Jessica Bejarano, Music Director & Founder
Jessica Bejarano is the Founder and Music Director of the San Francisco Philharmonic, Cover Conductor with San Francisco Symphony, Curator and Scholar in Residence with San Francisco Opera, board member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO) and newly appointed board member of the International Conductors’ Guild.
Jessica was featured on NBC’s The Today Show with Natalie Morales as the “Woman Breaking Barriers as a Trailblazing Symphony Conductor”. PBS News Hour Weekend also featured Jessica as an emerging female conductor and KQED named Jessica 1 of 10 artists to watch in KQED Arts’ Bay Brilliant Top 10 Artists of 2018. In 2022, Jessica was featured on ABC’s hit show, To Tell the Truth. Lil’ Libros (book company) is excited to announce that they will publish Jessica’s first bilingual children’s book and recently, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) named Jessica 1 of 100 Honorees for 2023 for her contribution to the Arts in the Bay Area, San Francisco.
In 2022 Jessica and the San Francisco Philharmonic had the extreme honor of partnering up with Remezcla and Tecate beer company to put on a unique and ground breaking performance of Urban Latino sounds meets the symphonic orchestral arena for the creation of Tecate Alta performance! That same year, San Francisco Philharmonic and Jessica were invited to perform with American legendary rock band Journey at the Chase Center Plaza in San Francisco for the Winter Wonderland Spectacular and recently a cross over performance with the San Francisco Philharmonic and legendary rapper, Andre Nickatina.
Jessica has been invited by Stanford Health Care as their Keynote Speaker for 2024 and Los Angeles Community College has also named her one of their Keynote Speakers for this year. In 2019 Jessica was the first woman in history to guest conduct the American Youth Symphony in Los Angeles. She was also the featured guest conductor and clinician at the San Diego State University’s Women in Music, Diversity and Leadership Conference. In January 2018, she was one of twelve female conductors selected from around the world to attend and conduct at the International Women’s Conference in New York City. During that same time Jessica was the resident conductor of the University of California Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, Jessica was the guest conductor of the Kansas All State Orchestra, leading a 200-piece student orchestra through rehearsals and performance.
Jessica has guest conducted the Classical Symphony in St. Petersburg Russia; Urbino Summer Orchestra in Urbino, Italy: Philharmonie Orchestra “Mihail Jora” Bacau, Romania; Ruse National Philharmonic, Ruse, Bulgaria; Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Republic; Antonio Soler Orquestra, San Lorenzo de Escorial, Spain; Falcon Symphony Orchestra, Falcon, Venezuela and various orchestras throughout the United States. She has also held many conducting positions with various Bay Area orchestras, choirs and youth orchestras. Jessica is a motivational speaker for numerous arts organizations, companies and schools.
Jessica received her Master of Arts in Choral and Orchestral Conducting from the University of California Davis, Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Wyoming and Associates of Fine Arts in Music Education from Casper College.
Thomas Yee, Concertmaster
Thomas Yee, violinist, is an entrepreneurial musician equally comfortable in performance, pedagogy, as well as music advocacy & business.
In addition to his post as Concertmaster of the San Francisco Philharmonic, he is an Associate Concertmaster of the Monterey Symphony, and a member of Santa Rosa and Marin Symphonies, in addition to performing with many other regional orchestras.
Thomas is an experienced and dedicated violin teacher and is a certified member of the Music Teachers Association of California also known as MTAC. He teaches privately in the San Francisco Bay Area at his home studio and previously at Jou Music Institute in Cupertino. He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a BM and MM in Violin Performance.
Thomas has actively toured over 10 seasons with Tango Del Cielo, an innovative ensemble with dancers. He collaborated with guitarist Jose Rodriguez as Duo Revirado for a decade, and was an ensemble member for 3 seasons in San Francisco Symphony's acclaimed Adventures in Music. He has collaborated with pianist Jieun Clare Yee, his wife, in the Yee Duo.
