The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with Live Orchestra

In This Program

• The Concert
• Production Credits
• About the Artists
• About San Francisco Symphony

Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 7:30pm
Friday, May 9, 2025, at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 2:00pm

Ludwig Wicki conducting
San Francisco Symphony
Kaitlyn Lusk soprano
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
David J. Xiques guest director
Pacific Boychoir Academy
Zachary Salsburg-Frank director

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Howard Shore’s Score Performed Live to the Epic Motion Picture

Part One

Glamdring
Elven Rope
Uglúk’s Warriors
The Three Hunters
The Banishment of Éomer
Night Camp
The Plains of Rohan
Fangorn
The Dead Marshes
“Wraiths on Wings”
Gandalf the White
Edoras
The Court of Meduseld
Théoden King
The Forests of Ithilien 

Intermission

Part Two

One of the Dúnedain
The Wolves of Isengard
Refuge at Helm’s Deep
Voice of Saruman
Arwen’s Fate
The Story Foretold
Faramir’s Good Counsel
Aragorn’s Return
War Is Upon Us
“Where Is the Horse and the Rider?”
The Host of the Eldar
The Battle of the Hornburg
The Breach of the Deeping Wall
The Entmoot Decides
Retreat
Master Peregrin’s Plan
The Last March of the Ents
Théoden Rides Forth
The Tales That Really Matter

Lead support for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus this season is provided through a visionary gift from an anonymous donor.

The May 9 concert is supported in part by Sarah A. Schoellkopf & R. William Neil.

Ludwig Wicki

A native of Lucerne, Switzerland, Ludwig Wicki grew up in a musical environment influenced by church and folk music. He studied trombone and became a member of the Lucerne Symphony, eventually expanding his studies to include conducting. As a Baroque trombonist, he frequently performed with period instrument orchestras and ensembles, which further informed his musical approach.

In 2008 Wicki led the 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus in the concert premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring at the Culture and Congress Centre in Lucerne, and went on to premiere The Two Towers in 2009 and The Return of the King in 2010. He has also premiered concert productions of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, as well as Gladiator, Fantasia, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Alice in Wonderland.

Wicki has led the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has been honored by the city of Lucerne for his accomplishments as a musician and educator, and received the Award for Excellence in Cultural Creativity from the Global Thinkers Forum.

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.

Ben Phelps assistant conductor

About the SF 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, Adam’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.

Xiques is a professor emeritus of music at San Francisco State University, where his students sang with the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra in performances of Holst’s The Planets and joined the SF Symphony in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Frost Amphitheater. As an author and composer, his book Solfege and Sonority: Teaching Music Reading in the Choral Classroom is published by Oxford University Press and his choral arrangements are published by Alliance Music Publications.

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

SOPRANOS

Elaine Abigail
Adeliz Araiza
Naheed Attari
Olivia T. Brown
Helen J. Burns
Sarita Nyasha Cannon
Rebecca Capriulo
Phoebe Chee*
Francielle De Barros 
Tonia D’Amelio*
Amy Foote*
Cara Gabrielson*
Susanna Gilbert
Nina Groleger
Julia Hall
Ashley Hecht
Elizabeth Heckmann
Hyun Suk Jang
Betsy Johnsmiller
Kate Juliana
Jocelyn Queen Lambert
Becky Lau
Kyounghee Lee
Ellen Leslie*
Caroline Meinhardt
Jennifer Mitchell*
Diana Pray*
Bethany R. Procopio
Shroothi P. Ramesh 
Natalia Salemmo*
Rebecca Shipan
Sarah Vig
Lauren Wilbanks

ALTOS

Terry A. Alvord*
Emily Pantaleoni Bernier
Melissa Butcher
Corty Fengler
Stacey L. Helley
Emily (Yixuan) Huang
Kelsey M. Ishimatsu Jacobson
Hilary Jenson
Donna Kulkarni
Katherine M. Lilly
Margaret (Peg) Lisi*
Brielle Marina Neilson*
Kimberly J. Orbik
Tiffany Ou-Ponticelli
Leandra Ramm*
Meredith Riekse
Celeste Riepe
Jeanne Schoch
Kathryn Schumacher
Yuri Sebata-Dempster
Dr. Meghan Spyker*
Kyle S. Tingzon*
Mayo Tsuzuki
Merilyn Telle Vaughn*
Heidi L. Waterman*

