Hear that? It’s the sound of the San Francisco Symphony setting itself on fire
https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2024/06/20/san-francisco-symphony-troubled/
By Adam Lashinsky
Editor-at-large, San Francisco Standard
Published Jun. 20, 2024 • 6:00am
https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2024/06/20/san-francisco-symphony-troubled/
In late February, Priscilla Geeslin, who goes by Prisca and is chair of the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors, hosted a small dinner for large donors at her Pacific Heights home. The well-heeled group was treated to the perks of patronage: A lovely meal, a recital by the symphony’s newly arrived principal harpist, and a few remarks from its world-famous music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
A reserved Finn, the maestro and composer joined the symphony in 2020 after a much-praised, 17-year stint as leader of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. When his hiring was announced in late 2018 it was with high hopes that the San Francisco Symphony had found a successor to Michael Tilson Thomas, its beloved and longtime conductor.
Amidst a global pandemic and declining interest in classical music, however, things had not gone as planned. Salonen, despite the gaiety of the evening, was in no mood for pleasantries. “We are in danger,” he warned the room, “of becoming a regional orchestra.”
A symphony conductor informing patrons of a slide toward provincial purgatory would be like San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin telling the team’s owners they ought to play ball in Stockton.
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