Biography

San Francisco Girls Chorus

Now in its fortieth season and led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) has been recognized as one of the world’s leading youth vocal ensembles. Recent performance highlights include debuts at Carnegie Hall with Philip Glass in the composer’s 1971 work, Music with Changing Parts, and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with The Knights for SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras; tours to the Nordic countries and Cuba; and the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. SFGC presents an annual Bay Area subscription series and collaborates this season with leading arts organizations including San Francisco Opera, Kronos Quartet, Opera Parallèle, and the Copenhagen Girls Choir. SFGC has commissioned more than three dozen works by leading composers including Philip Glass, Richard Danielpour, Aaron Jay Kernis, Gabriel Kahane, Augusta Read Thomas, Lisa Bielawa, and Chen Yi. In February 2018, the ensemble released its first album with Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Final Answer on Philip Glass’s Orange Mountain Music label. The recording features seven world premiere recordings and commissions for or by the chorus. SFGC’s performance and recording activities have garnered five Grammy awards and four ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming. SFGC also operates a chorus school, which annually trains more than 250 young women, ages four through eighteen, in the art of choral singing. For more information, visit sfgirlschorus.org. Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe has conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013.  Ms. Sainte-Agathe served as music director for the young singers program of the Montpellier National Symphony and Opera in France from 1998 to 2011, participating in eight recordings with the Montpellier National Orchestra and the Radio France Festival. She is a recipient of Victoires de la Musique, and a two-time recipient of the Orphée d’Or award for Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher and d’Indy’s L’Étranger. Ms. Sainte-Agathe studied piano performance at the Montpellier Conservatory and received bachelor’s and a master’s degrees from Université Paul Valery in Montpellier.

(December 2018)