San Francisco Symphony CEO and Board Chair: Please repair your brand or resign
We began writing this piece in April 2024, after Joshua Kosman’s second San Francisco Chronicle piece dropped (as above). We continued writing, editing, and waiting to see if there’d be some resolution. In May, SFS major donor Cynthia Hersey’s OpEd in the SF Standard picked up where Mr. Kosman’s reporting left off (congrats on your retirement, sir). We’re thrilled that Mrs. Hershey leveraged her position to call on SFS leadership for much greater “transparency around the symphony's finances and decision-making,” thoughts we’ve also emphatically encouraged in our piece. San Francisco’s Broke Ass Stuart Managing Editor Alex Mak also entered the fray, explaining how he learned of the crisis from a SFS violin player, quoting from and signal-boosting Mrs. Hersey’s plea to SFS leadership.
SF Standard Editor at Large Adam Lashinsky wrote a piece describing Maestro Salonen’s warning to major SFS donors in February, at Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin’s home; Salonen telling the group that SFS was “in danger of becoming a regional orchestra,” signaling to some that cuts were coming. Lashinsky’s piece also provides new details regarding apparent murkiness around the company’s endowment and financials; how its own fundraising and administrative costs skyrocketed, leading to program cuts and the loss of their celebrated conductor. There’s also mention of the X factor around upcoming SFS musician / union contract negotiations, and a rumored merger between SFS and San Francisco Opera (Geeslin’s husband Keith is a former SFO president). But the corporate-speak, aim-nowhere goals cited by SFS CEO Mark Spivey and Mrs. Geeslin are probably the most stunning takeaways, eliciting a no-confidence vote from this San Franciscan. We also can’t forget mentioning how longtime SFS supporter and audience member Laura Leibowitz held up a “Fuck the Board” sign in Finnish, in silent support of Maestro Salonen during his 21JUN performance. In response, SFS apparently threatened Ms. Leibowitz with a ban from future performances.
On June 24th, The New York Times’ Robin Pobegrin and Javier C. Hernandez dropped an excellent recap of this story, with some key reporting that we’ll introduce in our piece. JBM for OI
(San Francisco, CA) - Esa-Pekka Salonen’s announced 2025 departure from San Francisco Symphony still stuns, even several months on. With this piece, OI aims to:
Explore the known why behind the financial crisis
Explain why we oppose the company’s devastating, short-sighted cuts
Provide guidance on how this legacy brand could begin repairing its self-inflicted wounds
Given his stature as the Bay Area’s classical music journalist, we first relied on San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman and his reporting. Kosman’s first piece laid out the situation, Salonen’s terse statement, SFS musicians’ vocal support of their Maestro, as well as their demand for audited financials from CEO Mark Spivey and Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin. This was followed by these same leaders’ eventual, disempowered response. Mr. Kosman’s second piece went much deeper and darker.
We’d like to ask other members of SFS leadership the following questions, since they’ve seemed permanently OOO since this saga began:
Leigh Brawer, Chief Philanthropy Officer: Where is your development team’s redoubling of bigger and bolder asks? Where is the public-facing communication/PR around that, and, up to this point, what has SFS been doing to develop those high-dollar institutional and corporate relationships, as well as critical giving, support and sponsorship?
Robin Freeman, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer: Where is SFS’s crisis communications management around the above, as well as meaningful leadership statements and a good faith effort to find solutions, perhaps partnering with the public to achieve them? Has SFS considered an easily mounted, supercharged social media campaign to raise company profile and drive global funding for a (possibly) still exciting era with Maestro Salonen?
Each member of the SFS leadership team is responsible for doing right by their organization, within their given wheelhouse. But the CEO and Board Chair are where the buck should stop. However, since this crisis with Maestro Salonen became public, Mr. Spivey and Mrs. Geelsin have failed to demonstrate strong leadership or provide a solid action plan, even across multiple media opportunities. What Mr. Spivey and Mrs. Geeslin have created is SFS’s growing optics and reputation problem, a brand body blow that’s still reverberating across all SF performing arts organizations.
