Changes, Bad Ones, at San Francisco Symphony

 

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Janos Gereben is on it at San Francisco Classical Voice. Briefly, there was some kind of a re-organization of communications, marketing, and digital innovation teams that resulted in the layoff of Oliver Theil and presumably others. The SFCV article doesn't discuss who else was involved, because SFS wouldn't discuss that. 

Theil has been with SFS since 1991 and has held multiple important posts in artistic planning, communications, and digital innovation. Letting him go means an immense loss of institutional memory and damage to the orchestra's current and future work in the digital area.

This statement from SFS, quoted at SFCV, is a doozy:

Changes were made last week to the structure of the Symphony’s administrative team. The marketing and communications departments were merged to better support the organization’s work in audience development and concert promotion. The in-house video department was dissolved in a strategic move towards working with independent contractors with specialized skill sets, catered to the bespoke needs of future digital projects. The changes were part of a strategic internal restructure and will not impact the audience experience or any of the organization’s public-facing programs.

I mean, the whole damn thing is in the passive voice. No clue as to who decided on these changes and a little reading between the lines is involved to figure out the why. Here's a possible translation:

SFS has made changes to our administrative staff. We merged two departments, which included laying off Oliver Theil. We think that this will improve certain areas. We also laid off people in the in-house video department. Instead, we're outsourcing this function, which will save money.

Of course, I'm guessing that other people were laid off, because SFS didn't provide additional details, and I have translated the corporate-speak into English as best I could. I think that organizations are best off when they say what's actually happening, as in "Because of the financial pressures of the last few years, we need to cut the budget. We have already cut musician salaries as much as we can, so we are trimming administrative personnel costs. The changes will result in savings of $someamount over the next three years."

Three more things: 

1. Keep an eye on the orchestra's administration page for changes. I saved a copy last night, so I can help with this! 

2. Former chief executive Mark Hanson's departure was announced on July 15, 2021 and his last day was August 31. I understand that there aren't that many people who are qualified to run a top-tier, high-budget American orchestra, but it's a surprise that it's taken this long to find someone. Hanson was appointed on a timely basis so that he could start exactly when Brent Assink left. It is a problem that this has taken so long.

3. The next chief executive's response to what has happened might be "This is an important part of being an orchestra in the 21st century. Why did you do this?" A candidate might even look at this and say "Wow, that was short-sighted. Why should I come to work for SFS?"