OUR STORY
OUR STORY
In 1952, a nineteen-year old UC Berkeley violinist Edgar Braun, spent the summer studying with conductor Pierre Monteux at his famous music school in Maine. When Monteux offered to recommend him to be the Assistant Conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony, Braun hesitated. Monteux then said,
"If you want to conduct, you will have to start your own orchestra.”
Braun came home and in 1953 with his friend Adrian Sunshine, founded the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.
The beginning…
The orchestra’s first concert was in April of 1953 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 these early 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 his passing in 2002. During Braun’s more than forty years leading the SFCO, he conducted over 600 concerts in venues throughout California, founded the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival, started the “Twilight Series” at the M.H. de Young Museum, and presented several generations of Bay Area musicians as soloists and ensemble players including Benjamin Simon who was hired for his first professional solo engagement by Braun in 1975.
First concert…
In January 2002, Benjamin Simon became the SFCO’s second Music Director. A violist by training and a chamber musician at heart, Maestro Simon is a San Francisco native whose career as a chamber and orchestra musician has led him through New York City, Buffalo, and Los Angeles. A playful innovator, Simon has ensured the orchestra’s relevance in a constantly changing environment while staying true to Braun’s vision of providing first-class, live music performances that are accessible to the community at large. After 21 seasons, he took his final bow with the SFCO on Jan. 1, 2023, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto.
2002-2023
The SFCO enters a new era with the appointment of longtime SFCO musician Jory Fankuchen as Principal Conductor in May 2024. As a violinist/violist who has been performing with the SFCO for over 15 years, he is primed to carry our mission into a vibrant future of ensuring world-class orchestral music is accessible to everyone! The SFCO is now recognized as one of the premier chamber orchestras in the Bay Area, serving thousands of audience members of all ages and backgrounds every year with MainStage Concerts, Family Concerts (including a brand new sensory friendly concert), Very First Concerts for our youngest listeners, as well as various community collaborations in San Francisco, East Bay, North Bay, and South Bay.
