Salary Negotiations at San Francisco Symphony

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

If you're reading this, you're probably aware that the musicians and administration of San Francisco Symphony have been at loggerheads over the contract for, well, roughly a year. There were protests over Esa-Pekka Salonen's departure (sigh) and the most recent contract expired in November, 2024. There have been formal extensions of that contract, though I think the last one expired in the spring.

I dug up some historical information about SFS musician pay. The first two items are from Janos Gereben's reporting in San Francisco Classical Voice. The last is from email sent by SFS last week about their last, best, and final offer. 

2018 Contract

 

"The new agreement runs through Nov. 26, 2022. It provides for a new weekly base minimum salary of $3,263, increasing to $3,570 in the final six months of the contract. The current amount is $3,200."

 

[LRH: 2018 is the contract that got cancelled during the pandemic, with musician salaries rolled back substantially to save money, with the possibility of SFS invoking force majeure to force even more extreme cuts.]

 

 2023 Contract

 

“The new agreement will be applied retroactively from Nov. 27, 2022 [when the previous agreement expired] and runs through Nov. 18, 2024. The agreement provides for a new weekly base minimum salary of $3,313 upon ratification and increasing to $3,450 in the 2023–24 contract year, in addition to a retroactive lump sum payment to full-time musicians.”

[LRH: When the musician says their pay hasn't yet been restored to pre-pandemic levels, I believe they mean that the contract that expired last year didn't get to the planned $3,570 of the 2018 contract.]

 

 

2025 Offer from SFS ("Last, Best, and Final Offer")

 

A starting minimum annual salary of $189,332, rising to $196,976 by the end of the contract.

The three-year proposal starts at $3,641 minimum weekly scale (MWS) in the first year (retroactive to November 24, 2024)—representing a 5.5% increase above the current MWS. Each subsequent year provides 2% increases: $3,714 in contract year 2025–26 and $3,788 in 2026–27.

 

Christoph von Dohnányi

Die Frau ohne Schatten

Final scene, San Francisco Opera, 1989

Ron Scherl/San Francisco Opera

 Christoph von Dohnányi died yesterday in. Munich, two days before his 96th birthday. He was the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002 and a revered conductor all over.

I heard him conduct only twice, both time in operas of Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten at San Francisco Opera in 1989 and Arabella at the Royal Opera. Frau was utterly overwhelming; I had never heard a note of the score before that performance, and, well. (Also Gwyneth Jones was very, very loud.) {Looking at the page in the archive, I can't believe they started such a long opera at 7:30 p.m. in those days. Also, I stood through it, in Dress Circle standing room. This was before the renovations that removed Dress Circle standing room to add accessible seating.) 

That Arabella was the only time I've liked the opera out of the three productions (three casts, three productions, three conductors). The combination of a superb cast, a slightly fantastical production, and Dohnányi's marvelous conducting worked absolute magic. This production, from the Theatre du Chatelet, used be available on DVD; watch for used copies for sale.

Dohnányi came from a distinguished family. The composer Ernst von Dohnányi was his grandfather; Dietrich Bonhoeffer was his uncle. His father, Hans von Dohnányi, was executed in 1945 for his role in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.

Ave atque vale, Christoph von Dohnányi.

Brandeis Was Ahead of Its Time

Slosberg Music Center

Courtesy of Brandeis University

As a Brandeis undergrad, I spent countless hours attending classes, practicing, and rehearsing at Slosberg.

Two years ago, Brandeis announced that it was suspending admissions to its graduate music programs, in music history, music theory, and composition. For a while, it looked as if it might reverse this decision, since the music graduate programs cost about $300,000/year, a rounding error in its $100 million annual budget. But then they went ahead, ending Brandeis's long history of excellence in training music scholars and composers.

Since then, we've seen many other schools suspend various programs in the humanities, including unique programs in certain Eastern European languages, graduates of which have served in the U.S. Foreign Service and at U.S. intelligence agencies. The University of Wisconsin is eliminating such programs. Indiana University is discontinuing up to 100 different programs. 

Brandeis is overhauling its liberal arts programs to make them more career-oriented. (They're calling this a bold initiative, well....) I'm so glad that I went to college when there was respect for the arts and humanities.

