Musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra perform free events at locations in San Francisco and Oakland.
May 7 MUSIC AND FLOWERS: Chamber works at Minnesota Street Project
May 8 NIGHT MUSIC: Chamber works at Piedmont Piano Company
May 17 SOUNDCHECK: Full orchestra with Music Director Eun Sun Kim at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society
Orchestra oncerts may 2025.pdf Photos
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 1, 2025) — The San Francisco Opera Orchestra is stepping out of the War Memorial Opera House pit and into the community for free concerts at San Francisco and Oakland venues in May. Musicians from the Orchestra will present chamber music at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood on Wednesday, May 7 and Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company on Thursday, May 8. The full San Francisco Opera Orchestra, under the baton of San Francisco Opera’s Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim, will present SoundCheck at historic Saint Joseph’s Arts Society on Saturday, May 17. Attendees at Saint Joseph’s are encouraged to move around the room during the performance to experience the sounds and colors of the orchestra from different perspectives.
Each event is free and open to families and music lovers of all ages. Advanced registration is required for Night Music at Piedmont Piano Company on May 8 and SoundCheck at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society on May 17.
CHAMBER WORKS WITH MUSICIANS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ORCHESTRA
MUSIC AND FLOWERS
Wednesday, May 7 at 6 p.m. (reception begins at 5 p.m.)
Minnesota Street Project
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
Musicians from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra will perform floral-inspired chamber works at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood on Wednesday, May 7. The spacious gallery spaces will reverberate with the instrumental sounds of works by Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Mahler, Léo Delibes, Alberto Ginastera and Julian Milone. The concert will be preceded by a reception and an opportunity to tour the galleries beginning at 5 p.m.
Jennifer Cho, violin
Jennifer Hsieh, violin
Naoko Nakajima, violin
Leslie Ludena, violin
Barbara Riccardi, violin
Dian Zhang, violin
Lindan Burns, viola
Rachel Ko, cello
William Wasson, bass
Stephanie McNab, flute
Gabriel Young, oboe
Benjamin Brogadir, English horn
Program includes:
Crisantemi (Giacomo Puccini)
Songs of a Wayfarer (Gustav Mahler)
Flower Duet from Lakmé (Léo Delibes)
Duo for Flute and Oboe (Alberto Ginastera)
Carmen Fantasy (Julian Milone)
For more information about this free concert, visit sfopera.com/music-and-flowers.
NIGHT MUSIC
Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m.
Piedmont Piano Company
1728 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612
A chamber music program will be presented on Thursday, May 8 by instrumentalists of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra at Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland. Ten musicians from the Orchestra, along with longtime San Francisco Opera music staff member and pianist Robert Mollicone, take the stage in the Oakland showroom to perform intimate works by Claude Debussy, Astor Piazzolla, Eugene Bozza, George Frideric Handel, Ludwig van Beethoven and Maurice Ravel, among others.
Jennifer Cho, violin
Leslie Ludena, violin
Barbara Riccardi, violin
Dian Zhang, violin
Lindan Burns, viola
William Wasson, bass
Stephanie McNab, flute
Gabriel Young, oboe
Benjamin Brogadir, English horn
Daniel MacNeill, bassoon
with Robert Mollicone, piano
Program includes:
Prélude from Suite Bergamasque (Claude Debussy)
Oblivion (Astor Piazzolla)
Shepherds of Provence, duo for oboe and English horn (Eugene Bozza)
Passacaglia for Violin and Viola (George Frideric Handel and Johan Halvorsen)
Allegro from Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano, WoO 37 (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Menuet from Le Tombeau de Couperin (Maurice Ravel)
Selections from Songs of a Wayfarer (Gustav Mahler)
Duo for Flute and Oboe (Alberto Ginastera)
Carmen Fantasy (Julian Milone)
Advanced registration is required. To register for this free concert, visit piedmontpiano.com/calendar/2025/5/8/sf-opera-orchestra.
SOUNDCHECK WITH EUN SUN KIM AND THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ORCHESTRA
Saturday, May 17 at 2:30 p.m.
Saint Joseph’s Arts Society
1401 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Saint Joseph's Arts Society and San Francisco Opera invite families and music lovers of all ages for a joyful afternoon of music, discovery and community at one of San Francisco’s historic landmarks in the SOMA district. For this special SoundCheck performance, the sounds of the full San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, will fill the sweeping interior of Saint Joseph's with this new opportunity for connection through sound. Attendees are encouraged to move about the space to experience the music-making from different perspectives.
The program features The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Benjamin Britten’s brilliant introduction to the instruments, sounds and personalities of the orchestra. The Orchestra will also perform Henry Purcell’s original theme from the play Abdelazer, which inspired Britten’s famous composition, and Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll.
Eun Sun Kim, conductor
San Francisco Opera Orchestra (Kay Stern, concertmaster)
1:30 p.m. Doors open, social hour and cash bar
2:30 p.m. Musical program begins
Program includes:
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Benjamin Britten)
Theme from incidental music to Abdelazer (Henry Purcell)
Siegfried Idyll (Richard Wagner)
PLEASE NOTE: Advance ticket registration is required for this free event. Families and music lovers of all ages are welcome. Limited seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, please visit thethirdplace.is/event/soundcheck.
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ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ORCHESTRA
The San Francisco Opera Orchestra, led by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, has achieved an acclaim matched by very few such ensembles. The Orchestra performs an annual season of international opera repertoire, in addition to concerts and educational programs. The San Francisco Opera Orchestra has been featured in numerous telecasts, livestreams, radio broadcasts, and video and audio recordings, garnering a GRAMMY nomination for its CD of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice. Commercial DVD releases featuring the Orchestra include Jerome Kern’s Show Boat, Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Boito’s Mefistofele, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. The Orchestra is represented by Local 6 of the American Federation of Musicians.
ABOUT MINNESOTA STREET PROJECT
Located in San Francisco’s historic Dogpatch neighborhood, the Minnesota Street Project offers economically sustainable spaces for art galleries, artists and related nonprofits. Inhabiting three warehouses, Minnesota Street Project seeks to retain and strengthen San Francisco's contemporary art community in the short term, while developing an internationally recognized arts destination in the long term.
ABOUT PIEDMONT PIANO COMPANY
Oakland’s family-owned Piedmont Piano Company has provided the best pianos to the Bay Area for over 40 years. The Company’s intimate showroom hosts numerous musical events each year, including the popular Songs & Stories series and Jazz Piano Masters which has included solo pianists and small ensembles featuring Benny Green, Omar Sosa and Fred Hersch, among many others.
ABOUT SAINT JOSEPH’S ARTS SOCIETY
Saint Joseph’s Arts Society, founded by visionary designer Ken Fulk in 2018, was established to celebrate arts, design and culture in all forms in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Located inside St. Joseph’s, a revitalized National Historic Landmark former church, the Arts Society is a cultural hub and creative haven offering inspiring multi-disciplinary programming, engaging art and design exhibitions, innovative immersive events and curated retail experiences. Through the cultivation of art and design, conversation and creativity, the Arts Society is dedicated to elevating our shared human experience.
*For the complete press release, open the PDF version above.