SFS Season to Conclude with Julia Bullock

SFS Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen (photograph by Minna Hatinen, courtesy of SFS)

The final program in the 2022–23 subscription season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will feature vocalist Julia Bullock performing with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. Many readers probably know by now that Bullock was selected by Salonen as one of his Collaborative Partners. A little over a year ago, Bullock brought her History’s Persistent Voice project to Davies Symphony Hall, performing with a reduced ensemble (strings and percussion) of SFS musicians.

This time she has prepared a selection of five songs by two prolific twentieth-century American composers: Margaret Bonds and George Gershwin. The songs will be interleaved, ordered as Gershwin-Bonds-Gershwin-Bonds-Gershwin. Only the “middle Gershwin” selection has been previously given an SFS performance, “Summertime,” from the beginning of his Porgy and Bess opera. The other Gershwin songs will be “Somebody from Somewhere” and “Soon.” Both of the Bonds songs are settings of poems by Langston Hughes: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Winter Moon.” In addition, the opening selection, “Black Iris,” by Reena Esmail,” will also be receiving its first SFS performance. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to the score that Maurice Ravel composed for Michel Fokine’s ballet in three parts, “Daphnis et Chloé.” This score includes choral music, which will be performed by the SFS Chorus.

This program will be given three performances, all beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 29, Friday, June 30, and Saturday, July 1. Ticket prices range from $35 to $165. They may be purchased online through the a hyperlink to a single SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday. The Box Office is also open only for tickets to the evening performances two hours before the concert begins.