Per Mr. Kosman’s 30MAR piece: “Symphony CEO Matt Spivey declined to talk on the record, and Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin, who should be the public face of this organization as her predecessors were, has been silent.” From the beginning, this was unforgivable behavior by Mrs. Geeslin that her Chief Marketing and Communications Officer should have corrected. Instead of Mr. Spivey and Mrs. Geeslin’s silence, SFS could’ve worked to publicly launch a combined development and marketing action plan, as suggested above, paired with strong crisis communications management and an inspiring, forward-looking social media fundraising effort, perhaps in collaboration with their still-in-place, globally-renowned Maestro.
“What Mr. Spivey and Mrs. Geeslin have created is SFS’s growing optics and reputation problem, a brand body blow that’s still reverberating across all SF performing arts organizations”
We note that Spivey and Geeslin have since spoken directly to the press, but their lack of clarity or any mention of an action plan remains shocking. From The SF Standard on 20JUN:
Unfortunately, beyond cutting music-related costs, Spivey and Geeslin don’t seem to have a particularly clear picture of what they want the symphony to be. I asked them to articulate their vision, expecting to hear something ambitious, like being the best orchestra in the land or championing living composers over dead ones. Instead, I got talking points.
Spivey rattled off three goals: to bring in new audiences, increase the donor pipeline, and “live within the means that we have.” Geeslin praised the “incredible” orchestra and the team behind it while echoing Spivey’s desire to be “cautious” in its approach to finances.
Insert exploding head emojis here.
Even with these frustrating responses, SFS still has a chance to take action and move forward. However, perception is reality; such statements, along with growing negative media coverage and the image of SFS as a sinking ship with its captain ready to abandon it, indicate a brand in decline, heading toward its “regional symphony” status.
It’s as though this leadership team and board threw their hands up after running their brand onto the rocks, and that any public-facing campaign aimed at shrinking their financial deficit is somehow beyond their abilities. This lack of action seems to suggest that they’d rather make drastic programming cuts and hope for the best. Based on Kosman’s and others’ reporting, Spivey, Geeslin, and the board were perhaps aware of the company’s financial situation for a long period of time. Various media pieces in April, May, and June detailed how some of this deficit was remedied, but that those donations were of the extraordinary, one-time gift variety, unrelated to any larger plan of attack. This section from Mr. Kosman’s piece speaks volumes:
“To paper over the shortfall, according to the statement, the Symphony has been relying on one-time emergency contributions, which is not a sustainable plan. They’re estimating that the accumulated deficits could mount as high as $80 million over the next five years without structural changes.
The upshot is that the ambitious artistic initiatives that originally drew Salonen here — exploratory technological projects, an array of collaborations and commissions, international touring and high-profile recording — are all on the chopping block. There’s no money for any of them, and therefore no urgent reason for Salonen to stick around.
One might ask why Salonen was promised these things in the first place. If the financial problems preceded his arrival, how did the Symphony leadership imagine this story was going to unfold?
The likeliest answer to that question, based on conversations with various sources, is that it was a matter of wishful thinking combined with a faith in Salonen’s ability to galvanize Silicon Valley donors who have so far been largely immune to the lure of cultural giving. But none of that worked out as hoped, and the two-year pandemic shutdown narrowed the window of possibility to an intractable degree.”
So, even as the pandemic made SFS’s financial situation worse, “wishful thinking” still ruled the day? We’re guessing that the funding to make Salonen’s “ambitious artistic initiatives” a reality wasn’t necessarily his job to secure (hold that thought). In terms of his partnership with SFS, it’s safe to assume that negotiations were held, promises made, and Salonen accepted his position based upon a shared understanding of his full employment package, vision, and programming, as well as the funding all of that would require.
A section from the aforementioned New York Times piece:
“Jerome L. Dodson, a financier who serves on the board and has committed $50 million to build the small recital hall, recalled joining Salonen on a visit last year to Treasure Island, where the conductor outlined his hopes for the project. While Dodson said Salonen was a talented musician, he said the board had concerns about his sprawling vision. “He never actually said, ‘Can we do this or will you support this?’” Dodson said. “He just kind of went off on his own and assumed that the money would be there, as if by magic.”
