Elim Chan to Expand SF Symphony Season with Three Conducting Programs

Music Director Designate Elim Chan is expanding her performance schedule with the San Francisco Symphony during the Orchestra’s 2026–27 season, adding two programs to her schedule in January and June, in addition to her already scheduled October 29–31 program next month. Chan will also spend two additional weeks in San Francisco during the 2026–27 season laying the groundwork for her inaugural season as Music Director and visiting different neighborhoods around San Francisco, meeting with community and performing arts organizations, eating at local restaurants, and exploring the city.

“It is really important to me to be in San Francisco for a few additional weeks this season because we’re embarking on a very important new chapter together,” said Chan. “There is so much to do, and I cannot wait to get started, to dive into different repertoire, and to continue getting to know one another—to dance together. Every meeting helps me plan the coming seasons and to deepen my understanding of the orchestra and the city, so spending as much time as I can in San Francisco just feels completely natural.”

October 29–31: Elim Chan Conducts Mendelssohn and Adams

Elim Chan returns to Davies Symphony Hall on October 29–31 to conduct the San Francisco Symphony for the first time since her sold-out appearances in June. The program begins with Johannes Brahms’s poignant Nänie with the SF Symphony Chorus. The piece memorializes a beloved friend of the composer. Renaud Capuçon joins Chan and the Orchestra to perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, a standard of the violin repertoire known for its lyricism and novel structure. The SF Symphony Chorus sings the first SF Symphony performances of Arvo Pärt’s a cappella Magnificat, written in the composer’s tintinnabuli style, named after the bell-like resonance produced by a triad.

“The standout element of this program is the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, which I’m really looking forward to working with,” said Chan. “The voice has always been central to my musical life, going back to my earliest experiences growing up, and it's a medium I’m eager to explore further in my upcoming projects here. A piece like Pärt's Magnificat is perfect in that sense because it's completely a cappella, which is challenging, but also allows the chorus to truly showcase what it can do. Brahms's Nänie is a beautiful funeral song that echoes many of the sentiments found in the Doctor Atomic Symphony. While Adams’s work reflects on Oppenheimer and humanity’s capacity to destroy the world, Brahms grapples with questions of mortality and grief. The famous line, “Auch das Schöne muss sterben!” speaks to an idea that resonates deeply across both works. Nothing can escape death, and that theme runs through the outer pieces on this program. They are profound meditations on mortality.”

Pärt’s Magnificat will lead directly into John Adams’s Doctor Atomic Symphony, based on the composer’s opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. Chan will make her staged opera debut in February 2027 at the Opernhaus Zürich conducting Doctor Atomic in a new production. “I remember attending a performance of Doctor Atomic at the Met, conducted by Alan Gilbert, and I was completely gripped by the piece,” said Chan. “The subject matter itself and the way John addresses these moral questions are incredibly powerful. The topic remains very relevant today. You see the human struggle behind the development of something that could ultimately kill thousands of people. What I find so powerful is that when you take away the words and hear Doctor Atomic Symphony, he translates the opera into purely symphonic terms, but you still feel so much of the psychology of what he was trying to describe and underline in the original work.”

Prior to the October 29–31 concerts, Elim Chan will join Benjamin Pesetsky, Associate Director of Editorial and Inside Music Talks, to talk about her career and the evening's program. Inside Music Talks are presented on stage one hour before each concert and are free to all ticketholders.  

January 14–16: Elim Chan Conducts Elgar’s Enigma Variations

Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt has regretfully withdrawn from his January 14–16, 2027, performances with the San Francisco Symphony on the advice of his doctors against long-distance plane travel. Maestro Blomstedt deeply regrets not being able to conduct in San Francisco this January and sends his warmest regards to the Orchestra and his faithful audience.

Chan was able to rearrange her schedule to be available for these performance dates and will conduct a new program: Noriko Koide’s mesmerizing Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain, marking the San Francisco Symphony’s first performances of the work; Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for Violin and Viola with SF Symphony Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik and Principal Viola Jonathan Vinocour, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. 

