It’s the troubled San Antonio Philharmonic, again.
Two key backers have demanded the return of $180,000, which they say were loans.
The orchestra’s CEO says they will contest this claim in court.
No winners here.
For the third year running, the 43 critics…
It’s the troubled San Antonio Philharmonic, again. Two…
Austrian media are circulating a picture of the…
No sooner had the musicians authorised a pay…
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Dumb and dumber.
At least they’ve got good mariachi bands in San Antonio…
“ Nicki Minaj says crowd at San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center one of the best ever
The 12-time Grammy nominee sang Selena’s ‘Bidi Bidi Bom Bom’ during her first-ever Alamo City show.”
Do you need an orchestra when you can have ‘Bidi Bidi Bom Bom’?
You don’t need a music library for that!
As a member of this orchestra, we all know the SA local union is to blame for the destruction of SAS. Worst union in all of AFM.
Interesting. Please share more
First, they increased their numbers on the negotiating committee to take control back in 2020. In addition to 5 Orchestra Committee members, there were 4 other union board members. There were also a members in OC who are in bed with the union for work (like contracting gigs) so the OC was outnumbered.
Once our union took control, they did not have the orchestras best interest in mind and did not care about the opinions of their colleagues, but instead had their own personal vendetta and agenda against individuals on our management. Meetings often were/are filled with hate speeches and conspiracy theories about people on our board, who donated money to us.
They did not adhere to AFM rules. The orchestra is supposed to take anonymous surveys throughout the process, and the negotiating team (OC and Union) refused to do so despite numerous requests.
A majority of the members of the orchestra wanted to agree to their best and final offer which was a 3 yr contract for our full salary with growth but with the elimination or a few positions through attrition. The negotiating committee turned a deaf ear on their colleagues.
Now, concerts have terrible attendance despite Kahane coming. The biggest shame is the musical quality. This used to be a great orchestra, but so many great players left. Many on ‘sabbatical’ were not invited to come back and play this season. The subs have become members without a formal audition, and these are people who studied with SAS members in high school or went to UT San Antonio. Funding is down very much, and SA Phil has been unable to offer YPC children’s concerts to the musicians due to lack of funding.
There is a lot more, if anyone is interested.
Shame on Local 23 for destroying a great orchestra.
If you “all” think your union is not doing a good job, you should have voted to decertify it.
San Antonio is the 7th largest US city, by population. How do things go so wrong there? It’s not a rhetorical question, I’m really wondering.
Simple. It ranks 187th in per capita income, you have a large military presence which means a highly transient populations and you have several corporations with headquarters there — USAA Financial, Valero Energy, iHeart Radio, HEB supermarkets — with zero history or tradition of supporting the arts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP_per_capita
Like so many orchestra around the country, the old San Antonio Symphony (where I worked for 2 years) got bigger and bigger, for no good reason. When I was there we were doing 32 classical subscription concerts per year, which was crazy. Looks like the new SA Philharmonic is doing 20 plus 3 special Bach programs plus Beethoven 9 and some pops shows. There are not enough classical music lovers in that town to support this.
San Antonio is also one of the largest majority-Hispanic cities in the United States, with 64% of its population being Hispanic.
For classical music, there’s your answer, mi amigo.
It’s in Texas … need I say more?
San Antonio proper is the 7th largest city in the US by population, but the metro area is the 24th largest.
Baltimore, Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg, and even Riverside, California each have more people in their metro areas than San Antonio has.
And San Antonio is relatively poor for a metro area its size, so there just aren’t the same extra resources for supporting a professional symphony orchestra there that there are in, say, Charlotte (a major banking center) or Orlando.
If you really want to know, the answer is that while large, it is majority Hispanic and poor by US standards.
I’ve heard of frustrations with the union, but never full out blame for this situation from any of the musicians I’ve talked to. Is it supposed to be the union’s fault that the ex-board of the then-Symphony failed to do their job and raise money?
I’m also curious to know what the union would have to do with this particular issue, the schism of the new Philharmonic board. Is this Brian Petkovich, by chance? Did the union have something to do with you being voted out? If it is you I guess you’d probably not want to say much at this time, but we’d love some clarification from somebody. It’s really not clear why the new board is eating itself alive right now and voting out major donors/musicians who lead the organization out of the strike.
Richard Oppenheim is a monster.
I’m not a lawyer but if it truly was a loan, as compared to a gift, wouldn’t there be some sort of paperwork detailing the terms of the loan?
I searched for the donors names listed in the article and one came up as an attorney. If it is the same person, her firm’s website says she’s an expert in “contract compliance”. Best guess is there is a contract and it was violated.
Not many details are clear, but in the original agreement the loans are only forgivable (i.e. gifts) so long as the orchestra continues to function as an orchestra and give regular concerts. The Phil. is indeed giving performances and its regularly scheduled season is underway. However, these donors are alleging it is not functioning as an orchestra (even though it demonstrably is) seemingly based on the idea that the currently elected board is illegitimate. The grounds for illegitimacy seem to be that these particular donors and some other board members they like got voted off of it. There was a schism with two competing boards, though I’m not sure if the dissenting board is still actively fighting for control at this point.
What is more bizarre—trying to derail an orchestra’s current concert season with litigation claiming that it’s not really having a concert season at all? Or, voting crucial, MAJOR donors off of a struggling orchestra’s board?
I will donate $180,000.00 to this orchestra under one condition: Only female conductors can be hired. Will others among you join me?
The “Texas oilmen” and bankers who funded their wives’ community projects are gone, replaced by tech and healthcare biz people who have no clue about classical music.