TENORS

Paul Angelo
Carl A. Boe
Todd Bradley
Seth Brenzel*
Dean Christman
Thomas L. Ellison
Christian Emigh
Elliott JG Encarnación*
Sam Faustine*
Patrick Fu
Kevin Gibbs*
Edward Im
Alec Jeong
Drew Kravin
Benjamin Liupaogo*
Joachim Luis*
Monty M. Maisano
Andrew P.  McIver
Jack O’Reilly
Ryan S. Peterson
Darita Seth*
Tetsuya Taura
David von Bargen
Nicholas Weininger
Jack Wilkins*
John Paul Young
Jakob Zwiener

BASSES

Josh Bozich
Sean Brooks
Phil Buonadonna
Robert Calvert
Adam Cole*
Noam Cook
Rick Galbreath
Harlan J. Hays*
Roderick Lowe
Hugo Mendel
Clayton Moser*
Julian Nesbitt
Chengrui Pan
Bradley C. Parese
Matthew C. Peterson*
Mark E. Rubin
Timothy Echavez Salaver
Chung-Wai Soong*
Storm K. Staley
Michael Taylor*
Connor Tench
David Varnum*
Julia Vetter
Nick Volkert*

David J. Xiques,
Guest Chorus Director

John Wilson,
Rehearsal Accompanist

*Member of the American Guild of Musical Artists

Pacific Boychoir Academy

Pacific Boychoir Academy is an independent choir school located in Oakland for boys in grades 3–8, with after-school choirs for boys and girls in pre-kindergarten through high school. PBA has won three Grammy Awards with the San Francisco Symphony and toured internationally.

Dario Banuelos
Calder Bayless
Brett Colvin
Tristan David
Benedict Davies
Gabriel Davis
Kai Esainko
Brenn Farrel
Ethan Hajduk
Noah Hajduk
Oliver Hajduk
Ethan-Michael Hollins-Mason
Alistair Lilly
Louis Lunt
Toby Macdonald Smith
Declan McCarthy
Eli McKoy Beiser
James McLoughlin
Forrest “Mac” McNeil
Tenoch Meletiche
Andres Morales
Theo Moser
Giancarlo Padilla
Dresden Piccolo
Emmet Stout
Felix Sudat
Adrian Thong
Alexander Veikos Stuverud
Kazimir Wang
Asa White-Hinman
Lucas Willcuts
Rory Wilmer-Child
William Winklev-Markman
Simeon Wong
Richy Zheng

Zachary Salsburg-Frank,
Director

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Credits

All Compositions by Howard Shore (ASCAP) except:

“Evenstar” Featured in “One of the Dúnedain” Music by Howard Shore, Lyrics by J.R.R. Tolkien, translated into Sindarin by David Salo.

“The Grace of the Valar” known as “Breath of Life” Featured in “Arwen’s Fate” Music by Howard Shore, Lyrics by Fran Walsh, translated into Sindarin by David Salo.

“Haldir’s Lament” Featured in “Retreat” Music by Howard Shore, Lyrics by J.R.R. Tolkien.

“Gollum’s Song” Featured in “The Tales That Really Matter” Music by Howard Shore, Lyrics by Fran Walsh.

Choral Text by J.R.R. Tolkien, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.

Published by New Line Tunes (ASCAP)

Except: “Evenstar, Pt. 1”; “Breath of Life”; “Evenstar, Pt. 2”; “Haldir’s Lament”; “Gollum’s Song”; and “Evenstar End Credits, Pt. 3” Co-Published by New Line Tunes (ASCAP) and South Fifth Avenue Publishing (ASCAP).
© 2002 All Rights Reserved.

The Lord of the Rings 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.

Mr. Shore would like to thank: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ronald Wilford, Jean-Jacques Cesbron, New Line Cinema, Mark Ordesky, Paul Broucek, Stephen Einhorn, Michael Mulvihill, Danny Bramson, Lori Silfen, Elizabeth Cotnoir, Alan Frey, Ludwig Wicki, Pirmin Zängerle, Doug Adams, James Sizemore, Amy Baer, Tim Starnes, Jeffrey Markowitz, and Javier Manzana.

Producers
Columbia Artists Music, LLC:
Ronald A. Wilford, Founding Chairman
Jean-Jacques Cesbron, President
Jeffrey Markowitz, General Manager & Production Supervisor
Javier Manzana, Associate Manager & Production Associate

Howard Shore
Prince in New York Music Corporation
James Sizemore, Synchronization Design

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