On May 1, the San Francisco Symphony management wrote an open letter to the “Bay Area Community.” Even though the letter was not addressed to me, I’m nosy that way, and I read it.
Nobody asked for this, but here’s my open letter back.
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The Bay Area is in a moment of reckoning — we’re still fully emerging from the pandemic, confronting the realities of a volatile economy and job market, and working to restore the vibrancy that makes our home one of the most creative and inspiring in the world.
Every other major metropolitan area in the United States is also emerging from the pandemic, confronting realities, and working to restore vibrancy — yet none of their orchestras have seen labor unrest or a concessionary contract this negotiating cycle.1 Yes, the National Symphony went on strike for about thirty seconds, but that’s it.
How are you underperforming Cleveland on this front? Are you San Francisco or aren’t you?
Many civic and community leaders have spoken with clarity and urgency about the financial realities we all face in the arts, in government, in the business world, individually, and beyond.
A civic leader speaking with clarity and urgency about the financial realities we all face in government
It’s certainly a choice to link yourself with the economic governing philosophy of the Trump administration in May 2025, but okay!
They’ve reminded us that temporary fixes are no substitute for permanent solutions, especially for nonprofits like the San Francisco Symphony, and that long-term health requires difficult but responsible decisions now.
Was the decision to drive your renowned music director away — a man who you yourselves chose — one of these difficult but responsible decisions? Who gave you the gravitas to talk about responsibility after that particular fumble?
Most institutions in San Francisco and beyond are absorbing that message and responding to this moment with realism and resolve.
By driving their music director away, setting fire to their brand identity, and fomenting a customer rebellion? Are these institutions in the room with us now?
Regrettably, the union representing the San Francisco Symphony’s orchestra musicians is not.
Pro-tip: you can just demonize the musicians directly. You don’t need to use their union as a shield. Anyone who knows anything about this field understands that the musicians themselves, not their representatives, will vote for the contract. So this is presumably just said in bad faith to try to justify to the normies any future aggression.
As we continue labor negotiations, we are disappointed that the musicians’ representatives have yet to acknowledge the seriousness of the financial circumstances confronting our institution, our city, and our sector. Their approach suggests a disconnect from what so many others already understand: that we are in a period that demands realism and forward-looking solutions.
I mean, I’m also disappointed that you have yet to acknowledge the seriousness of the artistic and financial consequences of driving Salonen away, so it sounds like we’re all in the same disappointment boat. The S.S. Disappointment, population: us.
Our musicians are world-class artists and a vital part of who we are. But preserving artistic excellence also requires financial sustainability and, above all, cooperation.
If preserving artistic excellence requires “above all, cooperation”, why didn’t you cooperate with Esa-Pekka Salonen? Have you reflected on this in any serious way?
What the musicians’ representatives are asking for today simply isn’t realistic. Our responsibility is not just to the orchestra itself, but to the broader community—to our audiences, our students, our collaborators, and yes, our performers—for generations to come.
Again, feel free to demonize the musicians directly, not their faceless “representatives.”
Also, yes, you are indeed responsible to the broader community. But the problem is, your broader community sounds as excited for your plan as a reluctant Nathan Fielder client.
Your attitude puts me in the mind of a quote: “Well, I’m going to do it, whether [they] like it or not. I’m going to protect them.”2 Your community doesn’t have to be protected; it can be your partner!
Over the past two years, the Symphony’s leadership team and Board have taken difficult but necessary steps toward addressing our finances—all while preserving our most vital artistic and educational programs.
A “difficult but necessary step” is an interesting corporate euphemism for “we drove our music director away.”
We know that navigating this moment requires clarity and an elevated sense of partnership. That’s why we have launched this website that shares our vision for the future—a vision centered on artistic innovation, deeper community connection, and long-term sustainability.
Quick question, how have you been fostering deeper community connection? What patron stakeholders have you been talking to? How long have those conversations been ongoing? What have they been telling you? When did you last invite open comment from your patrons, and then shared the results? How exactly have those comments impacted your decision-making and strategic planning of the past five years? What did patrons tell you about the departure of Salonen? Was the change.org petition containing nearly 9,000 signatures protesting his departure an outlier phenomenon? 3 Did you ever get around to banning the patron who came in and protested with a naughty sign? 4 I see none of this information on your website for patrons. When is it coming?
We believe that a shared understanding of our challenges and opportunities is the foundation for progress. We invite our audiences, supporters, and partners—including our musicians and their representatives—to explore these materials and engage with the full scope of what we’re building together.
It’s very funny to insinuate the musicians “and their representatives” are seeing this information for the first time on this patron-facing website (which, by the way, was possibly named by ChatGPT, which goes to show the level of thoughtfulness this information is being presented with). 5
If you meant to insinuate you haven’t given the musicians this information until now, that’s hugely irresponsible of you. If you meant to insinuate they haven’t looked at it yet, that’s hugely dickish of you. If you meant to make this gesture performatively, then you are not serious people. What are the other options?
