In response to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January, the Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) teamed up to present SF Musicians for LA: A Benefit for Fire Relief on Saturday, March 8, at Davies Symphony Hall.

Net proceeds from the evening will be divided between two organizations focusing on wildfire relief: the Entertainment Community Fund and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles: ReBUILD LA.

Edwin Outwater conducts SFS and SFCM musicians at Davies Hall.

Forty-three SFCM students joined members of the SFS and SFS Chorus, SFCM’s Music Director Edwin Outwater and faculty member Garrick Ohlsson for the performance. Outwater’s connection to the concert was a deeply personal one: "I grew up in Santa Monica and many of my earliest memories are of the Pacific Palisades, which are right next door,” he says. “My first pre-school, my first doctor's office when I was a little kid; sadly, all those buildings are now gone. Bringing the Conservatory and the Symphony together with the SFS Musicians created such a sense of community around this concert that was so inspiring."

Garrick Ohlsson performs at March 8th's benefit concert for LA wildfire relief at Davies Hall.

Mayor Daniel Lurie attended the concert and delivered remarks before the performance: "It's difficult for us to grasp the scale of loss in Los Angeles, but sadly, many in the Bay Area know firsthand the immense toll wildfires can take," Lurie said. “Tonight, as fellow Californians, we share with our neighbors in southern Californians, and we share in their grief and rebuilding.”

Edwin Outwater (center) and Fiona Cunninghame-Murray (middle left) onstage at Davies Symphony Hall.

A number of students from the LA area were involved in the concert, including percussion student Eli Reisz, violist Eleanor Hammersly, and violinist Ella Askren, who said, “I grew up in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, so really close to where some of the fires were. While my family happened to be okay, we were really lucky, it hit close to home. I was really happy to just be a part of this concert  to give back to my community.”

For double bassist Carlos Valdez, the week of the benefit concert coincided with another side-by-side with SFCM musicians and the Symphony: Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields performing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D minor (with SFCM student Fiona Cunninghame-Murray soloing alongside Bell). “It’s weird, because I have been waiting for this chance and then it just happened two times in a row,” Valdez enthused. “It was a very surreal experience, for me, I never imagined I’d be in this situation when I started playing double bass in Peru, so I can say it really was like a dream come true.”

SFS musicians Melissa Kleinbart and Scott Pingel speak at the March 8th benefit concert.

Valdez’s connection to the benefit concert in particular was especially personal: At SFCM, he studies with Scott Pingel, one of the benefit organizers. "We had what was gonna be a dark week at the San Francisco Symphony, and a bunch of us musicians were talking and we were thinking, 'We gotta do something'" Pingel told NBC Bay Area.  "There’s no way we could have put it together without everybody chipping in and putting it together," Pingel said.

All photos by Stefan Cohen for SFS.