John Kendall Bailey
Music Director, Mozart to Mendelssohn
John Kendall Bailey currently serves as Conductor of the Mesopotamia Symphony Orchestra, Music Director, Principal Conductor and Chorus Master of Trinity Lyric Opera, and Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra. In 1994, Mr. Bailey founded the Berkeley Lyric Opera and served as its Music Director and Conductor until 2001. Since then he has been Principal Conductor of Oakland Youth Orchestra, Guest Conductor with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, American Philharmonic-Sonoma County, Diablo Symphony Orchestra, Oakland Ballet, San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, and has conducted productions for Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, West Bay Opera, North Bay Opera, Pocket Opera, Mission City Opera, the Crowden School, Oakland School for the Arts, Dominican University, among others. Mr. Bailey has taught conducting at the University of California-Davis and Notre Dame de Namur University.
As a choral director, Mr. Bailey has served as Music Director of Voices of Musica Sacra, Chorus Master for Festival Opera of Walnut Creek and Opera San Jose, and has been guest conductor for the University of California-Berkeley Chamber Chorus, the University of California-Davis Chorus, Chamber Singers, and Alumni Chorus, and the Berkeley Broadway Singers.
Mr. Bailey is also a composer, and his works have been performed and commissioned in the Bay Area and abroad. In 2010, Carlos Santana and Oakland East Bay Symphony performed his arrangements. As a baritone, oboist, and pianist, Mr. Bailey has performed with the San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Oakland East Bay, Berkeley, Redding, Napa, Sacramento, and Prometheus symphonies, American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale, the Midsummer Mozart and West Marin music festivals, San Francisco Bach Choir, Coro Hispano de San Francisco, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Sacred and Profane, Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo, the Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham dance companies, the Berkeley, Golden Gate, and Oakland Lyric opera companies, and many more. He has recorded for the Harmonia Mundi, Koch International, Pro Musica, Wildboar, Centaur, and Angelus Music labels. He has also been a pre-performance lecturer for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, San Francisco Opera, American Bach Soloists, and Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, a critic for the San Francisco Classical Voice, and a writer of real-time commentary for the Concert Companion.
Jory Fankuchen
Music Director, Civic Strings
Violinist and violist Jory Fankuchen has built a reputation as an engaging performer of many genres, as well as a passionate pedagogue. In response to this versatility, the San Francisco Examiner recently raved, Mr. Fankuchen's "flamboyant" performance "created the illusion that Eugene Ysaye had been born in Argentina, possibly in a bed next to Jean Sibelius." His ensembles include the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Magik Magik Orchestra, Squid Inc, the Musical Art Quintet, the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco, and he appears as a regular guest with the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Jory has appeared as soloist with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony, at the Tanglewood Music Center, and has the distinction of performing on Jascha Heifetz's Guarneri del Gesu violin at the Legion of Honor. Chamber music has always been the driving force behind Jory's passion for music. He has performed in concert with artists such as Robert Mann, Joseph Silverstein, Joel Krosnick, Bonnie Hampton, Mark Sokol, and Ian Swensen. As first violinist of the Kailas String Quartet, he performed throughout North America, winning first prize in the Chamber Music International Competition, and silver at the National Fischoff Competition. Jory serves on the faculty of the the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, Young Chamber Musicians, and has been a visiting lecturer at Cornell University. He holds a B.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory, and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Ian Swensen and Lucy Chapman, respectively.
Brad Hogarth
Music Director, Civic Symphony
Brad Hogarth is a versatile and multi-faceted musician, whose career has taken him from the finest concert halls in Europe to the frozen Arctic tundra and the dusty Black Rock Desert. He is especially passionate about musical outreach - both as a performer and as an educator, Brad hopes to bring people and communities together through the power of live performance.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brad is the Associate Professor of Conducting at San Francisco State University as well as the music director and conductor of the Art Haus Collective, known for presenting spectacular performances of classical and contemporary works in unique spaces. Brad was named Artistic Advisor to the Monterey Symphony in 2022, and is on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he conducts the Conservatory Wind Ensemble and Pre-College Contemporary Music Ensemble. Last season he made his conducting debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Bay Brass, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.
