Home Alone with Live Orchestra

In This Program

• The Concert
• About the Artists
• About San Francisco Symphony

Friday, December 19, 2025, at 7:30pm
Saturday, December 20, 2025, at 2:00pm

Joshua Gersen conductor
Ragazzi Boys Chorus, Silicon Valley
Kent Jue artistic director
San Francisco Girls Chorus
Valérie Sainte-Agathe artistic director
San Francisco Symphony

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Presents
A JOHN HUGHES Production
A CHRIS COLUMBUS Film

Home Alone

MACAULAY CULKIN
JOE PESCI
DANIEL STERN
JOHN HEARD
and CATHERINE O’HARA

Music by
JOHN WILLIAMS

Film Editor
RAJA GOSNELL

Production Designer
JOHN MUTO

Director of Photography
JULIO MACAT

Executive Producers
MARK LEVINSON, SCOTT ROSENFELT
and TARQUIN GOTCH

Written and Produced by
JOHN HUGHES

Directed by
CHRIS COLUMBUS

There will be one intermission.

Soundtrack Album Available on CBS Records, Cassettes, and Compact Discs
Color by DELUXE® DOLBY STEREO® 20th CENTURY FOX™
HUGHES ENTERTAINMENT®

Film screening of Home Alone courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. © 1990 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Joshua Gersen

Joshua Gersen recently concluded his tenure as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, where he made a subscription debut at just a few hours’ notice. He then conducted his own subscription concert the following season, which included Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story during the Bernstein centennial year.

As an educator, Gersen has frequently worked at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, and Curtis Institute of Music. During his time with the New York Philharmonic, he also conducted Young People’s Concerts and worked extensively with both the Very Young Composers Program and the Harmony Program. Previously, he was music director of the New York Youth Symphony, where he led the orchestra on their first international tour in over 50 seasons.

Gersen has been closely associated with the New World Symphony, where he acted as assistant conductor to Michael Tilson Thomas. He made his conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony in October 2013. Other recent guest conducting appearances include the Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Hannover Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and the Colorado Music Festival. He is the recipient of a 2015 and 2016 Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award.

John Williams

In a career spanning more than six decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and the concert stage. He remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music for more than 100 films, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Schindler’s List, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, and the Indiana Jones films. Williams served as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 seasons and remains their laureate conductor. He has composed numerous works for the concert stage including two symphonies and more than a dozen concertos commissioned by some of America’s most prominent orchestras. He has received five Academy Awards and 54 Oscar nominations, seven British Academy Awards, 26 Grammys, four Golden Globes, and five Emmys. His other honors include the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, an honorary KBE from Queen Elizabeth II, the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, and the Gold Medal from the UK’s prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society.

From the Composer

Ever since Home Alone appeared, it has held a unique place in the affections of a very broad public. Director Chris Columbus brought a uniquely fresh and innocent approach to this delightful story, and the film has deservedly become a perennial at Holiday time.

I took great pleasure in composing the score for the film, and I am especially delighted that the magnificent San Francisco Symphony has agreed to perform the music in a live presentation of the movie.

I know I speak for everyone connected with the making of the film in saying that we are greatly honored by this event… and I hope that tonight’s audience will experience the renewal of joy that the film brings with it, each and every year.

John Williams

Ragazzi Boys Chorus

The Grammy Award–winning Ragazzi Boys Chorus, Silicon Valley, provides outstanding musical education and performance opportunities for boys and young men ages five to 18. The largest boys’ chorus in the Bay Area, Ragazzi serves 219 choristers in six tiered levels. Under the leadership of artistic and executive director Kent Jue, Ragazzi shapes the lives of boys from diverse backgrounds, developing tenacious and confident young musicians who pursue choral arts of the highest caliber together.

Recent performance highlights include singing at the 2025 American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Conference, the 2024 Western Region ACDA conference, and singing as a host choir at the 2023 Chorus America conference in San Francisco. Ragazzi is a prominent collaborator in the Bay Area, providing vocalists for San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, and the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus, among others. Recent collaborations include Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with the SF Symphony and Opera San Jose’s production of Tosca.

The group tours throughout the United States and internationally, including appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

San Francisco Girls Chorus

Established in 1978, the mission of the San Francisco Girls Chorus is to create outstanding performances featuring the unique and compelling sound of young women’s voices through an exemplary program committed to education and visionary leadership in the development of this art form. Under the direction of Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, the San Francisco Girls Chorus has achieved an incomparable sound that underscores the unique clarity and force of impeccably trained treble voices fused with expressiveness and drama.

SFGC offers a sequential six-ensemble choral training program for girls, young women, and non-binary and gender-expansive youth, ages 4–18, from throughout the Bay Area. Ensembles include the semi-professional Concert Group and the professional-level performance, recording, and touring Premier Ensemble. A leading voice in the Bay Area and national music scenes, the chorus has produced award-winning concerts, recordings, and tours; empowered young women in music and other fields; enhanced and expanded the field of music for treble voices; and set the international standard for the highest level of performance and education.

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