By Rebecca Wishnia

On Sept. 19, I was to review the opening-night performance of the Verdi Requiem at the San Francisco Symphony. The downbeat never came: The performance was canceled due to a strike by the chorus singers—members of the American Guild of Musical Artists. I went to the picket lines.

The choristers’ 2023-24 season collective bargaining agreement, which expired in July, lists a minimum base pay of $22,053.55, or $328.12 per performance ($131.25 per hour) and $73.09 per hour for rehearsals. The S.F. Symphony Administration says they have offered a one-year freeze of these terms for the 2024–25 season, for which negotiations started in May.

It’s a freeze of a freeze, chorus members said. Elliott Encarnación, AGMA governor and a San Francisco Symphony tenor for 11 years, told me that the chorus had previously extended their contract by one year, ostensibly to give the Symphony organization time to review their finances. (AGMA hired an independent financial analyst to look at the books: “They’re in better shape than most organizations of this size, better than SF Opera,” Encarnación said.)

“I would say they haven’t offered a reasonable contract in over five years,” said Cheryl Cain, an AGMA soprano who has sung with the Symphony for 18 years. Previous contracts had a tiered increase system; the goal was eventually to achieve financial parity (in terms of hourly pay) with the orchestra members. Currently, chorus members are paid less than half the hourly rate of the lowest-salaried members of the orchestra. One chorister estimated that the 32-person cohort of professional singers might cost the Symphony as little as $800,000–this for an organization whose operating budget is $80.9 million.

The average patron may not know that the Symphony is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, soprano Naheed Attari pointed out. Some numbers are public, such as the salary for CEO Matthew Spivey: $453,648, according to its 990 form for the fiscal year ending in August 2023. The three salaried administrative positions currently open range from $98,000 to $185,000 per year “for 35 hours of work a week,” one chorister told me, “Plus they don’t need the degrees we have.”

How much is a singer worth?

“We’ve made so many other concessions,” said AGMA soprano Cara Gabrielson, such as removing the bylaw that had required the Symphony to hire one AGMA singer for every six volunteers. Going without the professionals “saves them money but makes our job harder,” she added.

What, then, will become of the paid singers? Several choristers told me they believe the administration’s longterm plan is to cut the professional singers entirely—even though the performances with choir tend to attract the largest crowds. “We won the orchestra its first Grammy and seven subsequent ones,” Encarnación said. “We are a world-class ensemble, and we are not being valued.”

What’s next?

I asked AGMA soprano Morgan Balfour whether there’s hope. “I have to say yes. I mean, this is my profession. Otherwise I’d have to pack up and move home to Australia.”

Patrons can call the management and participate in the letter-writing campaign. Over the last month and a half, the union has sent 20,000 letters to patrons and members of the board. “Matt Spivey didn’t like that,” someone quipped.

AGMA Soprano Natalia Salemmo also recommended that patrons continue buying tickets to concerts that feature the chorus, starting with the Fauré Requiem in November. And AGMA Counsel Ivy Yan said that donors can also try to give directly to the chorus. But at this point, Encarnación said, the chorus needs personnel changes on the Symphony board.

“Rather than continuing to rehearse and perform while bargaining, AGMA informed the Administration of their decision to strike this week’s performances of the Verdi Requiem,” Symphony management said in a statement. That was misleading: In fact, the singers had attended the dress rehearsal the morning of the concert, many already wearing their concert black.

“We fully hoped and expected to perform,” Gabrielson said. Added Salemmo, “We want to go back to work. This is the last thing we want.”

Rebecca Wishnia is a violinist and classical-music critic in San Francisco. She is a member of American Federation of Musicians Local 6. Reprinted with permission from her blog, As I Wish.

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