The San Francisco Symphony’s 2026–27 Season Is Here

The San Francisco Symphony’s 115th season kicks off on Sept. 8, 2026, and today the orchestra announced a slate of multifaceted programming that includes several premieres and fresh collaborations.

At the Symphony’s opening night gala on Sept. 24, Alonzo King LINES Ballet debuts two new works set to Debussy’s Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un faune and Copland’s suite from Appalachian Spring, conducted by James Gaffigan. That evening, the Symphony also presents Janni Younge’s production of Stravinsky’s The Firebird with puppetry and South African dance. Also on the program is photographer and video artist Deborah O’Grady adding visuals from California’s dramatic landscapes to The Dharma at Big Sur by Bay Area composer John Adams.

On Feb. 11–13, 2027 San Francisco Symphony premieres a new work by Kyle Rivera, the winner of the Emerging Black Composers Project. Rivera’s piece dramatizes how dead whales sustain hidden ecosystems of deep-sea organisms.

On April 22–24, 2027 former San Francisco Symphony Director Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to Davies Symphony Hall (he left in 2025 due to disagreements with the board about budget cuts and programming). For the 2026–27 season, Salonen conducts the world premiere of a new concerto for harp and percussion by composer Rene Orth, a San Francisco Symphony commission.

Joe Hisaishi, the Japanese composer who has worked extensively with director Hayao Miyazaki, returns to the San Francisco Symphony stage on Oct. 22, 2026 for the West Coast premiere of his original Concerto for Orchestra, which he will conduct himself. (Studio Ghibli fans bought up tickets quickly when Hisaishi performed with the orchestra in 2024.)

The San Francisco Symphony will continue popular series including Films with Live Orchestra, which features classics such as Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and The Ring. Soundbox, a series of experimental performances in a relaxed, nightclub-like setting, comes back for a 13th season with two programs curated by violinist Vijay Gupta (Jan. 29–30) and conductor Edwin Outwater (April 1–2).

The new season also features collaborations with musicians such as Grammy-winning blues singer-songwriter Fantastic Negrito and Berkeley-born composer and environmentalist Gabriella Smith, who has come on as a creative partner.

The San Francisco Symphony’s new season gets underway on Sept. 8, and the full program can be found here. Single-concert tickets go on sale July 18, with subscriptions available now.