Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor —

You have been the CEO of the Tobin Center for six years now, including a year before it opened to the public. How has this entire experience been for you?
Energizing! Very rarely do you get an opportunity to start from scratch. When I got here in the spring of 2013, there was nothing, not even a building. I had that unique opportunity to put a white board on my wall and draw the org chart. There was nobody here, so I started with, OK that’s me (at the top); I am going to need a finance guy, a booking guy, an operations manager… It was a chance to use all my experience from working in other organizations that were already operating for decades when I joined them and where making changes was very difficult. Here, we could start fresh. And we are still tweaking how we run things. We’re a big enough organization to have a broad show portfolio but we are also small enough to make the decisions right here.

What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most?
I like being here when people are coming in for a show. I like saying hello to everybody, I like shaking hands. I am driving the operations people crazy by (pointing out) there is dust over there and there’s smudge on the window over here! (laughs). I always get a kick out of being here on show nights. And I always tell staff, if you can’t have fun working in this industry, you will never have fun at work.

Are you involved in selecting the programming (for dates not reserved for resident companies*)We have a vice-president of programming who does most of that. I meet with him every couple of weeks to see what we are looking at. The only two things I insist on are: it has to be safe and it can’t lose money. Other than that, we don’t censor. We want to offer something for everyone. So, we go from Renée Fleming to Black Violin to Snoop Dogg.

What do ticket sales and audience surveys tell you about what San Antonians want to see?
What sells really well in this market is 1980s’ rock. We learned along the way. When we did early bookings, we thought that southern rock bands would do great. They didn’t. The audience wanted country. We learned that southern rock is different from country. Latino music is different from Mexican music, and people here will come to one kind of show but not to the other. Over the last five years we learned what this market wants and it is country music, 80s’ rock, and pretty much anything that we can bring from the Mexican culture.

The Tobin is the performing home for seven local resident companies, including the symphony, Ballet San Antonio and Opera San Antonio. How else is the Tobin supporting these organizations?
The resident companies use the building 285 days a year. That leaves us only about 80 days for everything else, and those 80 days make up most of our budget. For the resident companies we provide rent discounts, production assistance, box-office services and more. It’s not cash for them but it helps them avoid additional costs. In fact, we have hired (an employee) whose responsibility is to make sure that our resident companies have everything they need. Another thing we do is make sure that whatever we buy in terms of equipment is something that will help these companies, too.

Which 2020 shows are you looking forward to in a special way?
I think the Rigoletto opera is a going to be an exceptional show. (An Opera San Antonio production) From the shows we book, America is one I love every year. But every time I meet with my VP of booking, Aaron Zimmerman, he surprises me with what’s coming up. We are, however, at the mercy of bands’ touring schedules. Some seasons are packed with high-flying acts, other seasons they are not touring. But I love everything that happens here.

You also present touring Broadway musicals, right?
 Yes, our Signature Series. We do only one-nighters because we don’t have enough nights available for a show to run for a week like at the Majestic. And the ticket price is a fraction of what you have to pay for a Majestic subscription. Our season is about 4-5 Broadway shows, so it’s a little more manageable for folks who either cannot make the financial commitment or don’t have the time to see eight shows.

You came here from Connecticut where you spent most of your life. How’s life in San Antonio?
I wasn’t a complete stranger to San Antonio; my brother lived here and I did lots of trips to San Antonio for family events. I think it’s a little easier to live here in terms of climate. The adjustment for me was going from Hartford where I knew everybody to not knowing anybody here. But my board is so well connected and I know I can call every one of them to help me get in touch with whomever I need to speak to.

Which other career could you have pursued and enjoyed?
After graduation from the University of Connecticut with a degree in finance, I took the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) because my intention was to go to law school. But then I decided I was done. I wanted to go out there and start making money and having a life, and, I thought, I could always go to law school later, if I still wanted to.

What do you consider your best trait?
I think it’s my ability not to take anything too seriously and to try to manage that way. And I try to convey that to our staff. What we are doing is fun, people come here to be entertained, let’s not be so serious about it and let’s try to enjoy ourselves. So, when things get tough, I try to bring a little humor into pretty much everything we do.