The University of Chicago is the latest to join in this ongoing attack on the humanities.

• UChicago Reducing, Freezing Ph.D. Admissions for Multiple Humanities Programs
  
• More UChicago Ph.D. Programs Pause Admissions in Humanities, Social Sciences
  

Chicago's musicology program has a legendary history. When I mentioned this to my colleague Michael Zwiebach at SFCV –– himself a holder of a UC Berkeley doctorate in musicology –– he cited a wide range of scholarship that's come out of Chicago in the last fifty years. 

These changes are truly tragic, inflicting major damage on the intellectual life of the United States. Once you eliminate these programs and possibly lay off scholars in those areas, it's at best extremely difficult to reconstruct them. Institutional memory is lost along with teachers and students. What happens to specialized libraries and archives in those areas? Are they dispersed to less shortsighted institutions?

What's happening here is not so different from the Trump regime's ongoing attacks on science, with their attempts to eliminate important medical and scientific research and institutions, for no discernible reason other than to be destructive. The country is being set back decades with the destruction of ongoing and anticipated research. The elimination of funding for mRNA research means abandoning productive research into things like cancer cures. The attack on vaccines means people will die. The elimination of smallpox and the near-elimination of infectious diseases like polio and measles is one of the great triumphs of medical science and public health, and a few crackpots are being allowed to throw all of this away.

Making the San Francisco Symphony Look Even Smaller

Photo: Minna Hatinen

Esa-Pekka Salonen writes on his Facebook page:

I am happy to announce that I will begin three new positions in coming seasons: Creative Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Creativity and Innovation Chair of the Philharmonie de Paris, and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. 

Over the course of my career, I am lucky to have found myself in many situations where the right parts have been in the right place to create genuine magic. More often than not, that place happened to be Los Angeles or Paris. 

We aspire to invent the musical worlds in which we want to live, and the LA Phil and Orchestre de Paris have done just that with Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Philharmonie de Paris. These are top-notch orchestras and the coolest halls, embedded within cities with the most curious and adventurous audiences. Most important, they are institutions who understand that the behind-the-scenes creative work is just as important as waving the stick.

I cannot wait to start creating together.

Chief/principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris make him the successor to Klaus Mäkelä. Lucky Paris! Lucky L.A.!

• Press release, L.A. Phil
• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle, fulminating
• Joshua Barone, NY Times (gift link)
• Mark Swed, LA Times
• Aidin Vaziri, SF Chronicle (gift link)

 

Museum Mondays

Watermelons

Ruth Asawa Retrospective

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

August, 2025

 

Bohème Out of the Box

The first San Francisco Opera production after being shuttered for 18 months was 2021's Barber of Seville, performed outdoors in Marin County under what sounded like somewhat trying conditions. Neverless, for audiences hungry for live performances, I expect it was a balm for the soul.

I'll take a wild guess that some combination of that success and the desire to meet potential audience members where they are resulted in the creation of Bohème Out of the Box, a pocket version of Puccini's La Bohème. The physical production unfolds from a container on a flatbed truck; there's not that much in the way of props or scenery; the performers look like they're wearing whatever they please.

The opera itself is trimmed to roughly an hour, but –– as I discovered when I saw Bohème Out of the Box in Hayward on June 29 –– La Bohème is put together so well that even cutting it to half its length, what's left is dramatically and musically coherent. Thank you, Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa! You knew what you were doing.

I'd been curious about Bohème Out of the Box since it first started touring the Bay Area in 2023. It hasn't made it to Oakland yet and I hope it will, but I'm sure there are pretty exacting requirements: a big enough park for the stage, canopies for a technical crew and SF Opera representatives, canopies for community organizations, etc., room for the audience to spread out, preferably shaded in case it's a hot day, and near public transport and parking. Plus a cooperative local government, and dealing with the City of Oakland is Not Fun.

Anyway, the Hayward site was awfully nice, a couple of blocks from BART and a free (!) parking garage. I wish there had been more shade, and probably I should have brought a folder chair, but whatever.

The crowd. Spot the general director! I promise you that he's in this photo.

Here's the stage, right after the performance, but you can pretend it's before the performance, right?

