San Francisco Symphony & Yuja Wang in San Francisco

The San Francisco Symphony is an American orchestra founded in 1911. Its long association with music director Michael Tilson Thomas produced a recorded cycle of Mahler’s symphonies, while collaborations with Metallica introduced the ensemble to audiences beyond classical music. Davies Symphony Hall became the orchestra’s home in 1980. In 1999 it joined Metallica at Berkeley Community Theatre for the concerts documented on S&M; two decades later, the musicians reunited at Chase Center for S&M2. Away from its home season, the orchestra has appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York and performed at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Yuja Wang is a Chinese classical pianist born in Beijing in 1987. Her repertoire includes music by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Liszt, and her recordings include Sonatas & Etudes, Fantasia and The Berlin Recital. In 2007, she substituted for Martha Argerich in concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit. She made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2011; in 2023, she returned for a Rachmaninoff marathon featuring all four piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Beyond her native city, she has appeared at Vienna’s Musikverein and given concerts at the Philharmonie in Berlin.