San Francisco Symphony

In the wake of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco’s civic leaders set about creating a permanent orchestra in the music-loving city. In December 1911, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) gave its first concerts, rekindling the city’s cultural life. […]

The orchestra grew in stature and acclaim under a succession of distinguished music directors. Henry Hadley was followed by Alfred Hertz, who had led the American premieres of Parsifal, Salome, and Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera. Then came […] the legendary Pierre Monteux, who had introduced the world to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps and Petrushka […]. Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) became Music Director in 1995. Under his leadership, the orchestra has reached new artistic heights and new audiences.


The SFS has won some of the world’s most prestigious recording awards, including Japan’s Record Academy Award, France’s Grand Prix du Disque, Britain’s Gramophone Award, and a bundle of Grammy® awards. […]


[…] The composers who have led the orchestra comprise a who’s who of modern and contemporary music: Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Aaron Copland, and John Adams. For its adventurous programming, the Symphony has been honored twelve times by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. […]

In October 1989, in a gesture harkening back to the Symphony’s beginnings, Herbert Blomstedt and the SFS Orchestra and Chorus helped San Francisco begin to heal five days after the destructive Loma Prieta earthquake, playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to an audience of more than 20,000 in Golden Gate Park. In September 2011, to celebrate its 100thanniversary, the Symphony, led by MTT and joined by pianist Lang Lang, played a free, sun-drenched concert in the city’s Civic Center Plaza that drew 10,000 people. […]
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