Side view, with canopies for dressing rooms, etc. visible behind the stage and the truck.

Tenor/director Alek Shrader introduces the show.

The cast was pretty great. Caroline Corrales sang Mimì gorgeously. Her Rodolfo was Samuel White, and he was fine, though I think I hear a budding spinto or dramatic tenor there. His voice was, perhaps, overkill for Rodolfo. Georgiana Adams was a very funny Musetta and Samuel Kidd, a great Schaunard on the main stage in June, was an equally great Marcello. I don't have photos of the latter two, alas.

Samuel White (Rodolfo) and Caroline Corrales (Mimi)

Jongwon Han as Colline singing "Vecchia zimmara," as Mimì is on her deathbed. 

Han was fantastic. There's a good view of pianist Ji Youn Li in this photo, too; the little blue umbrella was over her keyboard, presumably keeping it, rather than her, from overheating. She was a total champ, playing in the hot sun and doing a marvelous job of keeping the singers together, with each other and with her. I gotta say, performing in these less-than-perfect conditions is great training for everyone.

There was a kiosk where audience members could get on SFO's mailing list, get information about the upcoming season, and collect SF Opera schwag. 

General Director Matthew Shilvock chatting with people at the SFO kiosk.

The audience seemed to have a great time; I certainly did. 

Die Walküre, Santa Fe Opera

Soloman Howard (Hunding), Vida Miknevičiūtė (Sieglinde), and Jamez McCorkle (Siegmund) in Die Walküre

Curtis Brown for Santa Fe Opera

 

I was very happy with the singing and staging and very unhappy with the conducting in Santa Fe's Die Walküre. As I said to a friend, it's the third time this year that James Gaffigan has disappointed me! I'm told that his Tristan three years ago –– I didn't go to Santa Fe that year –– was good, so who knows what was up with Die Walküre. But it was astonishingly dull conducting of an exciting opera that gives the conductor lots of opportunities.

Let me also note that it occurred to me more than once that the excellent Santa Fe Opera Orchestra doesn't have a long tradition of playing Wagner, and in some hard-to-define way, it showed. The phrasing and articulation weren't quite idiomatic at times (the weak conducting didn't, of course, help.) The San Francisco Opera Orchestra has some players who've been in nearly every Wagner performance in the last 45 years, meaning five full Ring cycles, individual performances of some of the Ring operas, and numerous performances of Lohengrin, Tristan, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, and so on.

Meanwhile, next May, the L.A. Phil is performing Die Walküre sort of in concert (Frank Gehry is designing the sets), with a similar cast and a more exciting conductor. I mean...I haven't loved everything I've heard from Dudamel but I'd be surprised if he is dull. The singers for the May performances are:

• Siegmund: Jamez McCorkle (pronounced Ja-MEZ, not James)
• Sieglinde: Jessica Faselt (change....one...letter...)
• Hunding: Soloman Howard
• Wotan: Ryan Speedo Green
• Brünnhilde: Christine Goerke
• Fricka: Sarah Saturnino

Note that the two performances are each spread out over three nights, one act per evening, so this is...an unusually expensive ticket.

Santa Fe press round-up:

• Lisa Hirsch, Parterre Box
• Opera Tattler
• Thomas May, Opera Now (I have an Opera Now sign-in but the site isn't letting me read this reivew)
• Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News
• William Burnett, Opera Warhorses
• Kate Wagner, VAN

Banff International String Quartet Competition

Photo by Jake Dyson. Courtesy of Banff Lake Louise Tourism

Friends and I made plans to watch the Banff International String Quartet Competition, which is streamed, and then try to chat about the performances on a more-or-less daily basis. We are on different coasts and Banff is in between, so some flexibility is required.

If you'd like to watch nine outstanding quartets in varied repertory, all free, it's easy enough to do. (A tenth quartet withdrew.)

• The Violin Channel is streaming the concerts.
• The programs are slightly hidden on the BISQC web site under Buy Tickets. The listing for the concert that's on right now (it's intermission between the Quartett HANA and Quatuor Elmire) is here. The overall schedule page is here.

Julian Wachner Under Arrest

Back in 2022, conductor and composer Manhattan's Trinity Church fired its conductor Julian Wachner on grounds that it "concluded based on recent information that Julian has otherwise conducted himself in a manner that is inconsistent with our expectations of anyone who occupies a leadership position."

