The Marin Symphony is thrilled to introduce you to the two newest members of our musical community!
At our Mahler concerts in April, we paid tribute to retiring long-time principal cellist Jan Volkert. We all look forward to continuing to see Jan in our audience and in the community. In the meantime, here’s the next part of the story:
She had barely landed on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport when she auditioned for the open principal cello position with the Marin Symphony. The soft-spoken Madeleine Tucker had just moved from New York to join the Risk team at Stripe, the online payment juggernaut whose headquarters are located in San Francisco. Born and raised outside of Boston, MA, Maddie graduated from Phillips Academy Andover. She went on to earn degrees in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University in New York and a Master of Music in Cello Performance from The Juilliard School under the guidance of Natasha Brofsky.In 2011, Maddie founded the Columbia University-based premiere cello ensemble, String Theory, which arranged and performed a variety of musical genres, including classical, pop, jazz, electronic, and more. Performing all over the country, String Theory was the official musical group for Google’s 2013 Zeitgeist Conference in Paradise Valley, AZ. After graduation, Maddie worked by day in the tech industry in New York, while at night she was an active freelancer and a member of the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra. As an orchestral and chamber musician, Maddie has performed in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Boston’s Symphony Hall as well as several music festivals including Yellow Barn and Tanglewood. Small in stature, Maddie packs an unlikely punch as a cello player that has won her many prizes for both solo and chamber music performances including a bronze medal at the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. And finally, Maddie just ran her first San Francisco Marathon in July proving herself to be an enthusiastic and engaged member of her new West Coast community. Join us in welcoming Maddie to San Francisco and to the Marin Symphony as principal cello. Maddie plays a 1991 Grubaugh & Seifert cello made right here in Petaluma, CA.
And, on the heels of Stephen McKersie’s retirement as Director of the Marin Symphony Chorus, we are thrilled to welcome Kevin Fox as the Chorus’s new Director.
Kevin Fox is a GRAMMY-winning choral director who started singing in choirs at the age of eight. He holds degrees in Music with Honors and Economics from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where he received the Lipsky Prize for outstanding scholarship in choral studies. He has studied music at Oxford University, England, and Westminster Choir College.
Mr. Fox was the Founding Artistic Director of the Pacific Boychoir Academy of California. Starting with six boys, Pacific Boychoir Academy grew to serve more than 175 boys in the San Francisco Bay Area. Taking beginning singers, Mr. Fox turned Pacific Boychoir into America’s leading boys choir, and one of the leading boys choirs of the world. Under his direction, Pacific Boychoir opened a day school for boys in grades 4-8, the only choir school for boys in the Western USA. He created a music theory program that uses innovative techniques to teach sightreading and harmony at a college level to middle school students.
Mr. Fox has prepared choirs for most of the world’s leading orchestral conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Dudamel, and Kurt Masur. He has collaborated with numerous choirs and artists including San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Kronos Quartet, Tölzer Knabenchor, Dmitri Hvorostovky, Harvard Men’s Glee Club, and cellist Zöe Keating. Mr. Fox has been on over 40 choir tours to almost all 50 states, and to six continents. He has prepared choirs for a variety of clients that include the United Nations, Yahoo! Corporation, comedian Zach Galifianakis, and America’s Got Talent.
Mr. Fox has served as the Chorus Director for the Ojai Festival, and was selected as Classical Movements’ inaugural India Choral Fellow, leading workshops, teacher training, and special clinics for classical music institutions in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai in early 2017. He has been awarded “Heritage Keeper” status from the Friends of Negro Spirituals, has served as a judge for the USA’s Harmony Sweepstakes a cappella vocal competition, and is a voting member of The Recording Academy. In the Spring of 2017, Mr. Fox was the interim conductor of the UC Davis University Chorus.
Mr. Fox conducted the Pacific Boychoir in thousands of concerts around the world in repertoire that ranges from classical to pop music. With the San Francisco Symphony, Pacific Boychoir is on the GRAMMY-award winning recordings of Mahler’s Third Symphony (Best Classical Album, 2003), and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance, 2009). Mr. Fox directed the Pacific Boychoir on eight recordings that range from American spirituals to Rachmaninoff to covers of pop songs.
As a professional countertenor, Fox has sung with the choirs of Trinity Church in New Haven, Trinity Church in Princeton, American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Chorale, and Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys in San Francisco, where he also worked as Assistant Choirmaster.
San Rafael, CA, February 14, 2017 – The Marin Symphony returns to the Civic Center for its Masterworks 3 Program, Songs of Destiny, in early March. The performance features the Symphony and Marin Symphony Chorus, performing masterpieces by Brahms and Elgar. Per Marin Symphony Executive Director, Tod Brody, “You will not want to miss the unmatched power, joy, and beauty of 200 instrumentalists and singers live on stage – there’s nothing like it!”
SAN RAFAEL, CA – After a three-month national search, the Marin Symphony Association today announced the appointment of Tod Brody as its Executive Director, effective August 1st. Brody succeeds Jeff vom Saal, who was recently appointed Executive Director of the Spokane Symphony after a four-year tenure in Marin.