Around the Music Festival

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra has stumbled at the start of the new season. The opening concerts scheduled for September 19, 20 and 21 were canceled due to a strike by the chorus. Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen was scheduled to conduct Verdi’s Requiem.

According to reports from the scene, the orchestra management proposed to the choir that they maintain their current wages for the 2024/2025 season, but that they should accept a 10% pay cut for the 2025/2026 season.

In response, the choir claimed from May that they were the lowest paid choir of any major orchestra, and negotiations were unsuccessful. The choir has 32 members and is affiliated with the American Guild of Musician (AGMA).

In 2020, the orchestra appointed Salonen as its music director to succeed Michael Tilson Thomas, but differences in opinion with the management over issues such as program cuts and the cancellation of tours gradually came to the fore.

In March of this year, Salonen announced that he would not be extending his contract and would be stepping down at the end of the 2024/2025 season, when his five-year term would expire.

Meanwhile, the management team revealed that the number of performances had not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, and that the company had been operating at a loss for over 10 years, with accumulated losses over the past 10 years reaching 116 million dollars.

Furthermore, it was explained that if things continue as they are, the cumulative loss could increase by a further $80 million over the next five years, and it was explained that the program cuts and tour cancellations were “solely due to a lack of immediate financial resources”.

PHOTO：San Francisco Symphony　/　Stefan Cohen