San Antonio Symphony Terminates Contract of Conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing

German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing had been the orchestra's Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony since 2010, taking on the title of Music Director Emeritus at the conclusion of the 2019/20 season.

Lang-Lessing was found to be in breach of his contract after he agreed to conduct the Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony (MOSAS) in a concert at the city's First Baptist Church on May 12, with a pair of season concerts with the orchestra itself also planned for the same trip.

MOSAS is made up of players from the San Antonio Symphony, but is not affiliated with the organization itself, because the orchestra's players have been on strike since September 2021. The strike was a response to a cost-cutting proposal by the orchestra's management which would have seen 30 musicians lose their full-time salary and health insurance. In March of 2022, the musicians staged a sit-in at the local City Council Chambers, and protest efforts continue.

The reason given for Lang-Lessing's dismissal was a breach of a clause in his contract which prevents him from being affiliated with a competing music entity within a certain distance of the city.

Since the MOSAS concert that Lang-Lessing was going to conduct falls on the same night as a planned San Antonio Symphony concert, the engagement counts as a conflict of interest — even though in practice, the official symphony concert is unlikely to go ahead given that the players are still striking.

“I think this is really to be seen as a hostile action against the musicians more than against me,” Lang-Lessing said of the dismissal. “Now you're undermining the efforts of the musicians to continue live music in San Antonio by doing something like this. It's a very strange message to potential donors and patrons.”

“MOSAS is not the hostile organization to the San Antonio Symphony. I, as Music Director Emeritus, am not a hostile individual to the San Antonio Symphony,” he added. “So what is the fight about? I don't understand it.”

“My solidarity goes to the musicians of the San Antonio Symphony.”

You can hear the San Antonio Symphony's Principal Second Violin and Orchestra Committee Chair Mary Ellen Goree speaking about the players' strike initiative below.