An Era of Innovation – SF Symphony

As the world has moved online over the past few months, our cultural institutions have also harnessed the power of technology in astonishingly creative new ways. With the arrival of Esa-Pekka Salonen as Music Director, and the appointment of eight Collaborative Partners, the San Francisco Symphony is poised to move into an era marked by innovation. 

For their first outing together, the Symphony, Salonen, and the Collaborative Partners have devised an imaginative project grounded in the now while also advancing a bold creative vision: Throughline: San Francisco Symphony—From Hall to Home is a free digital concert event premiering on November 14.  

The program features SF Symphony musicians performing music by Ellen Reid, John Adams, Kev Choice, and Ludwig van Beethoven, and culminates with the SF Symphony-commissioned world premiere of Collaborative Partner Nico Muhly’s Throughline. No stranger to unorthodox assignments, Muhly was tasked with composing a work that specifically considered the demands of performing in the COVID era. Despite the work’s logistical and technical challenges (the Collaborative Partners contributed their individual parts from locations worldwide while Symphony musicians and Muhly performed at Davies Symphony Hall), Muhly notes, “When I got to San Francisco, I found that the musicians were fantastically up for it despite the strange circumstances, and without exception navigated this new structure of music making without a blink.” 

Throughline: San Francisco Symphony—From Hall to Home will be broadcast to Bay Area audiences on Nov. 14 at 7pm on KQED Public Television and will be available for streaming worldwide at sfsymphony.org. Don’t miss it!