In 2016, Thomas founded a violin shop called Bay Fine Strings, working with master workshop, antique, and contemporary violin family instruments and bows based out in San Bruno, with a workshop in Daly City. He follows his passion and uses his musical experience to do advanced acoustical setup on instruments and bows himself or in collaboration. Through this medium he helps others find their musical voices, collaborating in performance, teaching future generations of musicians, and helping and connecting with his community all integrated with multi-media web outlets such as youtube and instagram. To follow his interests or for contact, visit www.bayfinestrings.com
Board of Directors
Allen Frost, Interim President
Allen Frost is a proud native of Arkansas who has lived in San Francisco since 2010. Before moving to the Bay Area, he taught high school English in Philadelphia and Hong Kong; he currently teaches English and mentors early-career teachers at The Nueva School in San Mateo. When he's not working or playing oboe with the San Francisco Philharmonic, Allen enjoys reading, cooking, and memorizing airport codes.
Kelsey Seymour, Secretary
Kelsey Seymour is a data scientist in the video streaming industry. Before completing her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, she earned a masters in flute performance from the Royal College of Music in London where she played in the symphony and opera orchestras, experimental music and chamber music ensembles, and participated in the BBCSO Orchestral Pathways scheme. Since returning to the Bay Area in 2019, Kelsey has had the pleasure of getting to know the Bay Area musical landscape through subbing with several orchestras in San Francisco, the East Bay, and the Peninsula, and she has found a home playing in the SF Phil since 2022. In addition to her love of orchestral music, she also enjoys learning jazz.
Elisabeth Lowry, Treasurer
Elisabeth has been a flutist in the San Francisco Philharmonic since the inaugural concert in 2020. She has also been teaching music and movement to grades K-5 at Bentley School in Oakland since 2019. She holds degrees from Northwestern University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and she studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Elisabeth is an executive board member of the Northern California Orff Schulwerk Association, serving as Registrar. She has held additional administrative jobs including Director of Community Engagement at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Center Director for ELS Language Centers in San Francisco.
Victor Lin, Member at Large
Victor Lin started learning the violin at the age of 5 and studied violin from the principal violinist of the Canton Symphony Orchestra for more than 10 years, earning Certificate of Merit for the highest Violin Standard in China. Victor came to the United States at the age of 17. He played first violin in the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra during college and performed in Davis, Sacramento, Berkeley and San Francisco. He participated in UC Davis Baroque Ensemble and many classical ensembles under the direction of Prof. Michael Sand. Victor also studied for four years with Gerard Svazlian, a former professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Victor holds an M.A. in Education and two certificates from Berklee College of Music in Logic Pro and Advanced General Music Studies.
Christina Lesicko, Member at Large
Christina Lesicko is a professional violist originally from the Midwest, but has been in San Francisco for over
a decade. She has planned and performed professional chamber music for public and private events for the
past 15 years, along with playing in numerous small ensembles and orchestras across the country including SF Academy Orchestra, Classical Revolution, PICA Time Based Art, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Starlight Symphony and Willamette Falls Symphony, Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, and Holland America Cruise Ships. When not performing, she teaches privately in San Francisco, coaches sectionals at Golden Gate Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and is a Teaching Artist and Music Program Director for Enriching Lives Through Music (ELM). ELM is an orchestral music program whose El Sistema-inspired model recognizes that music is not only enrichment and entertainment, but that it can bring social change, shape lives, and bring opportunities to underserved youth.
Sohnjay Reeve, Member at Large
Sohnjay attended San Francisco State University and graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s in music. Prior to that he volunteered at the Children’s Creativity Musuem in 2017-2020. He also started a part-time job in 2019 at Jamaroo Kids where he then transitioned to full-time after graduating college. He currently teaches a ukulele class, dance, music theory and music/movement classes in San Francisco, Marin and the Peninsula. On the weekends he can be found leading music classes for children’s birthdays!