San Francisco Symphony Honors the Late Conductor Michael Morgan

The orchestra will perform a series of concerts in February 2022 to honor Morgan

(Photo credit: Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group Archives)

Michael Morgan, the long-serving Oakland Symphony conductor, passed away in August 2021 at age 63.

“To honor the memory of beloved conductor Michael Morgan, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presents a program conceived by Morgan, who was originally slated to conduct these performances,” SFS stated on their website.

“Conductors Earl Lee, Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, and Akiko Fujimoto join forces to lead this program full of hope, faith, and redemption, featuring mezzo-soprano Melody Wilson and the SF Symphony Chorus,” SFS continued.

The concerts will take place from February 17 to 19, 2022 — featuring SFS premieres of Carlos Simon’s "Amen!," Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, Jack Perla’s arrangements of "My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord," "Give Me Jesus," and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," as well as Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, and Franck’s "Le Chasseur maudit." 

Morgan was a lifelong arts advocate and served as music director of California's Oakland Symphony since 1991. He made his international debut in 1982 with the Vienna State Opera and also conducted major orchestras around the U.S, finding widespread success in a world that makes it difficult for Black conductors to do so.

“Being a classical musician, being a conductor, being Black, being gay — all of these things put you on the outside, and each one puts you a little further out than the last one,” he told the Georgia Voice in 2013.

“So you get accustomed to constructing your own world because there are not a lot of clear paths to follow and not a lot of people that are just like you.”

For more information and to purchase tickets for these SFS concerts, click here.