Arnie Roth is the music director, producer, and conductor of Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, in collaboration with the video game company Square Enix. Featuring the music of Nobuo Uematsu and other composers from the Final Fantasy series, Distant Worlds has toured to Tokyo’s International Forum, the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House, among other venues worldwide. He is also the producer of the Distant Worlds albums and several DVDs and Blu-rays.

Prior to his work with the Final Fantasy tours, Roth was the principal violinist and concertmaster for Mannheim Steamroller, the No. 1 best-selling Christmas artist of all time, working closely for decades with composer Chip Davis on dozens of albums and tours including the Grammy Award-winning Fresh Aire 7.

Roth has conducted many of the world’s great orchestras, including the London Symphony, National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Kansai Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Czech National Philharmonic, and Sydney Symphony. He has produced recordings for the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass, the Irish Tenors, George Vosburgh, and for labels including American Gramaphone, JVC, Mattel, Warner Bros., Sony, Koch, Razor & Tie, and AWR Records. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2009.

Amanda Achen has performed at iconic venues including Radio City Music Hall, the Dolby Theater, Hollywood Bowl, Apollo Theater, and Tokyo Dome. In addition to performing on Final Fantasy tours, she has performed with Joe Hisaishi’s Studio Ghibli concerts and on publicity events for Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens. On the classical stage, she has sung in Mozart’s Requiem, Carmina burana, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, Bach’s B-minor Mass, and Handel’s Messiah. For film and television, she can be heard on the soundtracks for Frozen 2, Mulan, Birds of Prey, and The Simpsons. She is a Twitch partner and engages with her audience through streaming sessions of Final Fantasy XIV gameplay, interactive chats, and musical performances. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.

JENNY WONG
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.

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 professionals 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).