In Tuesday’s (3/3) San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman and Jesse Hamlin report, “The San Francisco Symphony’s 2009-10 season will include six commissioned world premieres and inaugurate Project San Francisco, a new initiative featuring two-week residencies by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer George Benjamin. The new season, the 15th under Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, will begin Sept. 9 with a gala concert starring pianist Lang Lang before shifting into a three-week Mahler festival with appearances by mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and baritone Thomas Hampson. The season concludes June 23-26 with performances of Berlioz’s ‘dramatic symphony,’ ‘Roméo et Juliette.’ … Although the Symphony has seen its endowment income drop 25 percent and trimmed its administrative costs last year, the organization is holding steady in terms of ticket sales and fundraising and has no plans to scale back programming, Symphony President John Goldman said Monday at a Davies Hall news conference. … The orchestra also announced the ratification of a new four-year contract between Symphony management and musicians that will extend past the 2011-12 centennial season. … Thomas described the Project San Francisco residencies as similar to the two-week residency by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina that concluded last week.”
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