San Francisco Symphony Welcomes Year of the Horse at Davies Symphony Hall

Davies Symphony Hall in the Civic Center is hosting the San Francisco Symphony’s Lunar New Year: Year of the Horse concert this evening with a 5:00 p.m. start time and a program explicitly billed as a celebration that "draws upon Asian traditions, past and present, in a celebration of music and community." Promotional materials for the event also offer a VIP sponsorship that includes preconcert receptions and a celebratory postconcert banquet dinner.

Conductor Mei-Ann Chen (陳美安) leads the program that pairs traditional and contemporary Asian repertoire with arrangements for orchestra. Program entries include Huan-zhi Li 李煥之, Spring Festival Overture《春節序曲》; Traditional 民族曲調 (arr. Yew Tien Phoon)（改編：潘耀田）, Wishing You Prosperity《恭喜發財》; Liu Chia-Chang 劉家昌 (arr. Che-Yi Lee)（改編：李哲藝）, Alone Ascending the West Chamber《獨上西樓》 with Yuhsin Galaxy Su 蘇宇欣 listed as clarinet; Che-Yi Lee 李哲藝, Music from Dancing Strings《絃舞I》選段; Tyzen Hsiao 蕭泰然, The Angel from Formosa《來自福爾摩沙的天使》; Huang Ruo 黃若, Flower Drum Song from Feng Yang 《鳳陽花鼓》; and George Gao 高韶青, Capriccio No. 6, Shaoyin《隨想曲第六首-韶音》 with movements Prayer 祈 · Lament 訴 · Joy 樂 · Love 愛 and Gao listed on erhu. The program also lists An-lun Huang 黃安倫, Saibei Dance 《塞北舞曲》 [...] indicating additional material or truncation in the published lineup.

Artistic and promotional materials credit photographer Simon Pauly for Mei-Ann Chen’s head shot and include a cover caption reading "Amos Yang with his cello | Cover of SF Symphony February 2026"; the program does not explicitly list Amos Yang among the evening’s performance credits. Promotional channels for the concert include DoTheBay event listings and Encore Spotlight features, and a short social post from the City and County of San Francisco reads, "Happy Lunar New Year from the City and County of San Francisco. Welcome to the Year of the Horse, a year of strength, speed, and bold momentum."

Institutional details in program notes foreground a long-standing municipal relationship: "The San Francisco Symphony is honored to partner with the San Francisco Arts Commission to continue its work as San Francisco’s orchestra." The program materials state that "Through this mutually beneficial partnership, the Arts Commission funding contributes to the Symphony’s community programs, supports concerts such as Día de los Muertos and Lunar New Year, and helps bring a broad audience to experience its music and programs." The same materials also say the partnership "dates back to 1935, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt encouraged all cities to support local symphonies believing that music was good for the soul of the people," alongside a separate line noting the relationship has existed "for more than 85 years."

The printed program names a Lunar New Year Host Committee of Iris Chan, Rosalyn Chen, Patricia Lee-Hoffmann, Susan Lin, and Nora Wu. Sponsor sections appear as category headings - Lead Sponsor, Presenting Sponsor, and In-Kind Sponsors - without specific sponsor names provided in the supplied materials, and ticket prices or box office contact details are not listed. As the Symphony presents an evening that foregrounds cultural equity and civic partnership, those gaps in sponsor and ticket transparency are notable institutional details that remain unspecified in the published program.