Michael Tilson Thomas is the Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and cofounder and artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony. He is a 12-time Grammy Award winner and has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

Born in Los Angeles, he studied conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and as a young musician worked with artists including Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. In his mid-20s, he became assistant conductor—and later principal guest conductor—of the Boston Symphony. He subsequently served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and principal conductor of the London Symphony.

In 1987 he cofounded the New World Symphony, a postgraduate orchestral academy in Miami Beach dedicated to preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music. He has worked with more than 1,200 NWS fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers.

MTT became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growht and heightened international recognition for the orchestra. He led the Symphony in championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters, and as Music Director Laureate, he has returned to conduct the orchestra each season. 

His discography includes more than 120 recordings, and his television work includes series for the BBC and PBS, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and numerous televised performances. “Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is” aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been an active composer, with major works including From the Diary of Anne Frank, premiered with narrator Audrey Hepburn, and Meditations on Rilke. Both appear on SFS Media’s Grammy Award-winning recording of his music. In 2023, Yuja Wang released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon which included his You Come Here Often?
He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, a member of the American Academies of Arts and Sciences and Arts and Letters, a National Medal of Arts recipient, and a 2019 Kennedy Center honoree.

Three major recording projects were released in 2024 in celebration of his 80th birthday: Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas on Pentatone; The Complete Columbia, CBS, and RCA Recordings on Sony Classical; and Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings on DG Eloquence. 

The San Francisco Symphony Chorus was established in 1973 at the request of Seiji Ozawa, then the Symphony’s Music Director; the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, numbering thirty-two professional and more than 120 volunteer members, performs more than twenty-six concerts each season. Louis Magor served as the Chorus’s director during its first decade. In 1982 Margaret Hillis assumed the ensemble’s leadership, and the following year Vance George was named Chorus Director, serving through 2005-06. Ragnar Bohlin assumed the position of Chorus Director in March 2007. The Chorus can be heard on many acclaimed recordings, including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and 8 (with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting), choral works of Brahms, Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, Stravinsky’s Perséphone, selections from Berlioz’s Lélio, and John Adams’s Harmonium. The ensemble has received Grammy awards for Best Performance of a Choral Work (for Orff’s Carmina burana, Brahms’s German Requiem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8) and Best Classical Album (for a collection of Stravinsky’s music including Perséphone, The Firebird, and Le Sacre du printemps; and for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8).

Ragnar Bohlin began his tenure as SFS Chorus Director in 2007. Mr. Bohlin served as choirmaster of Stockholm’s Maria Magdalena Church and holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He studied conducting with Eric Ericson and Jorma Panula, piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London, singing with Nicolai Gedda, and through a Sweden-America Foundation scholarship he visited choruses throughout the US. With Stockholm’s KFUM Chamber Choir, the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir, and the Maria Vocal Ensemble, Mr. Bohlin has won numerous prizes in international competitions. Currently teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has also taught at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and been a visiting professor at Indiana University and Miami University. With the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, he has conducted Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina burana, and J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, and B minor Mass. Mr. Bohlin’s guest conducting engagements have included appearances with the São Paulo Symphony in Brazil, Malmö Symphony in Sweden, Stavanger Symphony in Norway, the Edmonton Symphony in Canada, and the Ericson Chamber Choir in Mozart’s C minor Mass. In 2018 he leads the BBC Singers and Swedish Radio Choir. Mr. Bohlin is the founding Artistic Director of the professional chamber choir Cappella SF; the group has released three recordings on the Delos label. He recently received Chorus America’s Michael Korn Founders Award.

(September 2018)

Stanislav Trofimov (Boris Godunov) began his operatic career in the Chelyabinsk Opera House in 2008, and went on to perform leading bass roles at the Ekaterinburg Opera House (the Bolshoi Theatre) and other opera theaters across Russia. He became a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2016. Mr. Trofimov has portrayed numerous leading roles including the title role in Boris Godunov, Philip II (Don Carlos), Procida (I vespri siciliani), Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Konchak (Prince Igor), Ivan Susanin (Life of the Tsar), Sobakin (Tsar’s Bride), Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia), Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Ferrando (Il Trovatore), Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro), and Old Hebrew (Samson et Dalila). Recent performances include Procida in Mariinsky’s new production of I vespri siciliani, Zaccaria in Nabucco at the opening of Arena di Verona Summer Festival, a tour with the Bolshoi Theatre as Archbishop in The Maid of Orleans in France, and performances at the Salzburg Festival as Priest in the new production of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Mr. Trofimov will appear at the 2018 Salzburg Festival and at Teatro alla Scala in 2019. These performances mark his San Francisco Symphony debut.

