CARMINA BURANA

March 23, 2024

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Overview

Based on medieval German poetry, Carmina burana has it all: rhythmic and brooding choruses, lusty drinking songs, ballads cursing fickle lovers, and gleaming paeans to love. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this season, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus stars in this exhilarating showpiece—arguably the most iconic choral work of the twentieth century.

The San Francisco Symphony does not appear in this concert.

Artists

Conductor

Soprano

Tenor

Bass

Piano

Piano

Timpani

Percussion

Percussion

Percussion

Percussion

Percussion

San Francisco Girls Chorus,
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, director

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

Program

Carl Orff

Carmina burana

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CARMINA BURANA

March 23, 2024

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Saturday

March 23, 2024

7:30PM

Davies Symphony Hall

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Jenny Wong

Conductor

A native of Hong Kong, Jenny Wong is Chorus Director of the San Francisco Symphony and associate artistic director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Her conducting engagements have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and Pops, the Industry, Long Beach Opera, Phoenix Chorale, and Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. In 2021, Wong was one of nine national recipients of Opera America’s inaugural Opera Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors.

As Chorus Director, Wong has worked with SF Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, as well as numerous guest conductors. She has also prepared choruses for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony, working with conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Susanna Mälkki, Jonathan Cohen, and Osmo Vänskä, among many others. Wong led the SF Symphony Chorus for the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Kaija Sariaaho’s Adriana Mater, which won the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, and helped prepare the Los Angeles Master Chorale for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance. Together with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Wong was also awarded the 2022 American Prize in Choral Performance in the Professional Division.

Cara Gabrielson

Soprano

Cara Gabrielson was a 2020 national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 2018 in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. In 2022 she joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in Idomeneo and returned to the SF Symphony in Orff’s Carmina burana and Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy. This season she sings Lucy in Fellow Travelers with Opera Parallèle and covers the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas with Opera San Jose.

As a solo recitalist, Ms. Gabrielson has sung at the Oregon Bach Festival and Portland Opera Guild. In 2019–20 she joined the Opera Idaho Emerging Artists Program to perform the title role in Acis and Galatea, Poussette in Manon, and Sister Catherine in Dead Man Walking. In 2018 she was a singer at the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto and a fellow at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival, where she soloed in Bach’s St. John Passion and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Ms. Gabrielson earned bachelor and master of music degrees from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is an alumna of Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artists Vocal Academy and the Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program.

Jack Wilkins

Tenor

Jack Wilkins is a singer and music educator originally from Watsonville, California. He performs with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Opera Chorus, and Vox Humana SF. He sang on the soundtrack for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has performed in many musicals, most recently as the Baker in Pacific Opera Project’s Into the Woods.

Mr. Wilkins teaches voice at Songbird Studios in San Francisco and is the founding director of Songbird City Choir, a new community choir. He earned a bachelor of music in vocal performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach.

Harlan J. Hays

Bass

Born and raised in San Francisco, Harlan Hays was a member of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, where he is now voice director and director of the Graduate Chorale. He is also an alumnus of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, where he currently teaches voice, art song, and opera as an artist in residence. He was educated at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying voice with Cesar Ulloa.

Mr. Hays is a member of the SF Opera Chorus, where he has sung in La Traviata, Eugene Onegin, Fidelio, and Billy Budd. He has also sung with the chorus at Opera San Jose and Berkeley Opera, and was a featured soloist in La Traviata and Halka with Pocket Opera. He has performed with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus since 2016 and is now an AGMA member.

Peter Grunberg

Piano

Peter Grunberg was appointed head of music staff at San Francisco Opera in 1992 and was also musical assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas at the San Francisco Symphony, where he was an assistant producer on several Grammy Award–winning recordings. He has collaborated in recital with Frederica von Stade and Thomas Hampson, conducted at the Moscow Conservatory and Sydney Opera House, and performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at Tanglewood.

Keisuke Nakagoshi

Piano

Keisuke Nakagoshi has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Hollywood Bowl. In 2009, he formed the piano duo ZOFO with Eva-Maria Zimmermann, and their first CD was nominated for a Grammy Award. He is currently pianist in residence at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and serves on the production team for Opera Parallèle.

Eric He

Timpani

Eric He is principal timpani of the Monterey Symphony and plays regularly with the Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic, and Suzhou Symphony. He has collaborated with composers John Luther Adams, Augusta Read Thomas, Billy Childs, and Tan Dun. Mr. He attended the Eastman School of Music and now studies at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jimmy Chan

Percussion

Jimmy Chan has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Berkeley Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Oakland Symphony, and Stockton Symphony, and has collaborated with Neal Schon, Journey’s cofounder and lead guitarist. As a Marimba One Artist, Mr. Chan has played at Royal Albert Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall. He graduated from the Royal College of Music, Colburn School, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Mika Nakamura

Percussion

Mika Nakamura is a percussionist, educator, and arts administrator. She has collaborated with the Magik*Magik Orchestra, yMusic, Sō Percussion, eighth blackbird, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Mainly Mozart All-Star Festival Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony. Ms. Nakamura is a graduate of UCLA and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

James Nickell

Percussion

James Nickell is a percussionist with the Boise Philharmonic and is working on a professional studies certificate at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has appeared as an extra percussionist with the San Francisco Symphony and the Colorado Symphony, and has performed with the Denver Philharmonic, Stockton Symphony, Arapahoe Philharmonic, and Boulder Symphony.

Artie Storch

Percussion

Artie Storch has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Symphony San Jose, Opera San Jose, the Who, Metallica, Weird Al Yankovic, and Andrea Bocelli. He is a frequent player in Bay Area musical theater, and as principal percussionist for the Skywalker Symphony, he has played drums and percussion for numerous movies and video games. He is the percussion director for the California Youth Symphony and is on the faculty of Chabot College.

Marty Thenell

Percussion

Marty Thenell has been a guest percussionist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. He is a graduate of San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School.

San Francisco Girls Chorus,
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, director

Since 1978, SFGC has provided girls and young women the unique opportunity not only to perform at the highest artistic caliber, but also to develop self-confidence, leadership skills, and an awareness of the role of the arts in civic engagement. SFGC has been recognized through numerous honors including five Grammy Awards, four ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming, and in 2002, became the first youth chorus to receive Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Achievement Award. Under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC has achieved an incomparable sound that underscores the unique clarity and force of impeccably trained treble voices fused with expressiveness and drama.

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

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.