San Antonio Symphony News and Archive

Symphony members cope with financial crunch




By Diane Windeler

from the San Antonio Express News 3/26/98



Last month, for the first time in its 60-year history, the board of the Symphony Society of San Antonio was forced to make a disturbing decision: pay musicians and staff only 20 percent of their usual bi-weekly salary, with the remainder paid the following week.

A mounting debt and cash-flow crunch meant that there were not enough funds available to make full payment. And so, on Feb. 27, the symphony's musicians and staff received paychecks 80 percent short of usual. That remaining 80 percent was paid the following Friday.

The next pay period brought the identical scenario: 20 percent paid on March 13, the other portion paid late in the afternoon of March 20. It should be noted that part-time employees paid hourly, such as free-lance players who fill in for specific concerts or extra box office staff, were fully paid.

San Antonio Symphony musicians are already at the low end of the pay scale for the 40-plus major orchestras. They receive a base rate of $28,548 compared with, say, the Milwaukee Symphony, which ranks 21st at $44,880. Base pay for the top 10 orchestras ranges between $64,000 (Pittsburgh) and $77,000 (New York Philharmonic).

While others are seeking new funding for the symphony, those impacted by threatened paychecks are coping in various ways. One musician laughed at the notion of the symphony being viewed as "elitist."

"We have kids and mortgages like everybody else," she said, "and just look at the performances we do in churches and auditoriums all over the city, often with guest artists who are flamenco dancers, barbershoppers or Tejano singers."

The first partial paycheck was especially shocking for Assistant Principal Second Violinist Karen Stiles because it came on the very day that she and her freelance musician husband were to close on their new house.

"After the meeting when they told us what to expect, I was totally stressed," she said, "but my husband and I finally agreed that we had to move forward. Finances have been tight since I've been here, but that's true with other orchestras, too."

This is Stiles' seventh season with the orchestra, an ensemble she says she is proud to be a part of "because it is a very high level orchestra. Guest conductors and artists always rave about its artistic quality. And the musicians are dedicated, hard-working people."

Before coming to San Antonio, she was in the Knoxville Symphony, "where the pay was a lot lower than here." Both she and her violinist husband teach privately, her husband plays in the Austin Symphony, and both are part of the Winters Chamber Orchestra. She also is a string coach for the Youth Orchestras.

Those options mean that the orchestra is not their only source of income.

"In that way, we are lucky," Stiles says. "Several single people in the orchestra live from paycheck to paycheck and don't have much savings. Even older musicians who have been in this orchestra for many years have no savings. They went through the work stoppage in the '80s, depleted what savings they had and never recovered."

"I have faith that the orchestra will survive," she insists, "although right now this situation has scared (potential donors) away; that's just the opposite of what we need. In the meantime, I'm not going to live scared."

Brian Petkovich, assistant principal bassoon, came to San Antonio in September 1996, from Miami Beach, where he played with Michael Tilson Thomas's excellent but low-paying "bridge orchestra," the New World Symphony. Young musicians with the NWS receive board and a stipend in return for honing their skills in preparation for joining major orchestras.

Before that, he was in graduate school in California, where he met and married his pianist wife, Vivienne. She followed him to Miami and began a master's program that was not completed because she joined him here.

"Now she cannot get a job in any Texas university because she needs a graduate degree," Petkovich says. Both teach privately, and Brian has a few students at Southwest State University for which he is paid hourly.

Vivienne Petkovich is a busy freelancer who is not under contract with the orchestra, but routinely performs with it.

"It's her main work right now," Petkovich says. "If the orchestra goes under, we both would lose.

"Right after I did our taxes last month, we started thinking about buying a house instead of renting an apartment," he said. "Then the 20-percent paycheck came in, and we put those plans on hold."

If the worst happens, he says they could go "six weeks or so without dipping into our savings, but some people in the orchestra are really scared. For us, a few hundred dollars not coming in on time doesn't make that much difference. For a few of the younger players, with car payments and such, it makes a huge difference and they're having a hard time."

Petkovich says he loves San Antonio and its people: "When I came here for auditions, I walked around the city and was surprised at how friendly the people were. They made eye contact, something that never happened in Los Angeles or Miami."

Paul Salazar, the symphony's director of subscriptions and customer services, joined the staff in December 1988. After planning and saving for five years so that his wife could quit work to start a family, their first baby was born last summer.

Despite his own financial concerns, he expresses cautious optimism, primarily because he deals with subscribers and individual contributors on a daily basis.

"The phones are constantly ringing," Salazar says. "Subscriptions are coming in, and people are responding to the PR about our financial problems. The telemarketing goal was surpassed several weeks ago, and people who gave maybe $50 last year are increasing their donations."

Part of the cash flow problem in his department, however, comes from that same media attention: "Vendors for paper, mailout services, printing, etc., are demanding payment now before they will begin any new projects."

He says that when his wife suggested he find employment elsewhere, he responded, "I love what I'm doing; I don't want to find another job. When the news got out about our difficulties, I got hugs from all sorts of people. This is a great job."

Stephanie Schapiro, assistant principal oboe and principal English horn, joined the orchestra last September after freelancing and playing with small orchestras for several years since earning a graduate degree from the University of Michigan.

When the partial check came last month, she had just signed a lease for a new apartment and was anticipating the time when her husband, a builder in Ann Arbor, could relocate to Texas.

Shapiro teaches a handful of private students, but the bulk of her income comes from the orchestra.

"Now I'm concerned about the uncertainty of the situation," she says, "especially since we are already maintaining two households. I'm living very frugally; I drive an old car and most of my furniture here consists of wooden boxes and a futon."

She calls her colleagues "really dedicated, high-energy people," and says she genuinely enjoys being a part of the orchestra.

"We who work in the orchestra are not affluent, but are committed to making music," Shapiro says. "I feel affluent because of what I do, not because of what I have."

For more information about the San Antonio Symphony musicians, check out their website at www.geocities.com/~samusicians /.



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