The San Francisco Symphony maintains a leading position among American orchestras through programming that emphasizes innovation and features works by domestic composers while seeking to broaden the reach of symphonic performance. Longtime music director Michael Tilson Thomas guided the ensemble to international stature in both live presentations and recorded output, a distinction confirmed in 2021 by an SFS Media release devoted to orchestral scores of Alban Berg.
The orchestra traces its origin to the San Francisco Musical Association, formed in 1908; its inaugural concert occurred three years later. Henry Hadley and Alfred Hertz served among the first conductors. Financial pressures forced cancellation of the 1934 season, prompting voters to approve a 1935 charter amendment that secured ongoing municipal support. Pierre Monteux assumed the music directorship that same year, elevating the group’s profile through an initial cross-country tour and more than forty RCA sessions. Subsequent podium leadership included Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, and Herbert Blomstedt. During de Waart’s tenure the orchestra relocated in 1980 from the War Memorial Opera House—its home since 1932—to Louise M. Davis Symphony Hall, simultaneously extending the season to fifty-two weeks and introducing the New and Unusual Music Series curated by composer-in-residence John Adams, who held that post from 1979 to 1985.
Michael Tilson Thomas took the podium in 1995 and further elevated the ensemble’s standing via local concerts, domestic and overseas tours, broadcasts, and an expanded discography. More than 220 events each year now draw nearly 600,000 listeners in San Francisco and on the road. The orchestra established its own SFS Media imprint in 2001, under which it documented every Mahler symphony, including vocal and choral components. While its catalog spans multiple eras, emphasis has remained on Romantic and late-Romantic repertoire, Russian works, and American music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Educational outreach forms a central priority. In 2006 Tilson Thomas and the orchestra introduced Keeping Score, a PBS television and multimedia initiative that ran for three seasons nationwide. Additional activities encompass complimentary Bay Area community performances, coaching for student and amateur players, and Adventures in Music, which serves every first- through fifth-grade pupil in the San Francisco Unified School District. Landmark projects under Tilson Thomas featured a sustained local visibility campaign, extensive touring across the United States, Europe, and Asia—including a first visit to China—televised BBC Proms appearances, and the opening of Carnegie Hall’s 2008–2009 season with A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein, later aired on PBS Great Performances and issued on DVD. The ensemble has also mounted semi-staged and multimedia productions such as Britten’s Peter Grimes and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada.
Tilson Thomas concluded his music directorship in 2020, assuming the title of music director laureate, at which point Esa-Pekka Salonen assumed leadership. Recording accolades include the Grand Prix du Disque, a Gramophone Award, and multiple Grammy Awards, among them the 2021 prize for From the Diary of Anne Frank and Meditations on Rilke. That year also saw release of a Berg program comprising the Violin Concerto, Seven Early Songs, and Three Pieces for Orchestra under Tilson Thomas.
