Sparkling overture to season
Gala: Spectacular fundraiser also a welcome for executive director
Mark Hanson had only been at his new job as the executive director of the San Francisco Symphony for a week when he was thrown headfirst into the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year on Thursday night, Sept. 14. The Houston transplant — a classically trained musician and father of three — called his new job “a dream come true,” and if that’s the case, it was a dream decorated with designer ball gowns, artfully constructed hairdos and bejeweled fingers at the Symphony’s season-opening gala at Davies Symphony Hall. The big buzz at the 2017 gala, bigger than the excitement for all four formal gala dinners, bigger than the guest list of internationally bold names, bigger than the tented afterparty pavilion built atop an entire parking lot, was the evening’sMa, who headlinedguest artist, the cellist two-hour Yo-Yo symphony performance conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. “I grew up in Boston playing the
cello,” gushed Hanson, “so Yo-Yo has been an idol of mine since age 5. My wife, Christina, and I are Yo-Yo groupies.”
The world-famous musician has become an engaging global ambassador of classical music in much the way the San Francisco Symphony aims to do for music in San Francisco. After the glitz and glamour of the gala, the night’s fundraising efforts will go on to benefit expansive education programs, youth symphony orchestras, free concerts and arts outreach.
“Spending money tonight means money goes to arts educations programs tomorrow,” said gala Chairwoman Priscilla Geeslin.
“Without tonight, we can’t do a lot of what we do,” said San Francisco Symphony President Sakurako Fisher. “This (gala) raises a very important bucket of money.”
Spearheading the Symphony’s monster fundraiser for the second year in a row, Geeslin oversaw the gala party from beginning to end. The Patrons Dinner, designed by events company Blueprint Studios, took place in a tent built atop the orchestra’s parking lot, affectionately known by insiders as Lake Louise, for Louise M. Davies, namesake of Davies Symphony Hall.
The dinner venue took two weeks to construct, complete with wall-to-wall carpeting and a delicately draped fabric ceiling. Enormous circular light sculptures hung from above like glowing spaceships preparing to land, and tightly packed bouquets of almostautumnal flowers filled any spot big enough to hold a vase. Guests were seated atop plush velvet chairs, complete with accent pillows, and dined on McCalls Catering caviar and lamb chops. Hues of coral and deep, rich teal enveloped the whole space.
The Patrons Dinner was one of four held before the performance. Symphony Supper and Symphonix guests dined across the street at City Hall, while a more intimate crowd dined in the Wattis Room, named in honor of the late philanthropist Phyllis Wattis.
Throughout the night, without mentioning the current political climate in our country or socioeconomic climate in our city, guests and Symphony stakeholders spoke of the connective power of music and the importance of accessible community arts programs.
“In our darkest days,” said Fisher, “art is what will save our souls.”
It’s unclear just how many souls Ma and the members of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra saved on Thursday night, but Davies Symphony Halls holds 2,743 seats. Thomas conducted the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” before Ma joined him onstage for Cello Concerto No. 1 by Camille Saint-Saëns. Thomas, a former protege of the late conductor and composer, has programmed a number of signature works by Bernstein throughout the new season to honor the centennial of his birth.
After a final standing ovation and presentation of significant bouquets to both Ma and Thomas by Geeslin, symphony-goers streamed out onto Grove Street, transformed into a nightclub with disco balls, full bars and a DJ spinning Michael Jackson tunes. The Patrons Dinner tent had morphed into a live music venue with a rock ’n’ roll cover band, even more cocktail bars, and tables piled high with midnight snacks.
Among those who turned out in their finest for the opening were major benefactor Dede Wilsey, Yurie and Carl Pascarella, Charlotte and George Shultz, Joachim and Nancy Bechtle, Mayor Ed Lee, Marissa Mayer and Zach Bogue, Lisa Grotts, Ann and Gordon Getty, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem, Karen Caldwell, Yuan Yuan Tan, and Mark and Susie Buell.
Singer Paula West was there, as were John and Helen Meyer of Meyer Sound, Steve and Jamie Chen — he’s a founder of YouTube — fashion world superstar Hamish Bowles, Vivek Ranadivé, founder of Tibco and owner of the Sacramento Kings, and David Drummond of Alphabet and Corinne Dixon of Pinterest.
The highbrow socialites of the early evening gave way to a much more casual crowd of tipsy dancers, most of whom kicked off high heels and sipped vodka from plastic cups. The accessibility the Symphony so earnestly seeks blossomed from guests, one of whom seemed to be trying to get folks off the sidewalk to crash the party. Whether or not anyone got away with a few free drinks from the tented bars, we’ll probably never know. But the gesture gets to the heart of what the San Francisco Symphony and its new executive director hope to be all about.
“Davies Symphony Hall has these windows that look out to the city. And they allow the city to look inside,” Hanson beamed.