The Decemberists

Edwin Outwater regularly works with the world’s top orchestras, institutions, and artists to reinvent the concert experience. His ability to cross genres has led to collaborations with Metallica, Wynton Marsalis, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma. He is music director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and music director laureate of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

Recent appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and the New World Symphony, as well as the Royal Philharmonic in a multi-concert series opening the Steinmetz Hall in Florida. He also served as a producer and musical advisor for the National Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Concert at the Kennedy Center. In December 2022, he premiered A Christmas Gaiety at the Royal Albert Hall with Peaches Christ and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and returned in 2023. 

Outwater has held a long association with San Francisco Symphony since making his debut in November 2001, having served as Resident Conductor, Director of Summer Concerts, and Music Director of the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra.

For over 20 years, The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling American rock bands. The band was founded in the year 2000 when singer, songwriter, and guitarist Colin Meloy moved from Montana to Portland, OR, and met bassist Nate Query, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, guitarist Chris Funk, and drummer John Moen.

From their early albums on Kill Rock Stars, including Castaways and Cutouts (2002) and Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003), to the breakthrough Picaresque (2005), The Decemberists built a reputation for lush arrangements and narratives that drew from folk traditions, myth, and history. Their ambition grew with The Crane Wife (2006) and the chart-topping The Hazards of Love (2009), works that blended progressive rock scope with folk sensibility. In 2011, they reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with The King Is Dead, an album that channeled pastoral Americana while remaining unmistakably their own. 

The enduring indie band returned in 2024 with their first new music in six years, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. In many ways, this album feels like an aptly titled renewal for The Decemberists, realized by returning to familiar routes of creation with the ever-updating perspective of now. “More than any other album,” writes Stereogum, “this album feels like a career summary of everything The Decemberists are and have been, juxtaposing stripped-down folk and buoyant pop songs against lengthy monoliths.

Tonight, The Decemberists join forces with the San Francisco Symphony for a one-night-only performance. Featuring lush symphonic arrangements of selections from their expansive catalog, this special collaboration reimagines the band’s music in a bold new light.