The San Francisco Symphony Chorus is the resident chorus of the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fr ...

(SFS).

Background

Established in 1972 at the request of then-music director

Seiji Ozawa Seiji (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese ski jumper *, Japanese racing driver *, Japanese politician *, Japanese film directo ...

, the chorus first performed in the 1973-74 Symphony season. The SFS Chorus today has 156 members and gives a minimum of 26 performances each season at

Davies Symphony Hall Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is the concert hall component of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The 2,743-seat hall was completed in 1980 at a cost of US$28 million to give the San Francisco ...

. They have performed with some of the world's greatest conductors such as

Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Or ...

Neville Marriner Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conductors". Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of th ...

, Roger Norrington, and many others.

Leadership

During its first decade, Louis Magor served as the SFS Chorus director. Magor was succeeded in 1982 by the director of the

Chicago Symphony Chorus The Chicago Symphony Chorus began on September 22, 1957, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced that Margaret Hillis would organize and train a symphony chorus. The music director Fritz Reiner's original intent was to utilize the choru ...

Margaret Hillis Margaret Eleanor Hillis (October 1, 1921, Kokomo, Indiana – February 5, 1998, Evanston, Illinois) was an American conductor. She was the founder and first director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Life Hillis was born in Kokomo, Indiana, in 1 ...

. In 1983, Hillis was succeeded by

Vance George Vance George (born 1933) is an American choral conductor from Nappanee, Indiana. A protégé of Margaret Hillis, Vance George served as choral director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for 23 years (1983–2006). As guest conductor of the Sa ...

who served as chorus director for twenty-three years until his retirement in 2006. The current director is

Ragnar Bohlin Ragnar Bohlin is a Swedish conductor born in 1965. Director In 2007, Bohlin was appointed as the director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. With them he conducted works as Handel's ''Messiah'', Bach's Mass in B minor and ''Christmas Oratorio ...

, who came to the SFS Chorus from

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden where he was awarded with the prestigious Johannes Norrby medallion in 2006, for expanding the horizon of the Swedish choral community.

Awards

Emmy Award, Outstanding Classical Music-Dance Program * 2001 Sondheim: ''

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial ''The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London urban legend, legend. A barber fr ...

In Concert'', filmed for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...

* 2000

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

: '' Perséphone'' * 2004

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

: '' Symphony No. 3'' * 2010

: '' Symphony No. 8''

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance The Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance has been awarded since 1961. There have been several minor changes to the name of the award over this time: *In 1961 the award was known as Best Classical Performance - Choral (including oratorio) *Fro ...

* 1992

Orff Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata ''Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education. Life Early life Carl O ...

: ''

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

'' * 1995

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

: ''

Ein deutsches Requiem ''A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures'', Op. 45 (german: Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift, links=no) by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist, com ...

'' * 2010

: '' Symphony No. 8''

Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical The Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording, Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes: *In 1959 the award was known as Best Engineered Record (Classical) *From 1960 to 1962 it was awarded as Best Enginee ...

* 2010

: '' Symphony No. 8''

References

External links

San Francisco Symphony Chorus
{{Authority control San Francisco Symphony Grammy Award winners Musical groups established in 1972 Musical groups from San Francisco Choirs in the San Francisco Bay Area 1972 establishments in California

Background

Leadership

Awards

See also

References

External links