The San Francisco Symphony’s 2024–2025 season, which will be Esa-Pekka Salonen’s last as music director, gets underway on Thursday, Sept. 19, with a program featuring Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem. The orchestra that you’ll see onstage has had many changes this year.
Administration Updates
Phillippa Cole, who became chief artistic officer of the SF Symphony in 2019, left the orchestra earlier this year; she will become senior vice president and manager at Opus 3 Artists in November. Robin Freeman, who joined the orchestra in 2016 and was most recently chief marketing and communications officer, has left to become chief marketing officer at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the umbrella organization for the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor. Rebecca Blum left the SF Symphony in June after 20 years, most recently as senior director of orchestra personnel and education planning. She’s now the executive director of Music in the Vineyards.
Musical Chairs
The orchestra has hired several players joining this season: bass trombone Christopher Bassett, fourth-chair bass Bowen Ha, section first violin Jeein Kim, section bass Orion Miller, associate principal cello Anne Richardson, second clarinet Yuhsin Galaxy Su, and fourth-chair cello Davis You.
Six musicians retired at the end of the 2023–2024 season: cellist Jill Rachuy Brindel, associate principal bassoon Steven Dibner, violinist Amy Hiraga, second oboe Pamela Smith, former associate concertmaster Nadya Tichman, and cellist Peter Wyrick, who was associate principal cello for many years.
Second violinist Chunming Mo retires after the Oct. 18–20 concerts.
The principal keyboards chair, held by the late Robin Sutherland until his retirement in 2018, remains vacant.
Stephen Paulson, principal bassoon since 1977, is stepping back to associate principal, and the orchestra is holding auditions for a new principal bassoon.
Principal trumpet Mark Inouye is on leave this season, as is associate principal trombone Nick Platoff, who will serve as principal trombone of the Houston Symphony for the 2024–2025 season.
Two members of the horn section are departing after being on leave for the 2023–2024 season. Mark Almond, formerly associate principal horn, is now the principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Daniel Hawkins, formerly utility horn, is now the principal horn of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. This leaves the orchestra with two horn players, Jonathan Ring and Jessica Valeri, and four vacancies. The section has two season substitutes: Jesse Clevenger, continuing as acting third/assistant principal horn, and Chris Cooper, returning as acting utility horn.
The orchestra held auditions for principal horn, in anticipation of Robert Ward’s retirement at the end of 2023, and for assistant principal horn, following Bruce Roberts’s retirement, but has not appointed new players to those positions. The search for a principal horn has been extended to include additional finalists, and auditions will continue into this season.
There are several other season substitutes for 2024–2025. Brooks Fisher is acting second oboe. Sarah Knutson is acting section first violin, Yuna Lee is acting section second violin, and Shu-Yi Pai is acting section cello.
The SF Symphony has held auditions for a new associate concertmaster twice without having appointed a player to that position; another round will take place during the current season. Auditions are currently scheduled for multiple section violin and cello positions, as well as for associate principal second violin.
Additionally, last year’s acting appointments will continue into 2024–2025: Wyatt Underhill is acting associate concertmaster, Jeremy Constant is acting assistant concertmaster (third chair), Mariko Smiley is acting assistant concertmaster (fourth chair), Jessie Fellows is acting associate principal second violin, and Olivia Chen is acting assistant principal second violin.
