Presenting Sponsor of The Great Performers Series
This concert is generously sponsored by Andy and Teri Goodman.
Great Performers Series
Yuja Wang & Mahler Chamber Orchestra
April 26, 2026
Overview
Yuja Wang does double duty as pianist and director in a program of 20th-century favorites by Prokofiev with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.Artists
Piano and Director
Concertmaster and Leader
Program
Sergei
Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 2
Sergei
Prokofiev
Symphony No. 1, Classical
Alexandre
Tansman
Suite for Piano and Orchestra
(Jazz Suite)
(Jazz Suite)
Sponsors
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Matthew Truscott
Concertmaster and leader
Concertmaster and leader
Yuja Wang
Piano and Director
Yuja Wang is celebrated for her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty, and captivating stage presence. She has performed with the world’s most venerated conductors, musicians, and ensembles, and is renowned not only for her virtuosity, but her spontaneous and lively performances.
Recent highlights include a European and South American play-direct tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, where she has been artist in residence, as well as her return to the United States, where she is in residence with the New York Philharmonic. Last September, she performed at the SF Symphony’s Opening Gala, and then opened Carnegie Hall’s season the following month.
Her skill and charisma were demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including all four of his concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. In 2022, she gave the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony.
Wang was born into a musical family and began studying the piano at the age of six. She received advanced training in Canada and at the Curtis Institute of Music with Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and albums. Her recordings have garnered multiple awards, including five Grammy nominations and her first Grammy win for Best Classical Instrumental Solo with her 2023 release The American Project. For this she has also won an Opus Klassik award in the concerto category.
As a chamber musician, Wang has developed long-lasting partnerships with several leading artists. She recently embarked on an international duo recital tour with pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Wang made her San Francisco Symphony debut in February 2006 and became a Shenson Young Artist later that year. She returns to the Great Performers Series for a recital next year (April 18, 2027).
Recent highlights include a European and South American play-direct tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, where she has been artist in residence, as well as her return to the United States, where she is in residence with the New York Philharmonic. Last September, she performed at the SF Symphony’s Opening Gala, and then opened Carnegie Hall’s season the following month.
Her skill and charisma were demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including all four of his concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. In 2022, she gave the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony.
Wang was born into a musical family and began studying the piano at the age of six. She received advanced training in Canada and at the Curtis Institute of Music with Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and albums. Her recordings have garnered multiple awards, including five Grammy nominations and her first Grammy win for Best Classical Instrumental Solo with her 2023 release The American Project. For this she has also won an Opus Klassik award in the concerto category.
As a chamber musician, Wang has developed long-lasting partnerships with several leading artists. She recently embarked on an international duo recital tour with pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Wang made her San Francisco Symphony debut in February 2006 and became a Shenson Young Artist later that year. She returns to the Great Performers Series for a recital next year (April 18, 2027).
Matthew Truscott
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Concertmaster and Leader
Matthew Truscott is a versatile violinist who shares his time between period instrument and modern performance. He is concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and a leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As a guest leader, engagements have included English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, the English Concert, Le Concert d’Astrée, the King’s Consort, and Arcangelo. He is also leader of Classical Opera, St James’s Baroque, and the Magdalena Consort, and teaches Baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music.
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
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Since its creation in 1997 by the members of the orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra has established itself as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras. Working as a “global collective,” the MCO is led by its members in collaboration with its Berlin-based management office. The musicians, who come from around 25 different countries, unite for each tour or project. The chamber-music dialogue and unanimous act of listening shape the orchestra’s sound; it’s a philosophy inspired by the orchestra’s founding mentor and longtime partner Claudio Abbado that the MCO calls “the sound of listening.”
Last season, the MCO performed with conductors and soloists including Antonello Manacorda, Riccardo Chailly, Leif Ove Andsnes, and many others. The MCO is also known for its performances without a conductor—artistic partners Yuja Wang and Mitsuko Uchida, with whom the orchestra has gone on several tours, often lead the MCO from the piano. In the 2025–26 season, the MCO joins the stage with Maxim Emelyanychev, Gianandrea Noseda, Augustin Hadelich, Kian Soltani, Adam Fischer, Igor Levit, Yuja Wang, Joana Mallwitz, Piotr Beczala, Hélène Grimaud, Víkingur Ólafsson, Thomas Adès, Daniel Harding, Daniil Trifonov, and many others. The orchestra maintains residencies in Berlin and Lucerne. From March 2026 to 2028, it will succeed the Berlin Philharmonic at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. In 2024, the MCO assumed the role of artistic director of Musikwoche Hitzackher.
The MCO continually explores new musical and social initiatives. Its program Feel the Music introduces music to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, while the MCO Academy allows orchestra members to share their expertise with the next generation of musicians. Additionally, the MCO’s school concerts foster introspection through the power of music. The MCO has also co-developed a series of virtual reality concert formats. Since July 2024, some of the chamber music pieces produced in virtual reality have been available in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra app for Apple Vision Pro. The MCO debuts at the SF Symphony with this performance.
Last season, the MCO performed with conductors and soloists including Antonello Manacorda, Riccardo Chailly, Leif Ove Andsnes, and many others. The MCO is also known for its performances without a conductor—artistic partners Yuja Wang and Mitsuko Uchida, with whom the orchestra has gone on several tours, often lead the MCO from the piano. In the 2025–26 season, the MCO joins the stage with Maxim Emelyanychev, Gianandrea Noseda, Augustin Hadelich, Kian Soltani, Adam Fischer, Igor Levit, Yuja Wang, Joana Mallwitz, Piotr Beczala, Hélène Grimaud, Víkingur Ólafsson, Thomas Adès, Daniel Harding, Daniil Trifonov, and many others. The orchestra maintains residencies in Berlin and Lucerne. From March 2026 to 2028, it will succeed the Berlin Philharmonic at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. In 2024, the MCO assumed the role of artistic director of Musikwoche Hitzackher.
The MCO continually explores new musical and social initiatives. Its program Feel the Music introduces music to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, while the MCO Academy allows orchestra members to share their expertise with the next generation of musicians. Additionally, the MCO’s school concerts foster introspection through the power of music. The MCO has also co-developed a series of virtual reality concert formats. Since July 2024, some of the chamber music pieces produced in virtual reality have been available in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra app for Apple Vision Pro. The MCO debuts at the SF Symphony with this performance.
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