SFS Fact Sheet

SFS Fact Sheet

SFS Fact Sheet

• Founded in 1911, the SFS now has a budget of $53.7 million and is widely considered to be among the country’s most artistically adventurous and financially stable arts institutions
• Nearly 600,000 people hear 230 concerts and presentations of the SFS each year
• Nearly 60,000 people hear the SFS at no cost each season.
• More than 11,000 individual donors from throughout the region join businesses and foundations in supporting the SFS.
• Throughout its history, the SFS has presented more than 200 world premieres, commissioned more than 100 new works, and received twelve awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers for adventurous programming and/or commitment to American music.
• The SFS acts as a cultural ambassador for the Bay Area through its more than 30 national and international concert tours, nearly 150 recordings, and through its radio broadcasts, heard on more than 300 stations throughout the U.S. and Europe.
• Thousands of free tickets to SFS events are provided to a wide variety of groups each season. Ticket Reach distributes more than 2,000 complimentary tickets each year through charities such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Chinatown Youth Center. Students at the School of the Arts, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Community Music Center, and high school students in the Art and Film program are also provided free tickets to attend Symphony events.
• The low-priced All San Francisco Concert, held for 25 years, welcomes more than 100 local social service and neighborhood organizations.
• The SFS has a history of education programs dating to 1919. Adventures in Music (AIM) is provided by the SFS at no cost to the schools and reaches all SFSUD students in grades one through five. AIM also sustains a committed partnership with 15 private and parochial schools. The program serves 25,000 students annually. Concerts for Kids serves nearly 30,000 Bay Area school children each season.
• In fall 2006, the SFS launched the national Keeping Score PBS television series and multimedia project. Keeping Score is the San Francisco Symphony’s five-year program designed to make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds through a national PBS television series debuting in November 2006, an interactive web site to explore and learn about music, a national radio series hosted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, documentary and live performance DVDs, and an education program for K-12 schools to further teaching through the arts by integrating classical music into core subjects.
• SFSkids.com, launched in March 2002, teaches children and families about music and allows them to listen to the SFS online. The website has had more than 2.5 million visits.
• Twenty-five years ago, the SFS founded the SFS Youth Orchestra, now led by Benjamin Shwartz. The young musicians perform for annual audiences of more than 10,000. MTT and SFS musicians coach these young players, and master classes are offered by renowned visiting guest artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, David Robertson, and Midori.
• The SFS Chorus has nearly 200 singers and was founded over 30 years ago. The SFS is one of only a handful of major orchestras in the United States with its own chorus.
• The SFS Volunteer Council is an organization of approximately 1,500 committed volunteers, whose purpose is to support the SFS in areas of fundraising, audience development, and community outreach.
• Davies Symphony Hall, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005, was built at a cost of $27.5 million. Named for Louise M. Davies, the largest individual contributor to the building, DSH is owned by the City of San Francisco, which contributed $10 million toward its construction. DSH underwent a successful $10 million acoustic renovation in 1992.