(June 2018)

Sergei Skorokhodov (Grigory) began his operatic career in 2007, when he joined the Mariinsky Theatre in performances alongside Anna Netrebko, Olga Borodina, and Maria Guleghina. Mr. Skorokhodov has performed at Festspielhaus Baden Baden, the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Washington National Opera, and Welsh National Opera, among others. After his 2008 debut at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre as Grigory in Boris Godunov, he performed the role at the Bavarian State Opera. Recent highlights include performances of the title role in Lohengrin, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Ivan in The Nose, Erik in The Flying Dutchman, Ismaele in Nabucco, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Alfredo in La Traviata at the Mariinsky Theatre, Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Valencia Palau de la Musica, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Glyndebourne Festival. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut at these performances.

(June 2018)

Vyacheslav Pochapsky (Varlaam) is currently a principal soloist at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. He has performed with major opera houses in Berlin, Bonn, Budapest, Chemnitz, Dresden, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Genoa, Gera, Glasgow, Graz, London, Milan, Moscow, New York, Paris, Seoul, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Trieste, and Verona. Mr. Pochapsky has appeared in roles in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, The Tsar's Bride, and Mozart and Salieri.  These performances mark his San Francsico Symphony debut.

(June 2018)

Tenor Stanislav Mostovoy (Holy Fool) was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a family of musicians. He graduated from the Glinka Boy Choir School in 2000 and the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in 2005. Notable roles include Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Boyar Ivan Likov in The Tsar's Bride, the Holy Fool in Boris Godunov, the title role in Faust, and Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. In 2012 Mr. Mostovoy joined the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Company in Moscow and in 2014 joined the Tenors of the XXI Century project. These performances mark his San Francisco Symphony debut.

(June 2018)

Bass Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev (Pimen) graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and continued his education at the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre. He has participated in workshops with Riccardo Muti, Alexander Malt, Vladimir Chernov, Diane Zola, Richard Bado, Lenore Rosenberg, and Mirella Freni. Mr. Kuzmin-Karavaev has been a soloist at Novaya Opera Theatre Moscow since 2007, a regular guest soloist at the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre since 2006, and at Bolshoi Theatre Moscow. He is a laureate of the International Glinka Singing Competition in Moscow, the Galina Vishnevskaya International Opera Singers Competition, and Bella Voce Young Opera Singers’ Competition in Moscow. Notable roles include Pimen in Boris Godunov, Rodolfo in La Sonnambula, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. In concert, he has performed repertory by J.S. Bach, Haydn, Rossini, Schumann, Verdi, Mozart, Fauré, and Saint-Saëns. These performances mark his San Francisco Symphony debut.

(June 2018)

In the 2017-18 season soprano Jennifer Zetlan (Xenia) gives performances in the title role of Rhoda in John Musto’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt for On Site Opera at the Natural History Museum, reprises her role in Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing with American Repertory Theatre at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and plays Fanny in the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star. Last season, she made her European debut with the Stuttgart State Theater in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, created the title role in the world premiere of Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre with Center for Contemporary Opera, and concluded a run of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. On the concert stage, she performed Kaija Saariaho’s Lonh with the New York Philharmonic at the Park Avenue Armory and sang the role of Woglinde in that ensemble’s concert presentation of Das Rheingold. Ms. Zetlan sang the soprano solos in Bruckner’s Te Deum and Mozart’s Mass in C minor with Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall and on tour in Uruguay, and was heard at Carnegie Hall as a celebrated alumna of Mannes College of Music in its Centennial Celebration concert. She was also heard in recital with pianist David Shimoni and composer Ricky Ian Gordon, and was seen in Charlottesville Opera’s new production of Oklahoma! as Laurey. These performances mark her San Francisco Symphony debut.

