A Cinematic Dream Team & A Star Conductor Debuts

Want a behind-the-scenes glimpse of movie-making magic? Then join us for a unique SoundBox show that brings film and music to life in thrilling ways. The program is curated by SF Symphony Collaborative Partner Nicholas Britell, one of the most sought-after composers in film and television, with recent credits including the score for Don’t Look Up and his Emmy-winning theme music for the HBO series Succession. He is joined by his frequent creative partner, the Academy Award-winner Barry Jenkins, who directed the films If Beale Street Could Talk, Best Picture-winning Moonlight, and Amazon’s streaming series Underground Railroad, all of which Britell scored. Britell and Jenkins have spoken often about their creative alchemy and the power of music in film, themes they will explore further in their SoundBox show. “When you put music up against a picture, it immediately changes the picture,” Britell noted in an SF Symphony program book interview. “But it also changes how you hear the music.” Compared with a piece of concert music, a film score is limited by scene time, but Britell finds those constraints paradoxically liberating: “Those limits are what is so fertile for creativity,” he said. “It’s like a ballet: the music and the picture are doing this dance with each other.” Don’t miss Britell and Jenkins’ deep dive into their award-winning cinematic chemistry in a one-of-a-kind SoundBox experience.

APRIL 14–15

Born in Ukraine and now living in Finland, conductor Dalia Stasevska feels strong ties to both countries. In Ukraine, she has raised money and gathered supplies for her countrymen during the war with Russia, even driving a delivery truck to the front lines. As for her connection to Finland, she not only studied in Finland at the Sibelius Academy, her husband Lauri Porra, a composer, is the great-grandson of the Finnish composer after which her school was named—Jean Sibelius! Next month, Stasevska will conduct two perennial favorites by her great-grandfather-in-law in her SF Symphony debut: Sibelius’ impassioned Violin Concerto with legendary violinist Joshua Bell, and the composer’s lush and sweeping Second Symphony. In a BBC interview she shared her unique nickname for the symphony, inspired in part by where its composer vacationed at the time: “I like to call this symphony the ‘Italian.’ It’s almost like when you combine the Italian sun and warmth, good food and the Finnish forests and lakes, you get Sibelius’ Second Symphony.” The program opens with Anna Meredith’s mesmerizing Nautilus, which grabs listeners and doesn’t let them look away. 

APRIL 27–30