San Francisco musicians are ‘devastated’
OrchestrasStatement from a stunned group of artists in response to Esa-Pekka Salonen’s withdrawal:
‘The Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony are devastated by this news, and will be able to share a response statement in the coming days.’
Esa-Pekka said: ‘I have decided not to continue as music director of the San Francisco Symphony because I do not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the Board of Governors does.’
Radical measures are being discussed.
What possible “radical measures” could the musicians take?
No confidence vote, picketing or strike?
Musicians have not yet publicly called for board and leaders to be replaced, but could come to it.
You don’t honestly think the orchestra would go on strike because of this, do you? A “no confidence” vote is a meaningless gesture, since the board does not report to the musicians.
OK, maybe a picket line and/or passing out leaflets in front of Davies Hall. That I can see.
It doesn’t take a fortune teller to see that the orchestra will likely go on strike in November anyways when its contract ends and it finds itself in a stalemate with the board on multiple longterm issues. It is not just about the departure of a conductor but about the foundations of the organization. Faster or slower it is heading towards a 2010s Minnesota Orchestra situation. Can it be prevented?
All of those prospective proposed moves by the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony would serve no useful purpose at this point. Perhaps the SFS players should just get used to no longer experiencing the “luxuries” of those more expensive European-and-East- Coast-of-the-US tours.
Salonen is not old for a conductor at age 65, but a new music director might serve as a useful antidote to Salonen worship. He is an excellent conductor overall — but going from the LA Phil as music director to the music director of the SFS back to back (with a gap of about 10 years) can be viewed as a bit of an odd move, except for the expected “access” to more funding for more expensive projects.
As expected, only down votes have been received for my previous comment. Please write a response if you would like to have a conversation, not something more akin to a sycophantic parlay.
In any case, it is more or less incontestable that international and even national touring is a luxury that few if any top-30 US budget orchestras can afford on any consistent basis absent a large donation or fund for just that purpose alone. Although lately even orchestras like the Buffalo Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony are making pilgrimages to Florida; this is fine, but realistically that does almost nothing to make them better orchestras than they are already under there current music directors in their home halls and venues.
And I would argue that no current music director at this point in time is truly indispensable for any major US or North American orchestra (JoAnn Falletta in Buffalo might be an exception), and no, I do not believe Manfred Honeck in Pittsburgh is indispensable — (he can be quite the “interventionist” conductor), despite all of the arguments over who was, is, or might be a “great” conductor or could become a “great” conductor or music director.
Soon-to-be ex music director of the San Francisco Symphony Esa-Pekka Salonen has now been revealed as a conductor not dedicated to the orchestra through both “good times and bad.” A contested legacy indeed.
And who would that inconvenience?
Is anyone else in SF going to honor a picket line that is about… a conductor not renewing his contract?
No doubt their current contract has a no strike/no lockout clause for the duration of the contract. They cannot strike.
OK wait 8 months then. How is THAT negotiation going to go?
Stick around and see.
Playing wrong notes on purpose.
Wow. San Francisco has spent the past three decades trying to show – mostly successfully – that they are as good and relevant an orchestra as any in the world. A lot of innovative programming, digital media, top-class performance, etc..
What did the Board think they were getting when they signed Salonen? Which was quite a coup, since even at the time he signed he was seen as a prospective successor to Muti in Chicago. And he took himself off the table. Now presumably he’s back on.
A big self-inflicted wound for SF.
And finding a replacement for Salonen after all of this will be a challenge, to say the least. What conductor wants to go somewhere where the board and management are so totally lacking in ambition or vision? The board there needs to ask itself: Do they support having a world-class orchestra in San Francisco? Any board member who can’t respond in the affirmative should exit stage right. And those that stay need to dig deep and really support their Symphony.
A board “…totally lacking in ambition or vision?” A more legitimate view would be that the Salonen’s plans/visions were just becoming too expensive for the annual revenue from ticket sales and unrestricted donations large and small. The endowment may be in the low hundreds of millions, but much of that is likely restricted, and cannot just be spent on European tours or other extravagances.
Then there is the old canard of a “world class” orchestra. Fashioning such an entity has next to nothing to do with international tours, especially to premiere Salonen’s horn concerto with the San Francisco Symphony at the Lucerne Festival in the next year or so.
When “the going gets tough,” Salonen has started to reveal that he is more committed to his career as a composer than as a music director of a major US orchestra that is encountering some difficulties, as are most other major US orchestras to some degree, with few exceptions.
I’m curious if this is personality or financially driven. Early on they seemed game to support his vision, but it’s not lost on me that the pandemic happened since then. There was a NYT article showing that SFS’ ticket sales are slightly ahead of pre-pandemic. However the tech sector has seen a lot of layoffs and there is also quite a bit of anxiety in that world, which could bleed into San Francisco donors. So if they suddenly don’t want to pay for tours or projects, I think it must mean that donations are down.
