Bass Peixin Chen Joins Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony for Verdi's Requiem, September 19–21

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Bass Peixin Chen replaces Eric Owens in Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony’s performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, September 19–21. Chen makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this program. Owens has regretfully withdrawn from these concerts for personal reasons. The performances also feature soprano Leah Hawkins, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, tenor Mario Chang, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus.  

To open the program, San Francisco Symphony Chorus Director Jenny Wong conducts the San Francisco Symphony’s first performances of three short works for chorus and orchestra by Gordon Getty, a longtime friend of the Symphony: St. Christopher; the Intermezzo from Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Getty’s 2021 opera based on James Hilton’s classic novella; and The Old Man in the Snow, featuring a poem by Getty. 

Peixin Chen has sung Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, Commendatore in Don Giovanni with LA Opera, Fasolt in Das Rheingold at Seattle Opera and Dallas Opera, Colline in La bohème with Washington National Opera, and he made his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Verdi’s Don Carlos, singing the Monk and covering Philippe II. Other appearances include Don Giovanni, Boris Godunov, and Turandot at the Met and Rigoletto at Santa Fe Opera. He made his European debut at Festival d’Aix en Provence in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and sang the General in Peter Sellars’s production of Prokofiev’s The Gambler at the Salzburg Festival. Chen makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this program. 

This season, Chen returns to the Met as Sarastro and to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Colline. Other upcoming appearances include a debut as Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore at Florida Grand Opera and Sparafucile in Rigoletto at LA Opera. He is a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and appeared with Houston Grand Opera in Verdi’s Requiem, Turandot, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, Norma, Aïda, Il trovatore, The Magic Flute, and Die Walküre, among others. 

[To view or download the full PDF version of this press release with calendar listings, click on DOWNLOAD PDF]