Symphony Reborn With New Donations : $1 Million in Gifts Spurs Announcement of Winter Season; Musicians Ratify Contract

The San Diego Symphony sounded its first optimistic note in months Monday, announcing that almost $1 million had been raised toward funding a 1987-88 winter season, repaying creditors and putting the orchestra “back in business” for the first time since November.

Executive Director Wesley O. Brustad singled out three donors--hotelier Judson R. Grosvenor, academician Roger Revelle and businessman Murray Hutchison--with giving the primary gifts toward a $1.2-million “start-up budget.”

“This is a happy day,” Brustad said. “We’re pleased to announce a concert season beginning in the fall. The San Diego Symphony is back from the grave.”

Such effusive optimism was in stark contrast to the footnotes of recent symphony history: key players and a conductor having gone to other orchestras; an operating debt in excess of $1 million, and a public suspicious of the symphony’s efforts to manage itself.

32-Week Season

Despite such feeling, Grosvenor--who gave $250,000 to the symphony as recently as March of last year--has agreed to pay an additional $450,000. The amounts of Revelle’s and Hutchison’s gifts were not disclosed, but Brustad said the three together fall between $900,000 and $1 million.

In addition, it was announced Monday that symphony musicians, who were locked out in a bitter dispute leading to a canceled season last fall, voted Sunday night to ratify a new contract with the symphony board. A shortened 32-week season will commence in November, followed by a 37-week season in 1988-89. The last full season, in 1985-86, was for 45 weeks.

Brustad also said that local banks have agreed, for a one-year period, to waive the principal on the payments for two loans. One is an operating loan for $500,000, the other a capital loan for $3.8 million.

Such “generosity,” Brustad said, will help the symphony repay $700,000 in ticket refunds to patrons because of cancellation of the 1986-87 season, and $300,000 in back bills to vendors. Brustad said the association expects to repay such debts in full by October--the start of the next fiscal year.

It would then be free of “all accumulated operating deficits for the first time in more than 20 years,” he said.

As for the musicians, their new pay scale will start at $575 a week for the first year of the contract, increasing to a minimum of $625 a week for the 1988-89 season. That figures to an annual scale of $18,400 for the 32-week season in 1987-88, and $23,125 for the 37-week season in 1988-89. For the full 1985-86 season, musicians received an annual scale of $21,250 for 45 weeks.

Those gains may seem modest, but the musicians were more inclined to focus on progress, since none seemed possible just a few months ago, and on the relief that everyone seemed to share. However, Gregory Berton, a string bass player and leader in the musicians’ union, called the settlement far from ideal.

Berton said more than 20 of the nation’s 32 major orchestras pay on a 52-week basis, with minimum annual salaries totaling more than $40,000. Joe Pallazolla, an official with Local 325 of the American Federation of Musicians, echoed Berton’s sentiments and took umbrage, albeit gently, with the terms.

McGill’s Role Disputed

“While in economic terms it does not come close to representing an optimum settlement, we see it as necessary toward repairing long-term differences,” Pallazolla said. “We credit (former UCSD Chancellor) William McGill and Mayor Maureen O’Connor with playing key roles in bringing about the settlement.”

McGill, 65, became involved in the symphony crisis in January, at O’Connor’s request. He mediated the labor agreement and launched what he called a personal fund-raising campaign.

Curiously, Brustad and Solomon were reluctant to give credit to McGill or O’Connor. Solomon praised Brustad, calling the “nine months he’s been on board a time of rebirth” for the orchestra. He also lauded Brustad for trimming the orchestra’s budget an estimated $2.2 million from its level of two years ago.

Brustad said Solomon was “100% responsible” for the symphony’s turnaround, which he added was “the most dramatic ever of a major American symphony orchestra.”

Sources close to McGill said Monday that he was instrumental in bringing about the contributions by Revelle and Hutchison. Brustad, however, heatedly disputed that contention, saying that Solomon had masterminded all such gifts entirely on his own.

“You bet,” he said, “Herb Solomon is 100% responsible for all of this. Absolutely. He deserves the credit. No one else.”

Grosvenor agreed--effusively. He, too, praised Solomon, a target of controversy and criticism from musicians, who have been quoted as saying that Solomon is a “union-buster.” (Solomon locked out symphony musicians in November before canceling the winter season.)

“Criticism of Herb has been completely unjustified,” said Grosvenor, who added that Solomon was “the sole reason” he agreed to contribute $450,000.

“Herb is a very realistic businessman. His approach has been purely professional all the way,” Grosvenor said. “His only fault was insisting that things run in a businesslike manner--that the symphony have the finances to pay its bills as well as put on shows.”

Asked to assess the role played by McGill, Grosvenor frowned and said, “That’s a tough question for me. A really tough question.”

He then walked away and huddled briefly with four women, all fellow board members. He said to the women, “(The reporter) wants to know what role McGill played in all this. What the hell do I say?”

“Just be nice,” one of the women said. “Just be nice.”

Grosvenor then said, “Let’s say I have no comment.”

Mayor Lauds Accord

McGill was out of town and unavailable for comment, as were Hutchison and Revelle. Brustad and Solomon were vague in their comments about McGill, particularly the role he might play in the orchestra’s future.

“We don’t know,” Brustad said. “We’d like anybody to play a role if it leads to institutional stability.”

Paul Downey, a spokesman for Mayor O’Connor, said she had heard little about the symphony matter in recent days, but noted that she praised the settlement. Downey added, however, that it was O’Connor’s hope to have McGill continue to play a role to see that “none of these sins repeat themselves in the future.”

To guard against that, part of the negotiated settlement, which musicians said McGill helped implement, calls for an orchestra member to serve on the board and for a team of “outside experts”--drawn from symphonies around the country--to investigate symphony operations and recommend a course for the future.

Brustad said part of that future calls for a rebuilt staff. He now has a staff of four, compared to 43 only a few years ago. He said “new challenges in marketing” will involve changes in programming and structure, and “outreach programs” designed to reach San Diego schools.

Brustad must hire a permanent conductor to replace David Atherton, who resigned several months ago. In the meantime, guest conductors will handle the winter season.

“The No. 1 problem symphonies across the country are having,” Brustad said, “is education--musical education for young people is pretty much limited to Top 40 radio. Serious music is not even an alternative to most young people. We’ve got to change that. The way we do that is by reaching the schools. We have a lot of work to do. Our work has only just begun.”