Juilliard decided against hiring him again based on accusations by one of its employees.

Wachner is now under arrest in Indiana on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material. He purchased it using cryptocurrency, which basically has no use other than in illegal transactions.

Note that Wachner denied all accusations against him in 2022 and that he had defenders at the time. I hope nobody defends him now, given the heinous accusations. Note that he was teaching fourth-grade children at the time of his arrest, and the school system, in notifying parents of his arrest, said that none of the alleged crimes took place at school. We can hope that's accurate.

Note the following, from IndyStar:

While serving a search warrant for Wachner's home, police found a black bag inside the primary bedroom's closet. The bag contained a "substantial quantity" of apparent cocaine and a laptop.

When detectives entered Wachner's login credentials for the laptop, a video of child sex abuse was displayed in full screen. Dozens more files appeared to have been recently accessed, and a forensic examination of the laptop is ongoing.

JFC.

Yes, he deserves representation in the courts! That's due process. But I hope folks can see the pattern in his behavior.

Museum Mondays

Twisted Wire Sculpture

Ruth Asawa Retrospective

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

August, 2025

 

Friday Photo

Two-Toned Jimmy Nardello Pepper

August, 2025

 

Rigoletto, Santa Fe Opera

 

Duke Kim (Duke of Mantua) and Kayla Nanto (Countess Ceprano)

Rigoletto, Santa Fe Opera

Curtis Brown for Santa Fe Opera

In my review, I said that Duke Kim was made up such that he looked like a cross between Prince and Raul Julia as Gomez Addams. If you don't believe me, web search is your friend. Last year, Greer Grimsley, in The Righteous, looked like a cross between Barry Sonnenfeld, director of The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Maybe these pop culture references are a thing at Santa Fe.

• Lisa Hirsch, Parterre Box
• Thomas May, Opera Now
• Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal
• William Burnett, Opera Warhorses
• Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News

House Debut

La Bohème, Act 1

Santa Fe Opera, July, 2025

 Soloman Howard (Colline), Long Long (Rodolfo), Efraín Solís (Schaunard), Szymon Mechliński (Marcello), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

Not at the Santa Fe Opera, which I've been attending since 2008, when I saw Adriana Mater, Billy Budd, and Radamisto, but at Parterre Box, which published my review of Santa Fe's La Bohème today. Grateful thanks to Harry Rose for the opportunity to write for Parterre Box, although it's bittersweet: Parterre Box's intended reviewer, Patrick Mack, died unexpectedly earlier this year.

I'm expecting more reviews. John Allison, editor of Opera Magazine, saw a different performance from the one I saw. Note that registration is required for Opera Now and a subscription is required to read Opera Magazine.

• Lisa Hirsch, Parterre Box. Did the well-nigh perfect La Bohème at San Francisco Opera make me crankier than I otherwise would have been about this production? You bet. (NB: will get embarrassing errors, both mine, fixed post-haste.)
• Thomas May, Memeteria; continues at Opera Now; he is much more positive about this production than I was.
• John Allison, Opera Magazine (link to follow; his Santa Fe reviews will not be published for a while)
• Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal (paywall)
• William Burnett, Opera Warhorses 

Merola Grand Finale

 

Chea Kang as the Sandman

Hansel und Gretel

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of Merola Opera

The Merola Grand Finale took place this past Saturday, August 16, at the War Memorial Opera House. As always, there was a ton of great singing. Chea Kang, above, was particularly wonderful as Humperdinck's Sandman, from Hansel and Gretel. Between her singing and Elio Bucky's canny direction, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Media roundup, links to follow for the other writers:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle and SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle 
• Opera Tattler. I should also have mentioned the wholly unnecessary amplification of Charlotte Siegel and Justice Yates in their number.
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, S.F. Civic Center

Museum Mondays

The Angel of the Annunciation and The Virgin Annunciate

Spinello Aretino (c. 1350-1410)

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

July, 2024

 

Friday Photo

Silver City Daily Press

Silver City, NM

July, 2025

 

Belated Museum Monday

Medieval stone doorway with painting beyond

Philadelphia Museum of Art

April, 2025

Virgin and Child Enthroned with a Servite Friar and Angels

Pietro Lorenzetti, early 14th centur

Philadelphia Museum of Art

April, 2025

 

More About the San Francisco Opera Archive

War Memorial Opera House

Not the actual site of the Archive

Earlier this year, San Francisco Opera's performance archive went back on line after an upgrade to modern technology. An anonymous donor provided funding for the upgrade.

