In This Program
The Concert
Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 7:30pm
Friday, July 10, 2026, at 7:30pm
Sarah Hicks conducting
San Francisco Symphony
West Side Story® Associates℠
Presents
MIRISCH PICTURES Presents
“WEST SIDE STORY”
A ROBERT WISE Production
Starring NATALIE WOOD
RICHARD BEYMER
RUSS TAMBLYN
RITA MORENO
GEORGE CHAKIRIS
Directed by ROBERT WISE & JEROME ROBBINS
Screenplay by ERNEST LEHMAN
Associate Producer SAUL CHAPLIN
Choreography by JEROME ROBBINS
Music by LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Based upon the Stage Play Produced by ROBERT E. GRIFFITH and HAROLD S. PRINCE
Book by ARTHUR LAURENTS
Play Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by JEROME ROBBINS
Film Production Designed by BORIS LEVEN
Music Conducted by JOHNNY GREEN
Presented by MIRISCH PICTURES, INC.
In Association with SEVEN ARTS PRODUCTIONS INC.
Filmed in PANAVISION® TECHNICOLOR®
There will be one intermission.
Film screening of West Side Story courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
WEST SIDE STORY © 1961 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
About West Side Story
In 1955, a conducting engagement at the Hollywood Bowl brought 36-year-old composer Leonard Bernstein to Los Angeles. That August, a chance meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel with playwright Arthur Laurents reignited the two artists’ stalled plan to collaborate on a musical.
Seven years earlier, choreographer and director Jerome Robbins had approached Bernstein with what the composer called in his diary “a noble idea: a modern version of Romeo and Juliet set in slums at the coincidence of Easter-Passover celebrations. Feelings run high between Jews and Catholics…Street brawls, double death—it all fits.” The idea lay dormant until that day in 1955, when a Los Angeles newspaper headline about Latino gangs inspired an exciting new path. With the hiring of 25-year-old composer Stephen Sondheim, who reluctantly signed on to provide lyrics only, the final pieces fell into place.
After two years of rewriting and struggles to raise financing, West Side Story’s 1957 Broadway opening elicited reactions that ranged from passionate raves to stunned walk-outs. The latter were sparked by the musical’s depiction of gang warfare and prejudice, and its near-unprecedented body count for a musical. The show was largely snubbed at the Tony Awards in favor of a more accessible rival, The Music Man.
Nevertheless, audiences in New York and London (where the show was an instant smash) quickly caught up with the innovations of Robbins’s explosive, character-driven choreography, Laurents’s ingenious transposition of Shakespeare, and the thrilling Bernstein score, with lyrics by Sondheim that included “Tonight” and “Maria.” When Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise joined forces to co-direct the 1961 screen version for United Artists, starring box office favorite Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, the result was one of the decade’s greatest commercial and critical triumphs.
The film’s co-stars, George Chakiris (Bernardo) and Rita Moreno (Anita), took home Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Their victories were echoed by Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Costume Design, Color (winner Irene Sharaff also worked on the Broadway original); Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture; Best Sound; Best Director (for both Robbins and Wise, the first time this award was shared); and Best Picture. Jerome Robbins also received an honorary Academy Award “for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.”
More than 60 years after its original release, West Side Story the motion picture will be presented tonight in a format that brings its own innovations. MGM has created a restored, high-definition print of the film that reveals details unseen since 1961. A new sound technology developed by Paris-based Audionamix and utilized by Chace Audio by Deluxe, one of the film industry’s top restoration companies, has isolated vocal tracks from the feature, using new source-separation technology that separates elements within a monophonic soundtrack.
In the case of West Side Story, Audionamix “taught” its technology to recognize and then remove orchestral elements on the soundtrack while retaining vocals, dialogue and effects. This allows tonight’s conductor, Sarah Hicks, to accompany the vocals with the San Francisco Symphony, in a live performance of the complete Bernstein score.
Although the original musical materials for the movie arrangements were lost, 14 months of research by Eleonor M. Sandresky of the Leonard Bernstein Office brought to light a trove of important finds in private collections and library archives around the country. From materials discovered in the papers of orchestrator Sid Ramin, as well as in the archives of conductor and music supervisor Johnny Green, director Robert Wise, and producer Walter Mirisch, she was able to assemble a mockup short score of the complete film. Garth Edwin Sunderland, senior music editor for the Bernstein Office, restored and adapted the orchestration for live performance. At the same time, Sunderland oversaw the creation of a brand new engraving of the entire film score, right down to last-minute modifications made on the scoring stage in 1961.
The final result is a presentation of West Side Story unlike any in the history of this screen musical—one held, appropriately, at a concert site that celebrates the best in American music and the best of Hollywood filmmaking—two categories in which West Side Story will forever reside.
—Steven Smith
Production Credits
Producer: Eleonor Sandresky for The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.
Production Supervisor: Eleonor Sandresky
Technical Director: Mike Runice
Sound Engineer: Ira Seigel
Music Supervision: Garth Edwin Sunderland
Original Orchestrations: Leonard Bernstein, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal
Additional Orchestrations: Garth Edwin Sunderland & Peter West
Music Preparation: Peter West
Original Manuscript Reconstruction: Eleonor M. Sandresky
Technical Consultant: Laura Gibson
Soundtrack Adaptation—Chace Audio by Deluxe:
Robert Heiber, Chris Reynolds, Andrew Starbin, Alice Taylor
Sound separation technology provided by Audionamix
Click tracks and streamers created by Kristopher Carter and Mako Sujishi
With special thanks to: Arthur Laurents and his Estate, Stephen Sondheim and his estate, the Robbins Rights Trust, the Johnny Green Collection at Harvard University, the Sid Ramin Collection at Columbia University, the Robert Wise Collection at the University of Southern California, Lawrence A. Mirisch, David Newman, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., MGM HD, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC
West Side Story is a registered trademark of the Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc. in the US and other countries.
About the Artists
Sarah Hicks
Sarah Hicks is a conductor, educator, arranger, producer, writer, and speaker committed to creating connections through music. She has collaborated with diverse artists including Hilary Hahn, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Folds, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, and Sting. Her passion for cross-genre partnerships led to a 2019 album with rap artist Dessa and the Minnesota Orchestra, where she is principal conductor of Live at Orchestra Hall.
Hicks made her San Francisco Symphony debut in July 2009 and has also worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Toronto Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, RTÉ Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Malaysian Philharmonic. Her commitment to new music led to a micro-commission project, and her recording of new concertos, Triple Doubles, has been released by the Bridge label. Her interest in the intersection of mental health and music led to the production of a concert titled Music and the Mind.
Born in Japan and raised in Hawaii, Hicks is fluent in Japanese and holds degrees from Harvard University and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein (1918–90) was a world-renowned musician throughout his entire adult life. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world’s major orchestras, recording hundreds of these performances. His books and the televised Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic established him as a leading educator. His compositions include Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, Kaddish, Serenade, Five Anniversaries, Mass, Chichester Psalms, Slava!, Songfest, Divertimento for Orchestra, Missa Brevis, Arias and Barcarolles, Concerto for Orchestra, and A Quiet Place.
Bernstein composed for the Broadway musical stage, including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and the immensely popular West Side Story. In addition to the West Side Story collaboration, Bernstein worked with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets, Fancy Free, Facsimile, and Dybbuk. Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including the Antoinette Perry Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater, 11 Emmy Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors. He debuted with the San Francisco Symphony in February 1946 and last appeared at Davies Symphony Hall in September 1987 on tour with the Vienna Philharmonic.
