Symphony cancels rest of season
Social distancing halts performances for live audiences
The San Francisco Symphony plans to cancel all the remaining concerts of its 201920 season, as well as the entire summer lineup through the end of August. The announcement, made on Wednesday, April 29, reflects a longanticipated acknowledgment that the COVID19 pandemic, and the socialdistancing guidelines it has made necessary, are likely to be with us for the foreseeable future.
“Since March, we have been planning for the worst but hoping for the better,” CEO Mark C. Hanson said in a phone interview with The Chronicle. “We’re heartbroken to realize that the new normal won’t allow concerts to happen in front of live audiences for now. So this reflects the current reality.”
The cancellations of 64 concerts, dating back to Mayor London Breed’s closing of the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center venues on March 9, will create a net loss of $5.4 million, the Symphony said. To close the gap, the orchestra’s musicians, stagehands and staff will take salary cuts averaging 25% for the period of April 19 through Sept. 5. Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas will not receive any compensation for the missed performances.
Hanson said he anticipated that the salary cuts and other costcutting measures would be enough to keep the organization financially stable through the end of the fiscal year, Aug. 31, and that there would be no need for more drastic responses such as tapping the organization’s endowment.
“We’re holding back from making too many decisions about the longerterm time frame, because we lack all the information that we know will come forth over the coming months,” he said. “We want to ensure that shortterm solutions don’t imperil our longterm viability.”
The timing of the pandemic has been particularly painful for the Symphony, which had planned to devote the spring to an extended celebration of Thomas’ 25year tenure as music director before he retires and passes the baton to EsaPekka Salonen.
The orchestra’s threeweek tour to Carnegie Hall and Europe in March — the last one under Thomas’ leadership — was already a casualty. The new cancellations include plans for a semistaged performance of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” and seasonending performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Ticket holders are being encouraged to support the organization by donating the cost of their tickets.
In place of the canceled events, Hanson said, the orchestra is planning to increase its online offerings, including a 25day online celebration of Thomas’ tenure whose details are still being worked out.
“We’re testing out a lot of ideas and don’t yet know which will accomplish the goal of keeping our musicians and the art form in the lives of enough audience members to ensure the generosity of our donor base,” he said.
As for the 202021 season, which is slated to mark the arrival of Salonen as music director in the fall, Hanson said the organization is striving for maximum flexibility.
“We are hoping to be able to engage in normal concert activity in September,” he said. “But we are also scenarioplanning in multiple directions to be prepared for the real possibility that socialdistancing guidelines may require us to stay in this vein well into the 202021 season.”
Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman