A Fashionably Late Review of the SF Symphony's 2025 Opening Night

I suck. I'm abominably late with this review. In the world of journalism and deadlines, I am so past deceased, you can scatter my ashes at the Civic Center farmers market and no one would notice. There are reasons this happened, good ones. I bought a home, moved in with my partner. I acquired The Bold Italic, then moved our entire archive onto a new platform. And I generally became paralyzed from all the chaos of those life events.

But here we are, writing the review for SF Symphony's September 2025 opening gala. Because even though we're well overdue, I am at my core that gay kid who edited the yearbook with an iron fist, and who wants to document the experiences worth preserving.

And this one was worth preserving.

On the evening of September 12, the San Francisco Symphony opened its 114th season at Davies Symphony Hall, and it almost didn't happen. The musicians' union and management reached a tentative three-year contract agreement, averting a strike that had been looming since the orchestra authorized a labor action on September 4. There's more to say on all this, but I'm not trying to be a Negative Nancy during my apology tour. Suffice to say it's been a bit of a tense time at Davies.

When the musicians walked out from both wings of the hall, the audience gave them a long, boisterous, cheering ovation. It had the energy of a home team returning to the field. CEO Matthew Spivey addressed the crowd before the music began. A friend of mine was in understated black, almost plain, and told me it was in solidarity with the performers. Which was definitely a fashion statement for someone like him.

But here's the thing I really want to talk about: the room itself. The fashion. The glitter of it all.

This felt more glamorous than any symphony night I can remember. Davies was dressed. I don't know if the near-miss of the strike made people want to show up harder, or if the programming drew a different crowd. My boyfriend and I came in custom looks for the evening — I made a brocade coat-dress and shorts in seafoam and gold; he wore a green-and-gold brocade suit to match. We're regulars at the Symphony's Lord of the Rings film series, so we wanted looks for a future moment that really leaned into like a tree-dwelling Rivendell-at-cocktail-hour energy.

At the gala, I distinctly remember a woman in one of the upstairs VIP receptions asking what our inspiration was. If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked me that at Davies Symphony Hall, I would have enough nickels to buy one of the martinis downstairs.

I can talk a lot about the night's program, but if we're going strictly from memory, there's no erasing one Ms. Yuja Wang and her glittery silver-and-white ballgown that could be seen from the Golden Gate Bridge all the way to Sutro Tower. The dress was screaming, but of course not as loudly as her masterful fingers on the piano.

She has been a San Francisco Symphony favorite since her debut here in 2006, and at this point she's basically a hometown heroine. She performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and made it feel like an event rather than a recitation. Wang plays simultaneously precise and unhinged, and on this night she matched the energy of a room buzzing with relief and celebration and couture. It was spectacular.

A quick disclosure, because The Bold Italic does things like this: I write this content for several reasons; as I said, I was the gay kid in yearbook. I was also a violinist for Sacramento Youth Symphony.

It is also for the privilege of press tickets to see the concert. I was in the VIP rooms, upstairs and down. The staff all recognize me by now; they told me I'd love the decorations at the postconcert dinner. But I wasn't at the dinner itself. I'm press. The dinner is for patrons who write much bigger checks than reviews. Having said that, it did actually look exquisite:

The chandeliers are very much giving me Sophie when she looks at the one in the latest season of Bridgerton.

Fantasies like these share a kinship with reality, at best. These rooms are often just this fancy. It's incredible. But modern society isn't obsessed with making the match of the season. People don't dance in unison. In fact at many of these galas, there's no dancing at all. The dinner is an elaborate elbow-rubbing endeavor to treat attendees in a lavish style they desire and expect.

I have often said the SF Symphony is the most casual of the three major performance organizations, but their dinners are first rate. The wedding designers that did the last two years of Lunar New Year put out exquisite centerpieces, flatware, and feasts for the eyes on every wall and ceiling. If you're of an anointed class to see these affairs, I recommend them on that front. Just don't expect a well-to-do lord or even a venture capitalist to come up, kiss your hand, inquire about your dowry, and ask to put his name on your dance card. Try Tinder.

I am saddened The Madrigal nearby has closed down, because those of us plebes in ballgowns do like a little post-concert rendezvous. At a meeting recently with someone from SF Symphony, he told me they may be opening again. So there's hope! I also like Chao Pescao for pre-concert shenanigans. And if you're getting on a train or Waymo, Blind Butcher in Castro makes me happy, too.

Here's what I keep thinking about, months later. The San Francisco Symphony is in a transitional moment, and yet, on this particular Friday night in September, the thing that actually happened in the room was beautiful. The musicians played their hearts out. Yuja Wang was luminous. The audience showed up like it mattered to them. People dressed for it. People cheered for it.

That's the strange alchemy of live performance. It doesn't care about your institutional drama. The music happens anyway, if you let it.

I'm going to keep writing about these nights.

Saul Sugarman is the editor-in-chief and owner of The Bold Italic.

The Bold Italic is a not-for-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives based in San Francisco and the Bay Area. We operate under a fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)(3). Learn more about us.

A few more notes on the dinner and after-show festivities

McCalls Catering and Events transformed Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall into a gorgeous supper setting, with lighting design by Got Light and projections by Yuki Izumihara.
Zenni Optical was the presenting sponsor, with in-kind support from Chandon, Junipero Gin, Old Potrero Rye, and The Caviar Co.
The gala's host committee — Board President Priscilla Geeslin, Solomon Cera, Tiffany Chang, Aditi Iyer, Patricia Lee-Hoffmann, and Trine Sorensen — oversaw an event that serves as one of the Symphony's largest annual fundraisers.
Proceeds support education and community programs that serve more than 25,000 San Francisco public school students each year.
For the rest of us, there was a live DJ in the Orchestra level lobby, a photo booth, and specialty cocktails.