The Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony urge the Board of Governors to do everything in their power to retain Esa-Pekka Salonen as Music Director and reverse planned cuts to programming, touring, and education.

Please sign our petition to call on the administration to reverse course so that we can keep producing innovative and compelling programming for years to come and ensure that San Francisco has a world-class orchestra that continues to enrich the community.

How did we get here?

Maestro Salonen’s announcement last week that he will be leaving his position once his contract expires was due to insurmountable differences between him and the Board regarding the future of the Symphony. 

The Board has instituted several cuts to programming and imposed restrictions on other financial investments, including:

• Severe cuts to the SoundBox series, semi-staged productions and educational programming, which are critical to the Symphony’s groundbreaking reputation and ability to grow audiences;
• The cancellation of an upcoming European festival tour in 2025, with an indefinite pause on future touring;
• A decision not to restore musicians’ salaries to competitive levels following pandemic-era cuts, which will make it difficult to recruit and retain top talent.

These cuts come as the endowment for the Symphony has grown to more than $325 million, an increase of over $50 million since 2019.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s agreement to come to San Francisco, despite other orchestras' attempts to attract him, was a pivotal moment in the San Francisco Symphony’s history and a testament to its international reputation as an elite orchestra in the top echelon of internationally acclaimed ensembles. 

Under the direction of world-renowned music directors Herbert Blomstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas, the San Francisco Symphony became one of the most artistically adventurous and cutting edge arts institutions in the United States. Through Grammy-winning recordings, critically acclaimed international tours, the “Keeping Score” television series, Concerts for Kids and programming initiatives such as SoundBox, a musical laboratory designed to attract a younger, more diversified audience to classical music, the San Francisco Symphony achieved a reputation as a flagship artistic institution that pushes the boundaries of traditional classical music. With its innovative programming, the Symphony attracts exciting international artists and guest conductors and plays an important role in the cultural vibrancy of San Francisco.

While we will continue to create the best possible musical experiences for our audiences, it is critical that the Board and the public understand that this requires financial investment in our artistic product. It is hard to reconcile these draconian cuts with the reality that the Symphony has one of the largest endowments of its kind in the country and attendance now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. We remain the only Symphony among our peer orchestras that has not had our compensation restored to pre-Covid levels. While other world-class orchestras have resumed touring, our tours have been canceled for the foreseeable future. These misguided cuts threaten the future of our orchestra and will make it more difficult to attract and retain top talent, grow our audiences, and ensure we remain a world-class orchestra.

We care deeply about the San Francisco Symphony and we are incredibly grateful for the support we have received from our patrons, subscribers, and donors. But our efforts must continue.

Photo credit: Eisaku Tokuyama