The San Antonio Philharmonic has announced a new partnership and a new permanent location for its concerts: the Scottish Rite building downtown.
“We hope it can be our new and permanent home for our future concerts and all our endeavors as a philharmonic. People know it as the Scottish Rite building there downtown, about a block away from the Alamo historic building, beautiful building,” said Executive Director Roberto Treviño.
The circa 1924 building is owned by the Freemasons and contains a large theater with a stage that extends into the audience.
Treviño said it's important for the Philharmonic to be anchored in a venue like this. “One," he said, "where it ensures that the venue doesn't become a huge question mark every year in terms of trying to figure out scheduling, planning, operations, cost."
And in fact, the Philharmonic’s recent history gives testimony to that. They have been playing downtown at the First Baptist Church since re-organizing as the Philharmonic. Most members of that orchestra used to be with the San Antonio Symphony, which was dissolved in June of 2022. The symphony used to be a resident arts organization at the Tobin, but that invitation wasn’t extended to the Philharmonic.
The details are still being parsed, but Treviño said the arrangement will be a co-ownership. With that will disappear some of the indefinite nature of how they’ve had to operate the past couple of years.
“We feel that, as part of the agreement, that the Philharmonic will have a place where it doesn't have to worry about being a tenant, rent out a space, or have to look constantly every year, to find a place for concerts,” Treviño said. “It seeks to be owner of a facility that it can help operate and manage. And really, it's about controlling your own destiny.”
Having been built in 1924, the building needs work, but Trevino projects they will be able to schedule one concert there in the spring to give the public a taste for the new location.
“The first phase of this is what we call an infrastructure modernization, and that modernization is probably the most important aspect of this building, because it means we're addressing the very things that allow it to become operational quickly,” he said.
He said there are steps to meet ADA compliance, plus infrastructure repairs and electrical, plumbing and fire code issues to resolve.
While it is still too early to nail down a timeline, he speculates a three-year period is needed to resolve all the issues. The Philharmonic’s strategic plan calls for sustainable operations, and Treviño thinks the move into Scottish Rite will push that objective forward following a tumultuous few years.
As to how he expects the Philharmonic to be able to pull off the major effort, he said essentially, it takes a village.
“The short answer is, with the help of everyone, the community, the city, the county, state, federal government," Treviño said. "This is going to take a team effort.”
