Peter Sellars has gained international recognition for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of 20th-century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative and performing artists. He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg Festival, Opéra National de Paris, and San Francisco Opera, among others. Mr. Sellars collaborated on the creation of many works with composers John Adams and Kaija Saariaho, and has staged works by Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, Paul Hindemith, Osvaldo Golijov, and Tan Dun. Recent productions include a staging of Heinrich Schutz’s Musikalische Exequien for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Paris Opera, Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine at the Dutch National Opera, a concert staging of Adriana Mater as part of his multi-year collaboration with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the San Francisco Symphony, and a production of Charpentier’s Médée at Berlin State Opera with Simon Rattle. Earlier in 2024, Mr. Sellars created a new production of Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda for the Paris Opera.

Mr. Sellars is a distinguished professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, a curator of the Telluride Film Festival, and was a mentor for the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, Gish Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded the Polar Music Prize and been named Artist of the Year by Musical America. In 2021 he was honored with the EBU-IMZ Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of opera video recordings.

Fleur Barron received the 2022 Schubert Prize from the Schubertíada. She was chosen by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw as a Hemelsbestormer (Sky-stormer) for the 2022–23 season and designated an artistic partner of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo for several seasons beginning in 2022. A passionate interpreter of opera, chamber music, and concert works ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, she is mentored by soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan.

The 2022–23 season brings several orchestral debuts, including Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris, Berio’s Folksongs on tour with the Ge, Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra, and Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Slovenian Philharmonic.

Ms. Barron debuts with the San Francisco Symphony in these performances. This season she also sings the title role in Hasse’s Marc Antonio e Cleopatra with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica for a Pentatone recording, and Mozart’s Requiem at the Bordeaux National Opera.

Committed to cross-cultural dialogue and healing, Ms. Barron programs inclusive chamber music repertoire that amplifies the voices of diverse communities. Born in Northern Ireland to a Singaporean mother and a British father, she grew up in Hong Kong and New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Columbia University and a master of music from the Manhattan School of Music.

June 2023

After studying musicology at the Sorbonne and winning awards as a violinist at the Conservatoire de La Courneuve, Axelle Fanyo decided to focus on life as a singer, studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she obtained her Masters Diploma.

In 2019 she won the Kaleidoscope Competition and she was a double prize-winner at the Concours-Récital du Festival Classica in Montreal. She has also won first prize at the International Song Competition in Enschede, Netherlands, and is a former winner of the Young Artist Prize at the International French Song Competition in Toulouse.

Ms. Fanyo’s operatic repertoire is eclectic: Legrenzi’s La Divisione del mondo in Cologne with Les Talens Lyriquesl, Barena in Janáček’sJenůfa at the Opéra de Dijon and Opéra de Caen, Leila in John Adams’s I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky at Opéra de Lyon, and Khane in Rumshinsky’s The Golden Bride with Opera Fuoco. Most recently she sang Pulcheria in Le Amazzoni nell’isole fortunatewith Les Talens Lyriques, as well as Les Aventures du Baron de Münchhausen and Charpentier’s Le Malade imaginairewith Le Concert Spirituel. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

Future plans include Debussy’s La Damoiselle Élue with the Orchestre de Paris and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and her recital debut at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

June 2023

Nicholas Phan performs with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) in 2010, and regularly curates their annual Collaborative Works Festival.

This season Mr. Phan returned to the New York Philharmonic as the Evangelist in Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion and to the Dallas Symphony for Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise. He has also appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, and Philharmonia Orchestra, among many other ensembles. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in June 2009.

A celebrated recording artist, Mr. Phan’s most recent album, Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 2022. His album Clairières, with songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger, was nominated for a Grammy Award, as was Gods and Monsters. Mr. Phan’s growing discography also includes Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with Michael Tilson Thomas and the SF Symphony, a Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony, and Scarlatti’s La gloria di primavera and Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren with Philharmonia Baroque.

Mr. Phan’s many opera appearances include the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His repertoire includes the title roles in Bernstein’s Candide, Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea, as well as Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.

June 2023

Christopher Purves started his musical life as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, and went on to become a member of experimental rock group Harvey and the Wallbangers.

Highlights of his 2022–23 season include Balstrode in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes for the Bavarian State Opera, Father-in-Law in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence for the Royal Opera House, Alberich in Richard Wagner’s Siegfried for Zurich Opera House, and Joseph Haydn’s The Creation with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. He has also sung at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; La Scala; Opera North; Dutch National Opera; Lyric Opera of Chicago; Houston Grand Opera; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; and Salzburg Festival. In concert, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, and Handel and Haydn Society, among others. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

Mr. Purves has created roles in a number of notable premieres, most recently singing Walt Disney in the world premiere of Phillip Glass’s The Perfect American at Teatro Real Madrid and English National Opera. He also premiered George Benjamin’s Written on Skin to widespread acclaim. His extensive discography includes the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for Chandos, Messiah with The Sixteen, Written on Skin with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Choir of King’s College. His second volume of Handel’s Finest Arias was released on Hyperion with Arcangelo, following the success of his debut solo recording in 2012.

10/2022