In August 2017, Brad conducted the Art Haus Collective’s ballet production of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at the Burning Man in 2017. An estimated 10,000 people were in attendance and photos from the event were featured in USA Today, Business Insider, as well as the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery as a part of the No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man exhibit. Brad has also recently guest conducted a few of Grammy winning composer Mason Bates' Mercury Soul projects, the San Francisco Civic Symphony, the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, the ECHO Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Wind Ensemble, the Oakland Municipal Band, and regularly conducts various professions, educational, and community events all over the Bay Area.
An accomplished trumpeter as well, Brad performs regularly with a number of orchestras. He can be heard on the San Francisco Symphony’s recording of Ives’ Symphony No. 4 and the San Francisco Ballet’s recording of Lowell Liebermann’s Frankenstein. Brad toured with the Indianapolis Symphony to the Kennedy Center as a part of the 2018 SHIFT Festival, and has performed as guest principal trumpet with the Louisville Orchestra.
Brad’s summer engagements include the Sun Valley Summer Orchestra, Cabrillo Music Festival, Britt Festival Orchestra, Thueringer Bachwochen’s Weimar Bach Academy, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Mendocino Music Festival, The Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra, and Music in the Mountains, as well as international festivals including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, CCM Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands.
Other Bay Area ensembles Brad regularly performs with include the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Bay Brass, Opera San Jose, Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, California Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Marin Symphony, and Symphony Napa Valley.
As a trumpet soloist, Brad has most recently been featured by The Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra performing the Arutunian Concerto. Regularly highlighted with the un-conducted chamber orchestra One Found Sound, Brad has been featured playing Copland’s Quiet City, Ive's Unanswered Question, and Martin's Concerto for 7 wind instruments. The Walnut Creek Concert Band and Contra Costa Wind Symphony have all featured Brad as a soloist playing pieces like Arban's Fantasie Brilliant and Rafael Mendez’s version of La Virgen de La Macarena. In the summer of 2012, Brad was a featured soloist with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, playing the Henri Tomasi Concerto for trumpet and orchestra.
An avid educator, he was the Chair of Instrumental Music, Band and Full Orchestra director of Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts High School. In 2014 he conducted the Ruth Asawa SOTA Orchestra at SF Jazz for the Other Minds Festival, the first student group to ever be featured in the festival’s 20 year history. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Brad taught music for one year at the Gunma Kokusai Academy in Ota Gunma, Japan. Diverse in professional activities, he has also conducted brass choirs and wind ensembles and is an arranger for various types of ensembles, including a yearly new arrangement for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Noble Trumpet ensemble.
Brad earned a Bachelors in trumpet performance and music education from the Eastman School of Music, spent a semester in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and holds a Masters degree in trumpet performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His principal trumpet teachers have been James Thompson and Mark Inouye.
Michelle Maruyama
Guest music director, 2023-24 civic strings
Michelle Maruyama began violin studies at age four after admiring the instrument on Sesame Street.
She holds a B.M. in Violin Performance and M.M. in Chamber Music Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. An active freelancer, Michelle is Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Santa Rosa Symphony and holds positions in the California and Marin Symphonies.
Michelle performs with conductorless ensembles One Found Sound and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, with whom she has toured and recorded. Outside of the classical music world, Michelle has served as touring Concertmaster for the 25th Anniversary North American Tour of Les Miserables, the First National tour of Jason Robert Brown's Bridges of Madison County, and the North American Tour of the Phantom of the Opera.
Michelle has always loved music as a way to experience the most exalted aspects of humanity while simultaneously employing real-time adjustments which are a part of any live performance. She is thrilled to share this love for music and for performance with the SF Civic Community!
