San Antonio Sym Musicians Respond to Shutdown of Orchestra

[alexwill]

Keep up with the latest news at either url below!
The Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony have responded to the shutdown of the orchestra. Read their statement, and keep up with the latest HERE: https://www.facebook.com/sasmusicians
or HERE: https://www.mosas.org/blog
From: Mary Ellen Goree
Chair, Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony
Principal 2nd Violin, MOSAS
The Symphony Society’s declaration of Chapter 7 bankruptcy yesterday, unhappy news though it was, did not come as much of a surprise to those of us closely involved in the events of the past year. Our board and management have been making it crystal clear for a long time that their long-term goal was the reduction of the San Antonio Symphony from the full-sized, full-time, fully professional orchestra that San Antonio has enjoyed for 83 years to a part-time, downsized orchestra of the type found in much smaller cities. When the musicians refused to participate in our own destruction, our board and management elected to burn the house down rather than move from their irrational position.
First, some corrections of fact. From sasymphony dot org: The Musicians’ Union has made it clear there is no prospect of the resumption of negotiations, absent the Board agreeing to a budget that is millions of dollars in excess of what the Symphony can afford.
“What the Symphony can afford,” of course, is directly tied to what the leadership of the Symphony Society is willing to raise. It is telling that the past 30+ years have been an unbroken trend of the San Antonio metropolitan area becoming larger and larger, and the Symphony budget becoming smaller and smaller. Given our population growth and the number of corporations either headquartered or doing significant business in San Antonio, the idea that San Antonio cannot support an orchestra even at the level of Omaha, Nebraska (an orchestra with a $9M budget), is ludicrous.
The absence of a labor contract has effectively forced the Symphony to shutter its operations.
This is a lie. The Symphony has a labor contract (collective bargaining agreement, or CBA), properly ratified by the board as well as the musicians in 2019, not due to expire until August 31, 2022. That the board and management of the Symphony Society have chosen to disregard this labor contract is on them, not us.
A quick history: over the spring and summer of 2020 when it was clear that the 2020-21 season could not possibly go on as planned, the musicians of the San Antonio Symphony agreed to draconian concessions (an 80% reduction in base salary) for that season only, in order to help the Symphony Society weather the pandemic storm. Included in that agreement was a clause allowing either side to request to renegotiate the third year of the CBA if it seemed necessary due to the uncertainties of the pandemic.
In 2021 the SSSA invoked that clause, but over the course of negotiations through the spring and summer of 2021, it became increasingly clear that in fact the SSSA’s desire to renegotiate the third year of the CBA had little to do with the pandemic and nearly everything to do with long-standing financial issues. In short, the SSSA saw in the pandemic an opportunity to achieve what some had been trying to do for years—downsize the symphony and cut the musicians’ pay to a part-time level.
On September 26, 2021, the SSSA wrongfully declared impasse and imposed draconian terms that would reduce the size of the orchestra by 40%, cut the pay (already barely above a living wage) of the remaining 60% by 33%, and offer most of the remaining 40% of the musicians a salary of just over $11,000 a year with no benefits. Agreeing to such terms would have been meant agreeing to our own destruction, so on September 27, the musicians called an unfair labor practice strike.
The question of what a city the size of San Antonio can or cannot support has been addressed here:
https://www.mosas.org/post/the-4-7m-elephant-in-the-room
Now it is time for the musicians to move forward with plans to organize the full-sized, fully professional orchestra that any city with a claim to “major league” status must have. We presented three pairs of artistically and financially successful concerts, one each in April, May, and June, in the beautiful sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of San Antonio. We are making plans for a fall season as well; please follow www.MOSASperformancefund.org for information as it becomes available, and/or to make a donation to support the music. The MOSAS Performance Fund is a 501©3 organization and all donations are tax-deductible.
We have not forgotten the students of San Antonio and are also planning to continue our acclaimed educational concerts for students from every corner of the city and from every educational setting. Public, charter, private, parochial, and home school students will have the opportunity to enjoy the music of their hometown professional orchestra and learn more about this important art form.
As we move forward, we want to thank our audiences and donors over the past decades, members of our various managements and boards who have worked hard on our behalf, and the city of San Antonio for the support which has kept us on stage to this point. We ourselves are community members as well and look forward to continuing to present concerts of the highest artistic caliber for our friends, neighbors, and fellow San Antonians.
~Mary Ellen Goree
Chair, Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony
Principal 2nd Violin, MOSAS

[kehaulani]

Well, grievances and wishful thinking aside, is that, in the U.S. an orchestra survives on non-governmental funding. That is, funds must come from ticket sales, subscriptions, endowments, fund raisers, etc. When a society doesn't have the will to accumulate sufficient funding, the organization collapses.

Don't misunderstand this post. I am pro-orchestra. I came here from Germany, where we had a full-time orchestra from the state theater in residence, as well as a state radio/tv orchestra homed in the city. In addition to that, we used to have visiting orchestras like the Leningrad Symphony, BBC Orchestra ets.

With regards to the San Antonio Symphony, it's a cultural thing. And this is not specific to S.A.. American culture in many places is not European-heritage (or "high art oriented per se) oriented and, because of this (and lack of appreciation for), does not get a lion's share of financial support. Also. because of this, the people will not support through governmental funding support. No public appreciation or will.
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[Crazy Finn]

I have no familiarity with the San Antonio situation.

However, it has become quite common for orchestra management to use any excuses to reduce in size and cut costs. Most orchestral musicians are part of a union and lately, symphony organizations have looked less favorably on these.

On the surface, it seems reasonable to match the orchestral musician payroll to actual income. Indeed this is kind of necessary. However, usually a deeper reading of how the symphony organization actual spends it's money sometimes reveals that much of it goes to other outlets - some of which are necessary (marketing, sales, etc) but sometimes it also lines the pockets of administration to a surprising amount.

I don't have facts for this case, but these are tough times for orchestras and their musicians. A orchestra local to me went through some tough negotiations about a decade ago.
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[5.13]

Kehaulani, with much due respect, unless you have spent a significant portion of time living in San Antonio, please don't reduce the collapse of that orchestra to simply a "culture" thing.

San Antonio has many rich cultures, and classical music is one of them. San Antonio Symphony was the first founded orchestra in Texas, and even premiered at least one Richard Strauss work. The local music scene is strong with many universities, churches, and individual chamber groups using members of the symphony.

When advertising was at best "par" the concerts in San Antonio were just as filled as any other American orchestra. And I have been around the block. There are, as you may imagine, a multitude of reasons that the orchestra collapsed. An expensive hall run theoretically as a non-profit but operated essentially as for profit, slowly choking and killing it's residence companies. A board that was un-imaginative, un-willing to reach out to new parts of town, and truly just stale. Many so called "experts" on the board had been on upwards of 15 years with no significant progress. Many local corporations and wealthy individuals who otherwise would gladly help support the symphony were becoming wary of donating to an organization that was seemingly always on the brink of collapse. Major funders like HEB and Kronkosky were using their financial leverage for years to try to reduce the orchestra to an A/B structure with no understanding of the damaging effect that would have to the orchestras stellar performance reputations. Management was always understaffed, sometimes with bright people, sometimes with duds. One employee in staff made so many errors on financial sheets that it took years to unravel, which eventually led to the discovery of something like a 1.5 million dollar deficit.

I could go on. But you know the one thing that was consistent all those years? An audience with rapturous love for their symphony, formed of so many loving and dedicated fans. 45,000 school children a year screaming and laughing when the orchestra played their award winning young persons concerts.

To me, it was the caretakers of the symphony who failed, and who truly failed the city of San Antonio for letting a great gem collapse. The culture and beautiful performances were the strongest part.

[kehaulani]

I have lived in San Antoni three times.

By cultural, in the example of symphony orchestras, I mean European-centered culture. That institution, both in its orchestration and repertoire, is left by the wayside in many, if not most, communities.

No need to give a backstory here, but I have seen in my lifetime, a withering of popularity of "serious music" and Jazz and related offshoots. Even in pop music I've seen it. When I last was in pop bands. We had the same number of jobs, but we had to travel further and further to do it.

I sympathize with performers who have spent all their lives learning their craft just to see it crumble around them. But bless their hearts, their outrage and disappointment doesn't do anything to help their cause. The music business is changing, and I hate it. But that's the way it is.

There are, undoubtedly some ineptitude or downright scamming of the handling and distribution of funds here and there. But I didn't read that in the attached article. My take-away is that there was a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the musicians that didn.t result in a practical answer.

Back to "it's a cultural thing". If musical Fine Arts was highly respected and valued by the general public, they wpuld find a way to fund the activities.
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[robert_white]

While you make some interesting points, there's really no grandiose philosophical argument to be made here, kehaulani. This is simply an example of an ideologically-driven board (or at least its leadership), choosing to cut off its nose to spite its face. Rather than see their role as one of stewardship and cultivation of an important arts organization, they have fixated on one structural idea of what the organization might look like, and have been trying for many years (well before 2019) to ram that down the musicians' throats. I sincerely hope the initiative to form something new out of this catastrophe (described by Mary Ellen Goree in the statement shared), will be successful.

The only bright side to be found in the face of all of this is the actual rarity of this extreme situation nationally. When the Philadelphia Orch. filed Chapter 11 in 2011, many worried that practice could become the norm. That hasn't been the case. There have been some high-profile lockouts, which are always tragic, but those orchestras seem to have come back stronger in nearly every case. And during the COVID lockdown, many feared orchestras would seize the opportunity to just bail on musician pay and benefits. Very few did, and those who did suffered some major blowback.

