San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

San Francisco Symphony (SFS)
Orchestra
Founded	1911
Concert hall	Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall
Principal conductor	Michael Tilson Thomas
Website	www.sfsymphony.org

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the City's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (founded in 1981) and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus (1972) are part of the organization. Its current music director is Michael Tilson Thomas, who has held the position since September 1995.

Among various awards and honors for the orchestra are an Emmy Award and 15 Grammy Awards in the past 25 years.

The orchestra's first concerts were led by conductor composer Henry Hadley, who had led the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from 1909 to 1911. There were sixty musicians in the Orchestra at the beginning of their first season. The first concert included music by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, and Liszt. There were thirteen concerts in the 1911–1912 season, five of which were popular music.

Hadley was followed in 1915 by Alfred Hertz, who had conducted for many years at the Metropolitan Opera and had appeared with the company during their performances in San Francisco in April 1906, just prior to the earthquake and fire. Hertz helped to refine the orchestra and arranged for the Victor Talking Machine Company to record it at their new studio in Oakland in early 1925.

Hertz also led the orchestra during a number of radio broadcasts, including on the The Standard Hour, a weekly concert series sponsored by Standard Oil of California. The series began in 1926 when the orchestra faced bankruptcy; Standard Oil of California paid the orchestra's debts and in return was given broadcast rights to that year's concert series. The first broadcast aired on the NBC Pacific Network, on October 24, 1926. and the broadcasts continued for more than 30 years.

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