Book Chronicling the First 100 Years of the SF Symphony To Be Released

Music for a City, Music for the World: 100 Years with the San Francisco Symphony, the history of the San Francisco Symphony will be published in September 2011 by Chronicle Books, coinciding with the opening of the Symphony's 2011-12 Centennial Season. The book's author is Larry Rothe, the Symphony's Publications Editor and co-author of the 2006 essay collection For the Love of Music. In Music for a City, Music for the World he tells the engaging story of the San Francisco Symphony and its role within and impact on its community, from its formative years following the 1906 earthquake to its present position as one of the country's most respected orchestras.

With chapters devoted to each of the San Francisco Symphony's music directors, from Henry Hadley to Michael Tilson Thomas, Music for a City, Music for the World tells the uniquely San Francisco story of this Orchestra's century of music-making. Rothe brings to life the colorful history of the Orchestra and the compelling personalities behind it, with tales of Leonora Wood Armsby, savior of the Symphony; the Pasmore sisters, the first women (other than harpists) to join a major American orchestra; early exploits in recording, accomplished via long-distance phone lines; and how the Symphony brought music to the far reaches of the West, as the first orchestra to be heard on a regular radio series in the U.S.

How did the organization cope with an absentee conductor in the midst of the Great Depression? What was conductor Josef Krips's favorite drink? Readers will discover images and stories from the 53-city transcontinental tour, an epic train journey made in 1947. They will relive the challenge of building a concert hall the SFS could call home. Music for a City is the story of an American orchestra and its 100-year journey toward international renown.

The story of the San Francisco Symphony is deeply intertwined with that of its community, from the International Pan Pacific Exhibition in 1915 to the difficulties of performing European music during World War II, the social and political upheaval of the summer of love centered in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood in 1967, to the tragedies that befell the city in the early 70s from Jonestown to Harvey Milk, and to music's ability to heal a city after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The book reveals how over its century, the San Francisco Symphony reflected and responded to the world of which it was a part.

This hardbound book measures 9 ½ x 12 inches, and its 272 pages are illustrated throughout with hundreds of images, many in color, from the Symphony's archives. Each chapter is supplemented with sidebars that further illuminate the individuals whose colorful stories are an indelible part of Symphony history. The book includes endnotes and an index. Its ISBN number is 978-0-8118-7601-8, and it retails for $45 U.S. and £29.99 UK.

Music for a City, Music for the World can be pre-ordered online at sfsymphony.org/store. Those who purchase books before July 15 will receive copies signed by the author. Beginning in August, excerpts from the book will be posted weekly on the San Francisco Symphony's social network site, community.sfsymphony.org.

AUTHOR EVENTS

On Tuesday, September 13 at 5:00 p.m., the San Francisco Main Library will host a talk featuring author Larry Rothe and San Francisco Symphony Archivist Joe Evans discussing the book and the San Francisco Symphony's history, followed by a book signing with Rothe. The talk is in conjunction with an exhibition celebrating the Orchestra's first 100 years on display in the Jewett Gallery at the Main Library at Civic Center Plaza from September 8, 2011 through January 9, 2012.

Larry Rothe will also sign books following San Francisco Symphony concerts at Davies Symphony Hall on September 21 and on December 8, the 100th anniversary of the first concert by the San Francisco Symphony.

THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY'S CENTENNIAL SEASON
September 7-9, the San Francisco Symphony holds three days of civic and community celebrations to mark 100 years since the Orchestra's founding, as well as to celebrate the American orchestra's role as a cultural, educational, and civic institution. The Opening Night Gala on September 7, the Free Birthday Bash Concert in Civic Center Plaza on September 8 and the All-San Francisco Concert on September 9 kick off the San Francisco Symphony's 2011-2012 Centennial Season, an ambitious eleven-month calendar of concerts, programs, and events, expanded education programs, and Centennial media initiatives. When the San Francisco Symphony was established in 1911, its founders sought to create a permanent orchestra for the city that would make music available to all its citizens, regardless of age, income or background. Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) hold true to this vision 100 years later with the opening of their 2011-2012 Centennial Season.

The Symphony plans expanded music education programs during its Centennial Season and beyond, including instrument training support for San Francisco public middle and high schools and an amateur music-making program for adults. In addition, the SFS will produce a variety of media projects that explore the living heritage of the Orchestra, its music, and its role in the community, including a Centennial book, a documentary film, public archival exhibitions, and new online experiences.

Over the course of the season MTT and the Orchestra will break new ground with a two-week American Mavericks Festival of music from composers who defined 20th-century American music. As part of the festival, the Orchestra performs three world premiere commissions, from modern masters John Adams and Meredith Monk and classical/electronica composer Mason Bates, both in San Francisco and on a national tour. Tilson Thomas will conduct the Orchestra in 18 weeks of concerts, and will lead the Orchestra in works from 1911, the first year of the San Francisco Symphony's history, including Debussy's complete music for the mystery play Le martyre de Saint Sebastien, incorporating video and multimedia. Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra also perform a semi-staged production of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911), Stravinsky's Petrushka (1911), and a week of semi-staged concerts of music from early San Francisco. Other major program highlights are Project San Francisco artist and composer residencies, with violinist Joshua Bell and composer Bates; performances of Thomas Adès and Tal Rosner's new San Francisco Symphony co-commission Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra, also with video; and the U.S. premiere of a newly co-commissioned work from Sofia Gubaidulina. The Orchestra's 2011-12 Centennial Season will also feature an unprecedented concert series of six of the most distinguished major American orchestras: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, performing two concerts each.

 

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