What are you most afraid of?
I fear for our resident companies. I fear that the ticket-buying community is not rallying around them as fervently as we had hoped. I don’t fear for the art genres themselves. There will always be opera and music and ballet in this building but I worry about the resident companies, whether they will always be viable and self-sustaining.

No personal fears?
Should I have any? (laughs) As a parent (he has two young adult daughters), you are always concerned about your children’s future – Will they be successful? Will they be happy? – but that’s how parents are.

If you could choose three people to have dinner with from anywhere in the world, who would you pick?
Bruce Springsteen would be the first one. I want Bruce here at the Tobin but my programming staff reminds me that he costs too much. We’ll get to it eventually. Then, I would like to have my great-grandmother who was from Italy and whom I knew up to the age of 10. I would love to have another conversation with her and find out more about life in Milan. I still feel a big pull toward Italy. And then my dad. He passed away a few years ago. I wish he could have seen all this.

Do you have a favorite restaurant in San Antonio?
My brother is a co-owner of Fratello’s on Broadway, so I probably should say that’s my favorite. It’s good food but I have eclectic tastes when it comes to food.

Are you a Republican or a Democrat?
I am fiscally conservative and I am socially moderate. So, wherever that fits.

Whom would you like to see as our next president?
(After a moment of reflection) I would like to see a grownup. You know, when I was in college, Ronald Reagan was to me the guy who looked like the president, acted like the president, spoke like one, a bit folksy, but he could go head-to-head with Gorbachev. And he didn’t take himself too seriously. It’s important for a leader to be somebody that people rally around. I am hoping someone like that comes along.

What is your greatest regret?
(After another moment of reflection) Perhaps not continuing my education with a law degree. I like what I do and I look at everything almost as an attorney in terms of looking at both sides and arguing… However, it was through my career that I gained an “advanced degree.” I think I did OK (chuckles).

Do you have a motto, a life principle that you follow in all circumstances?
I think it goes back to not taking myself too seriously. This job can give you a pretty big head; it’s pretty high-flying. That’s why I am at every show to shake people’s hands. Chris will tell you (Chris Novosad VP of marketing who was in the room with us), I will be there picking up the garbage around the building if I see it. When we first opened the building, I helped build the seating system. I was there with plyers, working. Also, if a show falls through or a donation we counted on falls through, you just put that aside and keep going. You just have to work through things and not get too tight about mishaps.

Where do you stand on public support of the arts?
 I think it’s imperative. There should be mechanisms in place to increase public funding. I am not saying that we should support art for art’s sake. We should support the arts because it’s important for the community, for kids.

 I am going to get on my soap box for a moment. Let me tell you a story. We responded to the request for proposals from the city to provide ticketing services for the Alamodome and all other city-owned facilities. It was us against Ticketmaster. (Ticketmaster got the contract) Ticketmaster is in LA, we are here. We were even with Ticketmaster on how much money the city would get, but the $20 million dollars in ticketing fees that they took to LA, we could have kept here in San Antonio. And we had a plan to put $2 million back into the symphony, ballet and opera and the building here. That money is now gone. So, it’s not just about governmental support out of tax dollars, it’s about government being smarter about allocating the money.

In addition, we have this education program that is the fastest growing arts education program in the country. The Kennedy Center has recognized us as the number one growing program in the U.S. We also have another company now, a subsidiary called Tobin Entertainment, and we are booking shows in 40 other cities. We need to tell these stories. I think (city officials) just didn’t know about all of that. And this building is an economic driver. It was ranked as one of three top buildings in the world by Pollstar, based on ticket sales and the number of shows that we do.

 The new board president, Evangelina Flores, and I are going to meet with all the city council members to just tell them who we are, the only non-profit in town that’s not asking them for money.

• The resident companies are: San Antonio Symphony, Ballet San Antonio, Opera San Antonio, Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, Children’s Chorus of San Antonio, Classical Music Institute and San Antonio Chamber Choir.