All of the Openings at San Francisco Symphony, Filled or Not

 

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

San Francisco Symphony has had an enormous number of openings for the last couple of years. Here's a list of all of the openings I've noted, including Robert Ward's upcoming retirement, and who filled those openings that have been filled:

1. Principal flute 
2. Associate principal flute 
3. Associate principal clarinet/Eb clarinet (was Louis Baez, now Matthew Griffith)
4. Clarinet 
5. Bassoon
6. Contrabassoon
7. Principal horn
8. Assistant Principal and Third Horn
9. Bass trombone
10. Section percussion
11. Associate concertmaster
12. Section violin (4) (two of the four filled by Katarzyna Bryla-Weiss and Leonid Plashinov-Johnson)
13. Section viola (3)
14. Principal cello (was Michael Grebanier, now Rainer Eudeikis)
15. Section cello (3)
16. Section bass (2)
17. Principal harp
18. Assistant principal librarian

That's a total of 26 openings since the beginning of 2020, of which it looks as though....four (4) have been filled. Not included in the above: I've seen no signs that they're planning to hire full-time replacements for Ragnar Bohlin, the former chorus director, or the late Robin Sutherland, principal keyboard. So maybe....there have been 28 openings.

It's possible that one of the principal flute finalists will be hired; there have also been auditions recently for associate concertmaster and principal horn, so we'll see what happens there. But this is very worrisome: SFS has not been hiring one-year substitutes, so there have been a lot of substitutes floating in and out on an as-needed basis. This reduces financial costs - you don't have to pay benefits or accrue pension credit when you're paying on a per-service basis - but there's a musical cost to such inconsistency. 

And, you know, how long will it take to fill the remaining openings? It's a complicated and time consuming process, and Esa-Pekka Salonen isn't in SF all the time. At the current rate, it is going to take years to fill the vacancies. MTT spent 25 years building this orchestra and making a lot of great hires; it is really sad to see the gaps and know that Salonen is having to do so much rebuilding.

Also, note Mr. CKDH's post at All is Yar, which implies that associate principal horn Mark Almond and principal viola Jonathan Vinocour are looking around. Could the lack of a contract have something to do with this? I bet it could, and I think it is shameful that the musicians have had to work since last November without a contract that at least starts to get them back to pre-pandemic salaries.