Our read of Kosman’s reporting also suggests that this funding element was assumed; that tech dollars would actualize through SFS’s new association with Maestro Salonen, as if by osmosis. Did Salonen’s deal ultimately become an epic - even if unintended - bait and switch? Again, per Kosman: “There’s no money for any of them (Salonen’s programming), and therefore no urgent reason for Salonen to stick around.” Given these realities, perhaps Salonen’s only option is to cut his losses and leave in 2025.
Let’s return to the question of whose job it should be to make Salonen’s vision and programming a reality.
From our perspective, this should be a joint SFS development and communications effort, overseen by leadership and the board. If the thinking, per Kosman’s reporting, was that “Silicon Valley donors” would suddenly clamor to be a part of Salonen’s vision, these departments already had a firm foundation upon which to build everything they needed to succeed. But like Dorothy and her unclicked ruby slippers, SFS doesn’t understand the power it already has.
Apple Music Classical
It’s public knowledge that SFS has a relationship with Apple. In October and November 2023, SFS Media and Salonen released new “digital-only spatial audio recordings” via the Apple Music Classical app, as part of a partnership announced in March 2023. It’s also no secret that Salonen himself was in a widely-lauded commercial for the iPad in 2014, which, per The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, supported his “genuine” enthusiasm for Apple products.
To recap: SFS has an existing business relationship with Apple Music Classical, and their star Maestro is an enthusiastic user of Apple products, i.e someone who has already worked with Apple on a wildly successful global advertising campaign for the iconic iPad.
Here are some broad strokes, top of mind thoughts on how an expanded partnership between Apple Music Classical and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) could take various, exciting forms:
A series of Apple Music Classical-supported nights at Davies Symphony Hall, featuring walk-in, pop-up listening experiences showcasing San Francisco Symphony releases on Apple Music Classical. These special evenings would include real-time demonstrations of the app in various sections of the foyer, via mini Apple Store pop-ups where purchases are possible, always highlighting how this technology integrates with and supports the world-class output of San Francisco’s reinvigorated Symphony
Apple Music Classical presents live, world premieres of Salonen’s new works, exclusively with SFS at Davies Hall. Perhaps add live, global video broadcasts and/or simulcasts through the Apple Music Classical app for a fee, making the possibility of drawing classical music lovers from around the Bay Area, nation, and world a distinct possibility, especially with the help and reach of Apple and Apple Music’s promotional machine
Any of aforementioned event possibilities would christen Davies Hall as Apple Music Classical’s de facto physical home base, due to San Francisco Symphony’s legitimizing power. It could be renamed, as brands often do with stadiums, for a handsome multi-year fee
An exclusive, multi-prong, multi-year partnership with Apple/Apple Music Classical would eliminate the company’s “regional symphony” fears, fully aligning it with one of the world's most trusted, recognized, and beloved brands, both of which are Bay Area-based
Apple, with a new seat on a re-vetted SFS board, could solve current SFS deficiencies while providing the support, reach, and means to make SFS leadership, Apple, and Maestro’s mutually agreed vision a reality, assuming Maestro saw the wisdom of renewing his contract
A reimagining of SFS’ biennial Black and White Ball fundraiser, with Apple Music Classical and Apple technology driving the experience. This co-branding, with major headliners - and SFS under Maestro’s baton - could re-energize and redefine this event for an even broader array of attendees, drawing revelers into a one-of-a-kind Apple Music Classical/Apple/SFS brand experience, perhaps also showcasing Apple’s AI endeavors
Small, private, donor cocktail benefits at Apple’s “Spaceship” headquarters in Cupertino, CA, on the Apple Park grounds
A series of smaller, lunchtime concerts held at Apple HQ. SFS musicians, led by Maestro Salonen, creating unique Apple brand experience for Apple employees, building resonance for classical music in the Apple workspace
SFS, as a known Silicon Valley presence and Apple partner, could change the perception and reception of classical music within the SV tech community and broader SV populace; this partnership could be deemed “good for business” encouraging increased engagement/partnership between the tech industry and classical arts organizations
