The San Francisco Symphony Will Celebrate Lunar New Year

The San Francisco Symphony will celebrate the Year of the Serpent with the Lunar New Year concert and banquet on Saturday, February 8 at Davies Symphony Hall. Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important holiday for many cultures in East, South, and Southeast Asia, and is celebrated by people of Asian descent worldwide. This year’s celebration marks the 25th anniversary of the Symphony’s signature event, which is an elegant commemoration of the Lunar New Year, drawing upon vibrant Asian traditions, past and present. Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong and the Orchestra perform works by Asian composers including An-Lun Huang, Huan-zhi Li, Shuying Li, and Tian Zhou, with guest appearances by pipa player Wu Man, who performs Zhao Jiping’s Pipa Concerto No. 2, and Assistant Principal Cello Amos Yang, who plays selections from Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s The Butterfly Lovers Concerto.  

The celebration begins at 4:00pm with preconcert lobby festivities open to all ticketholders, featuring an array of entertainment and activities, such as lion dancers, dragon’s beard candy making, fortune readers, calligraphy artists, and cultural performances. 

Lecce-Chong and the Orchestra open the 5:00pm Lunar New Year concert with An-Lun Huang’s Saibei Dance from Saibei Suite No. 2, which features styles of wind and percussion from Northwest China, and Tian Zhou’s Indigo from Concerto for Orchestra, which received a GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Nomination in 2018. Zhou describes Indigo as “a musical postcard from a walk in the forest one late summer night.” The program continues with the world premiere of a new San Francisco Symphony commission by Shuying Li. 

Assistant Principal Cello Amos Yang plays selections from Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s famous The Butterfly Lovers Concerto, based on an ancient legend about two people who fall in love but cannot be together, ultimately transforming into butterflies. Pipa player Wu Man joins Lecce-Chong and the Orchestra to perform Zhao Jiping's Pipa Concerto No. 2. The pipa is a traditional Chinese plucked instrument that has been played for almost 2,000 years. Concluding the program is Huan-zhi Li’s energetic and extremely popular Chinese orchestral work Spring Festival Overture. 

The postconcert Lunar New Year Banquet begins at 6:30pm in Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall, located at 300 Franklin Street at the rear of Davies Symphony Hall, and features a lucky draw and live music, including a special performance. VIP dinner packages include access to the preconcert Ruby Reception, premium concert seating, and seating at the banquet. The banquet is catered by McCalls Catering & Events, with lighting design by Got Light. The décor for the event features hanging screens that highlight the many ways that Lunar New Year is celebrated across different cultures.   

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Lunar New Year at the San Francisco Symphony. The event will honor Margaret Liu Collins and John Chen for their steadfast leadership and generous support over the past quarter century. Collins chaired the Symphony’s Lunar New Year celebration three times starting in 2002 and has served on the committee more than 20 times. John Chen has served on the committee 13 times and has supported the event as a leadership sponsor more than 18 times. This year’s event is planned under the leadership of an honorary committee made up of a group of past chairs from the event’s 25-year history.   

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