A native of Lucerne, Switzerland, Ludwig Wicki grew up in a musical environment influenced by church and folk music. He studied trombone and became a member of the Lucerne Symphony, eventually expanding his studies to include conducting. As a Baroque trombonist, he frequently performed with period instrument orchestras and ensembles, which further informed his musical approach.

In 2008 Wicki led the 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus in the concert premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring at the Culture and Congress Centre in Lucerne, and went on to premiere The Two Towers in 2009 and The Return of the King in 2010. He has also premiered concert productions of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, as well as Gladiator, Fantasia, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Alice in Wonderland. 

Wicki has led the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has been honored by the city of Lucerne for his accomplishments as a musician and educator, and received the Award for Excellence in Cultural Creativity from the Global Thinkers Forum. 

Pacific Boychoir Academy is an independent choir school located in Oakland for boys in grades 3–8, with after-school choirs for boys and girls in pre-kindergarten through high school. PBA has won three Grammy Awards with the San Francisco Symphony and toured internationally. 

Dario Banuelos
Calder Bayless 
Brett Colvin 
Tristan David
 Benedict Davies 
Gabriel Davis 
Kai Esainko 
Brenn Farrel 
Ethan Hajduk 
Noah Hajduk 
Oliver Hajduk
Ethan-Michael Hollins-Mason 
Alistair Lilly
Louis Lunt
Toby Macdonald Smith 
Declan McCarthy
Eli McKoy Beiser 
James McLoughlin 
Forrest “Mac” McNeil
Tenoch Meletiche 
Andres Morales 
Theo Moser 
Giancarlo Padilla 
Dresden Piccolo 
Emmet Stout 
Felix Sudat 
Adrian Thong
Alexander Veikos Stuverud 
Kazimir Wang
Asa White-Hinman 
Lucas Willcuts 
Rory Wilmer-Child
William Winklev-Markman 
Simeon Wong
Richy Zheng

Zachary Salsburg-Frank,
Director

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), Best Classical Album (for a Stravinsky collection and for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8), and most recently Best Opera Recording (for Saariaho’s Adriana Mater).

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David J. Xiques has prepared the San Francisco Symphony Chorus since 1997, presently as Guest Chorus Director and previously as Assistant Director. Highlights include preparing the Chorus for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Orff’s Carmina burana, Handel’s Messiah, Adams’s A Flowering Tree, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and Mozart’s Mass in C minor, and conducting the Chorus onstage at the 2016 Día de los Muertos concert. He has prepared the Chorus for conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Paul McCreesh, John Adams, Ingo Metzmacher, Gemma New, Xian Zhang, Emil de Cou, Grant Gershon, Donato Cabrera, Daniel Stewart, and Christian Reif. He also sang with the Chorus as a member of AGMA from 1993 through 2022.

Xiques is a professor emeritus of music at San Francisco State University, where his students sang with the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra in performances of Holst’s The Planets and joined the SF Symphony in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Frost Ampitheater. As an author and composer, his book Solfege and Sonority: Teaching Music Reading in the Choral Classroom is published by Oxford University Press and his choral arrangements are published by Alliance Music Publications.