Lunar New Year

Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen has been music director of the MacArthur Award–winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, with a contract now extended through the 2028–29 season. She is also chief conductor of Austria’s Recreation Orchestra at the Styriarte festival, artistic advisor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Symphony, the first-ever artistic partner of Houston’s ROCO, and artistic partner with Northwest Sinfonietta. Chen was named conductor laureate of the Memphis Symphony after serving as music director from 2010–16.

Chen’s 2025–26 season includes debuts with Seoul Philharmonic, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Madrid Orchestra and Choir, Brazil’s Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra. She also returns to the Chicago Symphony, Liechtenstein Symphony, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, and National Taiwan Symphony for multiple programs during its 80th anniversary season.

Past honors include being named a Top 30 Influencer by Musical America, the Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras, the Taki Concordia Fellowship, and the 2005 first prize at the Malko Competition. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in February 2013.

George Shao Qing Gao, a Gemini Award nominee and one of the world’s leading erhu masters, is celebrated for his exceptional artistry in performance, composition, music production, and instrument innovation. A versatile composer, Gao has written scores for American and Canadian films, television shows, and commercials. On the concert stage, his Capriccio series has become central to the contemporary erhu repertoire. As a performer, his adaptations of Western works, such as Carmen Fantasy and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, along with his original compositions, have significantly broadened the instrument’s range.

Gao has collaborated on the Emmy-nominated theme for Earth: Final Conflict and the Oscar-winning short documentary Blood of Yingzhou. As a musical director, he contributed to the creation of Golden Lotus, the musical adaptation of the classic Chinese novel The Golden Lotus, which received multiple best picture awards at international film festivals. Gao’s invention of the shaoqin erhu—a revolutionary design that expands the instrument’s range and tone—has been met with widespread acclaim.

Gao has performed with the Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Recreation Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, Aalborg Symphony, Russian Philharmonic, Lille Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Taiwan Symphony, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, and Singapore Chinese Orchestra, among others. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in February 2013.

Yuhsin Galaxy Su joined the San Francisco Symphony as Second Clarinet at the beginning of the 2024–25 season. Prior to joining the Symphony, she completed a master’s degree at the Colburn School, where she studied with Yehuda Gilad, and before that studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Anthony McGill. She has also performed as a pianist on the SF Symphony’s Chamber Music Series, and makes her solo clarinet debut with the Symphony at this year’s Lunar New Year concert.

During her time at Curtis, Su was selected for the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble and performed Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in fully choreographed productions at the Kimmel Center, Columbia University, Kennedy Center, and Curtis Field Recital Hall. She has also been a soloist at the Musique et Vin Music Festival and Marlboro Music Festival. She won top prizes in the 2013 and ’14 HSNU Concerto Competition, third prize and audience prize at the International Morningside Music Bridge in Canada, first prize at the Young Classical Virtuoso of Tomorrow Music Competition, and two Chimei Arts Awards.