SF Classical Voice readers had a lot to think about in answering our 2025-2026 survey. Fiscal uncertainty or not, the Bay Area's calendar was filled with concerts from the interesting to the brilliant.
You, our readers, were left with the task of sorting out the hosts-with-the-most from the best-of-the-rest. With both nominations and final votes in readers' hands, and thousands of responses, the Audience Choice Awards are a fascinating peek into the collective preferences of the Bay Area's most engaged concertgoers.
Plenty of categories came down to just a few votes, and the winners and nominees definitely reflect the diversity of programming and voices that the Bay Area has always sustained. We hope that the results of this year’s poll encourage even more risk-taking in upcoming seasons, as the Bay Area continues to show why a vibrant arts scene is indispensable to a great community.
Favorite Opera Singer: Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen continues to make a powerful impression on Bay Area audiences. This year, the countertenor performed a recital of German lieder at Cal Performances and sang the title role in Handel’s Tolomeo with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra — voted by SFCV readers as their Favorite Opera Performance. SFCV writer Michael Zwiebach describes Nussbaum Cohen as a “trumpet-like countertenor… perfect for Tolomeo.” Known for a voice of flexibility and warmth, Nussbaum Cohen brought both vocal command and dramatic presence to his appearances. This year, SFCV readers made clear that they wanted to hear more.
Favorite Chamber Ensemble: Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
This San Francisco-based group delivered delightful and considered programming for its 34th season. The winner of last year’s Favorite New Music Ensemble, Left Coast opened its season with Strauss’s Metamorphosen, and handled a last-minute replacement with grace. By presenting standard chamber repertoire and new works, the group offers a varied and modern take on the chamber music genre.
Favorite Choral Ensemble: American Bach Choir
American Bach Choir led with grandeur this year. Standout performances of Handel’s Messiah at Grace Cathedral and “A Baroque New Year’s Eve” at Herbst Theatre, leaning into tradition, musical rigor, and large-scale offerings have made the group a longtime fixture of the Bay Area’s early-music landscape. There is much to look forward to next season under conductor Jeffrey Thomas’ leadership. In addition to the group’s annual holiday traditions, separate programs will place works by Vivaldi, Bach, Pachelbel, and Handel center stage.
Favorite Dance Soloist: Babatunji Johnson
Johnson’s win as the Bay Area’s favorite dance soloist comes after years of hard work and determination. The San Francisco-based dance artist, choreographer, and innovator has worked with Alonzo King LINES Ballet for over a decade. This year, Johnson worked with multiple Bay Area companies including SFDanceworks, SF Documentary Festival, the Pivot Festival, and Studio 210. Known for his physical power, precision, and expressive intensity, Johnson and his choreography make an immediate impression onstage. It was a tight race for Favorite Dance Soloist. With just over 40 percent of the vote, Johnson prevailed. But Antoine Hunter deserves flowers, one vote shy of a tie for first.
Favorite Early Music/Baroque Ensemble: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra won by a landslide. In a category with five competitors, the Philharmonia came away with 39 percent of the vote. The orchestra offered varied programming, including “Jews & Music: Jewish Nightlife,” and “The Art of the Lute,” and the debut of Peter Whelan as new music director, with Handel’s Tolomeo (winner of Favorite Opera Performance, featuring our Favorite Opera Singer). Unafraid to marry the classical with the contemporary, the orchestra played music ranging from Baroque to The Beatles. Congratulations are due for this group's ambitious and bold season. It was well received.
Favorite New Music Ensemble: Opera Parallèle
With 41 percent of the vote, Opera Parallèle has cemented itself as a leader in the Bay Area’s contemporary music scene. Under founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement, the company built its 16th season around new and reimagined work. The company’s production of La Belle et la Bête that merged Philip Glass’s score with Jean Cocteau’s film was most notable. For our readers, Opera Parallèle’s willingness to blur boundaries between opera, theater, cinema, and contemporary art proved especially compelling.
Favorite Orchestra: SF Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony prevailed as the Bay Area’s Favorite Orchestra. This season offered a breadth of repertoire led by numerous guest conductors, giving audiences access to a wide sonic palette. Music ranged from the familiar to the unexpected, carving room for much to discuss. This year, Bay Area audiences also received the thrill of welcoming the Symphony’s Music Director-designate, Elim Chan, to the podium. Indeed, the future is looking bright.
