On the day before the opening concerts of the San Antonio Philharmonic’s third season under the baton of new music director Jeffrey Kahane, the organization’s chief financial officer resigned.
Thursday’s resignation of CFO Sylvia Romo, hired by Executive Director Roberto Treviño in January, follows a string of staff resignations, terminations and nonrenewed contracts throughout Treviño’s 14-month tenure.
Since Treviño was hired in June of last year, at least a dozen employees have left. At least two board members, Gina Ortiz Jones and Lara August, left the organization prior to a current dispute roiling the board since a divisive June 20 board meeting.
Former employees say the turnover has caused consequential organizational disruptions affecting timeliness and availability of ticket sales, donor relations and stability of the orchestra.
Romo — who has long experience in her field, including a 16-year elected term as Bexar County tax assessor-collector — cited mismanagement as her reason for resigning.
When the San Antonio Report reached out for comment Friday afternoon, Treviño said that, as a matter of policy, “we don’t discuss HR matters about the philharmonic.”
Near-total turnover
A concert program from the 2023-2024 season opening concerts on Sept. 22-23 lists 10 staff members:
• Allison Bates, librarian
• Annika Becker, development associate
• LaNice Belcher, development officer
• Nancy Cook-Monroe, public relations
• Kelly Page, director of marketing
• Gabriella Reyna, director of education and community engagement
• Sherry Rubins, personnel manager
• Cassandra Sanchez, sales coordinator
• Lindsey Smith Webb, grants writer
• Molly Zebrowski, volunteer coordinator
Of those employees, only longtime music librarian Bates remains on staff. Alexander Jimenez, who replaced Belcher in January, resigned in mid-August. Others hired just before and during Treviño’s tenure also have left.
Romo said that before she accepted the philharmonic’s CFO position, she went to see the orchestra perform. “I was just amazed at the talent that we have. … That’s the main reason I took this position.”
But she became concerned early in her tenure, she said, as Treviño disagreed with the basic responsibilities of her position. One issue, Romo said, was that she was left out of major financial decisions she considered central to her role.
As CFO, she said, “it [was] my responsibility to make sure that any major purchase does not affect the financial health of this organization.”
But Romo said she was shut out of negotiations for an investment that would include a potential $50 million renovation of the century-old San Antonio Scottish Rite Library and Museum, touted by the philharmonic as its future concert venue in a recent announcement.
Regarding Romo’s allegation, Treviño replied via text message that it’s “Not necessary to involve the Part Time CFO in negotiations at this time.”
Former employees
Each former associate interviewed for this article said they were hesitant to talk publicly about their experiences because they care about the musicians and want the San Antonio Philharmonic to succeed but felt it was important to speak out about what they allege was mismanagement. In nine interviews, five on the record and four on background, they described a difficult work environment, organizational dysfunction and open conflict with board members as leading to the widespread departures.
Belcher, a musician with extensive experience working in 501(c)3 organizations with leadership structures similar to the philharmonic, was hired as a development officer in March 2023 prior to Treviño becoming executive director.
Belcher said she came on as a development officer to help with donor stewardship and organizing events but was asked to become development director, a position for which she felt unqualified. She sent a resignation letter to the board and a week later was told by Treviño that her services were no longer needed, she said.
Kelly Page started in March 2023 as a volunteer, serving as marketing director with decades of experience as a creative director. She was then hired full time by Treviño in July 2023.
She said of the musicians who created the philharmonic from the ashes of the former symphony, “I love the idea that they are [a] phoenix rising, and they came back from everything bad that happened to them.”
When she began working in the philharmonic offices, she said Treviño “questioned everything” despite her 30 years of experience. Page said she was offered a substantial raise, but it never materialized.
Instead of working for the orchestra until retirement as she had hoped, Page sent her letter of resignation to the founding board officers and left in December, devastated and heartbroken, she said.
Personnel management
In June, Treviño terminated the contract of longtime personnel manager Sherry Rubins.
In addition to her duties as personnel manager, the position that handles the hiring of the orchestra musicians for concerts, Rubins has performed as a substitute and regular orchestra member with the philharmonic and San Antonio Symphony since 1984.
Rubins said, in a significant departure from past practice, so far this season musicians have been hired only per concert, with no specific titles, rather than for the season. As far as she is aware, as a group they have been hired only for this year’s September concerts, leaving uncertainty for the concerts scheduled through May.
“It’s very unusual, and it’s not OK because people are finding other work and they can’t play [with the philharmonic] because they’re already booked,” she said.
Romo said she feels for the “world-class” musicians and music director who make up the orchestra and could suffer from the uncertainty they face.
Rubins said of her fellow musicians, “There’s so many of us that are so exhausted from the San Antonio Symphony debacle that they really can’t even deal with the stress of what’s happening now.”
Opening concerts
August’s advertising firm, Robot Creative, created the logo, brand identity and website for the philharmonic in 2022. Following her departure from the board, maintenance of the site was left in the hands of philharmonic staff, and several former employees said issues with the ticketing system became evident.
As of Sept. 4, visits to the web address yielded a “Website Under Construction” page with a nonfunctioning ticket link. The link to individual ticket sales worked sporadically the following day, but season subscription seats and individual ticketed seat sales appeared to be lagging behind the previous two years.
Treviño attributed slow early season subscription and ticket sales to a changeover to the Majestic Theatre owner’s ticketing system to streamline sales for the seven Majestic concerts along with concerts at First Baptist.
Asked whether staff turnover has contributed to the issues, Treviño said, “Absolutely not.”
Regarding current staff, Treviño said, “We have a wonderful, diverse staff of people that are bilingual, bring their own set of expertise and talents to the organization, and we’re glad they’re with us. We have a good team.”
By Friday morning, just more than 400 seats appeared as sold on the ticketing page of the philharmonic website. The previous year, the orchestra touted a sellout for its last concert of the season on June 1, 2023.
Friday evening, with empty rows and turnout filling less than half the church’s 1,100 seating capacity, Kahane received a smattering of applause from the audience as he and the orchestra opened the concert with the U.S. and Mexico national anthems.
August said that despite leaving the board, she still supports the philharmonic. “For the sake of the community, and for the sake of the musicians, I really hope some iteration of this organization makes it through.”
This story has been updated to correctly reflect the date the philharmonic website was under construction.
