In Thursday’s (3/26) San Francisco Classical Voice, Janos Gereben writes, “San Francisco Symphony audiences who thrilled to dramatically staged, interdisciplinary, innovative presentations … are getting some good news. While SF Symphony is still without a music director since [Esa-Pekka] Salonen’s abrupt departure almost a year ago, the 2026-2027 season …[features] performances combining dance, theater, and videography.… Choreographer Alonzo King and his LINES Ballet join SFS and conductor James Gaffigan to present world premiere works set to Debussy’s Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un faune and Copland’s suite from Appalachian Spring … Janni Younge’s staged production of Stravinsky’s The Firebird, featuring larger-than-life puppets set to contemporary South African dance forms … Deborah O’Grady envisions John Adams’s The Dharma at Big Sur through photography and video … Bay Area composer Gabriella Smith joins the Symphony as Creative Partner ‘to explore ecology and the natural world through programs and special events featuring her works.’… SFS partnering with Congregation Emanu-El for Ernest Bloch’s monumental Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), a five-part choral-orchestral setting of Hebrew liturgy…. The world premieres of SF Symphony commissions by Emerging Black Composers Project winner Kyle Rivera … and a new concerto for harp and percussion by Rene Orth … Additional SF Symphony commissions include Gabriella Smith’s violin concerto How to Be a Bird … and a new work by Reena Esmail.”
