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San Francisco Symphony Biography

Founded in 1911, the SFS is widely considered to be among the country's most artistically adventurous and financially stable arts institutions.

Nearly 600,000 people hear over 220 concerts and presentations of the SFS each year.

Nearly 60,000 people hear the SFS at no cost each season.

More than 12,000 individual donors from throughout the region join businesses and foundations in supporting the SFS.

Throughout its history, the SFS has presented over 230 world premieres, commissioned almost 100 new works, and received fifteen awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers for adventurous programming and/or commitment to American music.

The SFS acts as a cultural ambassador for the Bay Area through its nearly 45 national and international concert tours, nearly 150 recordings, and through its radio broadcasts, heard on more than 275 stations throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Thousands of free tickets to SFS events are provided to a wide variety of groups each season. The Symphony distributes 7,000 complimentary tickets annually to Bay Area community groups and underserved populations through our relationships with such organizations as the Community Music Center, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, San Francisco Art and Film, Delancey Street and others. In addition, the SFS annually donates hundreds of tickets to charities for auctions or other fundraising efforts

The low-priced All San Francisco Concert, held for 30 years, welcomes more than 100 local social service and neighborhood organizations.

The SFS has a history of education programs dating to 1919. Adventures in Music (AIM) is provided by the SFS at no cost to the schools and reaches all San Francisco Unified School District students in grades one through five. AIM also sustains a committed partnership with a number of parochial and independent schools. The program serves nearly 23,000 students annually. Concerts for Kids serves more than 25,000 Bay Area school children each season.

In fall 2006, the SFS launched the national Keeping Score PBS television series and multimedia project. Keeping Score is the San Francisco Symphony's program designed to make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds through a national PBS television series, an interactive web site, www.keepingscore.org, to explore and learn about music, a national radio series hosted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, documentary and live performance DVDs, and an education program for K-12 schools to further teaching through the arts by integrating classical music into core subjects.

sfskids.com, launched in March 2002, teaches children and families about music and allows them to listen to the SFS online. The website has had more than four million visits.

Nearly 30 years ago, the SFS founded the SFS Youth Orchestra, now led by Donato Cabrera. The young musicians perform for annual audiences of more than 10,000. MTT and SFS musicians coach these young players, and master classes are offered by renowned visiting guest artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, David Robertson, and Midori.

The SFS Chorus has 150 singers and was founded over 30 years ago. The SFS is one of only a handful of major orchestras in the United States with its own chorus.

The SFS Volunteer Council is an organization of approximately 1,500 committed volunteers, whose purpose is to support the SFS in areas of fundraising, audience development, and community outreach.

Davies Symphony Hall, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005, was built at a cost of $27.5 million. Named for Louise M. Davies, the largest individual contributor to the building, DSH is owned by the City of San Francisco, which contributed $10 million toward its construction. DSH underwent a successful $10 million acoustic renovation in 1992. Content provided by: http://www.sfsymphony.org/about/default.aspx?id=144