Margaret Tait joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1975 and currently occupies the Lyman & Carol Casey Second Century Chair. A Virginia native, she holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and she previously served as principal cellist with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Tait was a founding member of the Aurora String Quartet, in which she performed with SFS colleagues for twenty-two years.

(September 2018)

MARIKO SMILEY began violin studies at age six with her father, David Smiley, who was a violist with the SF Symphony. She joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1982 and was for many years a member of the Aurora String Quartet.

Violinist and composer Sarn Oliver has performed as soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist throughout the US, Russia, Europe, and Japan. He has recorded violin concertos with Montpellier Chamber Orchestra in France as well as numerous CDs in the US. His performances have been broadcast in New York, Sacramento, Hawaii, and Japan. Before joining the SFS in 1995, he was concertmaster of the Santa Cruz Symphony and principal second violin of the Sacramento Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Oliver founded the Tilden Trio with cellist Peter Wyrick and pianist June Oh and created Tangled Duo with San Francisco Symphony violinist Mariko Smiley. He has performed with the Craftsbury Chamber Players, Elko Chamber players, Ebb and Flow Arts in Maui, and has been active in supporting arts organizations by donating performances to such organizations as the Open String and Música Marin. Mr. Oliver created the record label SarnWorks to promote contemporary classical music as well as chamber music and has produced, engineered, and performed on numerous CDs produced by SarnWorks. In the Bay Area, he often performs with his symphony colleagues on the SFS chamber music series, Chamber Music Sundaes, and at UCSF’s Cole Hall. An active composer, Mr. Oliver’s works have been performed in the United States, Japan, and Russia; a new commission for a solo piano work will be performed in Seoul, Korea. Mr. Oliver began his violin studies with Elmar Olivera and Ron Neal. He went on to receive his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School where his teachers included Sally Thomas, Ivan Galamian, Felix Galimir, and others. He taught at the Juilliard Pre-College and at Meadowmount as an assistant to Sally Thomas as well as instructing violin at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UOP Stockton, and privately. Mr. Oliver is also an active painter as well as a violin and bow maker. 

(September 2018)

Nancy Ellis, a New Jersey native, joined the San Francisco Symphony’s viola section in 1975. She attended Oberlin College for two years before transferring to Mills College, of which she is a graduate. She has toured Europe with a quartet that backed rock singer Van Morrison, and she has attended the Marlboro Music Festival and toured with Music from Marlboro.

(February 2019)

Jacob Nissly joined the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Percussion in 2013. Previously, he was principal percussion of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony. He also spent two years as a fellow in the New World Symphony.

Nissly is chair of the Percussion Department and professor of percussion at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is also a regular coach at the New World Symphony. He previously taught at the Eastman School of Music and Cleveland Institute of Music. He has served as a percussion coach for the Aspen Music Festival since 2019, National Youth Orchestra-USA, Verbier Festival, and others.

Nissly can be heard on recordings with the San Francisco Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. He also played drum set on the St. Louis Symphony's Grammy award-winning recording of John Adams's City Noir.
In 2019, Nissly premiered Adam Schoenberg’s percussion concerto Losing Earth with the San Francisco Symphony. He has performed the piece with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony and will perform it with the Nuremberg Symphony in 2026.

Nissly holds a Bachelor of Music and Jazz Studies degree from Northwestern University and Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. He endorses Vic Firth drumsticks, Zildjian cymbals, Kolberg percussion, and Remo drumheads.

For more on Jacob Nissly, visit sfsymphony.org/jacobnissly.

Raymond Froehlich joined the San Francisco Symphony percussion section in 1991. A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he was previously a member of the San Francisco Opera orchestra and a timpanist with the Berkeley Symphony. Mr. Froehlich has often been featured with the SFS in works by twentieth-century and contemporary composers. He performs with several jazz ensembles in the Bay Area, as well as a rock trio and Ultra World X-tet, which combines Chinese instruments—the guzheng and pipa—with saxophone, electric guitar, and bass.

(September 2018)

Nadya Tichman joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1980. She served as Associate Concertmaster through July 2022, holding the San Francisco Symphony Foundation Chair, and as acting concertmaster from 1998–2001. She was a founding member of the Donatello Quartet and co-director of Chamber Music Sundaes. She has served on the faculty of California State University, Sacramento, and plays a 1724 Stradivarius violin purchased by the SF Symphony for her exclusive use. She studied at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.

(11/2022)

Amy Hiraga studied at the University of Cincinnati and the Juilliard School. She has been a member of the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Hiraga spent one year as a member of the SFS before returning to the East Coast with her husband, SFS Associate Principal Cello Peter Wyrick. She worked as a freelance musician in New York and joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1991, then rejoined the SFS when she and Mr. Wyrick returned to San Francisco in 1999.

(September 2019)

Peter Wyrick was a member of the San Francisco Symphony cello section from 1986–89, rejoined the Symphony as Associate Principal Cello from 1999–2023, and retired from the Orchestra at the end of last season. He was previously principal cello of the Mostly Mozart Orchestra and associate principal cello of the New York City Opera. He has appeared as soloist with the SF Symphony in works including C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major, Bernstein’s Meditation No. 1 from Mass, Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante in B-flat major, and music rom Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Concerto.

In chamber music, Wyrick has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Jeremy Denk, Julia Fischer, and Edgar Meyer, among others. As a member of the Ridge String Quartet, Wyrick recorded Dvořák’s piano quintets with pianist Rudolf Firkušný on an RCA recording that received the Diapason d’Or and a Grammy nomination. He has also recorded Fauré’s cello sonatas with pianist Earl Wild for dell’Arte records. Born in New York to a musical family, he began studies at the Juilliard School at age eight and made his solo debut at age 12.

Chen Zhao joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2000. At ten, he entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and in 1987 he moved to the US with his parents to study at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, studying with Heiichiro Ohyama. He went on to study with Felix Galimir at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Camilla Wicks at the SF Conservatory. In 1999 he joined the New World Symphony in Miami. Currently a violin coach for the SFS Youth Orchestra, Chen Zhao is a violin professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

(May 2018)

Kelly Leon-Pearce, a member of the SFS since 1990, holds degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, where her teachers included Dorothy DeLay and Felix Galimir. She has served as a regular substitute of the New York Philharmonic and as associate and assistant concertmaster of the Aspen Festival Orchestra. As a founding member of the Persichetti Quartet, she played the cycle of Persichetti quartets at Kennedy Center and a Bartók cycle at MoMA in New York. For more on Kelly Leon-Pearce, visit sfsymphony.org/kellyleon-pearce.

(May 2018)

James Lee Wyatt III joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2001 after serving as principal percussionist of the Honolulu Symphony. A native of Princeton, KY, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and his master’s degree from Temple University. Mr. Wyatt has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, National Repertory Orchestra, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and the Ojai, Tanglewood, Spoleto festivals.

(September 2018)

Edward Stephan joined the SFS as Principal Timpani, occupying the Marcia & John Goldman Chair, in 2016. Prior to joining the Orchestra, he served as principal timpani of the Pittsburgh, Dallas, and the Fort Worth symphonies. Mr. Stephan holds degrees from the University of North Texas and New England Conservatory of Music. Currently timpanist of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, WY, he also serves as chair of the percussion department at Duquesne University. Recently appointed to the faculty of San Francisco Conservatory, he is currently a coach for the SFS Youth Orchestra.