In Monday’s (12/15) San Francisco Chronicle, Sam Whiting writes, “For 10 years, San Francisco Symphony musicians have taken their instruments to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Mission Bay once a month to perform for the inpatients. But only once a year, at Christmastime, do the patients come to the musicians for a classical concert at Davies Symphony Hall…. Patients are required to have been discharged from inpatient care, and that alone is the greatest Christmas gift of all…. About 400 people came … to a celebration centering on a free open rehearsal of ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by the Symphony’s Youth Orchestra. ‘Many of our patients have never heard classical music performed live due to their medical complexities,’ said Brianna Negrete, music therapist at UCSF Benioff Children’s…. When the doors of Davies opened at 10 a.m. Sunday, a line had formed of kids wanting to get to the instrument petting zoo … People who are immunocompromised got extra space in the first tier and loge. Healthier families could sit wherever they wanted on the main floor…. Narrator Joshua Dela Cruz …said, ‘What I love most about this day is that it brings the magic of music to those who don’t have access to it. It also speaks to the power of music in healing.’ ”
