SAN FRANCISCO, CA— San Francisco Symphony Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas is reducing his upcoming conducting schedule with the Orchestra and has withdrawn from his upcoming January 18–20 and February 23–25 programs in order to focus on his health.

MTT will remain on the January 25-27 program, conducting the SF Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra will no longer be performed on this program so MTT can focus his energies on the Mahler. These concerts mark MTT’s final subscription series conducting the San Francisco Symphony. Further information about the concerts will be announced in early January.

Dalia Stasevska will conduct the San Francisco Symphony January 18–20. The first half of the program—Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Seong-Jin Cho—remains the same. Following intermission, Stasevska will conduct Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, which replaces Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

The February 23–25 program will be conducted by SF Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The new program will feature Julia Fischer in Brahms’s Violin Concerto in place of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven’s Romance No. 1 in G major. Fischer and Salonen recently performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Nobel Prize Concert earlier this month. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella will remain on the program, featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Nicholas Phan, and baritone Luca Pisaroni. Mozart’s Overture from Le nozze di Figaro, K.492 will also no longer be performed.

Patrons who already purchased tickets for the January 18–20 and February 23–25 programs do not need to do anything; tickets and seat location will be honored. For assistance with tickets, patrons can contact the Box Office by phone at 415.864.6000, email at [email protected], or in person at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco.

[To view or download the full PDF version of this press release, click DOWNLOAD A PDF]