Resident Artists Program

In small, hands-on programs, our resident artists—bass-baritone Dashon Burton, guitarist Jason Vieaux, the Esmé Quartet, and music historian Robert Greenberg—work directly with students and teachers in public schools around the Bay Area. Our artists-in-residence program provides arts education in schools and community centers, builds new audiences, and furthers the careers of talented artists by providing the time and freedom necessary to explore new ideas and develop new works. The scope of SF Performances’ work in the community reflects the commitment to making the arts an essential part of everyone’s life—a central part of SF Performances’ mission since our founding.

History

In 1989, San Francisco Performances created its first artist residency program with the Alexander String Quartet. Working in partnership with San Francisco State University, the Quartet created a chamber music curriculum entitled “The Story of the String Quartet” for high school students in the San Francisco Unified School District. In 1997, with the support of the Wallace Readers Digest Foundation, San Francisco Performances expanded the residency model and created three new residencies in jazz, guitar and contemporary dance. These residencies, which continued over a four-year period, helped expand audiences for the organization and helped to develop strong collaborations with new community partners.

Resident artists’ consistent presence in the Bay Area over several years gives both school students and adult audiences the opportunity to form a close bond with the artists. By making the performing arts accessible across economic and generational boundaries, San Francisco Performances helps all community members build a deep personal connection to the performing arts.

Current Resident Artists

Dashon BurtonBass-Baritone

Praised for his “nobility and rich tone,” (The New York Times) and his “enormous, thrilling voice seemingly capable…[of] raising the dead” (Wall Street Journal), bass-baritone Dashon Burton has performed with orchestra and opera companies all over the world, in addition to touring with the Grammy-winning contemporary vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. In 2012 Dashon brought home prizes from the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the 49th International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. These awards followed his First Place wins in both the 2012 Oratorio Society of New York’s Competition and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Competition for Young American Singers. He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and received his Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music.

Performance Poetry

Jason VieauxGuitar

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is the guitarist that goes beyond the classical. Among his extensive discography is the 2015 Grammy Award winning album for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, Play.

Vieaux has soloed with over 100 orchestras and has fostered premieres by Jonathan Leshnoff, Avner Dorman, Jeff Beal, Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Vivian Fung, and José Luis Merlin. Performance highlights include the Caramoor Festival as Artist-in-Residence, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, New York's 92Y, and Ravinia Festival. Frequent chamber music collaborators include Escher Quartet, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro.

In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an interface that provides one-on-one online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. Vieaux has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001. He has received a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Distinguished Alumni Award, GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. Vieaux was the first classical musician to be featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk series.

Guitar Trek

Esmé Quartet

Starting in the 2025–26 season, the Esmé Quartet (Wonhee Bae, violin; Yuna Ha, violin; Dimitri Murrat, viola; Yeeun Heo, cello) is the new Ensemble-in-Residence for San Francisco Performances. The quartet's name is derived from the Old French word for "beloved," and the group has become known and loved internationally over the past seven years, following their First Prize win at the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London. That same year, they were named HSBC Laureates of the Académie du Festival d’Aix.

Praised for their warm sound and commanding stage presence, the Esmé Quartet has quickly established itself as one of the most captivating chamber ensembles of its generation. Formed in 2016 in Cologne, Germany, by four Korean musicians and lifelong friends, the quartet is driven by a deep artistic connection and a shared passion for music and the arts. Belgian-American violist Dimitri Murrath joined the ensemble in 2023, succeeding founding member Jiwon Kim.

The Quartet has performed at major venues and festivals across Europe, North America, and Asia, including the Lucerne Festival, Wigmore Hall, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. They were the first Artists-in-Residence at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul for the 2020–21 season and have appeared in residencies at the McGill International String Quartet Academy and the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival. The quartet’s discography on Alpha Classics includes To Be Loved (2020), named one of the best classical albums of the year by WQXR as well as five stars review by Diapason, Yessori: Sound from the Past (2023), and a 2024 Apple Music Classical Sessions EP of Mendelssohn’s Op. 13. A third album celebrating their 10th anniversary will be released in 2026. The 2025-26 season also features the quartet’s highly anticipated New York debut at The Frick Collection, continued tours across North America and Europe, and will culminate in a special 10th anniversary celebration concert at the Seoul Arts Center in June 2026.

Now making their home in the Bay Area, the quartet members also serve as visiting artists and faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Saturday Morning Series

Robert Greenberg

Dr. Robert Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954 and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1978. He received a B.A. in Music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976 and a Ph.D. in music composition, With Distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.

Greenberg has composed over fifty works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. Recent performances of his works have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, England, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands, where his Child’s Play for String Quartet was performed at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

Greenberg has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony; he is also a sought-after lecturer for businesses and business schools, speaking at such diverse organizations as S. C. Johnson, Deutsche Bank, the University of California/Haas School of Business Executive Seminar and the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. For 15 years, Greenberg was the resident composer and music historian for NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, Sunday with Liane Hansen.

In February 2003, Maine’s Bangor Daily News referred to Robert Greenberg as “the Elvis of music history and appreciation,” an appraisal that has given him more pleasure than any other.

Saturday Morning Series