S.F. FLAUNTS ITS PRIDE WITH MUSIC
Roaming tables at Hayes Street Grill, long the de facto cantina for San Francisco Symphony attendees, Joshua Robison, nattily attired in his #SymphonyPride T-shirt, and former state Sen. Mark Leno, warmly greeted Symphony heavy-hitters prior to that recent concert — a new addition to the symphony calendar.
Among poobahs: former Symphony board presidents Nancy Bechtle and John Goldman, sound wizards Helen and John Meyer, S.F. War Memorial trustee Thomas Horn, S.F. Opera board president Keith Geeslin and his wife, Prisca, former ambassador Jim Hormel, Symphony trustee Fred Levin and his wife, Nancy Livingston, songbird Paula West, and S.F. Conservatory of Music President David Stull.
The Symphony is on an East Coast tour. But this inspired, onenight-only benefit concert at Davies Hall emerged in late December, when the organization canceled a planned performance in Chapel Hill, N.C., to protest that state’s notorious “bathroom bill.”
Joyful and loose, this soiree, organized by Leno, Robison and his husband, Symphony maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, featured remarks by Mayor Ed Lee as orchestra musicians (resplendent in rainbow-hued ties and wraps) and Broadway soprano Audra McDonald, celebrated LBGTQ causes: Larkin Street Youth Services, National Center for Lesbian Rights, SF LGBT Center, Transgender Law Center and the Trevor Project. “If our friend Barack Obama were here, he might suggest, ‘We the people are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights,’ ” Leno declared. “Among them, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and the right to use a bathroom free from violence or fear.”
Video clips highlighted the program’s gay American composers and included works by Leonard Bernstein, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Meredith Monk, Stephen Sondheim, Aaron Copland. And thanks to a 156-person-strong honorary committee, the exuberant concert quickly sold out.
“When you think about Broadway without gays, Jews, blacks or Latinos, what’s left?” Thomas asked the crowd. “This concert, during a very dark time in our country, is so important because it symbolizes freedom for all of us. And allows us the freedom to be who we are.”
True north: The recent Compass Family Services gala themes at Bently Reserve were seemingly simple: housing, support, hope. Yet that task, here in one of the world’s wealthiest cities, is much more complex. According to Compass trustee Tiffany Apczynski, there are more than 1,300 homeless families in San Francisco schools, which translates to almost 2,100 children without homes. That number has almost doubled in nine years.
“Families are living in tents, cars or on the streets. Some 200 families are on a wait list for just eight San Francisco shelters. The average wait time is now nine months,” she noted. “And our national leaders recently proposed to cut almost all funding for services that directly assist our homeless.”
But Compass (founded 103 years ago by members of the Hearst, Folger, Lilienthal and Crocker families) is poised to add 20 famlies to the 5,000 it currently serves.
“Philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, charity, whatever you want to call it — the game has changed. This is no longer something we do to feel good about ourselves; this is not an extra,” Apczynski intoned. “This is a must-have. This is now the glue that will hold us together as a passionate, innovative society.” Organized by Compass trustee Katie Traina and supporter Sobia Shaikh, the heartfelt fete, featuring a Taste Catering dinner, raised $450K for Compass’ programs, including job training, employment opportunities, educational assistance, technology access, mental health services and child care. Even emcee Amy Gutierrez, ace S.F. Giants reporter for NBC Sports Bay Area, got into the act by expertly auctioning off a pair of size-14 Brandon Belt game shoes. The Giants also partner with Compass, providing garden camp for kids at the ballpark.
“In my job I get to interview baseball heroes of the game,” toasted Gutierrez, as she welcomed onstage former Compass client Elisha Hawkins, who now serves on the Compass board and is a senior coordinator for Starbucks regional corporate office.
“But tonight,” Amy G. continued, “I get to introduce heroes in life.” Summer lovin’: Fine Arts Museums donors recently channeled their inner-’60s selves (albeit in psychedelic designs by Lacroix, Andrew Gn, Gucci, Valentino) to celebrate “The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion and Rock & Roll” opening at the de Young Museum.
Even the McCalls buffet grooved to a theme: falafel, hummus and tabbouleh salad. The vibrant show (curated by Colleen Terry and Jill D’Alessandro) features ephemera (radical books, riotously embroidered Levi’s jeans, avant-garde films, protest pins and Fillmore posters) heralding the 50th anniversary of EssEff’s Summer of Love that first bloomed on Haight Street, then blossomed around the globe.
Designer Lewis Sykes dug into his closet and pulled out his ’60s-era Nehru jacket and a pair of Carnaby Street shoes that he loaned to his partner, Jim Connor.
“I was actually a beatnik; I think I was too old to be a hippie,” Sykes said, with a laugh. “I worked at Joseph Magnin, which smartly echoed ’60s style, but I had to dress conservatively. After work I loosened up my look so a friend described me as ‘a weekend hippie.’ ” Yet former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres, who chronicled the rollicking ’60s scene as it exploded, expressed a quibble over displaying an incredible social movement versus being immersed in that era on the streets.
“The real thing didn’t even live up to the real thing,” he joked. “It’s hard to get the true Summer of Love vibe from an exhibition; you’re looking at it from a distance. But the de Young has done a fantastic job capturing an incredible phenomenon. It’s an excellent exhibition and a really great evocation of a remarkable time.”