The Oregon Symphony, a crown jewel of the state’s arts community, laid off its orchestra and several staff members Wednesday, taking emergency measures to outlive a sprawling coronavirus pandemic with no end in sight.

The layoffs, a week after Gov. Kate Brown prohibited gatherings of 250 or more, are a grave reminder that even cultural pillars like the Oregon Symphony cannot weather the business interruptions caused by coronavirus. The 76 musicians, 19 staff and two conductors affected will be paid through March 20, said Scott Showalter, president and CEO of the Oregon Symphony. Musicians will continue receiving health benefits, per agreement with the symphony, but staff retain those benefits only until the end of June.

“Yesterday was perhaps the most concerning day of my career,” a shaken Showalter said Thursday. “It hasn’t been a good time as of late.”

Bruce Fife, the president of the American Federation of Musicians Local 99, the union representing the Oregon Symphony’s musicians, said he fears what lies ahead. “The financial consequences of what is taking place are going to upset them very dramatically,” he said. “People don't understand how close to the edge musicians live — even the Oregon Symphony.”

“In a time like this,” Fife added, “I would like to hope that people understand the value of and the importance of music and the arts, in general.”

While the formal disposition of the 97 employees was decided Wednesday, their fates were realized at an earlier meeting between musicians and symphony management. After a frank dialogue, the body — whose season was already suspended through mid-May — then resigned itself to what many felt was a foregone conclusion: The symphony could no longer perform or fully operate. Layoffs, they say, were simply inevitable.

On the morning of March 12, only hours after Brown had announced her order the evening prior, the orchestra gathered in a barren Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall to meet with symphony executives including Showalter, Vice President Steve Wenig and orchestra manager Steve Stratman. The ensemble had been scheduled to rehearse Berio’s “Sinfonia” at that time, but instead they listened, each member separated by two to three seats.

After an extended discussion, during which streaming of performances was considered, both sides agreed that there was simply no way forward without an in-house audience. And the Oregon Symphony, in its final season under music director Carlos Kalmar, who is uncompensated for canceled performances, would stand down. The decision marked a potentially lethal inactive spell for an ensemble that had survived even a nine-year suspension during and after World War II.

Asked to distill the consequences of a protracted shutdown now, Showalter responded with one word: “Dire.”

“We need emergency funds now,” he said. “What we're staring down between now and the end of June is a $5 million loss. That is not something we can recover from.”

Showalter stated as much in a March 16 letter to Brown, seeking funds to head off the devastating revenue shortfall by directly soliciting the state’s chief executive. “We continue to raise money and reduce costs,” Showalter wrote. “Yet all of the Symphony’s good work and goodwill stands on the brink of collapse.” Oregon’s economy, he added, would sustain job losses, as well.

The symphony’s 76 musicians, meanwhile, were left anxious and stressed. As “W2” employees, however, they are eligible for unemployment benefits. And contract arrangements permit them to play and teach privately, which could soften the hard stop in the symphony’s work calendar.

Almost no organization, acknowledged percussionist Niel DePonte, is positioned to cleanly navigate the economic straits imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. “Orchestra management has been very good about being in communication us,” he said. “These are all people who are doing the best they can in very difficult circumstances.”

While understanding, DePonte still regretted the lost income and unfulfilled opportunities for public engagement, a source of significant pride within the symphony. “We have a legacy of community service as an organization that is very important to us,” he said. “Nothing disappoints us more as performing artists than not being able to fulfill our role as community servants.”

Violinist Peter Frajola said musicians “are just praying that we get to come back and play for our audiences again really soon.”

“It's devastating for us to not play,” he said. “It's what we do for a living. It's what we do for funds and what we've been brought up to do since we were kids.

“We want to be there for the community right now,” he added. “We need the community to help us, though, too”

Showalter raised many of the same points in his appeal to Gov. Brown — whose office had yet to respond Friday — casting the Oregon Symphony’s involvement in hospitals, libraries, prisons and shelters as an ameliorative social good. Music, he says, brings benefits that are as crucial as they are hard to quantify: healing, inspiration, joy and unity.

“These are a ‘need to have,’ ” Showalter said, “not a ‘nice to have,’ especially at these times.

“But we can't do that if we can't survive.”

— Nathan Rizzo, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

CLARIFICATION: This post has been updated to clarify compensation and benefits for musicians and staff. The 76 musicians, 19 staff and two conductors affected will be paid through March 20. Musicians will continue receiving health benefits, per agreement with the symphony, but staff retain those benefits only until the end of June.

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.