In This Program
The Concert
Saturday, July 18, 2026, at 7:30pm
Michael Rafter conducting
Sutton Foster vocalist
Kelli O’Hara vocalist
Dan Lipton piano
Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara
with the San Francisco Symphony
This evening’s program will be announced from the stage.
There will be one intermission.
About the Artists
Michael Rafter
Michael Rafter is the music director and arranger for Sutton Foster, with whom he has appeared with the New York Pops, on Live From Lincoln Center, and in more than 100 concerts worldwide. Recently he was the music director and conductor of Funny Girl on Broadway. He served as the music supervisor for Funny Girl on the national tour, and as associate music supervisor for Jersey Boys. Other Broadway productions in which he has served as music director include Violet, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Sound of Music, The King and I, Gypsy, The Most Happy Fella, Sweet Charity, Swing, Les Misérables, and The Tap Dance Kid. His Off Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along and Violet.
Rafter’s film and television credits include Marriage Story, Annette, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, The Tonight Show (with both Johnny Carson and Jimmy Fallon), Gypsy starring Bette Midler (for which he received an Emmy Award for music direction), and Broadway’s Best on Bravo with such artists as Trisha Yearwood, Kevin Bacon, Joan Osborne, Mandy Moore, Cyndi Lauper, Darius Rucker, and Shawn Colvin. Rafter was music supervisor for Everyday Rapture on Broadway and the national tours of Buddy, Sunset Boulevard, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and The Sound of Music. He has been music director and conductor for The American Songbook series at Alice Tully Hall, and he conducted an evening of Jule Styne’s music with the Memphis Symphony and Tulsa Philharmonic. He also created a music adaptation for The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Currently an associate professor at Ball State University, Rafter is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.
Sutton Foster
Sutton Foster is a Tony Award–winning actress, singer, and dancer who recently reprised her role as Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress for a limited run at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, following an acclaimed turn in the Broadway revival at the Hudson Theatre. Prior to that, she starred as Mrs. Lovett in the Tony Award–winning Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street opposite Aaron Tveit at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York. The two-time Tony-winning actress also starred as Marian Paroo in the 2022 Broadway revival of The Music Man at the Winter Garden Theatre, a performance that earned her a seventh Tony Award nomination as well as the coveted 2022 Drama League Distinguished Performance Award.
In the summer of 2021, Foster reprised one of her most notable roles as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes at the Barbican in London, in which she earned an Oliver Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Among many other roles, Foster originated the role of Millie Dillmount in the 2002 Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Marquis Theatre, where she established herself as one of the greatest talents in the industry and earned her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.
Kelli O’Hara
Kelli O’Hara has established herself as one of Broadway’s greatest leading ladies. The Tony Award–winning and Emmy and Grammy-nominated actress has appeared in 11 Broadway shows for which she has garnered seven Tony Award nominations. She won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, along with Grammy, Drama League, and Outer Critics nominations for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I, and reprised the role in her West End debut garnering an Olivier nomination for her performance.
O’Hara’s other notable Broadway credits include Kiss Me Kate (Tony, Drama League, and OCC nominations), The Bridges of Madison County (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, OCC nominations), Nice Work if You Can Get It (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, OCC nominations), South Pacific (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), The Pajama Game (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula, and Jekyll & Hyde. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.
