CAPPELLA SF

Neither from Heaven nor from Earth: Works of Schütz, Josquin, Couperin, and Allegri

Cappella SF has taken the choral world by storm in just four years, acclaimed both at home and abroad. “Neither from Heaven nor from Earth” sweeps the listener post tenebras lux, from darkness before Advent, embodied by Josquin’s Miserere, through Allegri and Couperin, to the light of Christmas with Schütz’s great Exequien and Magnificat. Bohlin’s roots in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and in Swedish choral culture, including guest conducting with the Swedish Radio Choir, imbue the Cappella SF sound with amber luster, clarity and magical artistry.

CAPPELLA SF: Ragnar Bohlin, Director

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 8:00PM
First Presbyterian Church
1140 Cowper Street at Lincoln, Palo Alto

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 7:30PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2, 4:00PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell at Gough, San Francisco

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cappella SF, helmed by conductor Ragnar Bohlin, is a San Francisco-based professional chamber choir that performs a cappella choral works from all periods.

Grammy award winning conductor Ragnar Bohlin founded the professional chamber choir Cappella SF in 2014. As their director he has recorded a Christmas CD, Light of Gold, and Facing West, a CD with music by Bay Area composers David Conte and Conrad Susa. He began his tenure as Chorus Director of the San Francisco Symphony in March 2007. In 2010 the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus garnered three Grammy Awards for their recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, including for Best Choral Performance under Bohlin’s direction. With them, Bohlin has conducted works such as Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B-minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Bohlin studied with the renowned choir director Eric Ericson and studied piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London on a British Council scholarship. He studied singing with the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda and has also appeared as an oratorio tenor.

With Stockholm’s KFUM Chamber Choir, the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir and the Maria Vocal Ensemble, Bohlin has toured internationally and won numerous prizes in international competitions. He has prepared choruses for some of the world’s foremost conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Herbert Blomstedt, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Alan Gilbert.

Bohlin has appeared regularly on Swedish radio with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Maria Vocal Ensemble, and the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir and has worked with The Ericson Chamber Choir, the Royal Philharmonic Choir and the Opera Choir of Stockholm.

Bohlin teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has taught at the Royal Academy in Stockholm, and in February 2008 he was a visiting professor at Indiana University. In October 2008 he conducted a performance with trombonist/composer Christian Lindberg and the Swedish Radio Choir for release on CD. The choir toured the U.S. with Bohlin conducting in spring 2010 to great critical acclaim. In 2006 Bohlin was awarded the prestigious Johannes Norrby Award for expanding the frontiers of Swedish choral music making. In June 2010 he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. Since 2011 he has appeared several times as guest conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

In November 2011 he conducted the Verdi Requiem with the Malmo Symphony in Sweden and in March 2012 Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Madrid. In November 2012 Bohlin conducted the Sixten Requiem with the Swedish Radio Choir and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra. The performances were recorded on CD and released in September 2013.

He also made his debut with the Stavanger and Edmonton Symphonies, and served as Guest Music Director with world renowned men’s ensemble Chanticleer.

In 2016 he recorded Fredrik Sixten’s Saint John Passion with the Gustaf Sjoqvist Chamber Choir in Sweden and conducted the Mozart C-minor Mass with the Ericson Chamber Choir and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, as well as Handel’s Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony. In 2018 he made his debut with the BBC Singers and returns to the Swedish Radio Choir.