JAPANESE ROCK ICON YOSHIKI PLAYS HIS CLASSICAL COMPOSITIONS AT DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL, APRIL 28

San Francisco is the only Northern California stop on the “Yoshiki Classical” world tour.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12 – Japanese rock icon Yoshiki performs a concert of his own classical compositions on the piano accompanied by a small string ensemble, at Davies Symphony Hall on Monday April 28. The concert is a stylistic departure for Yoshiki. He is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist and composer, yet is known as the founder of Japan’s biggest rock band “X Japan”, and credited as the catalyst for the flamboyant visual-kei rock sub-genre. His classical tour takes him to 10 Cities including Costa Mesa (CA), Mexico City, Toronto, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, London, Shanghai and Beijing.

The band X Japan, in which Yoshiki played both piano and drums, has sold more than 30 million singles and albums combined, and sold out the 55,000-capacity Tokyo Dome 18 times. His classical compositions include the theme song to the 2012 Golden Globe Awards; a piano concerto to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Japanese Emperor’s reign; and the theme music for the World Expo held in Japan. The album Yoshiki Classical was released worldwide in the fall of 2013—a collaboration between Yoshiki and Beatles producer Sir George Martin, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and San Francisco’s own Quartet San Francisco. Yoshiki Classical debuted at #1 on the iTunes Classical Music chart in 10 countries around the world and in the Top 10 in 4 additional countries.

Yoshiki has also been celebrated in many ways outside of the concert hall. Marvel Comic legend Stan Lee based his music superhero comic book series “Blood Red Dragon” on Yoshiki. Madame Tussaud created and unveiled the Yoshiki wax figure, Yoshiki has his own clothing and jewelry line, his own branded Yoshiki VISA Card and a line of wine called “Y by Yoshiki.” For the first time in history, a Hello Kitty product line was named after a person – Yoshikitty. And in December 2013, Yoshiki launched his very own YOSHIKI special edition headphone.

YOSHIKI CLASSICAL

Monday, Apr 28 at 7:30 pm

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA

Yoshiki piano, with seven-piece string ensemble.

Selections from the album Yoshiki Classical.

The San Francisco Symphony does not appear on this concert.

Tickets: $30-$100

Tickets are available at sfsymphony.org, by phone at 415-864-6000, and at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco.