Xian Zhang is currently in her seventh season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony, which marks its 100th anniversary season in 2022–23. She also holds the positions of principal guest conductor of the Melbourne Symphony and conductor emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. Ms. Zhang’s 2022–23 engagements include the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony, Singapore Symphony, and Orchestre National de Lille. Previous engagements include Philharmonia Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. In recent seasons she conducted the Orchestre National de Lyon at the Paris Philharmonie and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France as part of La Folle Journée festival in Nantes. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in February 2018.

In the opera world, Ms. Zhang returns to Norwegian Opera for Tosca, which she recently conducted at Cincinnati Opera. She will make her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 2024. Previous productions include Nabucco with Welsh National Opera, Otello with Savonlinna Festival, La traviata for Norwegian Opera, La bohème for English National Opera, and La forza del destino with National Opera.

Ms. Zhang previously served as principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. She was the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002 she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition and was also appointed the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor, later becoming associate conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.
 

This season soprano Gabriella Reyes returns to Glyndebourne as Mimì in La bohème and to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Factotum. She makes company debuts with Washington National Opera as Mimì and with Detroit Opera as Margarita in Ainadamar.

She also made her Paris Opera debut, appearing as Cio-Cio San in Seven Deaths of Maria Callas, and debuted with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Rosalba in Florencia en los Amazonas. She has appeared in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Marzelline in Fidelio and with the Jacksonville Symphony as Musetta. Highlights of previous seasons include First Lady in The Magic Flute, Nella in Gianna Schicchi, the High Priestess in Aida for the Metropolitan Opera, and her Santa Fe Opera debut as Musetta. In concert, she performed excerpts from Die Zauberflöte and Bachianas Brasileiras with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

A 2019 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, Ms. Reyes was a recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation and was also a grand finalist in the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is a graduate of Boston Conservatory.
 

Dramatic tenor Issachah Savage won the Seattle International Wagner Competition, earning the main prize, audience favorite prize, orchestra favorite prize, and a special honor. This season he returns to the Metropolitan Opera as High Priest in Idomeneo and will debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Git Here. On the concert stage he debuted with the Danish National Symphony, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, and National Symphony, and returned to the New York Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Last season, Mr. Savage returned to the Los Angeles Opera to sing the title role in Tannhäuser. On the concert stage he sang Beethoven’s Ninth with the Dallas Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and joined the Rotterdam Philharmonic for several concert performances of Das Rheingold. Recent debuts include the St. Louis Symphony and Handel and Haydn Society for Beethoven’s Ninth, and the Colorado Symphony for Verdi’s Requiem. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

In addition to his 2012 grand prize in the Marcello Giordani International Competition, Mr. Savage has received awards, honors, and career grants from the Wagner societies of New York, Washington, DC, and Northern California; Licia Albanese International Puccini Foundation; Olga Forrai Foundation; Gerda Lissner Foundation; Jensen Vocal Competition; Opera Index; and Giulio Gari Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Morgan State University and a master’s degree in opera voice performance from the Catholic University of America.
 

Reginald Smith, Jr.
Grammy and Emmy-winning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., was the 2021 US representative at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a Grand Finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. This season he returns to the Houston Grand Opera in Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers and debuts with the Washington National Opera in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue, with the Santa Fe Opera in Tosca, and with both Detroit Opera and Fort Worth Opera in Aida. He performs with the Memphis Symphony in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and with the New Jersey Symphony in Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

Last season marked debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, with San Diego Opera in Così fan tutte, and with Charleston’s Holy City Arts and Lyric Opera in La traviata. He appeared as Castor in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s Castor and Patience with Cincinnati Opera. Orchestral engagements included the Houston Symphony and New Jersey Symphony.

In addition to recognition by the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, the Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Vocal Competition, Mr. Smith has won awards in the National Opera Association Competition, Orpheus Vocal Competition, George London Vocal Competition, and Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. He received a 2015 Sarah Tucker Study Grant and a 2016 Career Grant from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation.
 

The San Francisco Symphony Chorus was established in 1973 at the request of Seiji Ozawa, then the Symphony’s Music Director. The Chorus, numbering 32 professional and more than 120 volunteer members, now performs more than 26 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 concluded his tenure as Chorus Director in 2021, a post he had held since 2007. Jenny Wong was named Chorus Director in September 2023.

The Chorus can be heard on many acclaimed San Francisco Symphony recordings and 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 Stravinsky collection and for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8).

To view a San Francisco Symphony Chorus roster, click here.