German conductor Christian Reif joined the San Francisco Symphony as Resident Conductor and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in the 2016-17 season. He was previously Conducting Fellow with the New World Symphony in Miami, where he was mentored by Michael Tilson Thomas. Mr. Reif completed his master of music in conducting at the Juilliard School under Alan Gilbert, where he received the Charles Schiff Conducting Award. He also studied with Dennis Russell Davies at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Mr. Reif is currently a member of Germany's Conductor's Forum where he was named one of their “Maestros of Tomorrow.” He was Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2015 and 2016 and has also worked as assistant and cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and for the New York Phil Biennial. Mr. Reif won the German Operetta Prize 2015, awarded by the German Music Council. In the 2017-18 season, Mr. Reif makes his debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, works with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, and makes return engagements with the Berkeley Symphony, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, and the Lakes Area Music Festival. This summer, he makes his debut with the Indianapolis Symphony and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. His enthusiasm in performing contemporary music has led to many world premiere performances, including Michael Gordon’s El Sol Caliente, a city symphony in honor of Miami Beach’s centennial; and concertos for DJ and orchestra, performed at the New World Symphony’s PULSE events. A dedicated and enthusiastic educator, Mr. Reif has also worked as a teaching fellow at the Juilliard School. He hosted and conducted education concerts with the New World Symphony, which were also webcast globally.

(April 2018)

San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra is recognized internationally as one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. Founded by the San Francisco Symphony in 1981, the SFSYO’s musicians are chosen from more than 300 applicants in annual auditions. The SFSYO’s purpose is to provide an orchestral experience of pre-professional caliber, tuition-free, to talented young musicians. The more than 100 musicians, ranging in age from 12 to 21, represent communities from throughout the Bay Area. The SFSYO rehearses and performs at Davies Symphony Hall under the direction of Radu Paponiu, who joined the San Francisco Symphony as Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in the 2024–25 season. Jahja Ling served as the SFSYO’s first Music Director, followed by David Milnes, Leif Bjaland, Alasdair Neale, Edwin Outwater, Benjamin Shwartz, Donato Cabrera, Christian Reif, and Daniel Stewart.

As part of the SFSYO’s innovative training program, musicians from the San Francisco Symphony coach the young players each Saturday afternoon in sectional rehearsals, followed by full orchestra rehearsals with Daniel Stewart. Youth Orchestra members regularly meet and work with world-renowned artists: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Herbert Blomstedt, Kurt Masur, John Adams, Yo-Yo Ma, Valery Gergiev, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Wynton Marsalis, Midori, Joshua Bell, Mstislav Rostropovich, Simon Rattle, and many others have worked with the Youth Orchestra. Of equal importance, Youth Orchestra members are able to speak with these prominent musicians about their professional and personal experiences, and about music. The ensemble has toured Europe and Asia, given sold-out concerts in such legendary halls as Berlin’s Philharmonie, Vienna’s Musikverein, Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and won first prize in Vienna’s International Youth and Music Festival.

Radu Paponiu, Music Director

Radu Paponiu was appointed Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra at the beginning of the 2024–25 season. He recently completed a five-year tenure as associate conductor of the Naples (Florida) Philharmonic and a seven-year tenure as music director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. He has also served as music director of the Southwest Florida Symphony, assistant conductor of the Naples Philharmonic, and as a member of the conducting faculty of the Juilliard Pre-College.

As a guest conductor, Paponiu has appeared with the Romanian National Radio Symphony, Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Rockford Symphony, California Young Artists Symphony, and National Repertory Orchestra. He has collaborated with soloists such as Evgeny Kissin, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham, Midori, Vladimir Feltsman, Robert Levin, Charles Yang, Nancy Zhou, Stella Chen, and the Ébène Quartet.

Born in Romania, Paponiu began his musical studies on the violin at age seven, came to the United States at the invitation of the Perlman Music Program, and later completed two degrees in violin performance at the Colburn School. He went on to earn a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at New England Conservatory, where he studied with Hugh Wolff.

Soprano Mary Evelyn Hangley has been featured on the stages of the Glimmerglass Festival and Minnesota Opera, and she was a participant in the Merola Opera Program. Most recently, she performed the role of Anna Sørensen in Kevin Puts’s Pulitzer prize-winning opera Silent Night at the Glimmerglass Festival. In concert, she has sung Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noel, and Schubert’s Mass in C major. This spring she appears as soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem at SUNY Fredonia. During her two years as a resident artist with Minnesota Opera, Ms. Hangley sang leading roles for the company such as Musetta in La Bohème, Woglinde in Das Rheingold, and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. 

Second year Adler Fellow Natalie Image is a former Merola Opera Program participant, and Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finalist. She was recently seen on the annual San Francisco Opera concert and she returned to San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in February as Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Past appearances include Cinderella in the North American premiere of Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella with Opera San José, Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with the Merola Opera Program, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, Aurore in Massenet’s Le portrait de Manon, Handel’s Messiah with the Okanagan Symphony, Johanna in Sweeney Todd with Opera on the Avalon, and Mrs. De Rocher in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking with Opera NUOVA. Ms. Image studied at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Canada, and completed her master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2017, studying with César Ulloa. She is from Tsawwassen, British Columbia, Canada.

A 2018 Grand Finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon made her San Francisco Opera main stage debut last fall in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life as an Angel First Class. As a participant of the 2017 Merola Opera Program, she sang the role of Popova in Walton’s The Bear and ended her summer season on the War Memorial Opera House stage singing an aria from Massenet’s Cendrillon. Other roles in the Merola Opera Program include La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium. Ms. Dixon’s 2016–17 season included her debut with Michigan Opera Theater in Copland’s The Tender Land as Mrs. Splinters. In concert, she has appeared on the Hill Auditorium stage as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and with the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club in Schubert’s Ständchen, and the title role in a concert performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

South Korean baritone SeokJong Baek was a participant of the 2018 Merola Opera Program, where he was featured in the Schwabacher Summer Concert. Currently a resident artist of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, he sang the role of Yamadori (Madama Butterfly) with that company in November. Other credits include La Traviata (Germont) with Aspen Music Festival, La Bohéme (Marcello, cover) with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance Program and Das Land des Lächelns (Tschang) and Le Roi l'a dit (Gautru) with Manhattan School of Music. In 2018 he received first place in the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal competition, third place at the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, a grant from the Giulio Gari Competition, and special prize at the Sonora International Opera Competition Francisco Araiza in Mexico. Mr. Baek is a recipient of the Presser Foundation and Mae Zenke Orvis Scholarship in Opera Studies, and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. 

With San Francisco Opera, bass-baritone Christian Pursell appeared as Walter Raleigh in Roberto Devereux, the Jailer in Tosca, Count Lamoral in Arabella, and an Angel First Class in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life. As a participant in the 2017 Merola Opera Program, he appeared as Dandini in La Cenerentola. His 2017-18 season saw debuts at both Houston Grand Opera (Tom in Laura Kaminsky's Some Light Emerges) and the Vienna State Opera (Second Englishman in Prokofiev's The Gambler), and he is featured on the 2017 world premiere recording of Greg Spears’s Fellow Travelers with the Cincinnati Symphony. Recent performances include Britten's War Requiem, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Mr. Pursell’s upcoming engagements include Samuel in Handel's Saul with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall and Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

(March 2019)

Bass-baritone Wilford Kelly is currently in his first year of study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), under the tutelage of César Ulloa. His recent opera credits include Gunther in the Jacksonville Symphony’s production of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, and Mustafa in the European Music Academy’s production of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri this past summer. Upcoming performances include Leone in the SFCM Historical Performance Ensemble’s performance of Handel’s Tamerlano, Bartolo in the SFCM Opera Ensemble’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Gus O’Neill in the SFCM Opera Ensemble’s production of John Musto’s Later the Same Evening. He graduates with his master’s in spring 2020.

Christopher Wall has performed in such operas as The Merry Widow (Cascada), The Pirates of Penzance (Frederic), Falstaff (Cajus), and most recently Les mamelles de Tirésias (Lacouf), with upcoming roles in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s productions of Le nozze di Figaro (Basilio) and Later the Same Evening (Sheldon). Originally from Phoenix, AZ, Mr. Wall received his bachelor's in music from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is currently working toward a master’s at SFCM.

Mezzo-soprano and Tennessee native Emma Sharp is a second-year master’s student in voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). Ms. Sharp has worked with Jose Maria Condemi and Curt Pajer on roles such as Mother in the SFCM and San Francisco Opera Education Department’s 2017 production of Hänsel und Gretel, and as Marcellina in the Conservatory’s spring production of Le nozze di Figaro. Other notable roles performed during her undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma include Mercedes (Carmen), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), La Badessa (Suor Angelica), and Filippyevna (Eugene Onegin). After graduation in May, Ms. Sharp plans to continue her vocal studies at the Conservatory for a post-graduate degree in voice.

Baritone Jorge Ruvalcaba has made appearances on the most prominent stages of Mexico, in La Bohème (Shaunard) at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Roméo et Juliette (Mercutio) at the Teatro Morelos, and Carmen (Le Dancaire) at the Teatro Degollado. Mr. Rubalcaba’s most recent performances include appearances in Les mamelles de Tirésias (Le Directeur) and The Rape of Lucretia (Junius) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), where he is pursuing a master’s in vocal performance under the instruction of César Ulloa. He performs the role of the Count in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the SFCM in April.

(March 2019)