San Antonio Symphony News and Archive

San Antonio Symphony founding a triumph over adversity




from the San Antonio Express News 9/6/98

by Diane Windeler



Today, with the season's inaugural concerts set for Friday and Saturday, a brief look at the San Antonio Symphony's rather checkered history is in order. While it involves tales of turmoil and triumph, the story behind its founding in 1939 may be the most interesting of all.

In 1937, Italian-born Max Reiter, conductor of the symphony orchestra of Milan, was one of thousands of Jewish musicians working in Italy forced to relinquish all professional connections as a result of the Fascist government's anti-Semitic policy. Since Jews were facing similar circumstances throughout Europe at the time, Reiter packed a few personal possessions and sailed for New York City.

Armed with a handful of introductory letters, he attempted to find work, but soon realized that the city was filled with immigrant musicians looking for the same thing. He decided that if there was any hope of resuming his conducting career, he would have to attempt to create an orchestra.

To that end, Reiter devised a plan, bought a round-trip railroad ticket and began a journey throughout the southern United States. Whenever possible, he disembarked at large towns where he presented his ideas to prominent citizens.

When he outlined his plan to San Antonio civic leaders, they agreed to a "demonstration concert" to be held in the Sunken Garden Theater in Brackenridge Park on June 12, 1939. Local musicians and arts lovers offered enthusiastic support. An audience of 2,500 attended, and the concert was deemed "a resounding success."

The city accepted Reiter's proposal for a concert series, the San Antonio Symphony Society was incorporated, and the inaugural concert took place in Municipal Auditorium on Nov. 24, 1939. There were 95 musicians involved that first season, with one-third of them coming from other cities in Texas.

Clare Alice Conner, who celebrated her 80th birthday last January and is marking her 55th consecutive year with the Mastersingers, remembers that inaugural concert. She was a student at Our Lady of the Lake University.

"I remember selling tickets for that concert, and later selling student subscriptions for $11," she says.

By 1943, the subscription concert series had grown to 15 weeks and Reiter added an outdoor series. The orchestra also had become a fully professional ensemble of 75 musicians. The following season's $100,000 annual budget advanced it to the category of "major orchestra," one of 19 in the United States and the only one in Texas.

Introduced opera

In 1945, as patron support and audiences increased, Reiter - who had extensive operatic experience in Italy - introduced a Grand Opera Festival involving full-scale productions. The opera chorus used for these performances soon evolved into the Mastersingers.

That year he also developed the Young People's Concerts as a means of introducing school children to orchestral music.

Between 1945 and 1950, the year Reiter died, both the orchestra and the opera achieved levels of artistic success that enticed some of the world's foremost singers, musicians and conductors to appear as guests.

One of the guests was Oklahoma Symphony conductor Victor Alessandro. Reiter had chosen Alessandro as his successor, and the year after Reiter's death, Alessandro was appointed music director. To entice new audiences and increase financial support, Alessandro added a pops series, expanded the opera festival and spearheaded new developments in the symphony's education program and Young People's Concerts.

Conner says that both Reiter and Alessandro were excellent conductors: "In some ways, Alessandro was better because he was tougher and more demanding in rehearsals. Reiter was such a precious, dear man that he was probably too kind. Victor was a much better opera conductor, and even though we all remember his displays of temper, he got results."

During Alessandro's 25-year tenure, the orchestra made several recordings, began an annual residency in the Rio Grande Valley and continued to present grand opera with luminaries such as Richard Tucker, Beverly Sills, Sherrill Milnes, Placido Domingo and Marilyn Horne.

In 1976, illness forced Alessandro's retirement and he died not long after. A two-year search for a new conductor culminated in the appointment of Francois Huybrechts of Wichita, Kan., as music director.

Huybrechts held the post for less than two rather turbulent years, but during that time there were innovative experiments in repertoire, a tour to Mexico City and the memorable campaign with billboards suggesting new subscribers "Make a Date With Francois."

Another conductor search led to the engagement of Lawrence Leighton Smith, who had been music director of the Oregon Symphony. His was a steady hand, leading well-crafted programs that centered on traditional repertoire, but spiced it with contemporary fare. The orchestra began to expand its free community concerts, toured Texas and Louisiana, and returned to Mexico City. During this time, declining interest in the once-thriving, costly opera festival led to ending it.

