S.D. SYMPHONY ON BRINK OF CHAPTER 11

Officials of the financially strapped San Diego Symphony have called for a special meeting today to ponder their options after failing to reach a contract agreement last week with musicians.

On Friday, symphony officials dropped plans for a special spring series of concerts and raised the possibility of filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Faced with a total debt of almost $3.5 million and with no money coming in, symphony President Herbert J. Solomon had announced at a Thursday press conference that filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code “might . . . be the only realistic alternative available.”

On the same day, the players of the orchestra overwhelmingly rejected management’s latest proposal for a three-year contract. The main contention is management’s effort to extract concessions from the musicians in the area of artistic control of the orchestra: that is, hiring and firing.

In an unofficial straw vote earlier last week, the players agreed to symphony wage proposals, which they said would have imposed a salary cut on all but 20 of the 74 members, but balked at some non-wage proposals, such as changes in procedures for auditioning and firing musicians.

Because of financial problems and the stalled contract talks, the symphony already had canceled its entire winter concert season Nov. 11.

The locked-out musicians have not been paid since September. But the symphony’s income has also dried up. With the winter season cancellation, more than $400,000 in state, local and federal government grants for symphony concerts was suspended or canceled. Subscribers have also requested another $400,000 in season ticket refunds, which the symphony was to begin paying today . But Thursday’s vote by musicians put the refunds in doubt.

Subscribers seeking refunds will have to take their place in line with a number of other creditors. The symphony ended its fiscal year Sept. 30 with a $900,000 deficit. It has an additional $2.67 million in capital debt from its 1985 purchase and renovation of Symphony Hall that officials had planned to pay off over the next five years.