January 8, 2026

San Francisco Symphony Announces June 5 & 6 Program Featuring Conductor Elim Chan and Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke

Elim Chan conducts a program of works inspired by literature, love, and nature, including Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été featuring Cooke as soloist, Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde and Debussy’s La Mer

Tickets are on sale now at sfsymphony.org

Download a PDF of this Press Release

By Simon Pauly

Elim Chan

By Stephanie Girard

Sasha Cooke

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The San Francisco Symphony announces two newly-added performances June 5 & 6 featuring conductor Elim Chan leading the Orchestra in a program of works deeply inspired by literature, love, and nature.

The program includes the Overture to Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, inspired by Shakespeare’s play and written by the composer at the age of 17. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke joins Chan and the Orchestra for Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, a setting of six poems by Berlioz’s friend and neighbor Théophile Gautier. Following intermission, Chan leads the Orchestra in the orchestral version of Richard Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from the opera Tristan und Isolde, followed by Claude Debussy’s La Mer, an impressionistic depiction of the ocean.

[To view or download the full PDF version of this press release with a calendar listing, click on DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THIS PRESS RELEASE]