Stern Grove 

Definitely a first-class organization, the San Francisco Symphony's season runs from September through June, with summer pops concerts in July.

     Historical Overview

In San Francisco, music has always been a need, not a luxury. Even in the wake of the 1906 earthquake, establishment of a permanent orchestra was high on the civic agenda, and in December 1911 the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) gave its first concert. Almost immediately, the Symphony revitalized San Francisco's cultural life with programs that offered a kaleidoscope of classics and new music. In the Great Depression, when economic disaster imperiled the Symphony's existence, the people of San Francisco confirmed the spirit that had given birth to the Orchestra, endorsing a bond measure to ensure that the music would go on.

The Orchestra grew in stature and acclaim under such distinguished music directors as Henry Hadley, among the foremost American composers of his era; Alfred Hertz, who had led the American premieres of Parsifal, Salome, and Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera; the legendary Pierre Monteux, who introduced the world to Le Sacre du Printemps and Petrushka; Enrique Jordá; Josef Krips; Seiji Ozawa; Edo de Waart; and Herbert Blomstedt -- who, after a decade-long tenure that began in 1985, continues as Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony. In September 1995, Michael Tilson Thomas assumed his post as the SFS's eleventh Music Director. Together, he and the San Francisco Symphony have entered into a partnership that will extend into the next century. Maestro Tilson Thomas has had a strong relationship with the SFS that goes back to 1974, when he first conducted the Orchestra in Mahler's Symphony No. 9. One of the world's most prominent musicians, he is also among a handful of American conductors to have achieved leadership of one of this country's major orchestras.

In recognition of this artistic collaboration, Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony signed an exclusive five-year, fifteen-disc contract with BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal. Their first recording together, a live concert recording of scenes from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance; the disc was released in February 1996 and immediately debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Classical Chart. Other MTT/SFS RCA Victor Red Seal releases are Aaron Copland – The Modernist (featuring Symphonic Ode, Short Symphony, Orchestral Variations, and the Piano Concerto with Garrick Ohlsson); a live concert recording of Mahler's Das klagende Lied; Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, coupled with the Chorus of the Shades and Fantasia on Shakespeare's "Tempest" from Lélio; a two-cd set George Gershwin – The 100th Birthday Celebration released in September 1998 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's birth; and in April 1999 RCA Victor Red Seal released a three-disc Stravinsky recording featuring Le Sacre du Printemps, The Firebird and Perséphone, which debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Classical Chart.

The San Francisco Symphony's recordings under Herbert Blomstedt for the London/Decca label have won some of the world's most prestigious recording awards, including the United States's Grammy Award (Orff's Carmina burana and Brahms's A German Requiem/Best Choral Recordings, and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra/Best Classical Engineered Recording); France's Grand Prix du Disque and Belgium's Caecilia Prize (Nielsen Symphonies nos. 4 and 5); Britain's Gramophone Award (Nielsen Symphonies nos. 2 and 3/Best Orchestral Recording); Japan's Record Academy Award (Grieg's Peer Gynt); and Germany's Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for their recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, which also garnered a Best Classical Album Grammy nomination.

The SFS's ambitious touring program initiated during the Blomstedt years -- five trips to Europe, including a stunning debut at the 1990 Salzburg Festival, three Asian tours, and performances throughout California and the East Coast, continue under the leadership of Michael Tilson Thomas. In March 1996, Tilson Thomas led the Orchestra on their first national tour together, and they embark on their fourth national tour in February 2000 with pianist Arcadi Volodos, performing concerts in New York, Newark, Washington D.C., Boston, Hartford, Chicago, Champaign, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Chico. The Orchestra's 1998 national tour commemorated the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's birth and included Carnegie Hall's season-opening concert, broadcast on PBS's Great Performances. Frederica von Stade, Audra McDonald, and Brian Stokes Mitchell joined the Orchestra as soloists. In November 1996, Tilson Thomas and the SFS made their first appearances together in New York and Europe with a three-week concert tour which received universal critical acclaim. The tour featured violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (who performed the U.S. premiere of Penderecki's Violin Concerto No. 2 in Carnegie Hall) and was highlighted by an American work on nearly every program. In October 1997, the Orchestra and Tilson Thomas toured Japan and Hong Kong together for the first time with violinist Kyoko Takezawa. In January and February 1999, MTT and the SFS returned to Europe for a four-week European tour with concerts in Dublin, London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, Hannover, Frankfurt, and Vienna, with guests soprano Dawn Upshaw and violinist Gil Shaham

. Some of the most important conductors of our time have been guests on the San Francisco Symphony podium, among them Bruno Walter, Leopold Stowkowski, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, and Sir Georg Solti; and the list of composers who have led the Orchestra is a who's who of twentieth-century music, including Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Aaron Copland, and John Adams. In recent years the SFS has been honored eight times by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for adventuresome programming of new music, in addition to recognizing Tilson Thomas and the SFS with the 1997 ASCAP John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music. In 1979, the appointment of John Adams as New Music Advisor became a model for a composer-in-residence program since adopted by major orchestras across the country (Adams served as Composer-in-Residence until 1985, Charles Wuorinen held the post from 1985 until 1989, and George Perle from 1989 until 1991).

In 1980, the Orchestra moved into the newly built Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, which in 1992 underwent a renovation that has given its acoustics brilliant depth and presence. 1980 also saw the founding of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, considered one of the finest youth orchestras in the world and winner in 1985 of the world's highest honor for a young musicians' ensemble, the City of Vienna Prize. In 1995, the SFS Youth Orchestra, led by their Music Director/SFS Associate Conductor Alasdair Neale, released a critically-acclaimed CD of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, and completed a successful tour of some of Europe's major concert halls including the Gewandhaus of Leipzig and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw. A live recording of the Concertgebouw concert was also released to rave reviews. In the summer of 1998, the SFS Youth Orchestra completed their fourth European Tour (and fifth international tour) and released its fourth disc, a recording of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, recorded live in Prague. The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, established in 1973 and led by Chorus Director Vance George since 1983, celebrated its 25th anniversary during the 1997-98 season; the ensemble has been heard around the world not only on award-winning SFS recordings but also on the soundtracks of the films Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Godfather III.

The San Francisco Symphony knows that music lovers of tomorrow are molded today. To fill the gap left by cuts in school music programs, the Symphony began the innovative Adventures in Music (AIM) educational program for the city's schoolchildren. Established in 1988, AIM is a comprehensive music education program that introduces children to music from around the world through in-school ensemble performances, program curricula, study guides, student journals, and, in some schools, an interactive computer program, culminating in a specially designed San Francisco Symphony concert in Davies Symphony Hall. Annually touching the lives of more than 13,000 San Francisco students from every public elementary school in addition to private and parochial schools, AIM reaches children from all cultural and economic backgrounds. In addition, students throughout the Bay Area hear the San Francisco Symphony in its Concerts for Kids program, begun in 1923.

The San Francisco Symphony's dedication to community is as important a priority today as it was in 1911. In October 1992, Davies Symphony Hall was the site of a free Open House that attracted more than 9,000 people of all cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds to a program of music reflecting the diversity of San Francisco itself. In October 1989, in a gesture that harkened back to the Symphony's beginnings, Herbert Blomstedt and the Orchestra and Chorus, together with singers from the San Francisco Opera, helped initiate civic healing five days after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to an audience of more than 20,000 in Golden Gate Park. And as part of the Opening Week festivities celebrating Michael Tilson Thomas's inaugural SFS season, the Maestro led the Orchestra in a free outdoor concert attended by nearly 11,000 in downtown San Francisco. Through its radio broadcasts, the first in America to feature symphonic music when they began in 1926, the San Francisco Symphony is heard across the country, confirming an artistic vitality whose impact extends throughout American musical life.

Call the SFS Box Office at (415) 864-6000.
For Flint Center tickets, call (800) 696-9689 (from 408 area code only).

Hours:
Monday-Friday, 10am to 6pm
Saturday, noon to 6pm


VISA and MasterCard accepted.

There is a $5.00 handling fee for phone orders.

San Francisco Blues Festival 
www.sfblues.com/

The San Francisco Blues Festival is the longest continuously running blues festival in the United States. Founded in 1973 by Tom Mazzolini, on September 23-24, 2000, the San Francisco Blues Festival celebrates its 28th anniversary at the Great Meadow, Fort Mason, located in the City's Marina District. The Great Meadow is one of the finest sites in San Francisco, with spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, passing ships and sailboats, and the surrounding hills of the City and Marin County

Since its beginnings in 1973, the SFBF has featured some of the biggest names in the blues, including: B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Albert King, Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Etta James, Taj Majal, Keb' Mo', the Staples, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Gatemouth Brown and Otis Rush and Dr. John, to name a few.