San Francisco Symphony June 2025 Programming

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—In June, Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen leads his final concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, closing out the 2024-25 Orchestral Series season with two programs that include the world premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Rewilding, Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7, Richard Strauss’s Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. The June programming lineup also features a duo recital by cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, and a Shenson Spotlight Series recital by double bassist Xavier Foley. The month also includes performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem and works by Gordon Getty, concerts featuring music by David Bowie reimagined for orchestra, a chamber music concert at Davies Symphony Hall, and a free Community Chamber Concert at the SF Public Library’s Main Branch

Orchestral Series
June 6–8: Salonen Conducts Sibelius 7
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the San Francisco Symphony in the world premiere of Rewilding, a new work by composer Gabriella Smith inspired by her work in ecological restoration. “Rewilding” is a form of ecological restoration that turns areas transformed by humans back into functioning natural ecosystems. “Throughout my life, I’ve worked on many different rewilding projects around the world, the most recent being on a former airplane runway in Seattle,” said Smith. “There are so many beneficial environmental results of rewilding, but the one that keeps me coming back is pleasure: the pleasure of getting my hands in the dirt, of hearing northern flickers and Bewick’s wrens, of biking to and from the site (another climate solution that consistently brings me joy), and the pleasure of being part of something bigger.” The program also features Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7, the composer’s final symphony, as well as two of Richard Strauss’s tone poems—Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. 

June 12–14: Salonen Conducts Mahler 2
Salonen’s tenure as Music Director culminates June 12–14 as he conducts the San Francisco Symphony, Chorus, and vocal soloists—including soprano Heidi Stober and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke—in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, a realization of the composer’s views on universal themes of life, death, and resurrection. Known as the Resurrection Symphony, the work’s finale features Mahler’s own text: “Rise again…What you have conquered, will bear you to God!”

Great Performers Series
June 1: Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason Duo Recital
The 2024–25 Great Performers Series closes with a duo recital featuring cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason performing Gabriel Fauré’s Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Tor Mordôn by Natalie Klouda, Felix Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat major, and Francis Poulenc’s Cello Sonata. The sibling musicians previously performed together at Davies Symphony Hall in 2022.

Shenson Spotlight Series
June 4: Xavier Foley
Double bassist Xavier Foley performs a recital of nine original works and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 5 in C minor. Foley is a first prize winner of the 2016 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, winner of the 2014 Sphinx Competition, and a 2018 Recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has toured extensively with the Sphinx Virtuosi, playing his original concerto “Galaxy” Concertante for two double basses commissioned by Sphinx Virtuosi, New World Symphony, and Carnegie Hall.

Special Events
June 20 & 22: Verdi Requiem & Gordon Getty
Conducted by James Gaffigan and featuring the SF Symphony and Chorus, soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, tenor Mario Chang, and bass Morris Robinson, Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem is a dramatic and deeply-felt setting of the Catholic funeral mass. The program opens with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, K.618, a short choral piece written mere months before the composer’s death.

These concerts also feature three short works for chorus and orchestra by Gordon Getty, noted composer and longtime friend of the Symphony: the world premiere of St. Christopher; the concert premiere of the Intermezzo from Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Getty’s 2021 opera based on James Hilton’s classic novella; and the first San Francisco Symphony performances of The Old Man in the Snow, featuring a poem by Getty.

June 26–27: BLACKSTAR Symphony: The Music of David Bowie
The San Francisco Symphony presents a concert celebrating David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, created in collaboration with Blackstar Artistic Director Donny McCaslin. The program—conducted by multi-Grammy Award-winner and one of Blackstar’s orchestrators, Vince Mendoza—includes the album in its entirety plus some of Bowie’s greatest hits, including “Space Oddity,” “Life on Mars,” “Heroes,” and more. Also an acclaimed saxophonist, McCaslin performs live onstage alongside his jazz quartet—the same ensemble that recorded the Blackstar album. Joining them are Bowie’s longtime bandmate Gail Ann Dorsey, vocalist David Poe, and special guest artist John Cameron Mitchell (best known for his starring role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch).

Chamber Series
June 15: Chamber Music at Davies Symphony Hall
In this chamber music concert, San Francisco Symphony musicians perform Anton Arensky’s Cello Quartet, Johannes Brahms’ String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat major, Aleksey Igudesman’s Latin Suite for Two Violas, and Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte.

Community Chamber Concert Series
June 21: San Francisco Public Library Main 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 June 21 at 3:00pm at the San Francisco Public Library’s Main Branch, San Francisco Symphony musicians Amos Yang (Assistant Principal Cello, Urbanek Chair) and Charles Chandler (bass) along with pianist John Wilson perform a Community Chamber Concert featuring classical selections from a range of composers and engage in a Q&A with the audience. The concert is a celebration of Make Music Day, which launched in 1982 in France as the Fête de la Musique and is now held on June 21 in more than 1,000 cities in 120 countries. All Community Chamber Concerts are free and open to the public. See the full list of upcoming concerts. 

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