That’s Alexandra Llamas. She handles marketing for the San Francisco Symphony and is the one answering my questions about Friday night at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
Specifically about the two-night collaboration between the SF Symphony and Boyz II Men — one of the most popular R&B groups in history — and their rendition of “I’ll Make Love To You,” a song that features the lyrics:
Throw your clothes on the floor
I’m gonna take my clothes off, too
I made plans to be with you
Girl whatever you ask me you know I can do
Women in the audience somewhat politely rushed the stage as soon as the first notes were played Friday night as Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman handed out dozens of red roses while they serenaded:
Baby, tonight is your night
And I will do you right
Just make a wish on your night
Anything that you ask
I will give you the love of your life
It was a magical moment in a magical night for someone who grew up listening to Boyz II Men and credits the group with basically getting me through 5th to 8th grade relationships. But maybe even more so because it was at Davies Symphony Hall and in concert with the SF Symphony, which — for the first time in its 111-year history — collaborated with an R&B group. And that inaugural group delivered a night filled with their hits that sent those in attendance into a frenzy, from “On Bended Knee” to “Water Runs Dry.” Stockman told the audience that performing with the symphony brought the group back to its roots.
Along with Michael McCary (who left the group in 2003 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis), Morris, Morris and Stockman attended Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where classical music was part of the bedrock of their education. Llamas says when the group approached the symphony about the collaboration, they already had the requisite chart music the orchestra would need (“It made them an ideal partner,” Llamas says).
Llamas tells me Friday and Saturday’s performances were two of the top attended events of the young year (I don’t think I saw a single empty seat Friday), and 71% of ticket buyers were new to the symphony — one of their highest percentages ever. In recent years the SF Symphony has gotten far outside of its comfort zone, screening feature films while playing the score behind them (movies like “Get Out,” “Indiana Jones” and “Ghostbusters”), plus collaborating with big-name musicians like Tony Bennett, Bob Weir, Common and Rufus Wainwright. Usually about half of the audience is new to the symphony for those engagements.
“It was a breath of fresh air,” Llamas says.
And a welcome one after two pandemic years that devastated indoor art institutions. Nathan Morris, rocking a very symphony-appropriate suit on Friday, intimated as much before the final song of the night on Friday, calling today’s music “trash” before pleading with San Franciscans to support the symphony.
On Friday, it seemed entirely possible they might. Friday night was fun. It was different. People in tuxedos were seated next to guys in tiger-print streetwear.
“The wonderful thing about SF is we accept you as you are, whether you dress up or dress down,” Llamas…
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