Pianist brightens up downtown San Francisco at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival 

Samora Pinderhughes and his sister Alena collaborated on stage during the festival. 

Samora Pinderhughes performing at Yerba Buena Park on Sept. 20, 2025. Photo by Lindsey Hoang

On Saturday, approximately 70 people ventured into sunny downtown San Francisco, for the annual Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, where pianist Samora Pinderhughes and his sister Elena performed.  

Before Samora Pinderhughes set foot on stage, Oakland-based hip-hop band SOL Development did a performance while their two kids were on stage with them. 

Samora Pinderhughes, dressed in a pink cardigan sweater, came out after the opening act to perform his first song, which is in D major.  His next song, “Better,” was about perspectives of life, healing and how to get there. 

Even though he has played in front of crowds before, Samora Pinderhughes talked about how it’s always a strange experience to play in front of people before he brought out his sister Elena Pinderhughes, who played the flute, on stage.   

He sang a song written in 2021 about Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The audience cheered Samora as he introduced the rest of the band. 

“The song criticizes the ways that our current society has learned to worship wealth, even as those in power and those with the highest levels of wealth clearly don’t care about anybody else and are using everyone to profit for themselves,” Samora Pinderhughes said. “I called it ‘kingly’ because our current oligarchy functions to me and some of the same ways, psychologically, that the monarchy used to.”

Josh Hari performs on the bass at Yerba Buena Park on Sept. 20, 2025. Photo by Lindsey Hoang

Samora and Alena Pinderhughes are no strangers to Yerba Buena Gardens since they have been playing here growing up.

“Since they were little kids, they’ve been performing in the gardens as part of a youth orchestra,” said Linda Lucero, executive director of Yerba Buena Gardens. “So we’ve seen them grow up, and then they got really, really good, and now they’re in New York. Top artists in New York.”

Josh Hari, Samora Pinderhughes’ bass player, has known him since he was 11 years old in Berkeley and have played together for 23 years. 

“Samora is actually an example of someone who took his time finding who he really was musically and waited till he had something to say,” Hari said. “He was always very good at piano. And as a songwriter, that blossoming came later in life, which I really respect him for.” 

Samora Pinderhughes played his own rendition of the American anthem and an audio track that was a poem by Fredrick Douglas. 

One of the attendees at the event, Nikolas Antonucci, really liked the solos. Antonucci was with a group of friends who came toward the end of the performance.

“They were just really enjoyable to listen to while being out in the park in the good weather,”  Antonucci said. 

Another fellow concert attendee loved the weather and the waterfall which flowed perfectly with the Samora`s songs on the piano. 

“We just stumbled across it, which I thought was a nice surprise,” said Madison Strobach, a friend of Antonucci. “ It was really nice to just sit here and be in the sun, see the waterfall.”

Samora brought up Chris Turner, also known as PHER, for a duet singing “For All We Know” by Donny Hathaway. Another concert attendee, Jason Uribe came out to support local musicians and has known Samora Pinderhughes since he was a teenager.

“That really struck me, that feeling between the two of them,” Uribe said. “You could tell there was something going on, like spiritually. I felt it in the heart and soul.That was a special song.”

The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival’s 25th anniversary banner hangs in front of the stage on Saturday Sept. 20, 2025. A diverse lineup of music artists has been performing at the festival since May and will continue through Nov. 1. Photo by Lindsey Hoang

Another concert attendee Joanna Ladd had friends who were connected to the event. She was touched by the relationship that Samora had with the musicians.  

“It was really beautiful to see how all of the artists on stage were connected to each other,” Ladd said. “So, the way that they collaborated was really beautiful. They also brought up some additional guests who are like known artists in the local music scene. It was really cool to see that natural collaboration between artists who all have a really beautiful political message.”

For his final song of the day, Samora Pinderhughes performed a song about what it means to carry the weight of another person and the nature of solidarity.

“Often we talk about being there for people and being in solidarity with people, but this song “Hold That Weight” tries to envision what solidarity actually looks like on a day-to-day basis as a practice,” Samora Pinderhughes said.