half million dollars to them, and Verdi Requiem could have almost paid that if they kept it, but I guess they are going to cut the chorus now. Next they may find they lost more ticket sales than they just cut.
So what’s left now? Is SF Symphony management going to present their artistic vision to the audience that maintains their uniqueness within whatever money left, or are they just going to listen to the cost-cutting advice to become another water bottle company?
Some questions above are answered here:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/sf-symphony-chorus-strike-19778261.php
Bad form to strike right before a concert. Perhaps it was strategic, but it demonstrates a lack of respect for the listening public.
SFS could have headed it all off by negotiating IN GOOD FAITH. They were offered the opportunity, and they refused.
Regardless of who’s at fault, it still left patrons literally at the front door of a place that’s not all that easy to get to. That’s a bad look – people don’t forget those things.
I was notified by email a little more than 2 hours prior. I was already in town so way too late. The word was out 4 hours prior. Poor communication.
This conflict has been escalating ever since AGMA claimed in July that SF Symphony management “proposed slashing the [SFS] Chorus budget by 80 percent.” This would mean, AGMA said, reducing the current salary of the professional singers from $21,621 to $4,324 for the 2024–2025 season, which covers 26 performances and 56 rehearsals, a total of 82 services. Practically, this would be accomplished by having the AGMA choristers participate in fewer performances.
It is a truly bad look for the entire SFS organization to cancel the season opener when patrons were on the way to the hall.
Here’s a question for those more knowledgeable than I am:
Could SFS just re-program the season with concerts where a chorus is not needed?
Absolutely not. Even though they are different unions the orchestra musicians will not cross the chorus’ picket line to play a “re-programed” concert. Union solidarity 101.
Union solidarity is all well and good . . . sort of. But don’t forget that many of the patrons you – and that includes the board – left standing literally at the front door. Believe me, THEY won’t forget that.
The President of the Board and CEO are both new since Salonen was hired. Both apparently have a new mission, and it is the President of the Board who thinks the secret to building a new, younger audience is to have a new, SMALLER hall, that probably has a great space to have parties/receptions–which is the real reason for the arts ya know. The chorus has 32 paid singers. Come on folks, don’t just rely on SD for your news. Lots of news available from SF Chronicle and SF Classical Voice. The Board insists it doesn’t have money, but they are pushing ahead on a $100M renovation of the hall, which is probably going to cost $150M before it’s all over. And where the h*** is the orchestra supposed to play during that process? Heck, just let all the musicians walk away, and hire those youngsters who will play for much less. But then you won’t have the excellence or experience to handle performing full time, but you can still have the parties and receptions for the President–which is what is important. The other hall (War Memorial) is busy with SF Opera for 6 months, and SF Ballet for the other 6 months. And ALTIN, who commented above and is supposedly in the SFS horn section–I call BS.
I thought the planned renovation would leave the main performance hall untouched and focus on major lobby alterations and additions.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/davies-symphony-hall-19651838.php
If the management even can’t afford the half million dollars of chorus budget and are willing to cancel the season opening, how will they finance the $150M renovation?
Maybe, they put the building in reverse mortgage like arrangement with some private equity, because they are so desperate and going down the drain.
If they actually had the money like any other year as described in the press, this is not acceptable.
Don’t we donate to them entrusting that management will use the money to present good arts? Destroying the chorus of 50 years of the history and our season opening while having the money is not acceptable.
Patrons and doners need explanation.
Yeah, the financial aspect completely breaks the logic.
Is there possibly a major donor who is ready with the money? A gift large enough for naming rights?
The explanation I’ve read is that the only forward movement with the renovation is getting the construction plans submitted to the city for approval. There’s no intention to move forward with actual construction while the SFS financial situation is so bad.
Unsolicited advice: call Muti to the picket line. He’s hasn’t gotten much to do at the moment, and he’s an expert in public relations skits, photo ops and labor negotiations, not to mention putting millions of US dollars in his own pocket (as much as he dislikes America)
Additional photo ops nugget: he’s enticed by “special” selfies, on or off the picket line, though some are not publishable.