Oakland Symphony Chorus

Magen Solomon, Music Director

 Music Director of the Oakland Symphony Chorus since 1992, and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Choral Artists since 1995, Magen Solomon was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Choral Music at the University of Southern California. She served as Interim Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus for the 2000-01 season.   

Dr. Solomon has prepared choruses for Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Nicolas McGegan, Michael Morgan, and Vance George among others.   She has taught and conducted at Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Santa Clara University.  A graduate of Oberlin College, she holds Masters and Doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied conducting with Robert Fountain.   Her edition of Johannes Eccard's "Newe deutzsche Lieder" (1578) was recently published by A-R Editions (Madison, Wisconsin).

For 45 years the 120-member Oakland Symphony Chorus has been recognized as one of the East Bay’s finest choirs and a premiere resource for continuing education in the choral arts.  Under the direction of Magen Solomon, OSC has received consistently impressive concert reviews, and developed a wide range of educational programs for the community.  In addition to presenting its own concerts and workshops, the OSC collaborates with many fine performing arts groups including the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Festival Opera, Oakland Ballet, Oakland Civic Orchestra, Oakland Youth Orchestra, and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra.  OSC has welcomed Marika Kuzma and Anthony Pasqua as guest conductors for the 2004-05 season. 

Lynne Morrow, Guest Conductor

Lynne Morrow teaches at Sonoma State University, directing the Vocal and Opera/Music Theatre Programs. Dr. Morrow attended Indiana University-Bloomington for graduate studies in Opera Coaching and Choral Conducting. Fall 2003 marked the debut of Quantum Opera Theatre, a fresh and innovative take on music theatre. The brainchild of program director Lynne Morrow, Quantum Opera Theatre seeks to broaden the formal and stylistic links between opera and musical theatre. The overall goal is to cultivate new directions for their mutual growth as one genre. Dr. Morrow enjoys working with composers on new works and hopes to provide an environment to workshop new music theatre each year. Lynne Morrow continues her own professional work, both as a singer and as a conductor. She is Assistant Music Director of the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. In November 2003, Morrow coached PME and sang several solos for the Berlin performances and recording of Bernstein's Mass with Kent Nagano. That recording was released in November 2004. In November 2003 she sang several solos for the Berlin performances and recording of Bernstein's Mass with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony. In May 2005 Dr. Morrow was one of the assistant conductors for Oakland East Bay Symphony's production of Mass. She is also host for the Stern Grove Music Festival.