(June 2018)

In recent seasons, mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen (Nurse) has appeared at Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, American Chamber Opera in Chicago, Island City Opera, and One World Symphony. She has created and performed new works at London’s Barbican Centre with Ornette Coleman, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara with Meredith Monk, and Carnegie Hall with Philip Glass. Ms. Jensen won second place in the 2014 Oratorio Society of New York Solo Competition, and made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall in 2014. This season she makes her debut with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and at the Mendocino Music Festival. She has commissioned and premiered works composed for her, and has appeared in recital in New York at Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Symphony Space, Americas Society, Liederkranz Club, the Stone, Bonhams, Nicholas Roerich Museum, the Cell Theatre, and at the Ethical Society of Philadelphia. She has made recordings for the ECM, London, Koch, Helicon, MSR Classics, Sono Luminus, and Soundbrush Records labels. A professional member of the SFS Chorus, she made her Symphony solo debut in 2015 and appeared most recently in May performing J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in the SFS Chorus concert.

(June 2018)

Tenor Yevgeny Akimov (Prince Shuisky) has appeared at the Mariinsky Theatre, San Francisco Opera, La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, National Grand Theatre of China, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has worked with singers including Giuseppe Giacomini, Plácido Domingo, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, and with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Gianandrea Noseda, and Semyon Bychkov. Mr. Akimov’s discography includes recordings of Boris Godunov, Betrothal in a Monastery, The Tsar’s Bride, The Love for Three Oranges, Semyon Kotko, Francesca da Rimini, Aleko, and The Bells. In 2009 Mr. Akimov was awarded medals by the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation for his performance in Francesca da Rimini and The Bells. These performances mark his San Francisco Symphony debut.

(June 2018)

This season, baritone Aleksey Bogdanov (Andrei Shchelkalov) makes his debut with Arizona Opera as Scarpia in Tosca and with Sarasota Opera as Sebastiano in d’Albert's Tiefland. He also appears as Lionel in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans with Odyssey Opera in Boston and in Anton Rubinstein’s Demon with Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. A graduate of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, Mr. Bogdanov received additional training as a young artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Glimmerglass Festival, and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. He is a two-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, a two-time winner of the Florida Grand Opera YPO competition, and a career grant recipient from the Sullivan Musical Foundation, the Shoshana Foundation, San Francisco Opera Merola Program, and Pasadena Opera Guild. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut at these performances.

(June 2018)

Tenor Ben Jones (Missail) has appeared on stages around the world, including the Grosser Musikvereinssaal, the Rudolfinum, Mariinsky Theatre, Vienna State Opera, the Concertgebouw, and Walt Disney Hall. He is featured on recordings on the Albany label, as well as the soundtracks for the video game franchises Halo and Civilization, and on commercials for Coors Light and Meow Mix. Mr. Jones has appeared as soloist with Pittsburgh Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, sharing the stage with the likes of Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Rita Moreno, Helmuth Rilling, and Val Diamond. In the theatre, he has appeared in Guys and Dolls, Follies, Show Boat, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cats, and Sweeney Todd, in addition to having portrayed multiple pop culture figures in the San Francisco revue Beach Blanket Babylon. He made his San Francisco Symphony solo debut earlier this season performing in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Candide.

(June 2018)

In the 2017-18 season, American mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook (Innkeeper) appears at the Metropolitan Opera in the role of Camila in Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel. Ms. Cook’s engagements last season included performances as Countess de Coigny in Andrea Chénier with San Francisco Opera, the Witch in excerpts from Humpderdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with the San Francisco Symphony, and as Older Woman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight with Opera Parallèle. She can be heard in the world premiere recording of After Life with Music of Remembrance, recently released on the Naxos label. Ms. Cook is a professor of voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she holds the Frederica von Stade Distinguished Chair in voice. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 1990 and returned most recently in March 2018 as a part of the SoundBox show, Synesthesia.

