We are pleased to announce a new season of concert broadcasts from the esteemed San Francisco Symphony, beginning on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 as part of the 52-week WFMT Orchestra Series. You’ll find Spring 2025 listings in the Resources section to the right and on the WFMT Orchestra Series page.
Since its beginning in 1911, the San Francisco Symphony has been known for innovative programs that offer a spectrum of traditional repertory and new music. Today, the Orchestra’s artistic vitality, recordings, and groundbreaking multimedia educational projects carry its impact throughout American musical life.
This season of the San Francisco Symphony features astounding performances from the Symphony’s long history, with performances from prestigious soloists, guest conductors, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Symphony’s newest Music Director.
The San Francisco Symphony has grown in stature and acclaim under a succession of such distinguished music directors as Henry Hadley, Alfred Hertz, the legendary Pierre Monteux, Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the San Francisco Symphony’s twelfth Music Director.
The San Francisco Symphony has toured extensively to Europe, Asia and throughout the United States. It has won some of the world’s most prestigious recording awards, including 16 Grammy Awards, Japan’s Record Academy Award, France’s Grand Prix du Disque, Germany’s ECHO Klassik, Britain’s Gramophone Award, and International Music Critic’s Awards (ICMA.)
With the launch of the San Francisco Symphony’s own SFS Media label in 2001, Michael Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies and songs for voice and orchestra. SFS Media records and releases audio and visual material reflecting the Orchestra’s restless creativity and commitment to leading-edge production standards and showcasing the vibrant and inclusive musical communities it serves.. SFS Media has been at the forefront of production and distribution among the world’s leading orchestras for more than 20 years. SFS Media productions and recordings have garnered multiple Grammys, Emmys, and Peabody Awards. Recent releases include Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestra’s Grammy-nominated live-concert recording of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Ragnar Bohlin’s Grammy-nominated recording of György Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna, and live-concert recordings of works by Elizabeth Ogonek, Anders Hillborg, Ottorino Respighi, and Jean Sibelius featuring Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony.