In This Program
- The Concert
- About the Artists
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Credits
- About San Francisco Symphony
The Concert
Thursday, April 30, 2026, at 7:30pm
Friday, May 1, 2026, at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 2, 2026, at 2:00pm
Shih-Hung Young conducting
San Francisco Symphony
Kaitlyn Lusk soprano
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
David J. Xiques guest director
Ragazzi Boys Chorus
San Francisco Boys Chorus
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Howard Shore’s Academy Award–winning Score Performed Live to the Epic Motion Picture
Part One
Roots and Beginnings
Journey to the Cross-roads
Return to Edoras
The Chalice Passed
Gollum’s Villainy
The Palantír
The Grace of Undómiel
The Eyes of the White Tower
A Coronal of Silver and Gold
The Lighting of the Beacons
The Stairs of Cirith Ungol
Allegiance to Denethor
The Parting of Sam and Frodo
The Sacrifice of Faramir
Marshalling at Dunharrow
Andúril–Flame of the West
The Paths of the Dead
Intermission
Part Two
The Siege of Gondor
Shelob’s Lair
Grond–The Hammer of the Underworld
Shelob the Great
The Tomb of the Stewards
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
“A Far Green Country”
Shieldmaiden of Rohan
The Passing of Théoden
The Tower of Cirith Ungol
The Last Debate
The Mouth of Sauron
For Frodo
Mount Doom
The Crack of Doom
The Eagles
The Fellowship Reunited
The Journey to the Grey Havens
Days of the Ring
Lead support for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus this season is provided through a visionary gift from an anonymous donor.
About the Artists
Shih-Hung Young
Shih-Hung Young is a conductor of film scores, Broadway musicals, and operas, and is also active as a violinist. He has conducted many live film concerts globally, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, several Star Wars films, the Harry Potter series, Gladiator, The Godfather, The Red Violin, La La Land, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story. He has toured the United States, and collaborated with orchestras across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.
Young received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and a doctorate of music from Stony Brook University. He taught at the Juilliard Pre-College from 1995 to 2016.
Howard Shore
Howard Shore’s work with Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings earned him three Academy Awards, four Grammys, and two Golden Globes, as well as numerous critic and festival awards.
Shore has scored more than 100 films, including 17 by David Cronenberg and six by Martin Scorsese. His concert works include a choral symphony, an opera, a Latin mass, three concertos, and two song cycles.
Shore is an officer of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Order of Canada, a recipient of Canada’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and has been honored by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. He also received the Max Steiner Award, Wojciech Kilar Award, and ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award, among many others. He has given a masterclass with Martin Scorsese at Cannes Film Festival and given talks at Oxford Union, Yale University, New York University, the Juilliard School, UCLA, University of Toronto, Berklee School of Music, and Trinity College Dublin, where he received the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage.
Kaitlyn Lusk
Soprano Kaitlyn Lusk has performed with leading orchestras worldwide at venues including Royal Albert Hall, the Concertgebouw, Radio City Music Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. In addition to being the featured soloist in live concert performances of The Lord of the Rings, she has also appeared in live-to-film presentations of Gladiator and Titanic, as well as the shows FilmSong and Dreams Really Do Come True: An Ode to the Music of Judy Garland. An alumna of Penn State, Lusk is an active voice teacher and masterclass presenter. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut with The Lord of the Rings Symphony in July 2006.
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
The San Francisco Symphony Chorus was established in 1973 at the request of Seiji Ozawa, then the Symphony’s Music Director. The Chorus, numbering 32 professional and more than 120 volunteer members, now performs more than 26 concerts each season. Louis Magor served as the Chorus’s director during its first decade. In 1982 Margaret Hillis assumed the ensemble’s leadership, and the following year Vance George was named Chorus Director, serving through 2005–06. Ragnar Bohlin concluded his tenure as Chorus Director in 2021, a post he had held since 2007. Jenny Wong was named Chorus Director in September 2023.
The Chorus can be heard on many acclaimed San Francisco Symphony recordings and has received Grammy Awards for Best Performance of a Choral Work (for Orff’s Carmina burana, Brahms’s German Requiem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8), Best Classical Album (for a Stravinsky collection and for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8), and most recently Best Opera Recording (for Saariaho’s Adriana Mater).
David J. Xiques
David J. Xiques has prepared the San Francisco Symphony Chorus since 1997, presently as Guest Chorus Director and previously as Assistant Director. Highlights include preparing the Chorus for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Orff’s Carmina burana, Handel’s Messiah, Adams’s A Flowering Tree, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and Mozart’s Mass in C minor, and conducting the Chorus onstage at the 2016 Día de los Muertos concert. He has prepared the Chorus for conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Paul McCreesh, John Adams, Ingo Metzmacher, Gemma New, Xian Zhang, Emil de Cou, Grant Gershon, Donato Cabrera, Daniel Stewart, and Christian Reif. He also sang with the Chorus as a member of AGMA from 1993 through 2022.
