After San Antonio Philharmonic announced the cancellation of its entire season last week, the organization became dormant. Its survival is in question.
Without the Philharmonic, San Antonio — a UN Heritage City, renowned for its art and culture — will become the nation’s largest city without a major symphony orchestra. By contrast, consider that San Francisco, with a little more than half of San Antonio's 1.5 million inhabitants, maintains three major orchestras — symphony, opera, and ballet.
When the 83-year-old San Antonio Symphony — Texas’ oldest and the Philharmonic’s predecessor — dissolved during salary negotiations in June 2022, League of American Orchestras CEO Simon Woods said, “When you have a major American city which is not able to support an orchestra, it loses history and tremendous inspiration which has been brought to the community. It’s just incredibly sad.”
With great effort, musicians and supporters of the San Antonio Symphony brought the San Antonio Philharmonic into existence just two months later, but problems persisted and became unsurmountable.
As Deborah Martin of the San Antonio Express-News reported on Philharmonic Music Director Jeffrey Kahane’s departure three weeks ago, “It comes as the orchestra, formed from the ashes of the San Antonio Symphony, has lost its permanent performance space and cancelled several concert dates since December.
“Kahane’s resignation is a significant blow to the young San Antonio Philharmonic, which was relying on his artistic leadership and reputation to help establish the orchestra. The loss of a permanent performance venue and subsequent concert cancellations have also raised concerns about the Philharmonic's long-term viability.”
A couple of months ago, the local Scottish Rite masonic lodge ordered the Philharmonic to vacate its performance space. The San Antonio Current reported that Philharmonic CEO Roberto Treviño said the orchestra was in talks with Scottish Rite to strike a new deal to remain at the site. But the masons accused the orchestra in a legal filing of failing to make good on a promise to pay $750,000 for repairs of the 100-year-old hall.
“As part of the broader reconfiguration of our season, we will unfortunately need to cancel the remaining concerts as originally planned,” Treviño wrote in a message obtained by the Current. The executive cited the lack of a performance space as well as financial issues as reasons for the cancellation.
Orchestra spokesperson and contrabassoonist Martin Gordon said in a statement, “On Feb. 16, the Philharmonic musicians received an email from our CEO, Roberto Treviño, with the announcement that all the remaining scheduled concerts in the season were cancelled. Management also stated that there would be attempts at creating other types of concert activity, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet.”
There has been no public announcement. The orchestra’s website still advertises future concerts, none of which will be performed.
“What began as a scrappy story of resilience,” the San Antonio Express-News reported, “as the symphony members banded together in a new organization has turned into a different kind of tale as financial, logistical, and legal problems have dogged the Philharmonic’s efforts to become a professional orchestra.”
The press release from Kahane’s representative did not elaborate on the bare facts, but the conductor is quoted, saying “I’m deeply grateful for the musical experiences I’ve had with the San Antonio Philharmonic and to the community of music lovers in this wonderful city that I have come to love so much. The archival recordings of our concerts will stand as a lasting testament to the extraordinarily high level of artistic achievement the San Antonio Philharmonic has come to represent.”
SF Classical Voice learned that Kahane — former music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and long associated with the SF Conservatory of Music — would not comment further than the press release, “due to the terms of the agreement.”
Kahane later sent SFCV an email, which does not refer to the cancellation, but described his future plans:
I’m doing very well in spite of an extremely challenging year during which my wife Martha and I were forced to leave our home in Altadena for 11 months and move several times because of the massive fire that ravaged [the Los Angeles area] last January.
I have a number of guest conducting, solo, and chamber music engagements slated for next season, I will also continue teaching and coaching at USC Thornton School of Music, where I am now in my ninth year.
I’m also embarking on two very exciting chamber partnerships: Violinist Nancy Zhou and I have a major recording project coming up in the fall and it looks likely that we will play some recitals in China next year. I also have begun a partnership with violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Mike Block, with whom I’ve been playing concerts that mix standard and unusual repertoire with improvisations in various genres and traditions.
