Daniel G. Smith was appointed Associate Principal Bass of the San Francisco Symphony in 2017. He previously served as principal bass of the Santa Barbara Symphony, and he was a member of the San Diego Symphony. He has served as guest principal and associate principal bass with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and guest principal of the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, MN. Mr. Smith received his Bachelor of Music from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music under the tutelage of Timothy Pitts.

Chen Zhao joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2000. At ten, he entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and in 1987 he moved to the US with his parents to study at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, studying with Heiichiro Ohyama. He went on to study with Felix Galimir at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Camilla Wicks at the SF Conservatory. In 1999 he joined the New World Symphony in Miami. Currently a violin coach for the SFS Youth Orchestra, Chen Zhao is a violin professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

(May 2018)

Elizabeth Dorman has appeared with the Louisville Orchestra, Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, California Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, SF Symphony Youth Orchestra, Stanford Summer Symphony, New World Symphony, and as a keyboardist with the San Francisco Symphony. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Leipzig’s Hochschule für Musik, and on NPR. She earned a DMA from Stony Brook University.