Samara Joy with the San Francisco Symphony

Anthony Parnther is music director of the San Bernardino Symphony and conductor of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, which he led in a sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, showcasing the world premiere of I Can by Jon Batiste.

Parnther has conducted many of the world’s preeminent artists, from Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Jessye Norman, and Frederica von Stade to Imagine Dragons, John Legend, Avenged Sevenfold, Wu-Tang Clan, Metro Boomin, and Rihanna. Recent highlights include guest appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and Chineke! Orchestra, with whom Parnther made his BBC Proms debut. Additional engagements include collaborations with the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in March 2023.

Dedicated to amplifying traditionally underrepresented voices, Parnther has reconstructed and performed orchestral works by Margaret Bonds, Duke Ellington, Zenobia Powell Perry, Florence Price, William Grant Still, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. As well as leading LA Opera’s world premiere of Tamar-kali’s oratorio We Hold These Truths and Long Beach Opera’s revival of Anthony Davis’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Central Park Five, Parnther has premiered and recorded works by Batiste, Kris Bowers, Chanda Dancy, Davis, Adolphus Hailstork, Marian Harrison, Philip Herbert, Daniel Kidane, Gary Powell Nash, James Newton, Perry, Price, Taylor, George Walker, Errollyn Wallen, James Wilson, and John Wineglass.

As one of today’s foremost film conductors, Parnther’s recent projects include Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Encanto, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Nope, Creed III, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, Tenet, American Dad!, Oppenheimer, Turning Red, Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett, and League of Legends.

With six Grammy Awards to her name, as well as an NAACP Image Award, Samara Joy has achieved the kind of profile typically reserved for pop celebrities. Her visibility has made her a steady presence on network television and a favorite among younger music fans, particularly on platforms like TikTok, where she has helped introduce timeless American music to new generations. She has appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Montreal International Jazz Festival, as well as at the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.

A native of the Bronx’s Castle Hill neighborhood, Joy grew up surrounded by music. Her family’s legacy runs deep: her grandparents led the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and her father, musician and songwriter Antonio McLendon, toured with Andraé Crouch and recorded his own work. As a child, Joy was captivated by classic R&B and honed her singing in her church’s gospel choir. Her journey into jazz began in her teens while attending Fordham High School for the Arts, where she won Best Vocalist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington program. After graduating as valedictorian, Joy studied jazz at SUNY Purchase, where she met a group of instrumentalists who would become key collaborators. While still in college, she won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, which catapulted her into the spotlight and marked the beginning of her professional career.

In 2021, Joy released her self-titled debut album on the Whirlwind label. Her follow-up, Linger Awhile, led to a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, elevating her public profile with appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, and Today. She went on to win additional Grammys for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Jazz Performance. In 2024, Joy’s artistic growth continued with the release of her album Portrait, reflecting her evolution as a musician and bandleader, as well as showcasing her deep rapport with her touring band. The project earned Joy the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album in 2025 and the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2026. The album features her own lyrical compositions, including “Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Pursuit of a Dream),” a meditation on love and ambition built around a tune by Charles Mingus, as well as reimagined standards such as “You Stepped Out of a Dream” and “Autumn Nocturne.”