Given what Salonen proposed, I doubt Chicago would want that.
We must force a change in the SF Symphony board. Prisca Geeslin needs to be shown the door.
Amen, amen, amen
They all do.
Go woke go broke
SFS is not especially woke. And that has nothing to do with this horrible situation anyhow
More like spend well beyond your revenues, go broke. If donors and patrons don’t want to support what’s programmed by shelling out enough to cover the real costs, how is that the board’s fault beyond hiring someone who programs too lavishly and who pleased musicians rather than audiences? Salonen apparently hasn’t ever heard the words “we can’t afford”.
so true and soon we will have a backlash as wokism and it followers especially the liberal media with zero knowledge almost killed the entire genre
Just look at Gelb at the MET
Agreed. Overpromoting the incompetent is biting many organizations.
Given that SFS is contemplating a quarter of a billion dollar remodel of Davies Hall, I have serious doubts about their claims of financial stress. They have their priorities very wrong.
@ Josh Williams – Creating and updating infrastructure on Davies Hall to serve the community for decades to come perhaps should be a priority over appeasing a 65-year old spendthrift whose primary constituency is the musicians and not their patrons.
It’s business as usual. Board members are usually people that have money and power and little or zero experience in the business. It’s like the Big HMO hiring and firing physicians at will.
There is a present fashion for orchestral management and boards to ignore the wishes and thoughts of the musicians, whom they employ. Either in SF, London, Europe. It’s as if the musicians thoughts are secondary, without the musicians they’d be unemployed! Shame on SF board. Losing such an iconic musician as EPS. About time musicians took control.
“About time musicians took control” (UK Muso)
Yes, yes, let’s give that a try. All those tens of thousands of hours learning, practicing, rehearsing and performing music has superbly prepared them to run a business like the SFSO.
Have you ever heard of a 1970s game show in the US called “The Gong Show”?
Not seeing eye to eye with the wife of a venture capitalist. The old story of our plutocratic system of arts funding. But when did you ever hear Esa-Pekka speak about the need for a public arts funding system like Europe has and which was the foundation of his career?
Salonen is about Salonen and his narrow circle of jerks. The plutocrats (your term) prop one another up and he’s right at home with them. He doesn’t speak out about anything or advocate for anything unless it benefits him.
Obviously, San Francisco is just too conservative to maintain a top-class orchestra. Who’d’a thunk it?
Nothing wrong with being conservative in the traditional classical arts. SF just needs to find someone not so avant-garde as EPS, someone who’s interested in reviving old forgotten masterpieces from past centuries rather than shoving ghastly new music down our ears.
As a Native San Franciscan, and long-time attendee (I actually heard Isaac Stern play in the new hall while he stood on one of the balconies above the street) there is a sad, even pathetic, quality to this announcement.
Can my home town sink into more physical squalor than it now has? Can it drive away more businesses than it now has? Will we be able to attract excellent – not woke – artists to its institutions?
Thanks for everything Mr. Salonen. God’s speed.
I recall after EPS’s arrival, something about the SFO’s website or Youtube channel (don’t recall which exactly) seemed to play down EPS’s arrival and instead kept hurrahing MTT. However, the pandemic threw everything for a curve, so that may have been the main reason. Still, the transition had the whiff of poor or awkward etiquette.
I wish we could hear both sides of the argument. What were EPS’ demands? How did the board differ from him? The same could be said for the ongoing CIM drama. What does the President of the school want that clashes with the faculty’s beliefs? Is Salonen programming too much new music? Is the SFS board finally seeing ticket sales in liberal SF are drastically down when they program American woke music?
Man, the word “woke” has lost all meaning. What is “American woke music”? Black composers? Women composers? Anything not by a dead white composer?? I highly doubt that the problem is that EPS is too “woke”, sigh.
This too shall pass. The San Francisco Symphony will be fine and will find a new music director. MTT was there for so long and so beloved that anyone who followed would be in his shadow until they put their own imprint on the orchestra. LA actually did even better after EPS with Dudamel.
It sounds like the orchestra couldn’t afford Salonen’s goals for the future of the institution. Or maybe he got tired of dodging bowl movements on his way in to the office. Anyhow, better for both if they part ways on reasonably good terms now.
Lost me there Tim — what is a bowl movement?
EPS is a cocky little guy- who thinks he’s a conducting genius & he ain’t (apart from marvellous 20th Century performances which suit his clinical style). He’s earnt a lot out of conducting tx- doesn’t need any more dosh when so many musicians are struggling.