Unionized musicians are what actually produce resilience in this field. The continued production of music during the lockdown would never have happened without a deeply committed workforce and leadership who recognize their responsibility to the organizations they are charged to serve. While the dynamics of collective bargaining sometimes highlight the intrinsic conflict in any labor situation, the practice also allows for truly shared goals to be revealed and bolstered. That, happily, seems to be much more the norm in the orchestral world now than it was 10-15 years ago. Sadly, this makes the SAS board's ineptitude all the more horrifying and needless.

[kehaulani]

First, understand that I am not pro-symphony board and anti-musician. But I've reread the above material and I don't see any tangible suggestions for raising enough funding from San Antonio to fund what the musicians propose.

If there are behind-the-scenes actions that the board is taking, it's not apparent, at least to me, in the above information.
_________________
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[OldSchoolEuph]

[Seymor B Fudd]

To be sure I live in Scandinavia, not at all familiar with the situation in San Antonio - but I whole heartedly side with Keheulani.
Of course local factors may play a certain role - in Sweden we have "player´s unions" - a natural ingredient in our society

During my life, 80 late December this year I have witnessed, am witnessing a cultural change. I´ve played in bands since 1958, formed bands, still play in bands but what happens now is that the generation who were brought up with "classical" music, with big bands - is reaching its date of final storage so to speak. The audiences grow older and older,; it becomes harder and harder to find players - in all a dwindling number of people will have to carry the tradition up the road (which might end with a cliff).

Music Academies have problems finding horn blowers; finding youngsters who are prepared to invest all that energy, to display all that dedication seems to get more difficult by the day. The huge influx of people from quite different cultures doesn´t make it easier (today 20 % of the population in Sweden was born outside the country, has arrived within the last 20 years).

Exeptions do exist - in certain parts of the country there is a lively brass band movement as well as classical orchestras - kind of old cultural strongholds - but the big trend points to the fact that in 10 years - the audiences will be "not there". And -who´s going to play??

On the other hand life does not seem to evolve in a linear fashion.
So up the ladder - who knows? Hope is the last to die!
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[hose]

[Athos]

My guess would be that the musicians will be seeking board members who support their vision of a full time orchestra. These could come in the form of minority members of the current board, or others from the outside who want to help build a new, well-funded version of the SASO.

[Tom LeCompte]

It's unlikely that this will find a more sympathetic audience than on TH, but boy oh boy does Ms. Mary Ellen Goree sound entitled. "We're a charity, dammit, and the donors better pony up!"

That is almost never a winning strategy.

I took a look at their Form 990 for 2019 (i.e. last year pre-pandemic). That year they had $8M of expenditures against $6M in revenue, and the outcome was to reduce their cash balance from $2.5M to $0.5M.

Salaries and fringes alone are $5M (which is about the minimum you can get away with for a full-sized orchestra) and ticket sales were $2.3M. And there's your problem right there.

[ProAm]

No orchestra covers all their costs with ticket sales alone, do they? Do they not all depend heavily upon contributions, especially generous contributions?

[Tom LeCompte]

Chicago Symphony Orchestra gets $27M from ticekts. That is more than enough to pay the musicians (although not the total payroll for the organization: the 990 shows that the CSO has many more non-musician employees than San Antonio)

[Subtropical and Subpar]

[Aspeyrer]

[Tom LeCompte]

990s are beautiful things, are they not?

Another way to look at things is that Chicago gets about $2.90 per oerson in the metro area from ticket sales. San Antonio gets about 85 cents.

If they could get even half of what Chicago gets in ticket sales per person - their financial troubles would be solved. Instead, they relied primarily on donations, for which their spokesperson sounds entitled and ungrateful. Not smart. Also, a strike is designed toapply pressure through financially damainge the organization. If the organization was already financially shaky, this is unlikely to help. And it didn't.

Back to the CSO comparison, I think one reason tyhey are stronger is Ravinia. This seats 2 or 3 times as many people as Orchestra Hall and tickets are much more affordable - the best seats cost about the same as the crap seats at Orchestra Hall. Yes, you get the "CSO Lite" with lots of substitute players and conductors, but it is still of extremely high quality. In short, the CSO has positioned itself as something the whole metro area can hear and be proud of, not just the rich and blue-haired set. This has only helped them.

[robert_white]

[JRoyal]

That a layperson can give it a 2 second glance and proclaim “If only X symphony orchestra did y their problems would be solved” is about a fine of example of Dunning-Kruger that I have seen in sometime. While it is highly ironic, it isn’t particularly useful, for people that don’t understand the most basic aspects of non-profits to be weighing in on how they ‘think this should go’.

Inevitable this comes back to reinforcing simplistic view points rooted in faulty understandings of roles, it will generally only strengthens the narrative of management and make it more pervasive. While the reach may be small it is part of the problem, not solution.

[LaTrompeta]