Arun Saigal
music director, summer workshop
Arun Saigal is currently serving in his eighth season conducting with the San Francisco Civic Music Association. He currently performs throughout the Bay Area and internationally as a conductor, violist, mridangam (Indian Drum) player, rapper, beatboxer, and trombonist. Arun started playing the violin at the age of 5, the drums at age 6, the trombone at age 8, and the viola at the age of 12. He started learning to conduct at the age of 12 at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA, and became the Conductor of the Unaccompanied Minors Orchestra at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts at age 17. He performed and orchestrated innovative pieces such as “Halla Bol,” arranged for orchestra, Indian Drums, and vocals, at Boston’s celebration of India’s Republic Day. He co-created the first "rap symphony" of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf at SFCMA in 2019, a rendition of the symphony set to rap narration and performed by Bay Area rappers. He has commissioned and performed symphonic medley arrangements of pop music hits by Ariane Grande in 2021 and Drake in 2022
Arun has collaborated with a number of award-winning musicians, including Mason Bates, MC Hammer, Bruce Springstein, Hellogoodbye, Dean Parks, Tom Scott, Eric Church, Zac Brown Band, Kix Brooks, and Mads Tolling, Aaron Lington, and Nick Platoff. He has performed the national anthem at the TD Garden for the Boston Celtics.
Arun received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in computer science from MIT and is the CEO of Thunkable, a tech company that enables anyone to build their own mobile applications. He is a sought-after thought leader in the no-code and mobile technology space and has given keynotes on the intersection of leadership and conducting.
Paul Schrage
Principal GUEST MUSIC DIRECTOR, 2022 CIVIC SYMPHONY
Conductor and pianist Paul Schrage appears frequently throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and United States, leading from the podium as well as performing as a solo and chamber artist. He currently serves as Music Director of the Midsummer Mozart Festival, as well as Music Director of Symphonia Caritas, a professional orchestra that provides benefit concerts in partnership with other non-profits. Most recently, Paul was named a finalist in the Music Director position with Symphony of the Redwoods, and will guest conduct that orchestra in spring of 2023. Previously, Paul served as Interim Music Director of the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra during the 2019-2020 season. Guest Conductor appearances include the Veridian Symphony, San Francisco Civic Symphony, San Francisco Academy Orchestra, Nova Vista Symphony, and Sonoma County Philharmonic, among others. He also conducts and co-organizes the San Francisco Reading Orchestra, bringing some of the greatest orchestral literature to local musicians in an informal setting.
As a pianist, Paul has performed in recital, with orchestras, and in jazz settings across the United States, in Europe, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has performed in such diverse venues as the INSAP Festival in Chicago, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the main square in Warsaw, Casa Huey Barbosa in Rio de Janiero, and with the Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste of Kinshasa. Equally at home in the classical and improvisational realms, he frequently performs half classical, half jazz recitals. Artists he has performed with include harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, conductors David Ramadanoff, Armand Diangienda, and Elena Sharkova, trombonist and composer Bobby Brookmeyer, drummers Louis Bellson and Steve Smith, guitarist Gary Wittner, violinists Ian Swensen and Robin Hansen, and singers Christina Major, Kindra Scharich, and Nathan Granner. Paul has strong relationships with living composers, and has performed world premieres of works by Ingrid Stozel, Rubin Zahra, Eric Choate, and Paul Davies, among others. He was the Pianist-in-Residence of the Contemporary American Music Project, where he frequently collaborated with musical theorist and historian Cameron Logan.
Combining his artistic endeavors with extensive experience as an impresario, Paul founded Symphonia Caritas in 2015 and has since partnered with numerous non-profit organizations such as Swords to Plowshares and the Gubbio Project, raising over $100,000 in proceeds that go directly to the partner organizations. In addition to serving as Music Director for the Midsummer Mozart Festival, Paul assists with vital organizational components including fundraising campaigns and providing guidance on programming and concert production.
Released in 2004, Paul’s first solo album showcased the music of Mozart, Liszt, and Copland, as well as original compositions and jazz selections. With the jazz trio the Sideways Trio he released “In Defense of Our Dreams”, alongside drummer Jeff Hanson and bassist Doug Pohorski, featuring arrangements of rock songs, classical works, and original compositions. Paul has served on the piano faculties of Foothill College, Vandercook College of Music, and the International Summer Jazz Academy.
Photos (top to bottom) courtesy of John Kendall Bailey, Jory Fankuchen, Brad Hogarth, Arun Saigal, and Paul Schrage