Integrate Apple/Apple Music Classical technology with SFS’s school education programs. Introduce the Apple Music Classical app alongside live SFS experience in Bay Area / California schools, fostering new appreciation for the connection between technology and classical music, establishing early brand loyalty and early adoption for all brands
Renewed focus on building SFS’s endowment, in the context of a newly-formed, multi-year agreement with Apple/Apple Classical, as well as other strategically-beneficial financial projects to shore up and protect the organization from future financial worries
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
We’ve long admired SFCM for its ongoing, deep partnership with classical music-related organizations over the last 5 years. With Pentatone Records and the Opus 3 and Askonas Holt artist management firms, respectively, SFCM is clearly SFS’s more successful neighbor, simultaneously owning the vertical and enlarging its global business footprint. Perhaps SFS should approach SFCM CEO David Stull for some private guidance, collaboration, or, dare we say, merger discussions? Perhaps Mr. Stull’s already approached SFS? That’d certainly be on SFCM brand (although we’re only guessing, no news broken here). We recently attended Santa Fe Opera’s Summer Gala. Mr. Stull was standing directly in front of us, as we waited for our tuxedoed/gowned step and repeat moment. We don’t personally know the gentleman, but we nearly asked for his SFS thoughts (wish we had)! Another item: Former SFS Artistic Director Phillippa Cole, who worked for Askonas Holt for 12 years and joined SFS in 2019, will join Opus 3 as Senior Vice President and Manager, Artists beginning November 4, 2024. This might not have gotten much attention beyond a press release, but watch this space.
Closing thoughts
Returning to the SFS brand, its business, and its future (with or without Maestro Salonen): SFS leadership’s come to Jesus moment was a long time ago. The headline speaks for itself. There are paths forward that businesses in crisis take every day, all over the world. Thus far, we haven’t seen anything from SFS that resembles a strategic, brand-positive approach to stability, sustainability, and success; to say nothing of concern for SFS optics, reputation, or brand values in action. Click those heels today, Mark and Priscilla. Or please step aside so that others may work to restore and solidify the San Francisco Symphony’s reputation, financial health, stature, and future among classical’s global brands. - JBM for OI
Update (THURS, 22AUG)
Earlier this month, prior to our 19AUG publish date, we’d heard of further SFS controversy and egregious behavior from a close friend who once sang for the SFS Chorus; we’ve decided to add this important information to our original piece; Joshua Kosman’s 30MAR headline predicted that the company’s situation would only get worse.
Per a 23JUL SFS Chorus Instagram post, in partnership with AGMA (The American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO), SFS stated that it would not meet with chorus leadership and AGMA representatives until 23AUG (tomorrow), well after the chorus’ current contract had expired. Adding in the context of SFS’s July announcement that an 80% budget and pay cut would hit its chorus, we see this as yet another unforced SFS error. Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Robin Freeman made an especially meaningless statement, captured in Janos Gereben’s 15JUL San Francisco Classical Voice report. From this same report:
“The singers’ response to the threat of an 80 percent reduction: ‘There are smarter, less damaging ways to address financial issues without undermining our chorus or further exploiting unpaid talent. A more transparent approach to the Symphony’s finances and strategic use of the endowment is essential. Our goal is not just to save our union jobs, but also to ensure the Symphony continues to thrive artistically. The Symphony Chorus is one of few union choral jobs in the Bay Area, and yet many of us must juggle multiple jobs to survive in this city as working musicians. The Symphony’s proposal to reduce our guaranteed work will be financially devastating to the dwindling number of union choristers in the city and make it more difficult to keep artistic talent in the Bay.’”
Once again, SFS’s inability to maintain and protect its operations and rightly compensate its people (Maestro Salonen, the chorus, and perhaps its musicians in the near future), demonstrates how its CEO, Board Chair, and Board have run their brand onto the rocks without an understood rescue plan i.e. approaches to save their company from potential disintegration and irrelevance. Spivey, Geeslin, and their board are ultimately responsible for whatever happens to the San Francisco Symphony.
JBM for OI
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