SAN FRANCISCO
Artistic Director, Ian Robertson
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BOYS CHORUS
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About us...
The San Francisco Boys Chorus (SFBC) is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-award winning not-for-profit music education and performing arts organization at the heart of San Francisco's cultural center. The chorus serves over 240 singers from 50 Bay Area cities and more than 120 schools at three Bay Area campuses. SFBC's goals are to:
Mission Statement, Performing Philosophy and Values
The mission of the San Francisco Boys Chorus is to provide music education, vocal training, and performance experience at the highest artistic level to Bay Area boys from all cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. The Chorus experience encourages appreciation of music, self-discipline, confidence, commitment, teamwork, and respect for others.
Performing Philosophy
Values
The San Francisco Boys Chorus exists to discover, develop and encourage boys with unchanged voices through its music programs. Its heritage of more than sixty years of training young performers for the opera and other major musical institutions has established the highest standards of excellence with which our boys are trained for today and prepared for tomorrow.
We believe that the lives of all people are enriched and strengthened by a love of music. The quality of life in our communities is enhanced when there is a wide variety of opportunities for participation in musical activities and other artistic pursuits. Beyond its deep commitment to quality music education, the Chorus experience builds a boy’s character as well as his talent. All of our programs reflect an instructional approach designed to nurture self-esteem, leadership, independence, discipline, and responsibility, as well as a life-long love of music.
Recent Biography
In its 60th anniversary year (2008), the SFBC gave a highly succesful 60th Anniversary Concert at the War Memorial Opera House in June 2008 and embarked on its 60th Anniversary Tour to the South of France where the group performed in Monaco Cathedral and Marseilles Cathedral, as well as numerous other historic locations. The Chorus also sang at San Francisco's City Hall for the Inauguration Cermony for Mayor Gavin Newsom and has once again performed at the Macy's tree lighting ceremony in San Francisco's Union Square.
The SFBC's ongoing relationship with the San Francisco Opera continued in 2008 where its boys appeared in productions of Boris Godunov and La Boheme.
In December 2007, the SFBC sang in San Francisco's City Hall for the Tree of Hope lighting ceremony, and gave it's 2007 Winter Concert at Calvary Church in San Francisco. This year, boys appeared as soloists in San Francisco opera's production of The Magic Flute. Summer 2007 saw the boys performing Carmina Burana at the Grand Teton Music Festival
In 2006, the SFBC’s Concert Chorus sang Liszt’s Dante Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony and Mahler’s Third Symphony as well as a featured “Spotlight Concert” at the Grand Teton Music Festival, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The Chorus also sang for the Boy Scouts of America’s Annual Gala with special guest, the King of Sweden. The Chorus has appeared in the San Francisco Opera’s production of Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen.
In 2005, the SFBC performed important works including Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Op. 48, Henry Purcell’s Come, ye sons of art, and Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa Brevis, as well as a variety of lighter choral favorites for over 76,000 audience members. The Chorus also embarked on a four-city, thirteen-day concert tour of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Nagoya (Japan), where it appeared at the Aichi World Expo 2005 and performed for the governor of Tokyo. When the tour started, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed July 22, 2005, as “San Francisco Boys Chorus Day in San Francisco,” in honor of the Sister City relationship between Shanghai and San Francisco.
Appearances closer to home have included the royal visit of England’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Bay Area Nobel Laureate’s Recognition Ceremony at the San Francisco Exploratorium; the San Francisco Opera’s productions of Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) and Mozart’s The Magic Flute for Kids; and broadcasts on KQED-TV, Channel 9. Additional highlights from the 2005-06 season include guest artist concerts at the Orinda Performances Series, Orinda, California; St. John’s Episcopal Church, Ross, California; and The National Anthem at a San Francisco Giants baseball game. The Chorus toured domestically to The Heritage Music Festival in Anaheim, California, and participated in the 10th Annual HNU Children’s Choral Festival in Oakland. Finally, in early 2005 the SFBC raised funds for UNICEF by presenting a benefit concert to help the victims of the Asian Tsunami with featured guest artist and internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.
