The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra is celebrating its 50th season in style, with a one-night gala at Herbst Theatre on March 8, and a free community concert at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Feb. 26. The Grammy-winning orchestra is mixing beloved warhorses with fresh sounds from three finalists in its first-ever Legacy Orchestral Composition Competition.
50th anniversary gala at Herbst Theatre
Music director Martin West has lined up a program that runs from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade to Björk’s Overture and Bernard Herrmann’s “Scène d’Amour” from Vertigo, with Prokofiev’s “Grand Waltz” and Delibes’s “Galop Final” adding extra sparkle. The company laid out the March 8 gala plan and repertoire in a press release from San Francisco Ballet.
The concert is slated to run about 90 minutes with one intermission, followed by a fundraising dinner in the War Memorial’s Green Room, according to the same announcement.
Free concert at SFCM spotlights finalists
Before the gala, the orchestra steps out of the pit for a free community performance at the San Francisco Conservatory’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall on Thursday, Feb. 26. That program will feature the three competition finalists, with a winner announced on the spot.
The event listing from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music notes that the program includes movements from Bobby Ge’s Violin Concerto alongside works by Simon Rivet and Sheridan Seyfried. Tickets cost nothing, but advance reservations are required.
Legacy contest drew wide interest
The new Legacy Orchestral Composition Competition has quickly turned into a hot ticket for emerging composers. Violinist Cordula Merks told San Francisco Classical Voice, “In this inaugural year, 173 composers entered their pieces!”
The contest carries a $7,500 prize and promises live performance opportunities and potential future collaborations, according to San Francisco Ballet. Finalists Bobby Ge, Simon Rivet and Sheridan Seyfried will all be heard at the SFCM concert.
Five decades in the pit
The orchestra traces its origins to the mid-1970s under conductor Denis de Coteau, according to the Musicians of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Since then, the ensemble has grown from pit band to full-fledged symphonic force.
For the last twenty years, Martin West has guided that evolution, adding recordings and cross-genre projects to the orchestra’s résumé, as noted by Reference Recordings. Players say this 50th season is about lining up new commissions just as much as honoring what came before.
Contracts and stability for musicians
Behind the scenes, the orchestra recently locked in a new three-year agreement with the American Federation of Musicians that, according to reporting, lets the company add a new position and expand the pit. Principal tuba player and players’ committee chair Peter Wahrhaftig said musicians are gratified to have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Dancers and stage staff are covered under a separate two-year contract that runs through June 30.
Money, reach and what it buys
This golden jubilee arrives just after a game-changing cash boost. The company recently disclosed a $60 million anonymous gift in February 2024, with $50 million slated for an endowment to support new works and $10 million set aside for operating support, according to a Hoodline report on a record-breaking 60 million anonymous donation.
That windfall sits next to a roughly $66 million operating budget through June 2024, framing the scale of the company’s commissioning ambitions, per San Francisco Classical Voice. For local audiences, it all adds up to a rare chance to hear the ballet orchestra step out in front of the curtain and to catch brand-new music at the moment of its first bow.
