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The San Francisco Symphony announced today several new guest artists and program additions and changes to its 2009-10 season, including concerts by Lang Lang with the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Barbara Cook, Mariachi Sol de M_xico, Cirque de la Symphonie and Pink Martini. Singer Linda Ronstadt narrates this year's Peter and the Wolf concerts at Davies Symphony Hall and Flint Center, and Peabo Bryson, Sheena Easton and Jennifer Holliday perform in Colors of Christmas. The San Francisco Symphony's 98th season starts Wednesday, September 9 with the Opening Gala to benefit the Symphony's education and community programs, featuring Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Orchestra and special guest pianist Lang Lang.

The Orchestra also announced detailed program information for the Mahler Festival Origins and Legacies concerts, programs for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra concerts and the second annual D‹a de los Muertos Family Concert program. The successful Davies After Hours post-concert party and performance series and the Off The Podium audience/artist question-and-answer programs both return for 2009-10. The SFS Chamber Music programs at Davies Symphony Hall and at the Palace of the Legion of Honor are confirmed and can be found on the updated attached Season Calendar.

Single tickets for all 2009-10 concerts go on sale Monday, August 24 at 8 a.m. at the SF Symphony box office at Davies Symphony Hall and at 10 a.m. at www.sfsymphony.org and by phone at (415) 864-6000. Tickets will be available to non-subscribers for all 2009-10 SF Symphony concerts, Great Performers Series concerts, special events, and other concerts, including the SFS Chamber Music concerts, Music for Families and SFS Youth Orchestra concerts, and the SFS' concerts at Flint Center in Cupertino. Tickets for the Orchestra's three-week Mahler Festival, opening September 16, are on sale now.

The Symphony Store in the Davies Symphony Hall lobby has expanded hours and is now open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., and on all concert days, beginning one hour prior to the performance.

Additions and revisions to the SFS's 2009-10 season include:

- The Orchestra's recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and Adagio from Symphony No. 10 will be available for download through iTunes on August 11 and released on SACD through SFS Media on August 25.

- To celebrate Michael Tilson Thomas's fifteenth season with the SF Symphony, for selected concerts, center terrace seats at Davies Symphony Hall and balcony box seats at Flint Center will be priced at $15.

- The Orchestra announced its program for the annual free outdoor concert Friday, September 11 at noon in Justin Herman Plaza. Concertgoers will hear a trio of waltzes: Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Ravel's La Valse and Richard Rodgers' waltz from Carousel.

- Program details have been announced for the Origins and Legacies Mahler Festival concerts the week of September 23. MTT and the Orchestra will perform the previously announced Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) with baritone Thomas Hampson each night, but otherwise each program is different. Among the works scheduled are the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5, the Scherzo from Symphony No. 7, the third movement from Symphony No. 3, the third movement from Symphony No. 9, and Symphony No. 1. Hampson will also perform Mahler's Abl‹sung im Sommer and a R‹ckert Medley, with excerpts from "Liebst du um sch‹nheit," "Um Mitternacht," and "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen." Complete Mahler Festival program details are in the attached calendar and can also be found here.

- The second season of the Orchestra's Keeping Score television series premieres nationally on PBS Thursday, October 15 at 10 p.m. with a one-hour episode on Hector Berlioz and his Symphonie fantastique, hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Subsequent episodes air on October 22 and October 29, on Charles Ives and Dmitri Shostakovich, respectively. The SFS also launches its redesigned www.keepingscore.org website, with interactives on all three composers, and incorporating the site's existing material in a new, easy-to-navigate interface.

- On Sunday, November 1 the San Francisco Symphony celebrates Latino music and culture in its second annual D‹a de los Muertos Family Concert, conducted by Alondra de la Parra with soloists Kristhyan Benitez and Ana Karina Alamo on piano. This matinee program, designed for the entire family, includes works by Berkeley-born composer Gabriela Lena Frank, Arturo Mšrquez, Ginastera, Moncayo, Revueltas, and Saint-SaêŠns. Concertgoers will enjoy pre-concert festivities, refreshments and colorful displays celebrating D‹a de los Muertos in the Davies Symphony Hall lobby. Throughout August and September, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts offers children and adults the unique opportunity to create D‹a de los Muertos artwork, which will be displayed in the lobby for the concert.

- Singer Linda Ronstadt narrates the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra's annual Peter and the Wolf concerts at the Flint Center in Cupertino on Saturday, December 12 and at Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday, December 13. New Wattis Foundation Music Director Donato Cabrera conducts.

- Pianist Lang Lang, who performs at the SFS gala, returns for a performance Monday, April 19 with the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. Eschenbach leads Lang Lang and the Orchestra in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.

- The multicultural 12-piece "little orchestra" Pink Martini, which combines global rhythms and musical influences into a modern, sophisticated sound, returns for two concerts June 1 and 2 with the Orchestra.

- The informal post-concert question and answer session with conductors, soloists and members of the orchestra, Off the Podium, returns for its second season. Ticket holders are invited to Off the Podium immediately following the Davies Symphony Hall concerts on October 7, October 17, January 16, April 8, April 23 and May 19.

- The successful post-concert musical series Davies After Hours, launched last season, returns for its second year. Davies After Hours will be held in the second tier lobby of Davies Symphony Hall following the concerts on three Fridays, January 15, April 2 and June 11. Part performance, part reception, Davies After Hours brings musicians of different genres together for a live musical response to the evening's orchestral performance and is free to all ticket holders.

- The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra announced programming for its first season of concerts with new Wattis Foundation Music Director Donato Cabrera. Full details are in the updated 2009-10 season calendar.

HOLIDAY CONCERTS INCLUDE:

- Mariachi Sol de M_xico, the Grammy-nominated 14-piece ensemble led by J‹se Hernê_ndez, performs a program of favorite Mexican Christmas and holiday songs with the San Francisco Symphony Thursday, December 3 at 8 p.m.

- Soprano Barbara Cook joins the San Francisco Symphony for a concert of holiday music, Broadway hits and standards Friday, December 4 at 8 p.m.

- The acrobats and circus performers of Cirque de la Symphonie come to Davies Symphony Hall Saturday, December 5 at 8 p.m. to perform with the Orchestra.

- Soprano Lisa Vroman and a quintet of San Francisco Symphony brass musicians join organist David Higgs for this year's Holiday Pipe Dreams concert, showcasing Davies Symphony Hall's magnificent Ruffatti organ, Sunday, December 13 at 7 p.m.

- Singers Peabo Bryson, Sheena Easton and Jennifer Holliday appear at the Colors of Christmas concerts with the Orchestra December 14, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m.

- The San Francisco Symphony Chorus performs three Choral Christmas concerts, with Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin leading the ensemble. The dates are December 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. and December 19 at 2 p.m.

- On Saturday, December 19 at 8 p.m., New Orleans' Preservation Hall Jazz Band raises the Davies Symphony Hall roof with a rollicking Creole Christmas concert.

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The SFS introduces a number of improvements to its website at www.sfsymphony.org. The Orchestra now offers print-at-home tickets as an option for online ticket buyers. Visitors to www.sfsymphony.org will also be able to add concerts to their online calendars directly from the Symphony's website calendar. The RSS feed from the website calendar has also been upgraded and improved, enabling patrons to subscribe to a complete and up-to-the minute feed of SF Symphony concert and event listings.

For a complete schedule, visit San Francisco Symphony.