San Francisco Symphony, courtesy.

Updated Friday, March 22 at 5:45 p.m. — SF Symphony musicians have gone public with their call for the organization’s board of governors to take steps to retain Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen—who has announced his departure at the end of this contract in 2025—and to reverse planned cuts to programming, touring and education.

In a statement, Salonen last week announced his departure “because I do not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the board of governors does.”

The musicians group said the departure is due to the board’s decisions to decrease symphony programming, touring and investments in its musicians while endowment in the organization has increased by $40 million since 2019, to $315 million.

“The cuts for us are really difficult to understand because we do have an endowment of a third of a billion dollars. It’s the second largest endowment of any American orchestra,” said symphony piccolo player Catherine Payne on Friday. “And the San Francisco Symphony announced last week that our audiences are back to pre-pandemic levels. So with the health of the endowment and the fact that our audiences are back again, these cuts are just very difficult to understand, and they seem quite draconian to the musicians.”

More specifically, Salonen decided to leave because of extensive cuts to SF Symphony’s SoundBox series of performances and educational programming, as well as other special projects, the cancelation of a European festival tour in 2025 and an indefinite pause on future national and international touring, cuts on the symphony’s digital (streamed) programming, and a decision not to restore musicians’ salaries to their pre-pandemic levels that reflected the Bay Area’s cost of living—which also reneged on a prior contract that had regular raises for the musicians baked in.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, courtesy Cody Pickens.

“He was interested in partnering with Apple or Google, and had plans to do that,” Payne said.

Payne, who has been with SF Symphony since 1996, said she and the other musicians were surprised when Salonen announced his departure after telling the board he was not renewing his contract, but that they knew trouble was brewing because these cuts were made over several months. She said SF Symphony is the only one among its peers in major cities—such as the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonics and New York Philharmonic—to not have pre-pandemic salaries restored, and all but one other symphony was able to negotiate raises for its musicians.

“Esa-Pekka had told us that it was a priority for him to see our pay restored. It’s very important to him that we can attract and retain the best talent,” she added. “We did have some inkling that there were problems. We didn’t know how serious things had become until Esa-Pekka made his announcement.”

Other cuts the symphony has made include children’s programs. And SoundBox is critical for SF Symphony to attract a younger audiences. It was cut fro five programs per season to two.

“These cuts compromise the San Francisco Symphony’s brand as a cutting edge arts organization, and they also compromise our ability to develop and grow new audiences,” she said. “These are shortsighted cuts that have long-term implications.”

SF Symphony’s endowment, a collection of funds gifted to the organization, is the second-largest such pool of funds at any American symphony orchestra, and it grew over the pandemic. It’s meant to allow the music director to pursue his artistic vision. It’s also a sort of safety net for financially difficult times.

SF Symphony musicians believe its board of directors has prioritized the safety net over the artistic vision, but that it doesn’t make sense to do so now.

“They haven’t really responded in any way that would give us an insight into their thinking,” SF Symphony musicians spokesman Andy Lynch said.

On Thursday, symphony spokeswoman Taryn Lott said the organization did not have an immediate public response to the email from the musicians’ group, but that symphony leaders would be reaching out to its musicians soon.

“We have enormous respect for our musicians—they are truly the heart of our organization and at the core of everything we do,” Lott said.

In a written statement, the musicians group said that it was important for SF Symphony patrons to understand what is happening from their point of view. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that members of the orchestra distributed flyers to attendees following a concert on March 16 urging them to contact SF Symphony CEO Matt Spivey and Board Chairwoman Priscilla Geeslin.

The musicians have also started a Change.org petition, which has collected more than 2,500 signatures on Friday in one day. Lynch said there has been an outpouring of support in just one day, including musicians from other symphonies nationwide online.

“Losing a music director of Esa-Pekka’s talent and prestige is a huge blow to the organization. It’s a huge blow to our city, and it’s a huge blow to classical music lovers everywhere,” Payne said. “Innovation requires investment.

“I’ve been here for almost 30 years, and I love this orchestra,” she said. “I love it with my heart and soul. While I’ve been here, it’s really been a golden age for the symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. We were so excited that Esa-Pekka was hired because he seemed like such an amazing fit for San Francisco to continue on the path of excellence. Over the time I’ve been here, it’s been so exciting to watch as the symphony has really grown in stature and become one of the great orchestras in the world. It’s very sad to me to see how quickly all the progress we’ve made over these past three, four, five decades is slipping away.”

The musicians want to see SF Symphony’s board of governors reverse course and scrap these cuts in an effort to get Salonen to stay.

“We’re asking our patrons to show their support for us and for Esa-Pekka by urging the board and management to invest in the future of the organization so that we can continue to attract top talent, and we can continue the innovative programming that our audiences have come to expect from the San Francisco Symphony,” Payne said.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.