Arts & Entertainment Michael Tilson Thomas to Conduct the SF Symphony Again, But For One Night Only for His 80th Birthday Party Beloved and celebrated conductor Michael Tilson Thomas will once again conduct the San Francisco Symphony, but it’s for one night only in April in celebration of his 80th birthday, and he’ll only be conducting two numbers.
Arts & Entertainment SF Symphony Chorus Goes on Strike, Canceling Thursday Night’s Season Opening Performance Ticket holders to Thursday night’s SF Symphony season opening performance of Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ were wrecked to find the performance canceled barely two hours before showtime, as the symphony’s chorus is on strike because their wages have been frozen.
Arts & Entertainment SF Symphony Audience Member Threatened With Ban From Concert Hall for Holding Up Vulgar Sign (in Finnish) This seems to be a first: The San Francisco Symphony is threatening to ban a regular attendee who held up a profane sign at a concert, written in Finnish, to protest the impending departure of musical director Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Arts & Entertainment SF Symphony Chorus Director Refuses Vaccine, Chooses to Resign Instead Grammy award-winning choral director Ragnar Bohlin would rather quit than comply with the SF Symphony’s vaccine mandate, and his Facebook posts are striking a pretty strange note.
Arts & Entertainment With Symphony Pass You Get More Music For Less Attention San Francisco: your plans just got a little more exciting! Enroll in the San Francisco Symphony's Spring Symphony Pass and attend as many concerts as you want for one affordable monthly fee.
Arts & Entertainment Transform Your Halloween This post is brought to you by the San Francisco Symphony. The original silent film Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a thrilling American classic—and with the power of live organ music,
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Los Angeles Opera's James Conlon James Conlon always ranks near the top of best American conductors lists, having conducted every symphonic and opera orchestra of note, and recorded a bazillion albums (and winning two Grammys along the way)
Arts & Entertainment SF Symphony Musicians Wear Dodgers Hats During Labor Protest At City Hall [Update] Several members of the San Francisco Symphony possibly lost sympathy while protesting at San Francisco City Hall on Tuesday. A quartet -- featuring two violins, a viola, and a cello -- played in
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Stéphane Denève with the SF Symphony It's French week at Davies Symphony Hall, with a cheese-eating conductor (Stéph Denève), soloist (Jean-Yves Thibaudet) and composers (Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Roussel and Stravinsky during his Paris years). The orchestra in the pit is
Arts & Entertainment Happy 100th Birthday, San Francisco Symphony As the audience in the classical music hall gets grayer and grayer, the San Francisco Symphony does what it can to stay ahead. But it too gets older too, turning 100 tonight. The
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: SF Symphony Assistant Conductor Donato Cabrera Donato Cabrera is currently the Assistant conductor of the SF Symphony, and the music director of the SF Symphony Youth orchestra. But this month, his main job will be to conduct a good
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Gustavo Dudamel & the L.A. Philharmonic The Dude came to town. Not Jeff Bridges, but Gustavo Dudamel, who shares with him the disheveled long hair. The conductor and music director of the LA Phil, a.k.a. The Savior
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: David Fray The French pianist David Fray is currently performing Beethoven's second piano concerto with the San Frandisco symphony. The series started Wednesday, so you can already read the SF Chronicle's Joshua Kosman's review. Maestro
Arts & Entertainment The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall Despite having one of the best orchestras in the world right here at home, it was a treat to hear the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra in Davies Symphony Hall. The LGO, founded in 1743,
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews SF Symphony Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt Two distinguished visitors come to Davies Symphony Hall this week and the next. First, Herbert Blomstedt will conduct the San Francisco Symphony in a program of Haydn and Beethoven tomorrow through Saturday. Then
SF News MTT & SF Symphony Win Big at Grammys Find more videos like this on San Francisco Symphony Social Network Hey, did you watch the Grammys? Neither did we. Tough Love, Celebrity Rehab, and a most excellent Brothers & Sisters (where Kitty
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews British Composer George Benjamin Are there red states and blue states for classical music? We thought, sure, there's most likely more classical events on the blue coasts than in the red flyover states. But Anne Midgette, in
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Vadim Repin Russian violin superstar Vadim Repin chatted with us from Helsinki, quite appropriately, since he'll perform the violin concerto from Finnish composer Jean Sibelius this week with the San Francisco Symphony. He'll partner with
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Michelle DeYoung The SF Symphony kicks off its Schubert and Berg journey with a mix-and-match of the Viennese composers. Tonight, and repeating through Saturday (the last show in Cupertino), we hear Berg's Seven Early songs,
Arts & Entertainment SF Interviews Piano Sensation Yuja Wang Yuja Wang will dazzle us this week at Davies Symphony Hall, playing the dastardly difficult Prokofiev piano concerto #2 with MTT. Here she plays the concerto's scherzo with the YouTube symphony orchestra. She
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Hilary Hahn We got the chance to phone Hilary, and well, that Tchaikovsky concerto, what's up with it? Actually, I just recorded it, she said. It will be a while before it comes out, but
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Joshua Bell at the SF Symphony SF Symphony guest conductor Fabio Luisi did his best last week to steal the thunder of violin megastar Joshua Bell. He opened the program with a tone poem by Richard Strauss, Don Juan.
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Orli Shaham Who is Orli Shaham, you ask? Orli Shaham is the sublime pianist who'll play Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini with the SF Symphony at Stern Grove this Sunday. Rachmaninoff, Paganini: you
Arts & Entertainment Brahms' ein deutsches Requiem And yet, we went, twice, and had a great time. We saw MTT lead a muscular piano concerto No. 2 with Leif-Ove Andsnes, a pianist who'd keep his cool in a pressure cooker.
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Leif-Ove Andsnes In fact, we forced him to admit it; and guess what? He does! That, and more after the jump.
