An Insider’s Guide to the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra
Dedicated to exploring music composed for chamber orchestra from the 17th to the 21st centuries, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra is attracting standing-room-only audiences and rave reviews for their admission-free performances around the Bay Area. A hand-selected group of top professional musicians directed by Ben Simon, the ensemble is dedicated to toppling barriers that have turned classical music into an exclusive club, as well as educating the next generation of music lovers to the joys of listening.
Ben Simon, composer Michael Gilbertson, and oboist Peter Lemberg
Founded in 1953 by Edgar Braun and Adrian Sunshine, the orchestra played its first concert in April of that year at Berkeley’s Hillel Foundation. In those days, the San Francisco Symphony was very much a part-time gig, and many SFS musicians were glad to take part in SFCO concerts. Maestro Braun took sole directorship of the ensemble when Sunshine departed for Europe in 1958, and led the orchestra through thick and thin until Benjamin Simon was appointed Music Director in 2002. During his more than forty years leading the SFCO, Braun presented over 600 admission-free concerts in venues throughout California, founded the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival, and presented two generations of Bay Area musicians as soloists and ensemble players, including Ben Simon who was hired for his first professional solo engagement by Braun in 1975.
Maestro Simon
A violist by training and a chamber musician at heart, Maestro Simon has led a revitalization of the orchestra and a nine-fold expansion of its season since 2002. In 2009-10 season, our Home Series Concerts consists of three program, each performed in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Berkeley, and Vallejo (thanks to a generous grant from the Irvine Foundation). Three brand-new Family Concerts will each be performed in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Mateo. Very First Concerts, developed in partnership with the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, offers three new programs designed for our youngest listeners in Berkeley and San Francisco. An expanded MAGIC (Musical Growth in Children) program brings professional chamber ensembles into local public elementary schools, providing essential access to the arts for cash-strapped schools. Finally, Music Director Ben Simon curates and hosts a monthly series of audience-friendly Classical at the Freight concerts, performed at Berkeley’s venerable Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse.
Coming soon: "About Free", more history, and Education!
