Beautifully sung

What a marvelous performance of the Lux Aeterna, Bob!!

Truly exceptional throughout. Brilliantly paced, wonderful tempi, beautifully sung and played. So sensitive to the texts. What a gift to your audience who responded with a much-deserved standing ovation.

Kudos to your marvelous San Francisco Choral Society singers who performed most of it by memory and to your terrific organist.

It is always so wonderful having my music performed under your masterful baton, Bob.

Many thanks to all for such a spectacular performance.

—Morten Lauridsen, April, 2023

Focus and Intensity

The raging ‘Dies Irae’ was particularly good, fired by Geary’s impassioned direction. Geary conjured the Romantic side of the work, rather than its Classical roots.

—SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, August, 2015

Something Extraordinary

I use amateurs in its original sense: lovers, in this case lovers of music. These everyday San Franciscans, musical moonlighters, came together and, through their passion (and careful preparation) produced something extraordinary.

–SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, August, 2014

Authentic and Expressive

…high moments included Brancoveanu’s frolic and greeting to the sun, and his triumphant cadenza on “entgegen hartt.” Dronker’s summer aria, of heat “refreshing to the senses,” was a languid conquest, alternating bright and simmered vowels like the dappling of sunlight on a forest floor, and her phrases played tag with a lovely oboe melody performed by Robin May. And in “In banger Ahnung” (In fearful apprehension life stands still) her soft keening magnificently conveyed the dread of the approaching storm.

–REPEAT PERFORMANCES, August, 2013

Intoxicating and Powerful

In the big opening movement, Lang [produces] a sort of free-floating evocation of the fog of war. The music, beautifully sung by the chorus, treads a similar line between specificity and vagueness….”Battle Hymns” concludes on a transcendent note, with a surrealist and practically wordless setting based on Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer.” Suddenly, all the regimentation of the staging is jettisoned, as the performers mill about the space singing suspended harmonies at the edge of audibility. The effect is intoxicating and powerful.

—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, April, 2013

Roots and Warmth

It is always quite wonderful to attend performances of an ensemble with such deep roots in the Bay Area community as the San Francisco Choral Society. The energy around its concerts reflects that; there is always an appreciative atmosphere of eager anticipation in the auditorium, and applause almost never sounds as warm and well-deserved as when originating from family, friends, and longtime fans. And there is, of course, the fact that you can count on hearing some high-quality choral music, as Artistic Director Robert Geary and his Society have certainly proven over the years.

–SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, August, 2012

Assurance and Passion

Under the direction of Robert Geary , the Choral Society was joined [in singing the Kortekangas] by the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir and soloists Shauna Fallihee, soprano, and Nikolas Nackley, baritone, as well as by the California Chamber Symphony. Geary’s direction throughout the work was assured, clear, and passionate — no surprise, given his reputation and acclaim for championing newly written music.

— SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, November, 2011

Earthiness and Refinement

But to see the San Francisco Choral Society, more than 200 singers supported by friends and well-wishers, troop onto the Davies Symphony Hall stage and hear them sing the Verdi Requiem Mass was to understand that great art can be made by ordinary humans….By turns earthy and refined, they embodied Verdi’s conception of a worldly community hymning the spiritual and universal.

— SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, August, 2003

A Vital Niche

The Choral Society, some 180 strong, is one of those music groups that fills a vital niche in the Bay Area’s musical community by keeping the art of amateur choral singing alive, with a roster of volunteer singers running the gamut from finely-trained voices to lesser-skilled and even novice vocalists, all earnest in their desire to participate in music-making rather than be mere spectators.

— SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, April, 2002



Intense Emotions

When [Britten’s War Requiem] is performed well, the great work is capable of cutting to the very heart and soul of humanity. It was indeed well done, and it clearly pierced the sensibilities of its audience during its performance Saturday night by the San Francisco Choral Society…Eyes reddened with tears and handkerchiefs came out by the scores at the end of the performance…audience emotions poured out into an intense standing ovation.

— THE DAILY REVIEW, August 11, 1999

Mozart | Requiem (August, 2015)

A Spectacular Setting for Mozart’s Requiem – San Francisco Classical Voice

Brahms | Ein Deutsches Requiem (August, 2014)

Music Loving Amateurs Unite in Powerful Requiem – San Francisco Classical Voice

Rachmaninoff | All-Night Vigil (November, 2013)

Two Choirs, At One, All-Night – San Francisco Classical Voice

Haydn | Die Jahreszeiten (August, 2013)

S.F. Choral Society and Soloists Shine – San Francisco Classical Voice

SF Choral Society Tackles Haydn’s “Seasons” – Repeat Performances

The Seasons in Pacific Heights – SFCivic Center

Lang | battle hymns (April, 2013)

‘Battle Hymns’ review: war transcended – SF Gate

All Bets Are Off – the West Coast Premiere of David Lang’s battle hymns – New Music Box