Susan McMane, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, conducts Chorissima, the organization's acclaimed concert, touring, and recording ensemble. Before coming to SFGC, Dr. McMane served on the music faculties of the University of North Dakota and Saint Louis University, and was Founding Artistic Director and Conductor of the St. Louis Women's Chorale. She has extensive experience training the female voice and has won numerous awards for her work, including the 1999 University of Missouri-Kansas City Women's Council Fellowship Award with Outstanding Merit. In 1998 Dr. McMane was named "Music Educator of the Year" by the St. Louis Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Her choirs have achieved great acclaim in Europe and the United States, including honors at the International Eisteddfod Competition in Llangollen, Wales. She conducts many Festival Honor Choirs and is highly regarded as a choral clinician and adjudicator. In addition, Dr. McMane is an editor of an advanced choral music series with Alliance Music. Ms. McMane earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she studied under renowned conductor Eph Ehly. She also holds two degrees in Vocal Performance: a Bachelor's degree from Tulane University and a Master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Since her arrival at the SFGC in 2001, Dr. McMane has prepared Chorissima for performance with such prestigious conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur and Helmut Rilling. She has commissioned and premiered works by American composers Libby Larsen, Linda Tutas Haugen, Kurt Erickson, Frank La Rocca, David Conte and James Meredith, and Venezuelan composer, Alberto Grau. In collaboration with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, she prepared the Chorus for a performance and recording of works by Bay Area composer Andrew Imbrie. She has conducted two new solo CDs, Christmas and Voices of Hope and Peace. Under her leadership, the Chorus has sung at the Oregon Bach Festival, the 6th World Symposia on Choral Music in Minneapolis, the 7th World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto Japan, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan and also on international tours to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. In 2007, the Chorus will tour to South Korea for the World Vision International Children's Choir Festival and Beijing, China for solo appearances.

Groups Directed

Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco