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)

Soprano MICHELE KENNEDY is a versatile specialist in early classical and new music and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Bard Summerscape, the Getty Museum, Lincoln Center, and Washington National Cathedral.

Her recent highlights include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and St. John Passion with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with Trinity Wall Street, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Bach Society of Saint Louis, and Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes from the Life of a Martyr at UC Berkeley. She has presented Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers with Dark Horse Consort and Voices of Ascension, Bach Cantatas and Saint John Passion with American Classical Orchestra, and Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with The San Francisco Ballet. Her recent debut with Agave Baroque celebrating female voices from the seventeenth century through the present day will soon be made into an album.

Soprano Jennifer Mitchell has sung roles such as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro at Opera San José, the title role in Patience at Lamplighters Music Theatre (recorded and slated for release in 2019), Despina in Così fan tutte at Pocket Opera, Atalanta in Serse with the Handel Opera Project, and Annina in La Traviata at Livermore Valley Opera. Musical theater roles include Marian in The Music Man, Laurey in Oklahoma!, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Cosette in Les Misérables, Julie Jordan in Carousel, Clara in The Light in the Piazza, Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, and Polly in The Boy Friend, with companies including 42nd Street Moon, Broadway by the Bay, Cinnabar Theater, and Hillbarn Theatre. She starred as Snow White in Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, and she has been featured as a soloist with Masterworks Chorale, most recently in Fauré’s Requiem. A Bay Area native, she is a member of the adjunct voice faculty at San José State University, in addition to maintaining a private voice studio.

(February 2019)

Mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen appeared with the SFS last season as the Nurse in Boris Godunov and alto soloist in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. She recently performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Island City Opera and the Mendocino Music Festival; American Chamber Opera in Chicago in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen; and with One World Symphony as Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She has premiered new operas with Riverside Opera, Stonington Opera House, at the Ostrava Days Festival in the Czech Republic, and at the Carolina Chamber Music Festival. 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 made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall singing J.S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion and later appeared there in Handel's Messiah. Her solo album Who Is Silvie? is available on iTunes. Visit www.silviejensen.com for more information.

(March 2019)

Mezzo-soprano Margaret “Peg” Lisi was a featured soloist in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Voices of Music ensemble in 2018. She has performed with local and regional opera companies throughout the US in more than thirty roles, including Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) with Florida Grand Opera, the title role of Carmen with Houston’s Orchestra X, Columbina in Busoni’s Arlecchino with the Berkeley Symphony, and multiple characters in the world premiere of Travels by Victoria Bond with Opera Roanoke. Other highlights include the title roles of Rossini’s L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Handel’s Xerxes, La Périchole, Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann). Ms. Lisi was an apprentice with Portland Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Florida Grand Opera where she earned the Gilbert Young Artist Award. She was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and first place recipient of the East Bay Opera League Award.

(February 2019)

Natalie Salemmo joined the San Francisco Symphony as an AGMA Soprano Chorus Member in 2019 and recently worked on several digital projects for the Symphony. She has appeared in Handel’s Messiah and as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the South Dakota Symphony and has also performed with RenegadeEnsemble in the Twin Cities. Ms. Salemmo is a graduate of Mannes College and went on to perform with Opera Saratoga as part of their Young Artist Program.

Elliott Encarnación 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 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.

(May 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)

Baritone Mitchell Jones studied under Timothy Noble at Indiana University where he received his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. A native of Atlanta, GA, he most recently performed in Wagner's Götterdämmerung with San Francisco Opera. Before moving to San Francisco, Mr. Jones performed with the Atlanta Opera Chorus for three years, where he portrayed the role of the Jailer in Puccini's Tosca.

(February 2019)

Voices of Music is directed by musician-scholars Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler, who bring together a core group of the Bay Area’s leading specialists in period-instrument performance to present creative, accessible early music programs. Respected worldwide for its artistry, Voices of Music selects concert repertory to showcase its unique strengths in order to reach its audiences in relevant and vital ways. Each season, Voices of Music presents concert series at three locations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to several smaller concerts that feature the works of a particular composer or instrument. Voices of Music produces performance and educational music videos and since 2007 has been building a digital library of music from its concerts. This online library has transformed the way audiences engage with music reaching more than thirty-three million viewers with ages ranging from eighteen to thirty-four. As one of the largest classical music channels in the US, this free music video library is used in classes in high schools, colleges, and universities.

(March 2019)