Inspired by Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. and Judge Marilyn Patel, the SFBC in 2005 spearheaded efforts to diversify chorus enrollment. During its first year, The Willie L. Brown Jr. Music Scholarship for Boys allowed talented youngsters from San Francisco’s Bay View Hunters Point and Western Addition neighborhoods to begin choral training. The scholarship aims within five years to train 40 boys in choral music. Under Maestro Robertson’s direction, the SFBC has recorded two CDs: We’re on Our Way (2000) and Moving On (2003). Ongoing recording efforts are always part of the SFBC's activities.
As the SFBC 60th Anniversary year concludes, the Chorus reflects on past achievements, including tours for more than thirty years to cities including Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Osaka, Taipei, Seoul, Assisi, Sydney, and countries including England, France, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Israel, Scotland, Wales, China, Japan, and the former Soviet Union. Other distinguished audience members over the years include U.S. General Colin Powell; Queen Elizabeth II of England; Pope John Paul II; Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Former Soviet Union; and Tipper Gore; as well as local politicians such as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and former San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. The San Francisco Boys Chorus has also been featured at the White House Christmas Tree Lighting.
The San Francisco Boys Chorus’ close ties to the San Francisco Bay Area allows the Chorus to appear not only with well-known arts organizations like the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, and San Francisco Symphony, but also for local civic and community events.
TOURING
The Chorus’s talent has also been internationally acclaimed during its many national and international tours. In 1975 the Chorus made its premier appearance in Romania and has since performed in Alaska, Australia, Israel, England, Scotland, Wales , Russia and the Far East. The year 1998 marked the SFBC’s fiftieth anniversary and featured celebrations which included the Chorus’s debut concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall and a summer concert tour to England in which it performed at the Chichester Cathedral Festival, St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, the Henley Arts Festival and the City of Birmingham Choral Festival. In the summer of 2000, the Chorus took a forty-member contingent on its “European Tour 2000,” visiting and performing at high profile venues, including St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Seckau Monastery in Austria, Matthias Cathedral In Budapest, Vienna’s St. Augustiner Kirche and St. Nicolas Church in Prague.
In July of 2003 the Concert Chorus and the newly formed Graduate Chorale totaling fifty choristers, embarked on a concert tour of Europe for performances at revered locations such as St. Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon, Rome: Santa Maria Maggiore in Ferentino; Chartres Cathedral; Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral and the Church of the Madeleine and St Margaret's Church, Lothbury in London. The SFBC continues to promote the spirit of music through discipline, hard work and artistic talent, thus furthering its influence on the local and international scene through a tradition whose roots go back over half a century.
PROGRAM
ADVANCEMENT AND PROMOTION
Promotions from one group to the next may take place at the end of each semester. Advancement of each chorister depends on his musical achievement, behavior, general maturity, and the musical needs of the Chorus. The chorister is promoted at the discretion of the Artistic Director and the music staff, when they believe a boy is ready. A boy who is musically advanced but lacks maturity may not be promoted as rapidly.
Written progress reports are sent to parents twice yearly. Parents may discuss their chorister’s progress throughout the year with his director. Parents are also encouraged to give the Chorus feedback throughout the year and especially via the Year-End Evaluation survey. This tool is used to help us improve the program, as well as to help us secure funding from foundations. Promotion into the Concert Chorus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus includes the following considerations:
General criteria include:
All boys (except Preparatory Group) attend two practices a week - Monday and Wednesday
from 4:30 to 6:30. As a rule, parents form car pools to get boys to practice. There
are car pools from virtually every part of the Bay Area. There are two public concerts a year at which all the boys perform - one in December and one in June. In addition, the Concert Chorus performs a couple of times a month at special civic events, for visiting dignitaries, for private parties and meetings, and of course at the San Francisco Opera. The San Francisco Boys Chorus has been an institution at the opera since the Chorus' founding in 1948.The boys also sing regularly at the San Francisco
Giants and the Oakland Raiders Games.
FACULTY
IAN ROBERTSON
Awarded the Olivier Messiaen Foundation Prize for his artistic contribution to the preparation of San Francisco Opera’s (SFO) North American premiere of Saint François d’Assise, Ian Robertson has been Chorus Director and conductor with this Company since 1987 and has prepared more than 200 productions. He has served as Artistic Director of the San Francisco Boys Chorus (SFBC) where he has been responsible for the phenomenal growth in the organization’s musical stature and reputation. He recently prepared the SFBC and the newly-created San Francisco Festival Chorale for performances of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming.
