It’s chill and starless in downtown San Antonio on symphony night. “Basically, the musicians wanted to persevere,” said Petkovich, who joined the San Antonio Symphony in 1996. The San Antonio Symphony’s first performance was at the Sunken Garden Theater in 1939, and by the mid-’40s the ensemble ranked among the country’s best. The fate of the San Antonio Philharmonic matters beyond the closing notes of their performances. In October, the Bexar County Commissioners Court provided $300,000 to the roughly decade-old nonprofit Classical Music Institute (CMI), which focuses on music education, to help it accompany Opera San Antonio and Ballet San Antonio, a role previously filled by the San Antonio Symphony.

Source: New York Times March 15, 2023 13:02 UTC