A chamber concert featuring San Francisco Symphony musicians Anne Richardson and Chen Zhao performing classical pieces from a range of composers and sharing their experiences as members of the San Francisco Symphony. This event is open to all library patrons and is brought to you by the San Francisco Symphony’s Community Chamber Concert program.

Anne Richardson, Associate Principal Cello

Anne Richardson joins the San Francisco Symphony as Associate Principal Cello at the beginning of the 2024–25 season. She was most recently an academy fellow with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and has performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Pittsburgh Symphony. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Louisville Orchestra, Massapequa Philharmonic, Bryan Symphony Orchestra, and Juilliard Orchestra, and has been featured by Lincoln Center’s Great Performance Circle, Juilliard in Aiken Festival, and Vail International Dance Festival. She has also performed extensively as a chamber musician at the Nymphenburger Sommer in Munich, Tegernsee International Music Festival, Wasserburg Rathauskonzerte Series, Rome Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, United Nations Chamber Music Society, and with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Richardson completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Juilliard School as a student of Richard Aaron, and earned a doctor of musical arts at the University of Michigan. She was named the Kentucky Center’s Gheens Artist in Residence in 2019 and was a guest faculty member and artist in residence at the 2018 Tennessee Cello Workshop.

Chen Zhao, Second Violin

Chen Zhao joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2000. At ten, he entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and in 1987 he moved to the US with his parents to study at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, studying with Heiichiro Ohyama. He went on to study with Felix Galimir at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Camilla Wicks at the SF Conservatory. In 1999 he joined the New World Symphony in Miami. Currently a violin coach for the SFS Youth Orchestra, Chen Zhao is a violin professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.