This past week, conductor Dina Slobodeniouk led the SF Symphony through Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony and Henri Dutilleux's Metaboles — a 20th-century piece that apparently blew at least a few minds in the audience. One concertgoer described the Dutilleux as the moment they "got chills," and honestly, that's the kind of cultural experience that makes living in this absurdly expensive city feel worth it.

But here's the catch — and you knew there'd be one.

As one SF resident put it bluntly: "SF Symphony is awesome but it's too expensive." And that's the quiet tragedy of San Francisco's cultural scene. We have institutions that rival anything in New York or London, but the cost of attendance increasingly prices out the very people who'd benefit most from discovering them — younger residents, students, and anyone who didn't just vest their stock options.

To be fair, the Symphony does offer some discounted programs and community partnerships. The concertgoer in question actually scored free tickets through a local organization, which is great. But the broader accessibility problem persists. When a night at the symphony costs more than a week of groceries, you're building a cultural institution that serves a shrinking slice of the city.

This isn't a call for government subsidies or some new municipal spending program — Lord knows San Francisco doesn't need another line item in its bloated budget. It's a call for the Symphony and its private sponsors to get creative about access. More partnerships, more rush tickets, more reasons for a 28-year-old to wander into Davies Symphony Hall on a Thursday night and discover that Dutilleux is, in fact, incredible.

Great art shouldn't just be for people who can expense it. San Francisco deserves better than that.