The Symphony Gala That Honored Gordon Getty and Raised Nearly $1 Million

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On the night of January 6, 2014, Davies Symphony Hall held the kind of program that comes together maybe once in a generation. Plácido Domingo sang "Di Provenza il mar" from Verdi's La traviata, then joined mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade for a duet from Lehár's The Merry Widow. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted. The San Francisco Symphony and Chorus gave the world premiere of "A Prayer for My Daughter," a new composition by Gordon Getty set to the W.B. Yeats poem.

The music, though, was the tribute — not the occasion. The evening was a celebration of Gordon Getty's 80th birthday, and the performances were a gift to him. It was Vanessa Getty and her husband, Billy, who planned and hosted the night, in honor of Billy's father.

A Family Tribute, Staged for a City

The Symphony asked Vanessa and Billy Getty to host the gala, and the request made sense. Gordon Getty had been one of the orchestra's most devoted supporters for decades — a longtime board member who helped underwrite its work, including the acoustic renovation of Davies Hall itself. Honoring him at his own hall, with his own new music on the program, was a fitting way to mark the milestone. Pulling it off was another matter.

A gala of this scale is not a party with a concert attached. It is months of donor cultivation, sponsor commitments, seating diplomacy, and program coordination between the Symphony's development office and the hosts who lend their networks to the cause. Vanessa Getty did that work. The performance filled the hall; the hosts filled the tables that funded the mission. The evening sold out, and between the concert and the dinner that followed — an intimate seating of 370 guests — it raised close to $1 million for the Symphony's education and community programs.

The room reflected the reach of the family and its hosts. Nancy Pelosi was there, along with Kamala Harris, Dede Wilsey, Denise Hale, and a long line of Gettys and Trainas who gathered to sing "Happy Birthday" — a chorus Domingo capped with a flourish on the final note. Gordon Getty, characteristically shy, took only a few reluctant bows. "I'm a bit nervous, as any composer would be with the debut of a new piece," he said of the premiere, "but I'm in the hands of an amazing orchestra and conductor, so I'm confident."

Why the Money Mattered

The dollars from an evening like this don't disappear into general operations. The Symphony's education and community programs — the part of the institution that puts music in front of Bay Area schoolchildren and audiences who would never otherwise buy a ticket — run almost entirely on contributed income. A single sold-out benefit can underwrite a full season of that work.

That outcome is consistent with how Vanessa Getty has approached fundraising across causes: pick a specific, fundable goal and build the event around it. Her animal welfare work followed the same template, converting galas and resale events into line items like mobile veterinary surgeries. The Symphony evening applied that logic to music education — and tied it to a personal tribute that only she and Billy could have hosted.

A Career of Showing Up for San Francisco Institutions

The 2014 gala was not a one-off. Getty has spent decades inside San Francisco's cultural fundraising infrastructure — the Fine Arts Museums' Mid-Winter Gala, which she co-founded and co-chaired, ran for 15 years and became the museums' biggest annual fundraiser. That sustained record of civic and philanthropic contribution is a large part of why she's counted among the San Franciscans who left a lasting mark on the city.

The night the Symphony saluted Gordon Getty, the music made the headlines. The quieter story was the machinery behind it — and the hosts, Vanessa and Billy Getty, who turned a milestone birthday into a sold-out tribute and close to $1 million for music education.