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
SOPRANOS
Adeliz Araiza
Naheed Attari
Alexis Wong Baird
Katelan Bowden*
Olivia T. Brown
Helen J. Burns
Rebecca Capriulo
Phoebe Chee*
Tonia D’Amelio*
Amy Foote*
Cara Gabrielson*
Tiffany Gao
Ashley Hecht
Elizabeth Heckmann
Axelle Heems
Hyun Suk Jang
Betsy Johnsmiller
Kate Juliana
Jocelyn Queen Lambert
Ellen Leslie*
Jennifer Mitchell*
Ria Patel
Diana Pray*
Rebecca Shipan
ALTOS
Carolyn Alexander
Melissa Butcher
Dr. Nicole Daamen
Marina Davis*
Valeria D. Estrada Jaime
Kelsey M. Ishimatsu Jacobson
Hilary Jenson
Cathleen Josaitis
Sharmilla G. Lash*
Katherine M. Lilly
Margaret (Peg) Lisi*
Brielle Marina Neilson*
Kimberly J. Orbik
Celeste Riepe
Jeanne Schoch
Yuri Sebata-Dempster
Meghan Spyker*
Kyle S. Tingzon*
Mayo Tsuzuki
Merilyn Telle Vaughn*
Heidi L. Waterman*
TENORS
Justin Chandler Baptista
Seth Brenzel*
Patrick Fu
Kevin Gibbs*
Alec Jeong
Drew Kravin
Rondy Michael Lazaro*
Benjamin Liupaogo*
Joachim Luis*
Monty M. Maisano
Jack O’Reilly
Tim Silva*
Tetsuya Taura
Troy Turriate*
David von Bargen
Jack Wilkins*
John Paul Young
BASSES
Simon Barrad*
Sean Brooks
Phil Buonadonna
Robert Calvert
Adam Cole*
Noam Cook
James Radcliffe Cowing III
Tony DeLousia*
Rick Galbreath
Oliver W. Holt*
Rob Lloyd Huber
Roderick Lowe
Hugo Mendel
Clayton Moser*
Julian Nesbitt
Timothy Echavez Salaver
Chung-Wai Soong*
Storm K. Staley
Connor Tench
David Varnum*
Julia Vetter
Nick Volkert*
Elliot Yates
David Xiques,
Guest Chorus Director
John Wilson,
Rehearsal Accompanist
*Member of the American Guild of Musical Artists
Ragazzi Boys Chorus
The Grammy Award–winning Ragazzi Boys Chorus, Silicon Valley, provides outstanding musical education and performance opportunities for boys and young men ages five to 18. The largest boys’ chorus in the Bay Area, Ragazzi serves 219 choristers in six tiered levels. Under the leadership of artistic and executive director Kent Jue, Ragazzi shapes the lives of boys from diverse backgrounds who pursue choral arts of the highest caliber together.
Ragazzi is a frequent collaborator with the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera, among other organizations. The group tours throughout the United States and internationally.
Neil Aggarwal
Rakshan Balakrishnan
Liam Chou
Nirvan Das
Alexander Friesen
Paxton Fu
Shaan Gohil
Rohan Gupta*
Kiran Kadambi
Neel Krishnan
Andrew Lao
Zach Lau
Jalan Lei
Yichen Liu
Paul Matsushima
Alexander Monstavicius
Albert Pan
Aarav Pancholi
Benedikt Schmiedehausen
William Sheehan
Samarth Sinha
Ethan So
Linus Stallings
Cory Tsai
Moisés Urbina
Ryan Wang
Elliott Wei-Wu
Colin Williams
Jordan Wong
Toby Wu
Colin Xiellie
Kei Yabe
Stephen Yan-Zhao
Bryant Yuen
*Soloist
Kent Jue, Artistic and
Executive Director
San Francisco Boys Chorus
The San Francisco Boys Chorus is an internationally acclaimed Grammy Award–winning non-profit music education and performing arts organization. Its mission is to provide music education, vocal training, and performance experiences at the highest artistic level to Bay Area boys from all cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. The chorus serves more than 175 singers from 50 Bay Area cities at four Bay Area campuses. The chorus tours both nationally and internationally and has performed for US presidents and foreign dignitaries.
Arish Arvind
Andy Brassfield
James Duke Butterfoss
Landon Chai
Tristan Chow
Logan Cook
Francis Eberhard
Tristan Fisher
Philip Friedman
Ben Gulezian
Oliver Hajduk
Noah Hajduk
Nicholas Hogan
Oliver Jamil
Mathai Kurien
Calvin Lindemeier
Solah Malik
Niko Min
Dominic Moser
Edmund Paul
West Pinckaers
Lee Reeves
Oliver Stolte
Arnan Tin
Asa White-Hinman
Ian Robertson,
Artistic Director
Todd Jolly,
Associate Director
Franz Zhao,
Accompanist
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Credits
All Compositions by Howard Shore (ASCAP) Except:
“Into the West” by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox
“The Green Dragon” Music by Janet Roddick, David Donaldson, Stephen Roche, and David Long; Lyrics by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
“The Edge of Night” Vocal Melody by Billy Boyd
“Aragorn’s Coronation” Vocal Melody by Viggo Mortensen
Choral Text by J.R.R. Tolkien, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh.
Published by New Line Tunes (ASCAP) © 2003. All Rights Reserved.
Except: “Twilight and Shadow Song,” “The Grace of Undómiel Song,” “Borne From the Darkness Song,” “The Destruction of the Ring Song,” “The Eagles Song,” “Queen Arwen Song,” “Twilight and Shadow Song, Pt. 2” Co-Published by New Line Tunes (ASCAP) and South Fifth Avenue Publishing (ASCAP). “Into the West” Co-Published by South Fifth Avenue Publishing (ASCAP), New Line Tunes (ASCAP) and La Lennoxa Ltd (BMG)
The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King and the name of the characters, events, items and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thanks to: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ronald Wilford, Jean-Jacques Cesbron, New Line Cinema, Paul Broucek, Lori Silfen, Elizabeth Cotnoir, Alan Frey, Ludwig Wicki, Pirmin Zängerle, Doug Adams, James Sizemore, Amy Baer, Jeffrey Markowitz, and Javier Manzana.
Producers
Columbia Artists Music, LLC:
Ronald A. Wilford, Founding Chairman
Jean-Jacques Cesbron, President
Javier Manzana, General Manager
Jeffrey Markowitz, Production Supervisor
Howard Shore
Prince in New York Music Corporation
James Sizemore, Synchronization Design