San Francisco Opera provided some addition information to me. The donor's gift, of $1 million, came in the middle of 2024, and provides support in multiple areas:

• The new Performance Archive Database.
• The migration/digitization of at-risk legacy A/V formats that date from the 1970s-1990s/early 2000s.
• The Oral History Program, done in collaboration with the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley.
• The Archive more generally given that it takes a chunk of archivist Barbara Rominski's time to make the above happen.

Of the gift and the donor, Barbara Rominski said "I can’t begin to express just how grateful I am for this donor and their commitment to the Company, and particularly the Archives.  Through our conversations over the past years, they have really listened and understood how urgent it is to care for the items already in the archival collections, but that we also have a responsibility/role to play in creating content that captures the people of the Company and their stories, not just the artifacts left behind."

Friday Photo

Seen in Hatch, NM

Colors enhanced by phonecam software

July, 2025

 

New General Director at Opera Parallèle

Press release from the company, to which I will add that Tod Brody, now the executive director at the Marin Symphony, was Opera Parallèle's general director for several years before Nicole Paiement added the position to artistic director.

SAN FRANCISCO (July 22, 2025) — The Opera Parallèle Board of Directors today announced the appointment of Daniel Harvey as the company’s next Executive Director, effective August 1, 2025. Harvey, a highly successful and respected Bay Area arts administrator with a portfolio of more than 14 years of effective non-profit management credentials, first joined Opera Parallèle in 2017 and at present, serves as the company’s Artistic Producer & Community Director. His selection is the result of a competitive national search.

 

In his new capacity as Executive Director, Daniel Harvey will lead the nationally renowned opera company in partnership with Founder and Artistic Director, Nicole Paiement, who, after five years, relinquishes her dual role as Artistic & General Director. Harvey will report directly to the Opera Parallèle Board of Directors and will steer the company’s strategic direction while overseeing the development, marketing/PR, finance, administration and community engagement departments.  

 

Peggy Otum, Opera Parallèle Board Chair-elect said, “Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone as Opera Parallèle enters its 16th season with a restructured leadership model. As the next Executive Director, Daniel, with his expertise and understanding of the arts landscape, will collaborate closely with Nicole Paiement, who continues her visionary role as founder and artistic director. Together, this dynamic management team—enhanced by award-winning Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel—is poised to propel the company to new artistic heights. The Board is confident that Daniel’s thoughtful guidance, vision and strong business values will contribute to Opera Parallèle’s continued success. We look forward to working with Daniel.”

 

Daniel Harvey commented, “It is a distinct privilege and honor to be selected as the next Executive Director at Opera Parallèle, a company that has been my artistic home for the past eight years. I have been fortunate to grow, personally and professionally, alongside OP during this time of bold innovation and remarkable boundary-pushing creativity. Supporting the visionary work of my esteemed colleagues, Nicole and Brian, and the remarkable artists we bring together continues to be a source of deep inspiration. I look forward to building on the strong local and national partnerships I have helped forge, as we further expand OP’s presence and impact in the Bay Area and nationwide.”

 

“This moment comes at a time of significant challenge for the arts,” Harvey continued, “but the drive to create meaningful work that reflects our world—and to offer spaces of joy, reflection, and connection—feels more vital to me than ever. I wish to express my gratitude to the Board for their confidence in my ability to lead the company with Nicole, and to acknowledge the extraordinary work of my predecessors, the OP staff, board, and enthusiastic donors whose collective dedication and creativity have laid a strong foundation for our future.”

 

Nicole Paiement said, “Daniel Harvey embodies the values and forward-thinking spirit that Opera Parallèle stands for. His multi-faceted experience with the company, his success in building deep and meaningful community relationships and his exceptional administrative skills will ensure OP’s continued creative excellence.  I am excited by this new chapter for the company and am confident that together, we will lead Opera Parallèle into a vibrant and sustainable future. I would also like to commend the Board for selecting Daniel as it underscores the company’s commitment to fostering leadership from within and maintaining its innovative edge in the opera world.”

