San Antonio Symphony News and Archive

Board delays season opener




from the San Antonio Express News 9/9/98

by Mike Greenberg



There'll be no "Anniversary Waltz" - or any other muaic - played to launch the San Antonio Symphony's 60th anniversary season Friday.

The symphony's governing board voted Tuesday "not to begin" its new season, "until we have arrived at a financial plan that is permanent," board chairman Charlie Lutz said.

"I don't feel we are canceling this season. Rather, we are saying we don't have enough financial resources to begin the season," Lutz said.

Rehearsals had been set to begin this morning for the opening classical concerts this season.

Flutist Jean Robinson, speaking for the musicians, said: "We are disappointed by (the board's decision). We want to go to work tomorrow, and we'll be there. We have a contract in place and intend to honor our part of it."

Robinson said the musicians would gather in front of the Majestic Theater at 10 a.m. today for the now-canceled first rehearsal.

She said the musicians "are still hoping to come to an agreement" with the symphony management, which reopened collective bargaining with the musicians one year into a three-year contract.

Facing debt of more than $1.5 million, the symphony board has asked for more than $617,000 in wage and benefits concessions from the musicians.

Donors, including businesses, foundations and the city, have pledged additional support to retire the debt, but only if the orchestra reduces costs.

"We are working on permanent and long-range solutions to the symphony's instability," Lutz said.

He said "several hundred thousand dollars" still are needed to close the gap between costs and revenues.

Mayor Howard Peak said he is working to increase funding for the symphony in the 1998-99 city budget, which is now being hammered together by the City Council. The current budget allocated $465,000 to the symphony, and the Cultural Arts Board has recommended only $400,000 for the coming fiscal year.

As council members negotiate with one another on behalf of their favorite projects, Peak said: "My single project is the symphony. I'm putting all my budget eggs in that basket, and I think I'll have the support of the council."

"I've said all along that any help this year has to be done in conjunction with what the symphony is going to do to cut costs and increase revenues," he said.

Peak added, however: "It should not be at the expense completely or substantially of the musicians, but my sense is they have a role to play, too."

The musicians have offered some wage concessions, but they say the artistic integrity of the orchestra would suffer under the management proposal for a base minimum salary of $26,352.

"We had another meeting with the full orchestra this morning, and we had a mandate from them to preserve the quality of the orchestra, to keep it worth saving," Robinson said.

"We have built a great thing here in the '90s," said Joan Christenson, one of the orchestra's dwindling ranks of violinists, 10 of whom have left the orchestra since last season.

In all, 14 of the 77 musicians on last season's roster have left the orchestra, not counting retirees and players on one-year contracts, Robinson said.

"I'm disappointed that it's come to this," Peak said, "because there's been an awful lot done in this community to get us where we are. I hope this is a temporary setback. Most of the money that's been pledged has been on the basis that this has to be a shared experience."

"It would be a shame to have wasted all that, and the greatest shame is that we would have potentially lost the symphony."

Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins was unavailable for comment.

He is scheduled to participate in a symphony fund-raising event today from 6 to 8 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at 312 N.W. Loop 410. The bookstore will donate 10 percent of the store's sales from the event to the symphony.



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