Robertson made his SFO conducting debut with the 1988 production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and has since led performances of Falstaff, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Don Carlo, Turandot,Il trovatore and La Bohème. In addition to his highly praised work with the Opera Chorus, he has led the Opera Orchestra and Chorus in many concerts.
Additional conducting assignments include the San Francisco Opera Center’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, Cosi fan tutte, La Perichole, The Elixir of Love, La Boheme and he conducted the Merola Opera Program’s Grand Finale Concert for eight consecutive years. He has led Don Giovanni for Sarasota Opera, The Magic Flute and Rigoletto for Edmonton Opera and has conducted La Rondine, Iolanta, Eugene Onegin, The Rape of Lucretia, Don Giovanni, Vanessa and The Rake’s Progress for Curtis Opera Theatre in Philadelphia. He recently conducted a concert of “Greatest Opera Choruses” with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra.
Before joining San Francisco Opera, Robertson was Head of Music and Chorus Director of Scottish Opera, where he conducted The Barber of Seville and led The Secret of Susanna for Scottish Television’s award-winning film. He went on to conduct several productions for that company, including The Pearl Fishers, Rigoletto, My Fair Lady, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and The Magic Flute, as well as concerts with the Scottish Opera Orchestra. He worked as Assistant Director with the Edinburgh International Festival Chorus and the Scottish National Orchestra Chorus. He was Music Director of the Scottish Youth Theatre.
A native of Scotland, the maestro trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and the University of Glasgow. He has appeared as pianist at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room in London. He recorded recitals for the BBC and appeared as pianist with the New Music Group of Scotland in contemporary works and with Cantilena as harpsichordist.
MARGARET NOMURA CLARK Training Chorus Director
Margaret Nomura Clark has been a part of the San Francisco Boys Chorus since 1996. She
has conducted the Apprentice and Intermediate Groups and directs the Training Chorus program for all boys in the Preparatory through Intermediate choruses. She also directs the East Bay Division of the San Francisco Boys Chorus. She earned her Bachelor and Master degrees in Music Education from the Oberlin Conservatory. Her choral aspirations began as a student in the music program at San Francisco University High School and in choral workshops with Robert Shaw. She has worked exclusively with children’s choirs in Ohio, New York and Japan. Margaret has also directed the
preparatory choral divisions of the San Francisco Conservatory In addition to her work with SFBC, she teaches general music to preschool through middle school at the Pacific Academy of Nomura School in Richmond
JENNIFER MAXWELL COOPER Theory Director, Apprentice I Director (SF), Jr. Apprentice & Prep Director (EB)
Jennifer Maxwell Cooper is an active member of the Bay Area’s music teaching community. She has taught voice in her home studio and choral and classroom music in middle and elementary schools. She has performed in church and community choirs including Cantare Con Vivo Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Cooper served as the Assistant Director of Music Ministries at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and is currently the music specialist at the Pacific Academy lower school in Richmond. Ms. Cooper received her early training at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music in Ohio and her master of music in music education at Holy Names College in Oakland. She joined the faculty of the San Francisco Boys Chorus in the Fall of 2005.
MARGARET SECOUR Marin Campus director, Junior Apprentice Director (SF)
Margaret Secour has taught at the San Francisco Boys Chorus since 2005, where she serves as Marin Campus Director and San Francisco Campus Junior Apprentice Director and Theory Instructor. Ms. Secour also teaches K-8 music at St. Patrick’s School in Rodeo; sings in the Bay Area as a soprano with the San Francisco Festival Chorale and St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church; and maintains a private voice studio. Ms. Secour has performed with San Francisco Opera Chorus, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Lamplighters, and Oakland Civic Theatre; toured nationally with Pasadena-based Opera a la Carte, a Gilbert and Sullivan company; and appeared internationally with Master Chorale of Orange County. Ms. Secour’s stage credits include roles in opera, operetta, and oratorio; as well as back up singing engagements for nationally recognized recordings and performances. ELIZABETH ARONSON Preparatory Director (SF)
CHARLES CALHOUN
RICHARD MEYER
BETSY MARVIT DAVID KNIGHT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Geoffrey Quinn, MD
Treasurer Myrna Hymans
Secretary Chris Weicher
Parent Representative Robert Howard
Directors Michael Fujimoto Stephen Hester Gary Jones Lorraine Massa Douglas Smith
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