Season 48: 2026–27
Curiosity is at the heart of everything Volti does. Our 48th season brings new ideas and new possibilities for the human voice to audiences eager to discover what's next. At its center are two concerts featuring new music for vocal ensemble that explore our relationship with the natural world and the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
That spirit of discovery extends throughout the season. Through our Choral Institute for High School Singers and a collaboration with young singers at San Francisco State University, we share our passion for new music with the next generation. We also bring Volti's artistry to larger stages, returning to San Francisco Ballet for A Midsummer Night's Dream and to Monterey Symphony, expanding into a symphonic chorus for Mahler's Resurrection Symphony.
Presented by LCA Live: The Arts at SF State
What does belonging mean in America? Eric Tuan’s We Belong, with text by Emily Jiang, takes its inspiration from Wong Kim Ark, the San Francisco-born son of Chinese immigrants whose challenge to being denied reentry to the United States reached the Supreme Court. The landmark 1898 decision affirmed that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship.
Commissioned through Volti’s 2026 Choral Institute for High School Singers as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, We Belong looks at the distance between the nation’s ideals and the experiences of people who have been excluded from them. Jiang gives Wong an imagined voice as he confronts demands to prove his identity and his right to be here.
The concert brings together Volti and singers from Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, with each ensemble presenting its own set before joining forces for We Belong, conducted by Tuan. Volti’s performance also includes selections from Jens Ibsen’s Trace the Sky, inspired by the birds he encountered on walks through his native Bay Area during the pandemic.
Eric Tuan, We Belong: Choral Reflections on Citizenship (world premiere)
Jens Ibsen, Selections from Trace the Sky (world premiere)
Shawn Crouch, A Marshland Elegy
Thursday, November 12, 2026 · 7:00 PM
Knuth Hall · College of Liberal & Creative Arts
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco
Volti at SF State University
Our Place in the Natural World
The natural world is a source of wonder, inspiration, and discovery. It's also a world we've profoundly altered. In Our Place in the Natural World, four contemporary composers explore our relationship with nature, from the smallest details of birdsong to the immense forces that shape the Earth.
Emma O'Halloran's Natural History transforms a naturalist's catalog of extraordinary biodiversity into a musical meditation. Bay Area composer Jens Ibsen's Trace the Sky draws on his lifelong passion for birdwatching, celebrating the birds of his native Bay Area and inviting us to rediscover the living world around us. Shawn Crouch's A Marshland Elegy brings an endangered wetland to life through a richly evocative soundscape.
At the heart of the program is Nicholas Cline's The Sea Came Up & Drowned, a major Volti co-commission receiving its West Coast premiere. Drawing on poetry by Rachel Jamison Webster, the work explores geologic time, resource extraction, and the environmental consequences of human activity.
Together, these works offer four distinct perspectives on the natural world—and an invitation to reconsider our own place within it.
Emma O’Halloran, Natural History
Jens Ibsen, Selections from Trace the Sky
Shawn Crouch, A Marshland Elegy
Nicholas Cline, The Sea Came Up and Drowned (West Coast premiere,
co-commissioned with The Crossing, Stare at the Sun, Roots in the Sky, Pittsburgh Camerata, The Elora Singers, and the Madison Choral Project)
March 5, 2027 · 7:30 PM
First Church Berkeley UCC
(aka First Congregational Church of Berkeley)
2345 Channing Way, Berkeley (MAP)
March 6, 2027 · 7:30 PM
Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco
1201 Sanchez St., San Francisco (MAP)
The Cycle of
Life, Death, and REBIRTH
Life moves in cycles. Memories fade, people disappear, seasons turn, and something new emerges. In The Cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth, Volti explores these universal experiences through music that is intimate, mysterious, unsettling, and deeply moving.
Lansing McLoskey's Harnessing the Night evokes the elusive sensations of darkness and memory. Joanna Marsh's Arabesques sets poetry by contemporary Arab writers, creating vivid portraits of love, aging, loss, and the persistence of memory. Sarah Kirkland Snider's Scenes from “Unremembered” draws on haunting stories of death and disappearance, transforming personal memories into music of striking emotional intensity. The program also features the world premiere of a new work by Donald Crockett, commissioned by Volti.
Together, these compositions invite us to contemplate life's impermanence, the mysteries that surround us, and the ways memories and stories endure.
Donald Crockett, NEW WORK (World premiere, commissioned by Volti)
Lansing McLoskey, Harnessing the Night
Joanna Marsh, Arabesques
Sarah Kirkland Snider, Scenes from “Unremembered”
April 23, 2027 · 7:30 PM
Noe Valley Ministry
1201 Sanchez St., San Francisco (MAP)
April 24, 2027 · 7:30 PM
First Church Berkeley
(aka First Congregational Church of Berkeley)
2345 Channing Way, Berkeley (MAP)
April 25, 2027 · 7:00 PM
Presented by The 222
222 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg (MAP)
TICKETS
Volti Chorale with SF Ballet:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Presented by San Francisco Ballet
Step into Shakespeare's enchanted forest as the women of the Volti Chorale return to San Francisco Ballet for George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
With Felix Mendelssohn's music, Balanchine's celebrated choreography, and spectacular designs by Christian Lacroix, this lavish production brings together some of the performing arts' most expressive forms.
March 19–27, 2027
War Memorial Opera House
301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco (MAP)
TICKETS
Volti Chorale with Monterey Symphony: Mahler’s Resurrection
Presented by Monterey Symphony
Volti returns to Monterey Symphony for a spectacular season finale featuring two monumental works that explore faith, mortality, and the possibility of transcendence.
For this special collaboration, Volti expands from a chamber ensemble into a full symphonic chorus, joining Monterey Symphony under Music Director Jayce Ogren.
Giuseppe Verdi's Te Deum, one of the composer's final works, brings operatic intensity to a sacred text, while Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, takes audiences on an epic journey through life, death, and the search for meaning. The symphony's extraordinary conclusion brings together orchestra, soloists, and chorus in a powerful affirmation of hope.
May 22, 2027 · 7:30 PM
May 23, 2027 · 3:00 PM
Sunset Center
San Carlos St., Carmel-by-the-Sea (MAP)
TICKETS
These activities are not open to the general public.
Volti Choral Institute
September 25–27, 2026
CYO Camp · Occidental
An intensive weekend bringing Volti together with more than 150 high-school singers from Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, Campolindo High School, and Ecco. The program gives young singers direct experience with adventurous contemporary repertoire and the process of bringing new music to life.
SF State Student Composer Workshop
Thursday, November 19, 2026 · 3:00–5:00 PM
San Francisco State University · San Francisco
Volti singers workshop and record new compositions by SF State students, giving emerging composers the rare opportunity to hear their ideas realized by professional voices, respond in real time, and refine their work through direct collaboration.