S.F. native helps keep venerable series fresh
Judy Tsang, who attended as child, books 80th season at Stern Grove
On a sunny Wednesday morning, Judy Tsang glances toward the sprawling wall of trees surrounding the small canyon that makes up the Stern Grove Festival’s amphitheater. It’s where Tsang, the music festival’s director of programming, witnessed her first Grove concert as child — up in the trees with her family, watching the San Francisco Symphony.
“We were up atop the hillside, so you had to try to find a spot with the whole family,” Tsang recalls with a laugh. “There were five of us, so it’s a hike to get up there. And we knew after that, you have to get here earlier.”
The amphitheater is situated in the heart of Sigmund Stern Grove — a vast, almost national-park-like plot — which continues to be the home of the Stern Grove Festival in its upcoming 80th season (Sunday, June 25-Aug. 27). Every year since 1938, the nonprofit Stern Grove Festival Association has put on a free 10-week concert series taking place on each Sunday throughout the summer.
“I’m a small part of a vast tradition in San Francisco,” Tsang says. But the 37-year-old has grown alongside the festival’s last couple of decades, attending the festival in her childhood and first joining the association as a summer intern after a postcollege trip in Vienna redirected
her to the Grove.
“There was this moment where it was outdoors and they had music playing and a ‘La Traviata’ that was on. It was this plaza where everyone was just hanging out and having a good time. I remember I was by myself and thinking, ‘This is incredible. This is so much fun. What’s the closest thing we have in San Francisco like this?’ ”
Stern Grove immediately came to mind — a concert space unlike most, with precise acoustics in the open air while simultaneously being walled off by the natural surroundings in its own pristine nook.
Tsang would work her way up into the director of programming position by 2006, though she says she never imagined what would become of that initial summer internship. But as a San Francisco native whose high school alma mater is blocks away from the Grove and whose brother went to the summer camp adjacent to the festival grounds, Tsang’s role seems only fitting.
“She understands what it means to have this opportunity for the community because she’s been a part of the community.” says festival chairman Doug Goldman, the great-grandson of festival founder Rosalie M. Stern. “To have that experience that my great-grandmother hoped people to have — Judy and her family had it.”
Goldman is the fourth generation to adopt the role as chairman for what has by all accounts been a San Francisco family affair. Stern first founded the festival to provide summer work for the Symphony musicians (who perform every season), while also allowing a free opportunity for the community to come together.
In 80 years, the mission, barring some modern twists, has remained the same. Each season’s opening acts are now paid gigs given predominantly to local acts. And the festival’s free admission is made possible for and by the city, with its $3 million annual budget coming from yearly donors and fundraising efforts.
“I grew up in Chinatown to immigrant parents. We didn’t have money to go see shows,” Tsang says. “That wasn’t something that I grew up doing. Coming to Stern Grove, and I think this is the case for a lot of families, is one of the very rare opportunities where you can experience something with friends and family.”
To be sure, the festival hasn’t been completely without its changes. In 2005, the concert grounds received an extensive renovation after almost 70 summers of wear and tear. Nearly a decade earlier, when Goldman became chairman in 1996, the festival began to make a more gradual shift in its programming to maintain artistic relevance.
“We’re very conscious, certainly since I’ve been the chair, that we serve the entire community,” Goldman says. “If you want to get the diversity of the community to attend, your music has to be diverse.”
Tsang heads this effort, securing the festival-regular San Francisco Ballet alongside acts such as this year’s Oakland blues wonder and recent Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito (July 2), or the season opener, Kool and the Gang (Sunday, June 25).
With free entry, concertgoers often enter unwittingly and leave with new musical discoveries.
Tsang’s eyes light up as she recounts her favorite Grove concerts, referring to a long list in hand, like the year Algerian musician Khaled was joined onstage by a fan of his: Carlos Santana.
“He was only supposed to play for one song, and he ended up playing for the whole set,” Tsang says. “And that crowd — I remember was just like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe what’s happening right now! We’re experiencing history!’ So it’s just these moments of surprise.”