Symphony’s steady hand bowing out after 18 years
It isn’t easy to step down after 18 years at the helm of a major arts organization amid universal cascades of praise. After all that time spent managing a large staff, undertaking ambitious projects and trying to balance financial and artistic constraints, you’ve got to have ticked off someone along the way, right?
But evidently that’s one of those rules that just doesn’t apply to Brent Assink.
Talk to anyone who has
worked with, for or alongside Assink during his tenure as executive director of the San Francisco Symphony, and you’ll hear the same accolades repeated with minor variations. You’ll hear people cite his rockribbed personal integrity, his passionate devotion to music and his ability to maneuver calmly and clear-sightedly through even the most daunting organizational challenges.
“He’s an astonishingly steady person,” says his predecessor, Peter Pastreich, who first brought Assink to San Francisco as general manager in 1990. “I’m sure he’s emotional, just like the rest of us, but he doesn’t let that sway him too much. He has goals, he knows what he needs to do, and he just moves very steadily in that direction without a lot of Sturm und Drang.”
Now, in characteristically resolute fashion, Assink, 61, is moving on. Friday, March 31, marks his last day at the Symphony. Mayor Ed Lee, as mayors do, has issued a proclamation that it’s Brent Assink Day in San Francisco.
But one day doesn’t begin to do justice to Assink’s legacy at Davies Symphony Hall. The constellation of virtues he’s brought to the job — an all-too-rare combination of managerial talent and esthetic sophistication — has helped keep the Symphony operating at a consistently high level, while undertaking new and ambitious initiatives.
With Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, Assink has formed a partnership out of two wildly disparate temperaments — the one extroverted, spontaneous and ribald, the other methodical and G-rated. Yet between them, they’ve overseen some of the Symphony’s most adventurous and successful projects, including the long string of recordings on the orchestra’s inhouse label, SFS Media, the multimedia educational venture “Keeping Score,” and the opening of the alternative concert venue SoundBox.
Assink’s financial stewardship in tandem with a series of board presidents — Nancy Bechtle, John Goldman and now Sakurako Fisher — has faced intermittent setbacks over the past 18 years, including small but recurrent budget deficits and a short strike by the orchestra musicians in 2013. But there too, Assink’s unruffled leadership has kept the organization largely on course.
For many Symphony patrons, Assink’s is a much lower profile than that of Thomas or even some of the orchestra members. Yet that lowkey drive is just part of what has made his presence so invaluable.
“Brent is mostly working behind the scenes,” says San Francisco Symphony Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin. “I marvel at the machinery of the Symphony, which allows all of us to do our thing every day without worrying. I attribute that to Brent.”
Bohlin and members of the chorus were on hand on Tuesday, March 28, to serenade Assink with excerpts from Brahms’ “Zigeunerlieder” during a gala dinner at Davies in his honor. It was an evening of both music and celebration, with performances by pianist Garrick Ohlsson and members of the orchestra, and words of praise — live and on video — from artists and colleagues alike.
For performers who have returned repeatedly to appear in San Francisco, including pianists András Schiff and Jonathan Biss, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and cellist Gautier Capuçon, the recurrent theme was the welcoming family atmosphere that Assink has helped to create.
Thomas regaled the audience with a song retrofitted to suit the occasion, and Deborah Borda, the longtime chief of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and (formerly and soon to be again) the New York Philharmonic, told how as head of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra she had fired a top staffer to make room for the promising young Assink. Perhaps the most heartfelt tribute came from Goldman, who began to tear up as he hailed Assink’s insistence on the “highest standards of ethics and accomplishment.”
And Assink’s stature extends far beyond the confines of Davies, to encompass both other local arts organizations and symphony orchestras nationwide.
“I consider him a great professional friend and mentor,” said San Francisco Ballet Executive Director Glenn McCoy. “Whenever I’ve had any sort of difficulty, he’s one of the first people I call for advice, and he delivers it in a way that is not preachy but comes from a place of deep personal integrity.”
Assink himself, in a recent phone interview, sounded sanguine about the state of affairs he leaves behind him.
“The long-range financial plan we’ve been working on is in place, and the team is in good shape. There are a number of important initiatives that are moving forward, including the biggest one that has not been announced yet. I’m optimistic that that will happen.”
Assink said he has a new position already lined up but is keeping mum about it until the official announcement. All he’s willing to reveal is that it is not in the Bay Area and not in the field of music.
As for his successor, Assink is confident that he has left things in apple-pie order.
“At one point, I used to say that I hoped the next person coming into this office would find things all wrapped up. But now what I hope is that they find a bunch of files on the desk, metaphorically speaking, and can pick up any of them and see exactly where it stands and what decisions have been made.”
Even as he prepares for a transition to a new phase of his career, Assink — whose training is as an organist and musicologist — remains committed to the art form to which he has devoted so much of his life.
“I always say that this music we all love, and which has been a centerpiece of my life, is so durable and so timely. If not, it would have died out long ago.
“I’ll still be playing music and going to concerts. What I will miss is that I’ve had a hand in bringing this music, in all its glory, to the community.”