At the September 16 Rotary Club of San Antonio luncheon, Tobin Center president and CEO Mike Fresher sat with the heads of three resident companies to argue that live performance is part of how this city works — not a sideline.

Chair of the Day Angi Aramburu, senior manager of corporate partnerships at the Tobin, turned the hour over to Kate Rogers, the center's new chief development officer. Beside Fresher were E. Loren Meeker, executive director of OPERA San Antonio; Evin Nicole Eubanks Rose, CEO of Ballet San Antonio; and Paul Montalvo, founder, president, and CEO of The Orchestra San Antonio. Tobin board member Rick Cavender had suggested the joint appearance.

The panel covered three threads: what the building and its companies actually do; how they get first-timers through the door; and why they collaborate instead of competing.

More Than a Hall

Fresher has been at the Tobin since before it opened in 2014. He said the county put up $209 million in bond money, the city contributed the old municipal auditorium and firehouse, and the nonprofit raised about $60 million privately. A ten-year study found $210 million in return on that public investment, he said, plus about $149 million in take-home pay over the decade and 640 full-time-equivalent jobs a year.

A subsidiary, Tobin Entertainment, now promotes shows nationwide — Fresher cited 88 cities in 36 states. Generation NEXT, the education arm, reaches 50,000 children a year on 194 campuses in 15 Texas counties, he said. As districts cut classroom arts, the program's core is teaching teachers how to use the arts for math, science, English, and history.

Getting People In

Access was the shared theme. Ballet San Antonio's Send the Kids to the Ballet, launched in 2024 with partners including Roy Maas Youth Alternatives, the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio, and Haven for Hope, provides free tickets and transportation. The first-year plan was 1,600 seats; demand pushed it to 5,188 children that year, and Eubanks Rose said the running total is now 10,323.

Montalvo, a native San Antonian and former city firefighter, described Ascend, the orchestra's free after-school program begun in 2024 in Title I schools. Professional musicians put instruments in children's hands — often the first in a family — for more than 300 hours a year at no cost. By 2032 he wants 40 to 45 faculty artists teaching 600 to 800 students citywide, still free.

Meeker said OPERA San Antonio, founded as a Tobin resident and now entering its 12th season, stages two grand operas a year and reaches about 30,000 people through productions, community work, and education in more than 50 schools across all ten city districts. The company has stayed in the black all 12 years, she said, because the board will not let programming outrun the budget. Rossini's Cinderella is October 15 and 17. "Nobody dies," she said. "Save that for the spring."

Charlie's Seats, underwritten by Susan Naylor, is the Tobin's umbrella for free or discounted tickets for military members, teachers, first responders, students, and WIC families. People register at tobincenter.org.

One City, One Pit

Meeker said San Antonio's strength is not “Houston-style” oil money; it is people who actually like working together. Opera needs orchestra, dancers, and choruses, and when OPERA San Antonio staged Hansel and Gretel, the other residents showed up, including two not on the panel: the Children's Chorus of San Antonio and the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. Montalvo called that unusual nationwide.

Coming up: Fresher's November 7 benefit with Ryan Bingham is sold out, but concert tickets remain. Montalvo invited the club to the orchestra's November 14 opening at the H-E-B Performance Hall. Eubanks Rose pointed to Dracula in October and The Nutcracker December 4–13, with the orchestra in the pit — the family show, she said, if you have never been to the ballet.

When Rogers asked who had already been to the Tobin, almost every hand went up. The invitation was to go back, and to take someone who hasn't.