SF Symphony Youth Orchestra and Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu Perform Five Concerts in the 2025–26 Season

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) and Wattis Foundation Music Director Radu Paponiu will perform five concerts during the 2025–26 season, beginning with their season-opening performance on Sunday, November 23, in Davies Symphony Hall. Comprised of more than 100 musicians ranging in age from 12 to 21 and representing communities from throughout the Bay Area, the SFSYO is recognized internationally as one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. The Youth Orchestra provides a tuition-free orchestral experience of preprofessional caliber to talented young Bay Area musicians, with weekly rehearsals led by Paponiu. SFSYO members benefit from weekly coachings with San Francisco Symphony musicians and have the opportunity to work with world-renowned artists and conductors performing with the San Francisco Symphony. 

“I'm really looking forward to my second season leading the incredibly talented musicians of the SFSYO. Our November 23 program features our Concerto Competition winner, the outstanding young violinist Aaron Ma, in Mendelssohn's beloved Violin Concerto. The concert also explores the lifelong mentoring and friendship between Brahms and Dvořák, alongside Gabriela Ortiz's vibrant Kauyumari. Later in the season, we are delighted to present a new work, Scherzo, written by our own multitalented SFSYO member Dylan Hall, featured on a program with Beethoven's First Symphony and Shostakovich's monumental Fifth. This season showcases the limitless potential of these young musicians and the inspiring ways they share their passion for music making,” said Paponiu.  

The November 23 concert features violinist and 2024–25 SFSYO Concerto Competition winner Aaron Ma performing Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor with Paponiu and the Orchestra. The annual Concerto Competition provides an opportunity for an exceptional SFSYO student musician to take center stage as a soloist in a Youth Orchestra concert the following season. The concert opens with Gabriela Ortiz's Kauyumari, which translates to “blue deer” in Huichol, an indigenous language of Mexico, and is known as a spiritual guide for the Huichol people. The program also includes Johannes Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, which the composer described as “a very boisterous potpourri of student songs,” and Antonín Dvořák's Bohemian-flavored Symphony No. 8.  

The season continues on December 14 with the annual holiday performance of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Actor Joshua Dela Cruz returns as guest narrator in this program for the second year in a row, and the concert includes selections from Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite and additional programming to be announced. After Peter and the Wolf, Paponiu and the Youth Orchestra invite the audience to join them in a festive sing-along of popular holiday carols. The Youth Orchestra's performance of Peter and the Wolf is an annual holiday favorite and has been a regular part of the Orchestra's season since 1985. Past narrators have included Richard Dreyfuss, Tom Kenny, John Lithgow, Bobby McFerrin, Rita Moreno, Kathy Najimy, Linda Ronstadt, Sharon Stone, W. Kamau Bell, SF Symphony Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, and the late Leonard Nimoy and Robin Williams, among many other lauded actors, comedians, musicians, and public figures.   

On March 8, Paponiu leads the Orchestra in Jean Sibelius's tone poem Finlandia, a piece that inspired national pride and brought Sibelius personal fame and sweeping popularity, and Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral, written in memory of Higdon's younger brother. Paponiu and the Orchestra are joined by soprano Hannah Cho in Gustav Mahler's expressive Symphony No. 4, in which the composer reflects on memories of his youth. 

On May 17, Paponiu conducts Scherzo for Orchestra by Dylan Hall, a keyboardist in the SFSYO. He premiered the piece with the Orlando Philharmonic in 2024 after winning the National Young Composers Challenge. The program also includes Ludwig van Beethoven's energetic Symphony No. 1 and Dmitri Shostakovich's forceful and triumphant Symphony No. 5.  

In addition to these concerts, on November 16, SF Symphony Youth Orchestra cellists Timothy Huang, Anthony Jung, Melissa Lam, Ethan Lee, Claire Topper, and Cara Wang perform with cellist Gautier Capuçon in Gaïa. This recital features world-premiere works by 16 contemporary composers, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony in collaboration with Capuçon for this project. Among the composers included in this all-star lineup are Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Joe Hisaishi, Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Montero, Nico Muhly, Max Richter, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, and more. Read more about the program here. 

On January 18, the SFSYO hosts the tenth Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival (BAYOF) at Davies Symphony Hall. Conceived in 2009, the biennial festival showcases some of the Bay Area's most talented youth orchestral ensembles, including the California Youth Symphony, Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Young People's Symphony Orchestra. Each orchestra takes turns performing onstage, and the concert concludes with a piece by the Festival Orchestra, comprised of selected musicians from all five ensembles. The program includes Giuseppe Verdi's Overture to Nabucco, Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Johannes Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, the first movement of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 8, Gabriela Lena Frank's Pinkillo Serrano from Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra, the final movement of Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, and the final movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. KPIX television anchor emerita Wendy Tokuda serves as master of ceremonies at the concert. Proceeds from the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival are donated to charitable organizations that support homeless and underserved youth in each orchestra's local community.