The saga of the San Antonio Symphony continues, this time with a far more positive development for classical music fans. Violinist Craig Sorgi said Saturday the dramatic news came from Symphony Society of San Antonio, the board managing the symphony, shortly before concert time on Friday night.
"The Symphony Society board met and decided to rescind the order to shut down the rest of the season,” he said.
The season had been cut back earlier in the week as a cost cutting measure -- four dozen concerts shy of its scheduled 2017-2018 season. Former board chair AliceViroslav resigned the day after the vote to cut short the symphony season. The Symphony Society board is now headed by newly elected board chair Kathleen Weir Vale.
On Friday night, the concert went on, initially with no announcement of the news. Then conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing began the concert's second half with a statement, Sorgi said.
“Maestro had the happy task of coming out on the podium and announce to the world that we are moving forward,” Sorgi said. “We are going to be salvaging as much of the remainder of the season as possible.”
There was an immediate and deafening response, he said.
“The audience just spontaneously just erupted into cheers and whoops and hollers and applause and foot stamping, and the orchestra went nuts, and it was just a moment of incredible victory,” he said.
As to the symphony’s path forward, it's not yet clear. They will be doing next week's concerts, but only time will tell where exactly it goes from there.
“We should be doing as many concerts as possible. I want to say to patrons: 'Do not go and refund your tickets because you're going to need them,' ” Sorgi said.
He said the fight is far from over, but he's optimistic enough he joked the city should create a new holiday.
“I think January 5th ought to be Symphony Resurrection Day. I think it's a day that we're going to get to celebrate, rather than mourn like we thought we were going to do,” he said.
A request for comment from board management was not immediately returned.
Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org