 

About Daniel Harvey

Daniel Harvey brings over 14 years of experience in artistic, administrative, and production roles to his new position as Executive Director of Opera Parallèle, building on his eight years of work as a key staff member with the organization. Most recently serving as Artistic Producer & Community Director, Harvey has played a central role in shaping and expanding OP’s identity as a champion of contemporary opera—pushing the boundaries of how opera is created, experienced, and shared.

 

In collaboration with Founding Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, Daniel Harvey has been instrumental in developing national partnerships and co-productions, helping secure presentations of OP’s innovative work with companies such as Cal Performances, Portland Opera, Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Opera Omaha, and Utah Opera. These efforts have not only expanded OP’s national reach but also established new revenue streams and important long-term institutional relationships. In the Bay Area, he has led collaborations with the California Academy of Sciences, YBCA, KQED, San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, and the Bayview Opera House.

 

In his role as Community Director, Harvey spearheaded the redesign of OP’s community programming aligning it with civic practice models under the banner of The Bullhorn, including the creation of Expansive, a bold showcase of transgender classical artists, now in its fourth year in partnership with The Transgender District and the American Conservatory Theater. His work in this area has attracted new funding for the organization and helped redefine what it means for OP to serve, reflect, and engage with its community in meaningful ways.

 

A trained set and costume designer with a degree from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia, Harvey approaches his work with the eye of an artist and the discipline of a producer. His work at OP has included overseeing production budgets, internal operations, and fostering a supportive, values-driven workplace culture.

 

Just a Reminder

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

The San Francisco Symphony, which bills itself as one of the most innovative orchestras in the world, came up with this for its opening gala:

Jaap van Zweden conductor

Yuja Wang piano

San Francisco Symphony 

JOHN ADAMS Short Ride in a Fast Machine  

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1  

OTTORINO RESPIGHI Pines of Rome  

Because there's nothing that says "innovative" like performing Pines of Rome for the third time since 2022.

Furthermore, here's a list of the composers they're performing in 2025-26 and the number of works by each. 

Ellington	1
Bach, JS	4
Berlioz	1
Bartok	1
Beethoven	5
Berg	1
Brahms	1
Bruch	1
Bruckner	1
Debussy	1
Dutilleux	1
Dvorak	4
Gershwin	2
Ginastera	1
Grieg	1
Handel	1
Haydn	1
Hindemith	1
Holst	1
Ibert	1
Korngold	1
Mahler	2
Mozart	8
Prokofiev	3
Poulenc	1
Rachmaninoff	1
Ravel	2
Respighi	1
Rimsky-Korsakov	1
Saint-Saens	3
Shostakovich	2
Sibelius	1
Tchaikovsky	4
Turina	1
Vaughan Williams	1
Vivaldi	1
Wagner, R.	1
Weber, von	1
Strozzi	1
Simon, C	1
Taylor	1
Lopez	1
Habibi	1
Adams, JC	1
Connesson	1
Higgins	1
Mustonen	1
Macens	1
Tarkiainen	1

Key: light green background is dead men, one of whom, Ellington, is Black. Pink background is dead women. Dark green is living men, several of whom are men of color. Blue is living women.

Of the 49 composers above, 46 are men. Eight of the men are alive; the other 38 are dead. There are works by three women, of whom one has been dead for a few hundred years, while the other two are alive. Two of the deceased men are American (Ellington, Gershwin) and several of the deceased spent a significant amount of time in the U.S. (Bartok, Korngold, Rachmaninoff, and Hindemith, of whom the first three died in the United States). 

There's nothing that says "innovative" like a season with 53 works by dead white men and 12 works by everybody else. I'm reminded of the season that had four works by MTT and 1 by a living woman, or maybe it was 2 by living women.

I'm sure we can expect an onslaught of Bernstein, Copland, and other dead American men in 2026-27. Maybe SFS will take a look at the NY Phil's Project 19 and pick up a few works by living women commissioned by that orchestra.