Lunar New Year Events at Davies

Lunar New Year festivities in the main lobby of Davies Symphony Hall (from the San Francisco Symphony Lunar New Year event page)

In reviewing my archives, I was somewhat amused to discover that this was exactly the same day of the year on which I wrote last year’s preview of the annual Lunar New Year Concert & Banquet presented by the San Francisco Symphony. Mei-Ann Chen will return as the conductor for the occasion, making this the fifth such concert that she has led. This year the instrumental soloist will be violinist Paul Huang, who will perform the “Fire Ritual” movement from Tan Dun’s violin concerto.

The program will begin with the “Spring Festival” overture by Li Huan-Zhi, followed by Phoon Yew Tien’s “New Year Greetings.” As usual, there will be traditional selections, including Li Wenping’s arrangement of “Jasmine Flower” and selections from Huang Ruo’s Folk Songs for Orchestra suite. Other arrangements are by Bao Yuan-Kai (Che Chang’s “Ali Mountain Evergreen”) and Lee Che-Yi (Chen Ge Xin’s “Gong Xi Gong XI”). The program will also include Vivian Fung’s “Pizzicato,” which invokes the sonorities of both Chinese and Indonesian instruments.

As in the past, the doors to the Davies lobbies will open one hour before the concert begins. During that hour all of the lobbies will offer a wide diversity of family entertainments. These will include arts and crafts appropriate to the season, lion dancing, games, and, for those wishing to snack, food, desserts, and tea bars. Finally, the concert will be followed by the annual Lunar New Year Imperial Dinner, catered by McCalls Catering & Events.

 This year’s concert will be given at 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 17. That means that the doors to the Davies lobbies will open at 4 p.m. Ticket prices in which seating is currently available range from $39 to $109. They may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the 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 MTT Way (Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street).

Tickets for the Lunar New Year Imperial Dinner are sold separately. Prices range from $1000 for an individual ticket at the Gold Supporter level to $100,000 for a table of ten at the Sapphire level. There is a separate Web page describing all the different levels, the benefits associated with each, and how much of the price is tax-deductible. A single Web page has been created for purchases for all five levels, and tickets may also be ordered over the telephone by calling the Volunteer Council at 415-503-5500.