The San Francisco Symphony Opens Its Season September 24, With $12 Tickets the Next Night

The San Francisco Symphony opens its 2026-27 season at Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday, September 24 with a gala concert, then plays a second concert the following night where a limited number of seats cost $12. The cheap night is the one most people do not know about.

The Opening Gala, September 24

Giancarlo Guerrero conducts. Violinist Hilary Hahn plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. The program also includes The Chairman Dances by Bay Area composer John Adams, described as a foxtrot for orchestra and written while he was finishing his opera Nixon in China, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol.

The evening starts at 5:30 pm with a lobby reception for guests 21 and over, with complimentary beverages and light bites. Doors open at 6:30 pm for anyone under 21. After the concert there is a DJ in the Orchestra level lobby, a photo booth, and cocktails available for purchase.

The Symphony describes the gala as its largest fundraising event, and the seated dinner in Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall is reserved for sponsorship holders rather than general ticket buyers. Concert-only tickets are sold separately and include the lobby reception. Zenni Optical is the presenting sponsor and Harry Winston the supporting sponsor. The host committee is Jeff Bharkhda, Priscilla B. Geeslin, Aditi Iyer and Solenn Seguillon.

The $12 Concert, September 25

The night after the gala, Guerrero conducts the All San Francisco Concert, a tradition the Symphony says is now in its 47th year. Tickets are subsidized to $12 for Bay Area nonprofit, social services and grassroots organizations, and the Symphony says a limited number of $12 tickets are available to the general public.

The soloist is Joshua Elmore, the Symphony’s Principal Bassoon, playing Weber’s Bassoon Concerto. It is his solo debut with the orchestra since he joined in the principal chair in 2025. The program repeats The Chairman Dances and Capriccio espagnol from the gala and adds Gabriela Lena Frank’s Three Latin American Dances.

So the two nights share two of their three works. Anyone choosing between them is largely choosing between the Mendelssohn concerto with Hilary Hahn and the Weber concerto with Elmore, at a difference in price that is not small.

The concert was founded by Symphony Life Governor Ellen Magnin Newman, and each year it carries the Ellen Magnin Newman Award. The 2026 recipient is Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas, known as CANA, which has produced Carnaval San Francisco since 1978. The Symphony says this year’s Carnaval, held in May 2026, drew more than 400,000 people across two days, 17 city blocks, five main stages, 60 local performing artists and 300 vendors.

“CANA is honored to receive and share this award with all our artists, volunteers and supporters,” CANA chief executive Roberto Hernandez said in the announcement.

The Rest of September at Davies

Two other September dates at Davies Symphony Hall are listed alongside the season opening. Vocalist Samara Joy performs with the Symphony on September 8. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert, with the orchestra playing the score live to the film, runs September 10 through 12.

One Thing to Check Before You Book

When we looked on August 25, 2026, the Symphony’s own Opening Night gala page was still showing the 2025 edition, with Yuja Wang and a September 12, 2025 date. The 2026-27 details above come from the Symphony’s own announcement of the season opening, published August 7 and August 12, 2026. If you land on a page that names Yuja Wang, you are on last season’s page. Work from the current concert calendar instead.

Details

When: Opening Gala Thursday, September 24, 2026. All San Francisco Concert Friday, September 25, 2026.

Where: Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue, Civic Center.

Cost: Gala sponsorships and concert-only tickets are sold separately. All San Francisco Concert tickets are $12 while they last.

Getting there: Civic Center Station, served by BART and Muni Metro, is the nearest rail stop, a few blocks east along Grove Street. The Van Ness Avenue bus corridor runs directly past the hall.

The Symphony’s opening lands twelve days after the San Francisco Opera opens its own season a block up Van Ness Avenue, which makes the second half of September the busiest stretch of the year at the Civic Center performing arts blocks.

Photo: Melystu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.