Of Thee I Sing: Yiddish Theater, Broadway and the American Voice

The San Francisco Symphony brings its tenth season to a close with Of Thee I Sing: Yiddish Theater, Broadway, and the American Voice. In this two-week festival, music director Michael Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra examine how Jewish artists helped mold American theatrical and musical traditions through such avenues as Yiddish theater, Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, and the concert hall.

Festival highlights include three semi-staged performances of George and Ira Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing and Let ‘Em Eat Cake, and Thomashefskys’ Yiddish Theatre, an evening of music and remembrances. The great vocal stylist Michael Feinstein brings the American songbook to life with a program featuring composers such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers. And two of the most prominent heirs of the Jewish theatrical tradition are represented when MTT and the Orchestra bring the festival to a close with music of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.