SF Symphony won with 37 percent of the vote. But Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra put up a good fight, receiving 34 percent of the vote in this category.
Favorite Community Orchestra: Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra
Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra marked its 60th season with a pair of ambitious programs that connected music, memory, and community. The season opened with Verdi’s Requiem at Hertz Hall. Then in June, BCCO gave the world premiere of Michael Schachter’s Terezín Requiem, a commission written for the ensemble that SFCV readers selected as their Favorite Choral Performance this year. Bay Area Rainbow Symphony came in a close second, but readers ultimately chose BCCO’s combination of musical ambition and community spirit.
Favorite Conductor: Peter Whelan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Peter Whelan is the true star of this season. After succeeding Nicholas McGegan, Whelan led a vibrant first concert with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra that resulted in ACA wins for Favorite Opera Performance for Tolomeo, Favorite Opera Singer for Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen in the title role in Tolomeo, and Favorite Early Music/Baroque Ensemble. The orchestra he's set to lead is in great shape and almost beat out SF Symphony for Favorite Orchestra. Hanneke van Proosdij of Voices of Music came in second, with Jeffrey Thomas of American Bach Soloists in third just one vote behind Van Proosdij.
Favorite Instrumental Soloist: Hanneke van Proosdij (keyboard and recorder)
Hanneke van Proosdij pushes the boundaries of what an early music virtuoso can be. Van Proosdij served as harpsichordist, recorder player, and codirector for Voices of Music’s 300th anniversary celebration of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. She is also principal early keyboard player with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Her combination of technical fluency, historical knowledge, and adventurous musicianship made her a clear favorite with readers.
Favorite Jazz Soloist: Skylar Tang (Trumpet)
Skylar Tang is a trumpeter born and raised in San Francisco making waves in the jazz world. After moving to New York in 2024 to begin college at Columbia, she collaborated with Joshua Redman on his 2024 album, Words Fall Short, and performed with the SFJAZZ Collective and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. This year, she joined John Santos for his 70th-birthday celebration at SFJAZZ and toured her own quartet throughout the Bay. She honored Miles Davis and John Coltrane in centennial programs with the Larry Vuckovich All-Stars. Indeed, this star is on the rise.
Favorite Opera Performance: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tolomeo
Can a smaller Bay Area orchestra outshine SF Opera? This Tolomeo said yes. The production of Handel’s rarely performed opera launched Peter Whelan’s inaugural season as the music director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra with a bang. With a dream cast, the orchestra and singers performed brilliantly, allowing the intricate score to speak directly to a modern audience. For SFCV readers, Tolomeo was more than a revival of an overlooked work: it was a reminder of just how vivid and immediate Handel’s operatic world can still be.
Favorite Chamber Performance: Voices of Music, “Voice of the Viol”
Last November, “Voice of the Viol” featuring soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah showcased the rich tapestry of the Elizabethan and early Renaissance viols. By focusing on a lesser-known instrument, with lesser-known music, the performance highlighted the ensemble’s knack for turning early music into an experience of historical discovery. Voices of Music has built a devoted following through performances that combine scholarly curiosity with extraordinary musicianship, and “Voice of the Viol” was a particularly effective example.
Favorite Choral Performance: Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra, Terezín Requiem
Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra gave the world premiere of Michael Schachter’s Terezín Requiem. The BCCO-commissioned work honors the memory of the prisoners and victims of the World War II concentration camp. The moving work needs to be heard by as many people as possible. Luckily, BCCO is planning to perform the Terezín Requiem in the Netherlands, Prague, and at Terezín in the summer of 2027.
Favorite Dance Performance: Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Deep River
The overwhelming winner in this category this year was Alonzo King’s profound, urgent meditation on grief and consolation. As necessary now as when it premiered in 2022, the “work fuses Black spirituals and Jewish liturgical music through the evocative sound world of Jason Moran and Lisa Fischer,” as Melissa Hudson Bell wrote in SFCV’s review. You rewarded King for art that meets the moment.