(June 2018)

Bass-baritone Philip Skinner (Nikitich) is a graduate of Northwestern University and Indiana University. He recently performed with the Metropolitan Opera in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Opera Parallèle in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Pacific Symphony in Aïda, and Charlottesville Opera in Allen Shearer’s Middlemarch in Spring. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1989 and returned most recently in November 2017 performing Dvořák’s The American Flag. Mr. Skinner’s long association with San Francisco Opera began in 1985 and he has given more than 380 performances in fifty-five productions with the company. His international credits include Rigoletto with the Israel Philharmonic, The Tales of Hoffmann with the Victoria State Opera in Melbourne, The Magic Flute with Vancouver Opera, and Salome with La Monnaie in Brussels.

(June 2018)

Bass Chung-Wai Soong began his singing career with Australia’s Victoria State Opera Chorus. He has performed as soloist with West Bay Opera, Victoria State Opera, Cappella SF, and Volti vocal ensemble. He has been a soloist in the Requiems of Fauré, Mozart, and Dvořák, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ, and the Handel roles of Zebul in Jephtha and Gobrias in Belshazzar. Highlights include performances as First Nazarene in Salome, Sadistic Sailor in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves, Elijah in the world premiere of Meira Warshauer’s Elijah’s Violin, and Gran Sacerdote in Nabucco. He joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 1994 and made his San Francisco Symphony solo debut in 2005.

Elliott Encarnación (Boyar in Attendance) is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He has written for ensembles and institutions in his native Michigan as well as in New York and San Francisco. While his repertory includes numerous sacred choral works, his primary compositional focus is on the art of opera. He co-founded Prodigal Opera Productions in 2013, a Bay Area company, workshop, and theater dedicated to reviving interest, and relevance in the art form. He joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2013 and appeared as Ragotski in Candide this past January.

(June 2018)

San Francisco native Samuel Faustine (Boyar Khrushchov) has appeared in Europe, China, and across the US in roles such as Anthony in Sweeney Todd (San Jose Stage), Vašek in The Bartered Bride (Pocket Opera), Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors (Ray of Light Theatre), Curly in Oklahoma! (Broadway by the Bay), Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (Kunming Opera Festival), in Carmina burana (San Jose Sinfonia), and many leading roles with Lamplighters Music Theater. Mr. Faustine regularly sings with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Gaude, Volti, Cappella SF, and many other local ensembles. He graduated with a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He makes his San Francisco Symphony solo debut with these performances.

(June 2018)

Tenor Jonathan Thomas (Lavitsky), a native of Lawrence, KS, joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2014. He has appeared as a soloist with the SFS in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and Orff’s Carmina burana, and at SoundBox in Monteverdi’s Magnificat from the Vespers of 1610 and Pérotin’s Sederunt Principes. Mr. Thomas received his bachelor’s in vocal performance from the University of Kansas, and he completed apprenticeships at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Des Moines Metro Opera. He has performed with the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Chorale, and appeared on recordings as a soloist and ensemble member with the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers. Mr. Thomas currently sings with the chamber choir Cappella SF. 

(June 2018)

Baritone Matthew Peterson (Chernikovsky) joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2011. Appearances with the SFS include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Missa solemnis, Stravinsky’s Mass, Magnificat from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in the SFS SoundBox series, and roles in Candide and Peter Grimes. His solo appearances include performances in the Bay Area with Cappella SF, Opera San Jose, and the San Jose Symphonic Choir; in Washington DC with the Washington Master Chorale; and in the Czech Republic and Austria with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Peterson studied piano with Hans Boepple and voice with Paul Murray at Santa Clara University.

(June 2018)

Los Angeles native Christopher Bordenave (Choreographer/Actor/Dancer) is a curator, dancer, choreographer, and educator. He studied with Lula Washington, Debbie Allen, at the Alvin Ailey School, and he holds a BFA in Dance from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet/Dominican University BFA program. Mr. Bordenave has performed with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Morphoses, Luna Negra Dance Theater, and BODYTRAFFIC. He co-founded the movement collective No)one. Art House (NOAH) curating and managing performances and collaborations with noted artists Saint Heron, Refinery 29, and the Hauser & Wirth. He has choreographed pieces for such artists as Solange Knowles, Kelela, Anderson Paak, Mayer Hawthorne, Tuxedo, Empress Of, and The Assembly Dance, and he teaches at CalArts, Loyola Marymount University, Pomona College, and UC Irvine.

(June 2018)

California native Charissa Kroeger (Actor/Dancer) freelances for both commercial and concert dance projects. Her TV, film, music video, and commercial credits include The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Solange Knowles’s Saint Heron, Ford, Sia, St. Vincent, and Anderson Paak. After receiving her Bachelor of Art in Dance from Loyola Marymount University, she furthered her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. Ms. Kroeger has performed works by noted choreographers and companies including Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Bobbi Jene Smith, Tony Testa, Adam Barruch, and No)one. Art House. She currently assists Ryan Heffington on the Netflix show The OA, and tours internationally with music artist Lorde.

(June 2018)

Sasha Rivero (Actor/Dancer) is a singer and dancer born and raised in a Belizean family in Los Angeles, CA. Ms. Rivero is trained in ballet, modern, hip-hop, contemporary, and musical theater, and graduated with a B.A. in dance from UCLA’s dance department. Upon graduating, she fully submerged herself into the commercial and concert dance circuit, performing the works of Ezralow Dance, Ryan Heffington, and No)one. Art House. Ms. Rivero has been assistant choreographer and rehearsal director on several dance projects and has performed in television shows, music videos, and with Los Angeles Opera.

(June 2018)

Judson Emery (Actor/Dancer) participated in summer programs at the Juilliard School, the SF Conservatory of Dance, the LINES Ballet School, and the Alonzo King Professional Workshop. He assisted Tyce Diorio and Brian Friedman on So You Think You Can Dance and The PULSE on tour. Mr. Emery has worked on the television shows Glee, Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, The X-Factor, as well as the Academy Awards, the Emmys, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the MTV Video Music Awards. He has also worked with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Florence + The Machine, Cher Lloyd, One Republic, and Adam Lambert. He is currently a faculty member of Revel Dance Convention.  

(June 2018)

Jobel Medina (Actor/Dancer) was born and raised in the Philippines. He received his BFA in Dance at the California State University, Long Beach and is currently a dancer for Ate9 Dance Company in Los Angeles and a touring performer for The YC. Previous appearances include Tino Sehgal’s Selling Out (2002) at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Mr. Medina has been a collaborator for No)one. Art House since 2016.

(June 2018)

Established by Founding Artistic Director Kevin Fox, the three-time Grammy award-winning Pacific Boychoir Academy (PBA) began as an after-school music program in Oakland, CA. Now comprising more than 160 boys and young men ages four to eighteen, in seven choirs, PBA is the only choir school on the West Coast, where a full academic curriculum is integrated with daily musical instruction for boys grades three through eight. The Day School music program is currently directed by Andrew Brown, Director of Choral Studies, and Marcia Roy, Artistic Program Director. PBA has performed with the Berkeley Symphony, American Bach Soloists, Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Lithuanian State Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Brazil, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, Trinity Lyric Opera, University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, Harvard Men’s Glee Club, Vienna Boys Choir; and has been heard on the NBC television shows America’s Got Talent and The Blacklist; and has performed with comedian Zach Galifianakis. The choir has toured throughout the US, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South America, South Africa, China, Russia, and Vietnam. PBA made its SFS debut under Michael Tilson Thomas in September 2002, and is heard with the SFS on Grammy award-winning recordings of Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8. Andrew Brown is currently in his second season as Director of Choral Studies with Pacific Boychoir Academy. He previously spent ten years as an associate director with PBA and two years with the Golden Gate Boychoir. Additionally he is Concert Choir Director of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir. He recently served as artistic director of the Contra Costa Children’s Choir and the Vallejo Choral Society.

(September 2018)

Working at the convergence of opera, theater, and film, Los Angeles-based artist James Darrah (director) brings together disparate artists and mediums for community-focused collaborations that pair narrative heft and intimate character studies with abstracted, enigmatic realizations of time and space. He is Artistic Director of Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival and directed the premiere of a new production of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s latest opera Proving Up in the ONE Festival; he will direct the New York premiere at the Miller Theater in fall 2018. Mr. Darrah premieres Mazzoli’s VESPERS, a film featuring violinist Olivia DePrato, for NPR’s First Watch, which will debut live with violinist Jennifer Koh at National Sawdust in Brooklyn this spring. This marks the latest chapter in a collaboration that began in 2016, when Mr. Darrah directed the world premiere of Mazzoli and Vavrek’s operatic adaptation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves with Opera Philadelphia and the work’s New York premiere with the Prototype Festival in 2017; the opera was subsequently nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2016 International Opera Awards, and won Best New Opera for 2016 from the Musical Critics Association of North America. He directs the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s new opera Prism in his LA Opera debut and at the Prototype Festival in fall 2018. Mr. Darrah returns to Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, reviving his production of Handel’s Alcina for the 2019 International Handel Festspiele; directs a new production of Philip Glass’s Les enfants terribles for the Opera Omaha ONE Festival 2019; develops Hecate House, a new play by Christopher Adams Cohen in Berlin; and creates and directs Ne quittez pas: A reimagined La voix humaine to be staged and then filmed on location as part of Opera Philadelphia’s O18 Festival. Mr. Darrah is recipient of the National Princess Grace Award in Theater, the James Pendelton Foundation Grant, was a directing nominee in the 2015 International Opera Awards, and was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month in December 2015. He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television where he received the George Burns/Gracie Allen Directing Scholarship. He has taught acting and performance in the Adler Fellowship Program of San Francisco Opera, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Cornish College of the Arts, California State University, Long Beach, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Pablo Santiago (lighting design) is winner of the 2017 Richard Sherwood Award and the 2015 Stage Raw Award, and was nominated for an Ovation Award in 2018 and 2014, and the LA Weekly Award in 2014. His work has been seen at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, the Latino Theater Co., Arena Stage in Washington DC, Paramount Theater in Boston, Skirball Cultural Center in New York, San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox, Annenberg Space for Photography, Summer Happenings at the Broad Museum, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Su Teatro in Denver, Teatro Brava, Getty Museum, ODC, Opera Santa Barbara, and Francis Ford Coppola’s "Distant Vision" project at UCLA, among others. Recent highlights include Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Proving Up at ONE Festival/Opera Omaha, Eugene Onegin with Boston Conservatory Opera, The Threepenny Opera at Boston Lyric Opera, Destiny of Desire at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Goodman Theater, War of the Worlds with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Industry, Skeleton Crew at Geffen Playhouse, Dementia at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Pélleas et Mélisande with Cincinnati Symphony, Galileo with The Industry, Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum, Breaking the Waves for Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects, Flight for Opera Omaha, and Good Grief and Citizen at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Upcoming projects include Schoenberg In Hollywood at Boston Lyric Opera, Prism at LA Opera, Ted Hearne’s Place at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ne quittez pas: A Reimagined La voix humaine at Opera Philadelphia, Pagliacci at Opera Omaha, and Mother Road at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Santiago was lighting designer for the SFS semi-staged productions of Das klagende Lied in 2017 and On the Town and the SoundBox performance Hidden Worlds in 2016.

(June 2018)

Adam Larsen (video design) is a documentary filmmaker and designer for live performance. Designs for the San Francisco Symphony include Debussy’s Le martyre de Saint Sébastien, Peer Gynt, Peter Grimes, On the Town, Das klagende Lied, and most recently Michael Tilson Thomas’s Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind. Mr. Larsen is also Resident Projection Designer for SoundBox. Other works include Hal Prince’s LoveMusik on Broadway; Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking The Waves at Opera Philadelphia and Prototype; Lee Breuer’s The Gospel at Colonus at the Athens, Edinburgh, and Spoleto festivals; Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the Singapore and Edinburgh festivals; Saariaho’s Maa with Atlanta Symphony; Janáček’s From the House of the Dead at Canadian Opera; The Pelleas Project at the Cincinnati Symphony; Dove’s Siren Song, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann at Hawaii Opera Theatre; John Adams’s A Flowering Tree and Handel’s Agrippina at Opera Omaha; Handel’s Semele with Pacific Musicworks; John Cage’s Second Hand and Foss’s Phorion with New World Symphony; Dove’s Flight at Juilliard; Yoon’s Sunken Cathedral at Prototype; and Mascagni’s Iris at Bard Summerscape. Mr. Larsen’s documentary about autism entitled Neurotypical aired on the PBS series POV.

(June 2018)

Emily Anne MacDonald and Cameron Jaye Mock (scenic and costume design) are the creators of Mac Moc Design, LLC. Working internationally in opera, theater, dance, and concert, they have worked with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard School, Bard Summerscape, Merola, Opera Omaha, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, and Trinity Wall Street. Ms. MacDonald is an active painter, printmaker, and sculptor, having been a resident artist at Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland and at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA, as well as a member of the California Society of Printmakers. Having studied music and dance, and worked professionally in museum design, fashion, and fine art, she has ventured into entertainment design. Mr. Mock, an avid student of live performance, worked and studied for the last fifteen years throughout California living and working as a scenic and lighting designer for companies such as Berkeley Opera, the Broad Stage, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and the Los Angeles Theater Center before pairing up with Ms. MacDonald. The two hold Master of Fine Arts degrees in Design for Theater and Entertainment Media from University of California, Los Angeles, a Theater Arts degree from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Studio Art degree from Mills College.

(June 2018)

Emily Anne MacDonald and Cameron Jaye Mock (scenic and costume design) are the creators of Mac Moc Design, LLC. Working internationally in opera, theater, dance, and concert, they have worked with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard School, Bard Summerscape, Merola, Opera Omaha, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, and Trinity Wall Street. Ms. MacDonald is an active painter, printmaker, and sculptor, having been a resident artist at Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland and at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA, as well as a member of the California Society of Printmakers. Having studied music and dance, and worked professionally in museum design, fashion, and fine art, she has ventured into entertainment design. Mr. Mock, an avid student of live performance, worked and studied for the last fifteen years throughout California living and working as a scenic and lighting designer for companies such as Berkeley Opera, the Broad Stage, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and the Los Angeles Theater Center before pairing up with Ms. MacDonald. The two hold Master of Fine Arts degrees in Design for Theater and Entertainment Media from University of California, Los Angeles, a Theater Arts degree from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Studio Art degree from Mills College.

(June 2018)

This season, Cuban-American mezzo-soprano Eliza Bonet (Fyodor) made her debut at the Kennedy Center as a member of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, singing the role of Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina. As a part of this season’s nationwide Bernstein at 100 celebrations, Ms. Bonet performs as Paquette in Candide with the Washington National Opera, and with the National Symphony in West Side Story. She returns to Washington National Opera for the 2018-19 season, performing in Kevin Puts’s Silent Night, Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, Unicorn, and Me, and Kamala Sankaram and Jerre Dye’s Taking Up Serpents. As a member of the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera, Ms. Bonet performed the role of Eunice in the company’s production of Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire and appeared as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Her numerous honors include an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2013, being named a finalist at the Opera Birmingham Competition, and a Joe Festervan Memorial Award from the Mary Jacobs Smith Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year Competition. She completed her graduate degree from Florida State University in 2011 and was a young artist with Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut at these performances.

(June 2018)

Raised in Marietta, GA, Austyn Rich (Actor/Dancer) began his dance training at Pebblebrook High School’s Cobb County Center of Excellence for the Performing Arts studying dance and acting. Mr. Rich has performed the works of William Forsythe, Bill T. Jones, d. Sabela Grimes, Sylvia Palacios Whitman, Aszure Barton, Micaela Taylor, and many others. He has also been a part of commercial works by Solange Knowles-Ferguson, Adidas, Samantha Blake Goodman, and Gypsy Sport. Mr. Rich currently attends the University of Southern California, studying dance with an emphasis on performance art.

(June 2018)

Hana S. Kim (associate video design) is a set and projection designer based in Los Angeles. Recent credits include projection design for Steal A Pencil For Me directed by Omer Ben Seadia (Opera Colorado), Weightless directed by Becca Wolff (Z Space), Little Black Shadows directed by May Adrales (South Coast Repertory), Eva Trilogy directed by Loretta Greco (Magic Theatre), and Wonderful Town directed by David Lee (LA Opera). Ms. Kim is a recipient of the Sherwood Award (2018), Princess Grace Award, Helen Hayes Award, Stage Raw Award, StageSceneLA Award, Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, and is a member of USA Local 829. Ms. Kim was projection co-designer for the April 2017 SoundBox concert Bell Curve.

(June 2018)