Open rehearsals are endowed by a bequest from The Estate of Katharine Hanrahan.
Lead support for this concert series is provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for New Works of Music.
Open Rehearsal
Beethoven 5 & Seong-Jin Cho
January 22, 2026
Overview
Finnish conductor John Storgårds makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with an exhilarating program centered on Beethoven’s monumental Fifth Symphony. Beethoven’s subject wasn’t the individual but the human condition, the fate we heroically create for ourselves, one choice at a time. Has any transition from C minor to C major ever felt more blissful, more fully earned? Less familiar but equally powerful is Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen’s visceral and life-affirming The Rapids of Life, heard in its US premiere. Pianist Seong-Jin Cho and SF Symphony Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye perform Shostakovich’s sprightly and intelligent Piano Concerto No. 1, an underperformed gem that spans the silly and the sublime. Initially conceived as a trumpet concerto, the work still gives that instrument plenty of love: this is a double concerto in all but name.Concert Extras
A preconcert talk will be presented from the stage one hour before the concert. Free to all ticketholders.
Program
Outi
Tarkiainen
The Rapids of Life
United States Premiere
Dmitri
Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 1
Ludwig van
Beethoven
Symphony No. 5
Sponsors
John Storgårds, conductor
San Francisco Symphony
Mark Inouye
Trumpet
Mark Inouye joined the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Trumpet in 1999 and holds the William G. Irwin Charity Foundation Chair. He previously held principal trumpet positions with the Houston Symphony and Charleston Symphony and performed with the New York Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic. He has toured the United States with Toccatas and Flourishes, the nationally acclaimed organ and trumpet duo, and was a member of the Empire Brass Quintet.
With the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Inouye has been a featured soloist in Aaron Copland’s Quiet City, Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, J.S. Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor with Jean-Yves Thibaudet. In 2015, he was soloist and leader for a summer program of jazz and classical favorites. He has also made solo appearances with the New World Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Tanglewood Wind Ensemble. As a composer, his works Tribute to Beaky, Find the Cheese, and The Bull Behind the Horns–A Jazz Suite, have all been performed on the SF Symphony chamber music series.
Equally at home in classical music and jazz, Mr. Inouye was a founding member of the Juilliard Jazz Sextet at Lincoln Center and a guest performer at the Hollywood Bowl in the Playboy Jazz Festival. He appeared as soloist in Wynton Marsalis’s video Marsalis on Music, on a Disney Channel production featuring The Who at Carnegie Hall, and released his own debut jazz album, The Trumpet & The Bull.
Mr. Inouye graduated from the Juilliard School, where he transferred after two years as a civil engineering major at University of California, Davis
With the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Inouye has been a featured soloist in Aaron Copland’s Quiet City, Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, J.S. Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor with Jean-Yves Thibaudet. In 2015, he was soloist and leader for a summer program of jazz and classical favorites. He has also made solo appearances with the New World Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Tanglewood Wind Ensemble. As a composer, his works Tribute to Beaky, Find the Cheese, and The Bull Behind the Horns–A Jazz Suite, have all been performed on the SF Symphony chamber music series.
Equally at home in classical music and jazz, Mr. Inouye was a founding member of the Juilliard Jazz Sextet at Lincoln Center and a guest performer at the Hollywood Bowl in the Playboy Jazz Festival. He appeared as soloist in Wynton Marsalis’s video Marsalis on Music, on a Disney Channel production featuring The Who at Carnegie Hall, and released his own debut jazz album, The Trumpet & The Bull.
Mr. Inouye graduated from the Juilliard School, where he transferred after two years as a civil engineering major at University of California, Davis
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