"Larry Smith was a good orchestral conductor," Conner says, "but he had very little knowledge of operatic style. There are so many traditions in opera - pauses, stretched-out notes or purposely rushed phrases - that you have to know about. They are not clear from the notes on the page."

In 1985, Smith took a post with the Louisville Orchestra, which was committed to new music, his special interest.

Again without a music director, the SAS hired conductor Sixten Ehrling as artistic adviser who recommended guest artists and conductors. One, Zdenek Macal, soon became principal guest conductor, while a parade of others took the podium as potential music director candidates.

Conner called Macal "a master, because he understood the differences in style between, say, Beethoven and Brahms even though both were German. I loved the way he expressed his ideas to the musicians."

Concert pairs at this time were split between the Cockrell Theater and, in hopes of enticing patrons unwilling to go downtown, the Laurie Auditorium at Trinity University.

Meanwhile, financial support was dwindling and resources were seriously strained. In early 1987, the board of directors made a bitter decision to cancel the following season.

Musicians create OSA

Drawing, perhaps, on that same spirit that drove Max Reiter, most of the musicians voted to continue making music under a newly formed entity spearheaded by arts advocate Wilford Stapp: Orchestra San Antonio. Akira Endo was engaged as principal guest conductor and artistic adviser.

It was a rarity, a musician-run orchestra, and captured the interest of music lovers around the country. For much of the summer, musicians, their families and numerous community volunteers handled artist bookings, publicity, fund-raising, ticket sales and a myriad of details surrounding presentation of a 1987-88 OSA series of concerts in various venues. There were no concerts involving the Mastersingers, but Conner noted that the chorus showed its support by serving as ushers and taking tickets.

Meanwhile, though, negotiations between the symphony and musicians continued and eventually a revised contract agreement was signed that provided for OSA board members - including musician representatives - to join the SAS board.

On Jan. 5, 1988, the San Antonio Symphony assumed the OSA role, honoring all commitments made by the musician-run orchestra.

Macal resumed his post with the titles artistic director and principal conductor. He led the orchestra as it moved into its permanent home, the newly refurbished Majestic Theater, in the fall of 1989.

A search for the orchestra's fifth music director was ongoing, with Colorado Springs Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins being appointed music director designate in December 1990.

Wilkins, a 1992 recipient of the prestigious Seaver/NEA Conductor's Award, became music director in 1992 and promptly began to bring unparalleled acclaim to the orchestra for his diverse, innovative programming. Awards from the American Symphony Orchestra League and ASCAP began in 1994 and have continued ever since.

The orchestra today is at its artistic best. Guest conductors continue to praise its basic sound, unity of ensemble, and responsiveness. One stated recently that the orchestra's precision and flexibility - two very elusive qualities - are excellent, on a level with some of the top orchestras in major metropolitan centers.

The irony is that this level of excellence comes at a time when the orchestra is facing one of its severest challenges. For financial reasons, the behind-the-scenes mode for many years has been one of crisis management.

Fiscal crisis

Several years ago, on the advice of a task force, the $6 million SAS endowment fund was liquidated in the face of mounting debt and interest payments. Unfortunately, contributors since then have been wary, despite assurances that the fund is now being managed independently and is "untouchable." It stands at little more than $1.2 million.

Last February, the cash flow situation became so severe that full-time musicians and staff received only 20 percent of their bi-weekly paychecks, with the remainder being paid the following week. That scenario, with various modifications, continued until the end of the season in May, when all salaries were paid in full.

With its 60th anniversary in sight, the symphony board and musicians began contract renegotiations, and by press time had made some small progress.

It is expected that this week's season-opening concerts will go on as scheduled. What happens after the audience files out of the Majestic Theater Saturday night remains to be seen.

Symphony patrons, such as Sheila Swartzman, a season ticket holder for 20 years, say the loss of the symphony would be a tragedy for the city.

"We do not want to see our symphony die," Swartzman said.

"We feel, and it's not just my husband and me... that San Antonio is a real special city and has a lot to offer as far as the arts go, and the symphony is such an integral part (of them).

"Dallas and Houston can somehow save their symphonies, surely we can and must."



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