San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Waiting follows demise of symphony
Classical music, opera and ballet are still in the mix at the Tobin Center.
The San Antonio Symphony may be gone, but the city’s classical music fans have not been entirely forgotten.
The demise of the symphony left big questions in its wake. Will other groups try to fill the void? And will funders back those efforts?
There are no clear answers, but it’s been just two weeks since the Symphony Society of San Antonio, the nonprofit that ran the orchestra, announced that it had initiated Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. The 83-year-old orchestra was shut down for good after a strike that scuttled its 2021-22 season.
The musicians and organizations most closely associated with the orchestra have made clear that they intend to carry on. Other groups are closely monitoring what comes next. And the resident companies at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts are reviewing their options for live music for productions that the symphony played for in the past.
The only organization to take a big step forward so far to keep the music playing is Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony (MOSAS). The nonprofit, created while the musicians were on strike, presented a three-concert series at First Baptist Church in the spring. Now the musicians are planning a full season there starting in September. They also will perform in schools.
They haven’t pursued funding from corporations or foundations — yet. They’ve focused instead on individuals, said bassoonist Brian Petkovich, president of the MOSAS Performance Fund. A program for one of the spring concerts included a list of about 75 donors.
“We didn’t want to aggressively pursue donors that the
symphony would rely on and cause further tension between the musicians and the symphony as they tried to reach an agreement,” Petkovich said.
They will be reaching out to those funders soon, he said.
It is possible corporate donors that support the arts but shied away from giving to the San Antonio Symphony because of its ongoing struggles might get behind something new. Symphony board members have said a number of corporations and other large donors had grown tired of the organization’s inability to get its finances in order. A new organization without that history might prove more appealing.
The Area Foundation and the Russell Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts, which had supported the San Antonio Symphony, declined to comment on whether they have been approached about funding a new organization. The Kronkosky Charitable Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.
One organization that won’t be contributing to a new orchestra is Symphonic Music for San Antonio. The group was formed in 2017 by major funders — the Tobin Endowment, H-E-B and the Kronkosky — to take over management of the symphony with a different business model. When that deal collapsed, the organization was dissolved, said J. Bruce Bugg Jr., chairman of the Tobin Endowment.
He said there are no plans to revive it.
“It’s hard to get the soufflé to rise twice,” he said.
Other orchestral groups
A few organizations in the region have a vested interest in the success of the former symphony musicians’ new venture.
Cory McRae, president of the board of Alamo City Arts, said the organization is keeping an eye on what MOSAS does. The association includes the Alamo City Dance Company, Alamo City Symphony Viva, the Heart of Texas Concert Band and the Memory Lane big band.
“We definitely don’t want to try to do the same thing they’re doing because, in fact, we want to help support them in whatever endeavors they’re doing,” McRae said. “We’re waiting to see how their season’s going to shape up.”
Some symphony musicians played with Symphony Viva during the strike, he said, which enhanced the ensemble’s quality.
The Mid-Texas Symphony, which primarily serves patrons in Seguin and New Braunfels, is keeping an eye on MOSAS, too, mostly out of concern for the regional talent pool. Mid-Texas and the San Antonio Symphony shared some musicians, said Executive Director Jason Irle, so the possibility that the symphony’s dissolution might scatter them far afield is a cause for concern.
“If the Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony are successful in getting some sort of season off the ground, it might be an incentive for them to stick around,” Irle said.
Organizations that were more closely tethered to the San Antonio Symphony have announced they will move on. The San Antonio Mastersingers, the choral ensemble that performed with the symphony for more than 75 years, released a statement noting that it is a nonprofit separate from the symphony. It also said the group will continue to perform, just as it did while the musicians were on strike.
Similarly, the San Antonio Symphony League, a nonprofit created to provide volunteer and financial support to the symphony and its musicians, will continue the latter part of that mission, said President Vickie Kinder. In the wake of the symphony’s demise, more people have expressed interest in joining the league as a way to support the musicians, she said.
Bringing back the music
The symphony was one of the resident companies at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, which was designed in part to give the musicians a first-rate acoustical palace to showcase their talents.
Now that it’s gone, no organization has contacted the Tobin Center about the possibility of filling the void, said spokesman Christopher Novosad.
“We are currently neither interviewing nor searching for new resident arts companies at the Tobin Center,” he said.
Classical music remains a part of the Tobin’s programming, he added, noting that violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman is slated to perform there Feb. 21. And Youth Orchestras of San Antonio and the Classical Music Institute, which has a concert series and an education program, remain resident companies.
Opera San Antonio and Ballet San Antonio remain in the mix, as well. Symphony musicians had performed for their productions.
The ballet has used recorded music for most of its performances in recent years as a cost-cutting measure.
CEO Evin Eubanks said the musical accompaniment for its 2022-23 season, which begins with “Cinderella” in October, is up in the air. Eubanks said the board is reviewing options as well as the company’s finances.
Ballet San Antonio plans to return to live music for its annual staging of “The Nutcracker” at some point, she said, but it may not be this year.
The opera has used a couple of plan B options since returning to live performances as the pandemic’s grip loosened. A streamlined production of “Don Giovanni” was staged with a pianist and a harpsichord player. For “Rigoletto” in May, the company worked with an independent contractor to hire 52 musicians, some of whom played for the symphony.
Opera San Antonio has not announced what it will do for its 2022-23 season, which begins with “Pagliacci” in November.
Donald Mason, executive director of the Classical Music Institute, said the symphony’s absence doesn’t alter the organization’s role at the Tobin Center. But he is trying to forge tighter connections with the ballet and the opera, including a vocal training program. He also hopes the institute can provide live music for the other resident companies’ productions.
That could raise the organization’s profile in the community, as well as send a message about the strength of the city’s arts community.
“I just hope people around the country and the world don’t lose faith in San Antonio, because San Antonio is built on art and culture,” he said. “We are doing our part to maintain that legacy of San Antonio.”