San Francisco Ballet Orchestra

The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra accompanies the dancers of the San Francisco Ballet as well as those of prestigious visiting companies. The group also performs and records orchestral music not associated with dance. The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra was founded in 1975 as the Performing Arts Orchestra of San Francisco; the present name was adopted in 1983. Its first appearance was in a production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. The first music director and principal conductor was Denis de Coteau, who remained in his posts until 1998; he was succeeded by Emil de Cou (1998-2001), Jean-Louis LeRoux (2001-2003), Andrew Mogrelia (2003-2005), and Martin West (2005-present). The orchestra quickly attracted national attention, appearing in New York in 1978. Its home for ballet performances is San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, but it has also appeared at the city's Herbst Theatre in purely orchestral concerts, the first of which occurred in 1978. Since then, the orchestra has performed in regular-season productions with the Ballet, as well as with a variety of top international companies visiting San Francisco, including the American Ballet Theatre, the Paris Opéra Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. The orchestra has also accompanied the San Francisco Ballet in appearances outside San Francisco, including one at the opening ceremonies at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. In 1981, the orchestra made its recording debut with Paul Chihara's The Tempest, and in 1998, it recorded the Otello Suite of Elliot Goldenthal for the Varèse Sarabande label. It has often been seen on Public Broadcasting System's Great Performances: Dance in America series. The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra has recorded for Arabesque, Reference Recordings, and other labels. The orchestra's recordings have often featured contemporary works and other innovative projects, such as For the Love of You: Clara & Robert Schumann, featuring pianist Lara Downes. The orchestra appeared on composer Laura Karpman's Ask Your Mama album, which realized a cross-genre project proposed by poet Langston Hughes; the album was nominated for three Grammy Awards and won two. The orchestra also performed on the album Winger: Conversations With Nijinsky, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Members of the orchestra participate in the Grammy in the Schools program, which gives high school musicians real-world experience working with professional orchestral players. Performances were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed with The Nutcracker during the 2021 holiday season. That year, the orchestra released a recording of Lowell Liebermann's ballet Frankenstein on Reference Recordings.
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