MTT, Yuja, Sibelius, & Brahms

Overview

Due to the COVID-19 situation, we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the 2019–20 season, including Summer with the Symphony. This cancellation includes most concerts that were previously announced as postponed.

The San Francisco Symphony welcomes the return of piano superstar Yuja Wang, the dazzling virtuoso who pours ferocious technique into Brahms' breakout piece, the Piano Concerto No. 1. Brahms was 24 and an unknown when he presented his First Concerto and was hissed off the stage in 1859. That Leipzig audience couldn’t yet comprehend the young genius who would soon be counted among Germany’s greatest composers. By contrast, Jean Sibelius was approaching the half-century mark when the Finnish government honored him with a national holiday. In a show of vitality and vigor, Sibelius crafted an explosive torrent of energy in his Fifth Symphony, and conducted the world premiere on his 50th birthday in 1915.

CONCERT EXTRAS
Inside Music: an informative talk by Scott Foglesong, begins one hour prior to concerts. Free to ticketholders. Learn More.

Artists

Michael Tilson Thomas

Conductor

Yuja Wang

Piano

San Francisco Symphony

Program

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 5

Johannes Brahms

Piano Concerto No. 1

The May 16th concert is sponsored by Zenni

MTT, Yuja, Sibelius, & Brahms

Conductor

Michael Tilson Thomas is the Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and cofounder and artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony. He is a 12-time Grammy Award winner and has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

Born in Los Angeles, he studied conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and as a young musician worked with artists including Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. In his mid-20s, he became assistant conductor—and later principal guest conductor—of the Boston Symphony. He subsequently served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and principal conductor of the London Symphony.

In 1987 he cofounded the New World Symphony, a postgraduate orchestral academy in Miami Beach dedicated to preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music. He has worked with more than 1,200 NWS fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers.

MTT became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growht and heightened international recognition for the orchestra. He led the Symphony in championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters, and as Music Director Laureate, he has returned to conduct the orchestra each season.

His discography includes more than 120 recordings, and his television work includes series for the BBC and PBS, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and numerous televised performances. “Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is” aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been an active composer, with major works including From the Diary of Anne Frank, premiered with narrator Audrey Hepburn, and Meditations on Rilke. Both appear on SFS Media’s Grammy Award-winning recording of his music. In 2023, Yuja Wang released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon which included his You Come Here Often?
He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, a member of the American Academies of Arts and Sciences and Arts and Letters, a National Medal of Arts recipient, and a 2019 Kennedy Center honoree.

Three major recording projects were released in 2024 in celebration of his 80th birthday: Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas on Pentatone; The Complete Columbia, CBS, and RCA Recordings on Sony Classical; and Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings on DG Eloquence.