Garcia: S.A. Symphony’s demise felt inevitable, but is still shocking
Musicians of the San Antonio symphony rehearse Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at First Baptist Church in downtown San Antonio as they prepare for a pair of concerts they are producing themselves. The San Antonio Symphony has canceled the remainder of the 2021-22 concert season.That’s what I’ve been asking myself since the news broke on Thursday night that the board of directors for the Symphony Society of San Antonio had voted to dissolve the symphony by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
In San Antonio, the pattern became familiar: a symphony periodically teetering on the edge of extinction and then getting rescued by a renewed community commitment to keep it alive. In 2002, symphony musicians accepted a 20-percent pay cut. A few months later, when it became obvious that the symphony didn’t have enough money to pay its musicians, the players performed a concert without pay, hoping to spur community support for the symphony.
In January 2018, the members of the Symphony Society board voted to cancel the remainder of the concert season. Two days later, with new donations coming in, the board reversed itself and committed to an abbreviated season. The austerity plan called for reducing the orchestra’s personnel from 72 to 68. It also would have split the symphony into two groups: 42 full-time players, whose pay would drop from $36,000 to $24,000, and 26 part-timers who would get only $11,250 and no benefits.