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\u201cHer moves are so fluid and beautiful,\u201d she said of the 39-year-old conductor, who will become the first woman to lead the Symphony in its 115-year history when her six-year term begins in the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n
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Joanna Garaventa, a violinist with the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, hadn\u2019t attended a concert in Davies for years but returned to get a glimpse of what the future might hold for the Symphony under Chan. Garaventa said that being led by a woman conductor, as she is with Matilda Hofman at Diablo, creates \u201ca different connection with the orchestra. It\u2019s more intimate.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chan\u2019s conducting presence reads big without being excessively demonstrative or showy. Most everything she does looks and feels purposeful and efficient, from her clear beats, to hand-pinched cutoffs and supple cues. When the moment demands it \u2014 a big surge, brass payoff or concussive climax \u2014 she delivers with full-body force.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Conductor Elim Chan at\u00a0Davies Symphony Hall on\u00a0Friday, June 5, 2026, her first performance since being named the San Francisco Symphony\u2019s new incoming music director.<\/p>\n
Christopher M. Howard\/San Francisco Symphony<\/p>\n
Dressed in a fitted embroidered jacket over a black dress, Chan conveyed both elegance and dynamism in her bouncy knee bends and the way she leaned over the musicians as if to summon and shape every note and measure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
That affectionate atmosphere set the stage for Wagner\u2019s Prelude and \u201cLiebestod\u201d from \u201cTristan und Isolde.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Chan\u2019s early tempos were dramatically poised, with hushed phrase endings and a subliminal, almost repressed lushness. It was gorgeously delicate, recalling her sensitive reading of Elizabeth Ogonek\u2019s \u201cMoondog\u201d here in 2023. The Wagner grew a bit unruly later on, with some balance issues and momentum swerves that righted themselves for a movingly rendered finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the sublime mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as soloist, Hector Berlioz\u2019s \u201cLes Nuits d\u2019et\u00e9\u201d (The Nights of Summer) came next. Through its six emotional songs, Chan and the orchestra partnered exquisitely with the singer. The ensemble was by turns glossy and pulsing, lamenting and vigorous, as the moods of Th\u00e9ophile Gautier\u2019s poems unfolded.<\/p>\n
Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returned to the stage for an encore dedicated to Michael Tilson Thomas during the San Francisco Symphony concert with incoming music director Elim Chan on Friday, June 5, 2026, at Davies Symphony Hall.<\/p>\n
Mariecar Mendoza<\/p>\n
When it was over, Cooke took the microphone to recall a moment when the late Michael Tilson Thomas kissed the hem of her skirt after a performance of these Berlioz songs. She then leaned down and kissed Chan\u2019s skirt, a touching gesture that felt like a metaphorical passing of the baton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Equally moving was Cooke\u2019s quietly plangent encore of Thomas\u2019 setting of the Rainer Maria Rilke\u2019s poem \u201cWidening Circle.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Chris Eden, who came in from San Bruno to attend his first-ever Symphony concert, told the Chronicle during intermission that he was \u201coverwhelmed with emotions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Concertgoers gather during a post-concert welcome celebration for Elim Chan, the San Francisco Symphony\u2019s music director designate, on Grove Street outside Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on Friday, June 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jana A\u0161enbrennerov\u00e1\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Debussy\u2019s \u201cLa Mer\u201d provided a fitting culmination to both the program\u2019s water motif and the evening\u2019s celebratory mood. In three movements, it portrays the complex interplay of the ocean\u2019s currents, power, depth, and shimmering play of waves and light.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chan led a powerfully charged performance that favored high impact over painterly subtleties. It may not have been the most finely-hued account of the piece, but on a high voltage night like this one, a power surge was a fitting climax. It also echoed the brilliant, galactic shine she brought to Gustav Holst\u2019s \u201cThe Planets\u201d here in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chan\u2019s spirit kept going after the music was through. Presented with a large bouquet, she plucked out flowers and handed them around to section leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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San Francisco Symphony Music Director Designate Elim Chan receives a bouquet after her concert at Davies Symphony Hall on Friday, June 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Stefan Cohen\/San Francisco Symphony<\/p>\n
Fifteen minutes later, when she made her way out to the Grove Street block party in her honor, the first group she encountered was a family with two awe-struck children, who shyly asked for her autograph. Chan obliged and spent time chatting and listening to the girls before posing for pictures.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After her May 22 press conference at City Hall, an orchestra member said \u201cshe\u2019s so normal\u201d in admiration of Chan.<\/p>\n
But perhaps it was David Landis, the Symphony\u2019s public relations director from 1980-1987, who best captured what Chan\u2019s ascension represents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re taking a risk on a young new talent instead of going for something familiar,\u201d Landis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Francisco is changing. It\u2019s a new world, and this meets the moment.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steven Winn is a freelance writer. This story has been provided in partnership with San Francisco Classical Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conductor Elim Chan at\u00a0Davies Symphony Hall on\u00a0Friday, June 5, 2026, her first performance since being named the San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[329,7,331,330,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-349844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-california","tag-classical","tag-music","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}