“Noriko Koide is a composer I discovered at the BBC Proms back in 2023, when I conducted the UK premiere of Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain,” said Chan. “I fell in love with the piece instantly and I still remember how magical it was. It has a totally unique sound world and atmosphere, and you can almost feel the rain falling on a wooden rooftop above you, the humidity in the air, and you can smell the incense, the smoke, and then this beautiful imagery of a Japanese funeral procession. It’s extraordinary how she captures all that poetry in music. Koide is a composer I deeply believe in, and I’m excited to share that the San Francisco Symphony has commissioned her for a new work for my first season as Music Director. It felt important to introduce her to the Orchestra and our audiences through a work that means so much to me. I hope this will be the beginning of a long-term collaboration, because her voice deserves to be heard and celebrated.

“It’s also absolutely vital to feature San Francisco Symphony musicians, who are at the heart of what we do. In the Mozart Sinfonia concertante for Violin and Viola, I’m glad to collaborate with our Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik and Principal Viola Jonathan Vinocour as soloists. Our musicians are the stars, and performing together like this creates a different chemistry while encouraging a wonderful sense of camaraderie within the Orchestra, and that’s a really special feeling. In that sense, Elgar’s Enigma Variations feels like a natural companion to the program, with its celebration of friendship—as the composer’s inscription says: ‘To my friends pictured within.’”

June 25–27: Elim Chan and Yefim Bronfman

June 25–27, Elim Chan joins the San Francisco Symphony for the final week of the Orchestra’s regular season, replacing conductor Gustavo Gimeno, who graciously withdrew from the program to allow Chan and the Symphony to close the 2026–27 season together. Chan will open the program with the SF Symphony premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Sunlight Echoes with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, which features a text by Emily Dickinson. The rest of the program remains unchanged, with Rachmaninoff’s stunning and famously difficult Piano Concerto No. 3 performed by Yefim Bronfman and Sergei Prokofiev’s cathartic Symphony No. 5, written at the end of World War II.

Chan and the San Francisco Symphony are grateful to Maestro Gimeno for his grace and consent to this change. Gimeno will return to conduct the San Francisco Symphony in November 2027.

“Yefim Bronfman is a dear friend and a wonderful musical partner,” said Chan. “I always love working with him. I’ve performed the Rachmaninoff with him before, and I truly don’t think anyone plays it quite like he does. He is a masterful pianist and musician. It’s one of the most challenging concertos in the repertoire, and it’s such a pleasure to return to it together on these concerts. Rachmaninoff is one of my most beloved composers, so I jumped at this opportunity.

“Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is an absolute firecracker end to the season. I love Prokofiev because his voice is instantly recognizable. His orchestration, his colors, the way he combines instruments—it is all unmistakably Prokofiev. Symphony No. 5 is a celebration of the human spirit, and what a way to round off the season!

“And on top of that, we have Sunlight Echoes. I’ve always loved working with voices, and I’m so happy to have another opportunity to collaborate with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus this season. I’ve long admired Augusta Read Thomas, and it’s wonderful to feature such a powerful work by a mighty female composer. It’s a vibrant, colorful piece that brings together orchestra and chorus in a really compelling way.”

Additional San Francisco visits

In addition to her three performance weeks in San Francisco this season, Chan will spend time in the city for two additional weeks, when she’ll be preparing for her inaugural season, meeting with musicians, and hearing auditions for open Orchestra roles. Over her five weeks in San Francisco, Chan also plans to spend time exploring different neighborhoods, learning more about the city, meeting with local nonprofits and community partners, and eating at local restaurants.

“I'm looking forward not only to getting to know the orchestra on stage, but also to getting to know its musicians on a personal level and hearing their stories. I also want to get to know the neighborhoods. I love nature, food, and art, and San Francisco feels like the perfect place for all of that—it's such a beautiful city. There's so much to do and discover, and I want to roll like a local.

“I'm eager to visit the schools and youth programs training the next generation of musicians, and to connect with the choruses, dance companies, and other arts organizations that share our audiences and stages. Many arts organizations are facing significant challenges right now, and it's important to support and celebrate the role they play in the cultural life of the Bay Area.