FIRST OFF . . .

Orchestra musicians from Chicago and San Diego picketed outside San Diego’s Symphony Hall Wednesday night to protest the disbanding of the San Diego Symphony. The protest attracted about 50 formally attired musicians, nearly half of them from the Chicago Symphony. It ended at 8 p.m. as the performance by the Chicago musicians got under way in the concert hall that was home to the San Diego orchestra. After months of financial turmoil and repeated rejections by musicians to accept pay cuts and artistic concessions, management of the San Diego Symphony on Jan. 9 dissolved the orchestra. Management officials said dissolution was required to hold down expenses while a financial plan was developed to pay off the association’s debts. Gregory Berton, a San Diego musician and spokesman for Local 325 of the American Federation of Musicians, said the protest was a way of letting the public know the situation and of soliciting community support. Steve Lester of the Chicago Symphony’s orchestra committee said Chicago musicians were donating more than $2,000 to a San Diego orchestra committee representing the out-of-work musicians.