Santa Rosa Symphony CEO reveals ‘audacious goals,’ savvy financial management behind success

Alan Silow welcomes visitors to his office with a colorful sculpture: a blue-and-yellow violin representing the flag of Ukraine, his ancestral home.

Like the Ukrainian people, the president and CEO of the Santa Rosa Symphony has shown himself to be amazingly resilient. For the past 21 years, he has steered the regional orchestra through multiple recessions, wildfires and a pandemic that halted most artistic organizations in their tracks. Since the first year after he arrived, he has managed to keep the nonprofit in the black while growing its artistic reputation.

“If the goal is only artistic excellence, you’ll be out of business in a few years,” said the 71-year-old native of New York City. “If it’s only fiscal vitality, you can’t cost cut your way to greatness. The real creativity is finding a way to do both.”

By reading the fine print and taking a closer look at financial records, Silow was able to negotiate leases and contracts that put the symphony on firmer financial footing while also tackling ambitious projects that have inspired the staff, the musicians and audiences alike. He helped

the symphony double its commitment to the Green Music Center capital campaign to $20 million, paving the way for it to become the hall’s resident orchestra. He added a new pops concert series in 2005 and launched a new family concert series in 2012.

During his tenure, Silow also grew the yearly budget from $1.5 million to $5 million, enlarged the endowment fund from $1.5 million to $17 million and expanded educational programs, launching four international concert tours for its advanced youth orchestra and implementing Simply Strings, an El Sistema-inspired music education program at Roseland’s Sheppard Elementary School.

“The goal of El Sistema is not focused on creating professional musicians. It’s to have a positive social impact on young people,” Silow said. “They don’t pay for anything. We provide the staff and the instruments.”

Over the past 21 years, he figures he personally has raised about $7 million for the orchestra. After introducing a yearly gala that’s now the symphony’s biggest fundraiser, Silow was feted at the symphony’s Celebration 2021 gala, emceed by the symphony’s Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong.

This month, the administrative leader of one of Santa Rosa’s oldest nonprofits will retire and hand the balance sheets to incoming President and CEO J. Andrew Bradford, chosen by the search committee for his impressive organizational skills and track record with a range of arts organizations.

As the symphony looks forward to its centennial celebration in the 2027-28 season, Silow expects Bradford to widen the orchestra’s outreach to the community through programs such as “The Magic Flute” concert in April that was presented in partnership with Santa Rosa High School’s ArtQuest program.

Community and making a difference have always been his driving forces.

“Music is the means not the end for me,” Silow said. “I didn’t grow up thinking I would run a symphony orchestra.”

Silow went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison at age 16 and got his bachelor’s degree in economics. He attended Princeton University to get a master’s degree in public administration, then spent a year traveling through Asia and Europe before moving to the Bay Area to work in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) from 1974 to 1976.

In 1987, the mayor of Sante Fe offered him a job heading up the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau. He stayed in that historic city for eight years, at a time when Condé Nast named Santa Fe the No. 1 travel destination in the world.

When the mayor was voted out, Silow was out as well. But his success had caught the attention of the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, where he was recruited to serve as director of sales and marketing for three years. After that, he became executive director of the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio.

But Silow and his wife always wanted to return to the Bay Area. He was hired as executive director of the Santa Rosa Symphony in 2002.

At the time, the symphony offices were located in a dark corner of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. Silow moved the 14-member staff downtown and went to work on fiscal management, deficit reduction, board development, fundraising and strategic planning.

How were you able to bring the orchestra back into the black in 2002?

I put into place a deficit-reduction plan and financial controls, added new board responsibilities and got a new endowment adviser. At that point, the most the (39) board members had given was $100,000 a year. Now that same board gives $500,000 a year. I had to organize union negotiations, and I showed the musicians the numbers, and we negotiated a reasonable contract.

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Most orchestras have a youth orchestra, but we have five. And we’re the only orchestra in the North Bay with an El Sistema-inspired model. ... With all our education efforts, the long-term goal is to create future audience members who value their experience as a musician.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, I called (then-Music Director) Jeffrey Kahane and the musicians union to ask them to do a fundraiser pro bono. ... We raised $60,000 for Katrina relief, and that was more than any other U.S. orchestra.

In 2017, when the Tubbs Fire hit ... we put together a fire-relief program at the Green Music Center, and we raised $115,000.

What were some of the biggest challenges?

The greatest was the COVID-19 pandemic. Orchestras bring people together to be inspired and, especially, to be healed. COVID hit in March 2020 and made that impossible. The whole office closed down. I had to cancel two classical sets, one pops concert and one family concert. We had contracts with all the musicians for those. All of their gigs were canceled, just like that, and I went to the board and told them we should pay the musicians. I feel good that we were able to help them out.

Most public orchestras went dark. Together, Francesco and I found a way to go virtual for the 2020-21 season. ... I found a clause that said “studio work” was allowed. So we had to throw out the programs for 80 musicians and find programs for 40 musicians. Everyone had to be separated and masked. I found a local video company to film the concerts, and we decided to put it on YouTube to distribute it. It reached people in 23 states and three countries. The question was, what are we going to charge? I said, “Let’s do it for free.” At intermission, we had Francesco and the musicians ask people to donate. We raised $900,000, and we asked our subscribers to let us keep their money, and we added in extras for them.

Cellist Zuill Bailey introduced Francesco to (composer) Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and she became our artistic partner for the second half of the season. That allowed us to produce our first commercially produced CD.

How do you keep your donations flowing amid donor burnout and increasing competition for dollars from other nonprofits?

Over time, major donors pass away — the Don Greens, Henry Triones and the Evert Persons. So we always have to develop new people who love what we do. Our endowment has grown from $1.5 to $17 million. We have strict requirements of how much we can take (no more than 5% of a three-year rolling average.) We are going into our 96th season, and we have the largest budget of any regional orchestras north of L.A.

What makes the Santa Rosa Symphony unique among the state’s regional orchestras?

We are on solid financial footing, and we also have a solid artistic product led by Francesco. We’re in a respected hall and have a great educational program. The core of our audience is the subscribers, and they’re so passionate about what we do. We’ve gotten major estate gifts from people we didn’t even know about.

What advice would you give other nonprofits about maintaining the bottom line?

First off, be dedicated to the mission. And persistence is key — just keep going for it. And, as (business) author Jim Collins has written, look for BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). People often say, “That is impossible. You’re never going to be able to do that.” That means you’ve got a BHAG. Turning the budget around (in 2002), getting the money for the Green Music Center and adding international concert tours for the youth orchestra — those are what drew people together.

What does the symphony need to do in terms of outreach to new subscribers?

The Road To 100 (the planned centennial celebration for the 2027-28 season), there will be a lot of new ideas to bring in more people. I never felt that growth as a whole was crucial. The question is, “Can we sustain the growth and does it meet the goals of the community?”

In the wake of the pandemic, how optimistic are you about the orchestra’s future?

Things are coming back. Last year, we had 103 kids in summer music camp. This year we have about 170. Subscriptions have already exceeded last year’s subscriptions, and the drive is not over. Last year, we had 1,700 by early October. At the end of June 2023, we had already sold 1,800.

What’s next?

My wife and I plan to remain in Sonoma County and look forward to traveling in the near future and project consulting for nonprofits in need of financial management, fundraising, marketing and strategic planning.

Correction: The 2017 Tubbs fire-relief concert raised $115,000. An earlier version of this story stated an incorrect figure.