That said, hey. Believe it or not, based on the past eighteen months of your behavior, I’m absolutely willing to entertain the idea that y’all did completely f*ck yourself over financially in an irreparable way over the past decade. Maybe the only path forward does involve self-immolation and then attempting to make something of the ashes. Hell if I know!
But if you did drive your car into the ditch, why should we trust you to be the same people who can drive it out?
Your website’s Finances tab provides information dating back to 2009. 6 Why then, almost a decade later, did you seduce and hire Salonen, and presumably agree to support and fund his vision? At the time, you seemed to believe his vision would attract donors. Yet he was never given time to fulfil that vision outside of the confines of the pandemic, and you couldn’t figure out how to give him the runway to make an honest go at it. This is the equivalent to NBC casting off Conan after seven months. Forget artistic sense; this makes no financial sense.
If the only thing that knocked you off-course was the pandemic in 2020, why are we going back to 2009 in the Finances tab? Do we trust the you of then, or the you of now? You keep trying to claim the mantle of being the Responsible Adults. Were you responsible adults then, or are you responsible adults now? By the way, who gave you that mantle in the first place?
You have a lot more money than any musician, and most patrons, and God. But unfortunately for all of us, that doesn’t make you an expert in governance. If wealth bestowed common sense when it comes to governance, Elon Musk wouldn’t be ending his spring 2025 tenure at the White House by showing up to a cabinet meeting in two hats and telling the room, “They say I wear a lot of hats; even my hat has a hat.”
A civic leader speaking with clarity and urgency about the financial realities we all face in government
So what do you do?
- You have to start addressing the original sin: Salonen’s departure. It’s time for radical transparency. Get together with your PR team and craft a more convincing narrative about how you went from rich enough to afford Salonen’s vision in 2018 to the present day clusterf*ck. Prove that you’ve thought deeply about this, and understand where you went wrong. Explain what you’re going to do to avoid driving away the next music director.
- Community partnership now. From the way you’re talking about valuing community input, surely you’ve been gathering it all along. Otherwise your words would be hollow PR, right? And surely that isn’t what’s going on here, right? Call my bluff. Make me eat crow. I’m begging you. I’d love crow. Put all that information on your website. On the other hand, if that information was never gathered in any kind of systematic way, make that public now, and vow to do better.
- Schedule a town hall now. Advertise it. Broadcast it. Open yourself up to every criticism and defend yourself. Have faith in your plan. After all, if you truly want to make lasting change at the San Francisco Symphony, it’s good for your vision to be stress-tested. Think of yourself as a presidential candidate in a primary of ideas, as opposed to someone already in the office. Hold the debate. Win the debate.
- Have the courtesy and balls to be direct. If you want to criticize the musicians, do that. Don’t create the “musicians’ representative” union bogeyman who doesn’t exist. It’s cheap and it’s lazy. Realize that in an ideal world, you wouldn’t be criticizing the public face of your organization at all.
- Someone has to start selling the artistic side of your vision. In the spirit of clarity, resolve, and realism, I’m telling you: it has to be someone who is not you, because you squandered the trust you had on that front during the Salonen debacle. Be aware of the perception within the field that your upcoming hodgepodge of a season is not particularly adventurous, and is not on-brand for the exciting innovative image you once sought to cultivate. If you can’t find voices willing to vouch for the artistic side of your plan, maybe reassess and refine.
- Be serious people. Gain more respect.
One of these days, some orchestra executive is going to make my little hobby of writing about labor troubles very, very difficult. They will have spent the previous few years in open and well-documented dialogue with their community. They will have telegraphed their troubles in a timely manner. They will make themselves available at public events. They will express contrition about the role they’ve played in making any past mistakes, and display wisdom gathered from well-processed experiences. They will present a detailed artistic vision that may be less expensive, but is also innovative and inspirational. They will treat their music directors and musicians and staff and community with respect, good faith, and kindness.
But today is not that day.
To our Bay Area community: thank you for standing with us.
Again, literally nobody is standing with you.
With gratitude,
You’re welcome? I don’t know what to tell you.
Emily
Footnotes
- https://songofthelarkblog.com/2024/09/19/the-san-francisco-symphony-when-the-ship-hits-the-fans/ ↩︎
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-protect-women-like-it-or-not-rcna178147 ↩︎
- https://www.change.org/p/sf-symphony-board-retain-esa-pekka-salonen-invest-in-the-symphony ↩︎
- https://songofthelarkblog.com/2024/07/03/sign-of-the-times-at-the-san-francisco-symphony/ ↩︎
- https://songofthelarkblog.com/2025/04/30/if-ai-starts-planning-the-sf-symphonys-future-who-needs-musicians-anyway/ ↩︎
- https://www.sfsymphonyforward.com/finances-explained/ ↩︎
Song of the Lark 