Fantastic Negrito with the San Francisco Symphony

Fantastic Negrito is a triple Grammy Award–winning artist whose music sits at the crossroads of blues, soul, punk energy, and modern Americana. After winning NPR’s inaugural Tiny Desk Contest, he emerged as a singular voice, pairing fearless storytelling with distorted grooves and deep rhythmic drive. His songs confront survival, identity, love, and social tension with urgency and emotional weight, rooted in tradition yet delivered with a contemporary edge that resists polish and embraces truth.

Renowned for explosive live performances, Fantastic Negrito has appeared on the world’s biggest stages, including Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, and the Newport Folk Festival, and has shared stages with Bruce Springsteen and Chris Cornell. His collaborative reach spans genres, working with artists such as Sting, E-40, and Tank and the Bangas, reflecting a career defined by curiosity and boundary-breaking. In 2026, Fantastic Negrito continues to stand apart as an artist driven by conviction, connection, and music that hits both the body and the heart. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.

Jonathan Taylor Rush has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Washington National Opera. Recent highlights include his subscription debut with the Nashville Symphony and his European debut with the Danish Philharmonic. He previously served as assistant and associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony and artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, which he led on tour to Europe.

Rush is deeply committed to the music of both historic and contemporary Black composers, from the works of William Grant Still, Florence Price, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to premieres by Carlos Simon, Jessie Montgomery, and James Lee III. Rush welcomes artists from other genres to the orchestral stage, and has worked with Jon Batiste, Cypress Hill, Leslie Odom Jr., Wordsmith, Ledisi, Big Freedia, Darin Atwater, and Karen Clark Sheard.

Recording highlights include the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s brea(d)th with Minnesota Orchestra, released on Decca Classics in 2023. He recently also recorded Simon’s Monuments, released as an installation throughout Washington, DC, and worked with the Louisiana Philharmonic for Big Freedia’s album Live at the Orpheum Theatre, released in 2024.

Rush studied at Ohio State University and earned a master of music degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in April 2025.