Even for San Franciscans who have long followed local classical music news, nothing similar to the current situation comes to mind.
Almost five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial consequences continue to pit salaried artists and their employing organizations against each other.
Simulatenously, there have been serious conflicts at the region’s “big three” performing arts organizations — the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and San Francisco Ballet. Tensions have been mounting between the companies’ respective managements, negotiating committees, and labor representatives.
In early December, the crisis worsened as SF Ballet faced the possibility of a strike on the day that its all-important monthlong run of Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker was scheduled to begin.
But then, last week there came good news from the battlefront. The SF Symphony, like the SF Opera Orchestra, may have only worked out a temporary arrangement with its musicians that kicks the can down the road, but both the SF Symphony Chorus and SF Ballet’s dancers and stage managers have agreed to new contracts.
These are the key events and where the situation at each organization appears to stand — with some speculation where facts are hard to come by, which can be the case even after agreements are reached.
The musicians of the SF Symphony, having worked over 300 days without a contract in 2022 and 2023, reluctantly agreed to a contract last year, but serious conflict emerged soon after in and around Davies Symphony Hall, including Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s unexpected decision to resign in 2025. The orchestra members’ contract expired last month, and issues — especially over salaries — seemed to threaten the rest of the season until this announcement came from an SF Symphony spokesperson on Dec. 9:
“The San Francisco Symphony musicians and board of governors have agreed to extend the orchestra’s current collective bargaining agreement and continue all current terms and conditions from Nov. 23, 2024, through Jan. 18, 2025.”
The SF Symphony Chorus had dramatic confrontations with management after the contract for the group’s 32 professional singers expired on July 31 and the administration proposed an 80 percent reduction of choristers’ salaries.
With the support of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), the union that represents the paid choristers, the singers’ negotiating committee called a strike the day before the SF Symphony’s season-opening performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Management canceled the concert and the other two scheduled performances.
Now, an anonymous donor’s $4 million gift has helped end the standoff between choristers and management. With that money on the table, a contract agreement was reached last week, still subject to ratification by the singers but likely to be accepted.
The agreement keeps the current minimum salary of $22,053 unchanged and continuous from the retroactive start of the contract on Aug. 1, 2024, to its end on July 31, 2026.
Unlike previous administration moves to reduce rehearsals and performances for the chorus, the tentative agreement maintains “the total number of professional choristers and guaranteed number of rehearsals and performances for the full complement of AGMA singers in the current and following season … for up to 26 choral performances and 53 rehearsals each season.”
The contract also provides for additional payments for meals, clothing allowances, parking, and other items above the minimum guarantee.
SF Symphony stage employees, represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), have the following contracts: stagehands through Oct. 31, 2025, wardrobe workers through Dec. 31, 2025, patron services employees and ushers through May 31, 2027.
The SF Opera Orchestra’s contract situation has been murky ever since the pandemic shutdown locked the company out of the War Memorial Opera House for 532 days, from March 7, 2020, to Aug. 21, 2021. Following more than a year of no income and then another year of income mostly from donations, SF Opera negotiated an abbreviated, retroactive contract, reluctantly accepted by the musicians. When that contract expired on July 31, 2024, negotiations became more difficult.
On opening night of the 2024 season, rather than striking, the orchestra refused to enter the pit until management hurriedly granted some temporary concessions. Short-term contract extensions followed until Oct. 31, at which point management and musicians settled on a longer-range agreement that includes a slight modification of terms. Management’s announcement said the agreement is good through May 30, 2025, “to allow productive conversations to continue.” That date is four days before the beginning of the company’s summer season on June 3, 2025.
Other artists and employees of SF Opera:
- AGMA contracts for principal artists (singers, directors, and choreographers), choristers, dancers, and staging staff run through Feb. 28, 2025, “and discussions have begun for a new collective bargaining agreement.”
- Contracts for box office workers and ushers are negotiated by Theatrical Employees Local B-18, an IATSE affiliate; the current contract runs through July 2026.
- The stage crew, scene shop personnel, and studio teachers’ contracts are negotiated by IATSE Local 16; the current contract runs through December 2027.
- The wardrobe, personnel, and dressers’ contracts are negotiated by the Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 784, IATSE; the current contract runs through July 2028.
- Hair and makeup personnel, including workers in the wig shop, have their contracts negotiated by Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Local 706, IATSE; the current contract runs through July 2028.
- Scenic artists’ contracts are negotiated by the Art Directors Guild Local 800, IATSE; the current contract runs through June 2028.
- Designers’ contracts are negotiated by the United Scenic Artists Local 829, IATSE; the contract expired in July 2024. The parties have reached agreement on a one-year extension, “which is in the process of being finalized,” says SF Opera administration.
At SF Ballet, the contracts with dancers and stage managers were set to expire on Dec. 6 — the same date when the season’s financially crucial Nutcracker production was slated to open.
On Dec. 5, SF Ballet management announced that it had reached “a tentative two-year agreement retroactive to July 1, 2024,” with the SF Ballet Dancer Bargaining Committee and AGMA, “enabling the company of 84 dancers to raise the curtain on opening night.” The agreement is subject to union ratification.
“After five months of intentional negotiations,” said SF Ballet management, “a process structured to better and more expeditiously create mutually beneficial solutions, SF Ballet leadership and the dancers’ representatives came to a consensus on issues ranging from salaries, rest periods, and health and wellness to the number of dancers employed by the company.”
Management’s statement, from recently appointed Executive Director Branislav Henselmann, mentioned “significant increases of the company’s holistic health, wellness, and professional development programs with a dedicated investment of funding, focus, and infrastructure that effectively doubled [the programs’] size and scope.
“In addition, the company formalized salary bands that significantly increased the parity of wages for dancers to ensure pay equity and transparency and provided professional development opportunities for dancers onstage, in the studio, and offstage.”
And on Dec. 16, SF Ballet announced news of a partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), collectively spearheaded by SF Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo and FAMSF curators Claudia Schmuckli and Furio Rinaldi.
The two organizations retained Bay Area artist Ranu Mukherjee to create the 2025 season curtain drop for SF Ballet’s “Cool Britannia” program. SF Ballet and FAMSF will also partner on a series of talks and performances in celebration of the Legion of Honor’s 100th anniversary in 2025.