Favorite Baroque/Early Music Performance: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tolomeo
This was a barnburner of a category, testifying to just how many great early music ensembles enliven the Bay Area. Peter Whelan’s official debut with Philharmonia Baroque won top honors here. This brilliantly staged concert performance featured a powerhouse cast in an opera many of us hadn’t seen before. Voices of Music’s “Virtuoso Concertos” program came in second with 24% of the vote, while American Bach Soloists’ standout Messiah at Grace Cathedral — still the one to beat — was third.
Favorite New Music Performance: Voices of Music, “Who Has Seen the Wind?”
In addition to being a recorder virtuoso and leading Voices of Music from the harpsichord, Hanneke van Proosdij composes music for the ensemble. Her evocative setting of a Christina Rossetti poem won this category, barely beating out Peninsula Cantare’s performance of Craig Hella Johnson’s tragic, compassionate oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard. Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s A Soldier’s Tale and “Steam,” pairing Stravinsky’s masterpiece with the world premiere of a new work based on Arna Bontemps’s novel Black Thunder, was just off the pace.
Favorite Orchestra Performance: San Francisco Symphony: “Elim Chan Conducts La Mer”
The winner of this category is no surprise. Elim Chan’s appearance with the SF Symphony, just after her introduction as its next music director, won handily. And no wonder. “From the standing ovation and torrent of applause that greeted Chan when she entered the stage, to the tidal wave she and the orchestra unleashed in Debussy’s La Mer, the atmosphere in Davies Symphony Hall was freshly energized, ebullient, and engaged,” SFCV’s reviewer wrote. Another SFS performance, “[Stefan] Denève Conducts Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony” placed in this category.
Favorite Vocal Recital: Danielle Reutter-Harrah, with Voices of Music, Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, 2026
Fans of the mighty Voices of Music were joined by Berkeley Festival and Exhibition attendees in remembering this recital of music by 400-year-old birthday boy John Dowland. Performing with a viola da gamba consort and new arrangements by VoM’s co-director David Tayler, Reutter-Harrah poured her gorgeous soprano over the famous melodies, making this concert one of the festival’s many highlights. A close second was baritone Simon Barrad with the adventurous Valley of the Moon Festival, who shone a light on Eastern European art song gems from Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and others.
Favorite Large Venue: Davies Symphony Hall
What is the Bay Area’s best large venue? The perennial answer to this question, in our readers’ minds, is Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The War Memorial Opera House definitely has its fans, but the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/Pietro Belluschi-designed venue was the top vote-getter again. Especially with the acoustic redesign led by Lawrence Kirkegaard in 1990, the hall is the city’s premier concert hall.
Favorite Small Venue: John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor
This 316-seat jewel, originally built in 1924, retains its old theater charm but with renovations that make it the perfect venue for small theater productions or chamber music. After a third-place showing last year, the venue was boosted to number one in the voting this year. Last year’s winner, the First Congregational Church, Berkeley, was switched to the large venue category this year, so the tiny Berkeley Piano Club slipped into second place.
Favorite Club Venue: The Freight, Berkeley
Formerly the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse, this home for roots, traditional blues, and folk music, coasted to an easy victory in your voting this year. It’s a great place to hear a concert, but we think readers also chose to reward the Freight’s recent programming. While the venue used to accommodate more local talent, there are now high-profile headliners featured every week. One famous local, though, is a fixture there every Monday at noon: Bobby McFerrin leading CircleSongs. Yoshi’s placed second in this category.
Favorite Festival: Valley of the Moon Music Festival
Valley of the Moon Music Festival is the Bay Area’s Favorite Festival for the third consecutive year! Founded a decade ago, Valley of the Moon welcomes audiences to Sonoma each summer to enjoy 19th-century repertoire. The annual festival offers listeners a feast for the ears through a historically informed performance practice. This year’s festival was titled “Postcards from Dvořák,” and each concert focused on the music of a particular city that the composer visited. Berkeley Festival and Exhibition came in a close second, with West Edge Opera Festival missing a tie for second by just one vote.
Favorite new discovery: Beneath a Tree — Baroque to Folk
After placing third in this category last year, Beneath a Tree — Baroque to Folk has prevailed! The multi-genre ensemble led by Gail Hernández Rosa (last year’s Favorite Instrumental Recital winner) explores the intersection of baroque music and global folk traditions, such as Celtic, bluegrass, and other folk idioms. This year, the ensemble was featured at the Brannan Center and the Berkeley Piano Club as part of the Berkeley Early Music Festival. Peninsula Cantare close second.