Update: San Francisco Symphony Musicians are on still Strike—Sunday’s Mahler Concert Cancelled, status of East Coast tour will be announced later today

Today’s (Sunday) 2 p.m. scheduled San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert at Davies Hall of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 has been cancelled. With just three days before their East Coast tour, the orchestra members, who announced their strike on Wednesday, March 13, 2013,  are still on strike. Late night negotiations continue and the musicians have been asked to bring their instruments in to be packed up for the three-city tour in the event a settlement is reached today. The Symphony will give word later today about the status of the tour.  (Read ARThound’s earlier coverage here.)

Along with higher salaries, the musicians are seeking increases in benefits and pension contributions commensurate with the nation’s other premiere orchestras and to offset the high cost of living in the Bay Area. SFS administration and the Musicians Union of San Francisco, Local 6, representing the 103 musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, have been in intense negotiations over the musicians’ three-year contract since Wednesday.  The orchestra is supposed to leave on Tuesday for two concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, one in Newark, N.J., and one at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Read about the concerns of the musicians’ union here.

Read the latest SFS administration press release here.

Patrons can obtain up-to-the-minute information on concerts, ticket exchanges and customer service by calling the Symphony Box Office at (415) 864-6000 and on the Orchestra’s website at www.sfsymphony.org/press.