San Francisco Symphony January 2026 Programming

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The San Francisco Symphony’s January programming lineup features three Orchestral Series programs led by guest conductors Edward Gardner, John Storgårds, and Jaap van Zweden and a Shenson Spotlight Series debut recital with pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko. The month also includes live-to-picture film series performances of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, chamber music concerts at the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor and the SF Public Library Bernal Heights and Western Addition branches, and the 10th annual Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival.

Orchestral Series
January 15–17: Gardner Conducts The Planets
Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, leads the SF Symphony in the first SF Symphony performances of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s energetic Overture from The Wasps, a satirical play by Aristophanes. Randall Goosby joins Gardner and the Orchestra to perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Bruch dedicated the work to violinist Joseph Joachim, who not only helped revise it, but also performed the premiere of the concerto in 1868. Gardner also leads the Orchestra in Gustav Holst’s The Planets, an iconic representation of our solar system and the astrological significance of each planet. In the last movement, Gardner and the Orchestra are joined by the SF Symphony Chorus.   

January 22–24: Beethoven 5 & Seong-Jin Cho
John Storgårds, Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, makes his Orchestral Series debut conducting the United States premiere of Outi Tarkiainen’s The Rapids of Life, which Tarkiainen describes as “a work about that paramount moment, about a female’s instinctive birth-giving and a little child of nature who opens his eyes for the first time.” The program also features pianist Seong-Jin Cho and Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye as soloists in Dmitri Shostakovich’s lively Piano Concerto No. 1, which was originally conceived as a trumpet concerto. Storgårds closes the program with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, known for its heroic character and familiar opening motive.

“I am honored and grateful to be performing Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 with Seong-Jin Cho,” said Inouye. “Shostakovich had confessed to a student of his that the work was originally conceived as a concerto for trumpet and orchestra, but it ultimately became a piano concerto with a solo trumpet part. The piano concerto's outer movements contain a lightness and joy that are seldom found in his orchestral compositions. The inner movements provide a deep contrast that is hauntingly beautiful and profoundly lyrical. It is a unique portrait of Shostakovich that I'm so thrilled that we’ll be able to perform!”

January 29–31: Jaap van Zweden & Emanuel Ax
Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic and Music Director Designate of Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, returns to the SF Symphony to conduct Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, an epic tribute to Richard Wagner that includes a contrabass tuba and four Wagner tubas. The program also includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major with Emanuel Ax, one of Mozart’s noblest and most imposing conceptions.

Shenson Spotlight Series
January 21: Jaeden Izik-Dzurko
Pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko kicks off the Shenson Spotlight Series with a solo recital including Alexander Scriabin's Fantasy in B minor, Opus 28; César Franck’s Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue; and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Ten Preludes, Opus 23. The Shenson Spotlight Series, now in its fifth season, features ascendant artists in their Davies Symphony Hall debuts. Izik-Dzurko is a current recipient of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and the 2024 winner of the Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition. In the 2025–26 season, he gives debut performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus (Mendelssohn-Saal), Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and more. 

Film Series
January 9–10: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl—Film with Live Orchestra
Julian Pellicano conducts Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in Concert Live to Film with the San Francisco Symphony. Featuring an energetic score by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, the fantasy swashbuckler film follows pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he attempts to recover his stolen ship, the Black Pearl, and rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), aided by Elizabeth’s childhood friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) who bears a secret connection to the curse of the Black Pearl.

Chamber Music Concerts
January 13 & 25: Free Concerts at San Francisco Public Library Bernal Heights Branch and Western Addition Branch
The San Francisco Symphony's free Community Chamber Concert series features small ensembles from the Symphony performing at community spaces across San Francisco. These concerts are an opportunity for audiences to get to know SF Symphony musicians and see them perform in an intimate setting. On January 13 at 5:30pm at the San Francisco Public Library’s Bernal Heights Branch, Assistant Principal Violin Jessie Fellows (Audrey Avis Aasen-Hull Chair), Assistant Principal Viola Katie Kadarauch, and Associate Principal Cello Anne Richardson (Peter & Jacqueline Hoefer Chair) perform a Community Chamber Concert and engage in a Q&A with the audience. On January 25 at 2:00pm at the San Francisco Public Library’s Western Addition Branch, First Violin Yvette Kraft (Isaac Stern Chair), Second Violin Kingston Ho, Viola Leonid Plashinov-Johnson perform a Community Chamber Concert and engage in a Q&A with the audience. All Community Chamber Concerts are free and open to the public. 

January 18: Chamber Music at Gunn Theater at Legion of Honor
This chamber music program at the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor features SF Symphony Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik (Naoum Blinder Chair), former Symphony cellist Peter Wyrick, and guest pianist Anton Nel performing Franz Schubert’s Notturno in E-flat major, D.897; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B-flat major, K.378; and Johannes Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Opus 8.

San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
January 18: Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival
Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu and the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra host the 10th Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival (BAYOF) at Davies Symphony Hall on January 18. Conceived in 2009, the biennial festival showcases some of the Bay Area’s most talented youth orchestral ensembles, including the California Youth Symphony, Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Young People's Symphony Orchestra. Each orchestra takes turns performing onstage, and the concert concludes with a performance by the Festival Orchestra, comprised of selected musicians from all five ensembles. The program includes Giuseppe Verdi’s Overture to Nabucco, Paul Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Johannes Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, the first movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, Gabriela Lena Frank’s Pinkillo Serrano from Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra, the final movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, and the final movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. KPIX television anchor emerita Wendy Tokuda serves as master of ceremonies at the concert. Proceeds from the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival are donated to charitable organizations that support homeless and underserved youth in each orchestra’s local community.   

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