SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The San Francisco Symphony today announces that Ragnar Bohlin will step down as the Orchestra’s Chorus Director at the end of August 2021. Bohlin began his tenure as Chorus Director of the San Francisco Symphony in March 2007. Under his leadership, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus received a Grammy for Best Choral Performance for the recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. With the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Bohlin has conducted such works as J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor, Handel’s Messiah, Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, and a cappella works such as Poulenc’s Figure Humaine. Bohlin is also the founding Artistic Director of the professional chamber choir Cappella SF with which he has recorded four CDs. In March 2013, he was awarded the Cultural Achievement Award from the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, and in 2018 the Michael Korn award from Chorus America. 

“In his fourteen years as Chorus Director, Ragnar has been a vital part of the San Francisco Symphony’s artistic leadership,” said San Francisco Symphony Interim CEO Matthew Spivey. “He is a gifted and expressive musician and has led the San Francisco Symphony Chorus through countless artistic achievements and memorable performances. He will be greatly missed, and we wish him well as he embarks on his next chapter.”
 
San Francisco Symphony Chorus performances in the 2021-22 Season include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; George Frideric Handel’s Messiah; Johannes Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, Nänie, Gesang der Parzen, and Schicksalslied; Jack Perla’s arrangements of “Give Me Jesus,” “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord”; and semi-staged productions of Igor Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex and his Symphony of Psalms. The San Francisco Symphony will engage guest chorus directors to prepare these performances; more information about guest directors will be announced at a later date.

Read more about Ragnar Bohlin and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus at sfsymphony.org.

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