About the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony
Launched in 2008, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony⢠(BARS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer identified (LGBTQ) musicians and composers toward the goal of broad crossover appeal and excellence in the performing arts. BARS is synonymous with excellence and distinction in the performing arts and community building.
Artistic Excellence | BARSâ artistic endeavors ensure its place as an influential force in shaping the next generation of LGBTQ artists and classical enthusiasts and their ability to change perceptions of LGBTQ people. Our dynamic and eclectic programming reflects the LGBTQ communityâs passion for entertaining and relevant music.
Community | The power of our mission lies in the power of possibility and community⌠our goal is to inspire our members to excel and achieve their artistic goals with confidence, pride and creativity. Our LGBTQ Composer & Performing Artist series educates a broad community and provides access to queer-themed and queer-made programming while strengthening the core of the LGBTQ community and building bridges to the mainstream.
Visibility | BARS is more than classical performance; itâs a movement for confidence, visibility and the tenacity to overcome the stigma that LGBTQ arts lack broad appeal. By creating an artistic community striving for both inclusivity and artistic excellence, BARS is becoming an intersection for LGBTQ artists to connect with each other and a wide-range of audiences.
Confident. Classic. Beautiful. This is BARS.
Inclusion and diversity
We believe that having a diverse orchestra membership makes both the orchestra and the community stronger and healthier. In addition to promoting and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, BARS is dedicated to creating and fostering a diverse orchestra membership and community from different backgrounds. The orchestra membership and the orchestraâs board have diverse representation across race, ethnicity, age, gender, and sexual orientation. The orchestra performs music by at least one LGBTQ+ composer or soloist in every concert. The orchestra also performs at least one piece composed by a woman every concert.
Some recent pieces that BARS has performed by diverse composers include:
Symphony No. 1 in E minor by Florence Price, one of the most renowned African American female composers who deserves more attention.
âBoatswain's Mate Overtureâ by Ethel Smyth, an English composer who was a lesbian
âThree Cornered Hat balletâ by Manuel de Falla, a Spanish composer who was rumored to be gay
Our Leaders and Directors
BARS Directors
DAWN HARMS | Music Director
Dawn Harmsâ very diverse career ranges from being a chamber musician, violin soloist, concertmaster, and conductor. Dawn is a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster for the New Century Chamber Orchestra and Co-Concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony.
She also is the Music Director and conductor of the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. She also records regularly at Skywalker Ranch Studios on sound tracks for movies and video games.
Ms. Harms was chosen as a Fellow at the exclusive American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival. Her guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Livermore Amador Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, Fremont Symphony, Grass Valley Summer Music Festival, and with the San Francisco opera orchestra. She was also invited to conduct the extra shorts on the film ratatouille, which are found exclusively on the DVD.
Dawn has performed chamber music with Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg. Frederica Von Stade, Eugenia Zukerman and Lynn Harrell. She has premiered works with and by by Jake Heggie, and has been featured on many of his recordings. She won grand prize at the Fischoff chamber music competition as the first violins of the Harrington string quartet.
A strong advocate for Music education, she was music director and conductor of the Amarillo Youth Orchestra. She designs and performs her own family show throughout the United States, New Zealand, and Japan. Dawn has performed her one-woman family show with the Lincoln Symphony in Nebraska, the Oakland Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, and the Bear Valley Music Festival.
She conducts the prep dept string orchestra, at the San Francisco conservatory of music.
She also teaches at Stanford University.
Board of Directors
LAURENCE LEWIS | President
Laurence is a violinist and violist and has played with BARS since 2015. He grew up in Virginia and started playing violin at the age of 9 and viola as an adult. Laurence has degrees in civil engineering and urban planning and works as a transportation planner with Kittelson & Associates. Laurence lives in Oakland with his husband, Mark.
GENE NAKAJIMA | Vice President
Gene is a psychiatrist at the Center for Special Problems in San Francisco. He attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Ignatius Gennusa at the Peabody Conservatory.
KEN SCHOON | Director
Ken (he/him) was raised in a musical family by professional bassoonists and studied cello with Anthony Elliott at the University of Michigan and Lee Fiser at the University of Cincinnati. He joined BARS in 2017 and shortly afterward met his husband George, who is also a member of BARS.
Ken holds a B.S. in Urban Studies from the University of Cincinnati and an M.Div. from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He is an ordained minister and is completing his doctoral studies in the Anthropology of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where his research interests include pilgrimage, decolonial studies, and Asian American liberation theology.
KATE AKOS | Director
A member of BARSâ first violin section, Kate is an arts executive and fundraising professional. She has provided executive leadership and consulting expertise to performing arts, cultural, educational, and civic organizations across the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, California Shakespeare Theater, Monterey Jazz Festival, SF Gay Menâs Chorus, Smuin Ballet, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, among many others. Kate has served on the boards of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras and New Century Chamber Orchestra, and has been a multi-year grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts Music Program and the San Jose Cultural Affairs Council.
Kate is a magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music. Kate was concertmaster of Symphony Parnassus and has played with the Prometheus Symphony, San Francisco Civic Symphony, Stanford Summer Symphony and Stanford Philharmonia.
JACK MADDEN | Director
SAM INGELMAN | Director
MICHELLE RUTTIMAN | Director
Michelle Ruttimann studied at San Francisco State University finishing with a double major Bachelors degrees in Music and Psychology. She has played with many groups around the Bay Area including the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in San Francisco, Nava Dance, Golden Gate Symphony, the San Francisco Philharmonic, and the Civic Symphony. She involves herself in numerous community events through San Francisco State University including middle school and high school string festivals, competitions, and performances. Currently Michelle is living and working in Switzerland as an intern at a special education school and hopes to continue her studies as an occupational therapist while incorporating musical pedagogy into her work.
TED WYDER | Director
Ted grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he began playing cello while in middle school. He played in various orchestras over the years with only a brief break in graduate school. He has been a member of the BARS cello section since moving to San Francisco in 2013. Outside of music, Ted obtained a BA in Physics from Carleton College and then went on to earn a PhD in Astronomy at the University of Washington. After working as a research astronomer, he switched careers and now works as a data scientist for Google. He is also an avid runner and has previously served on the board of San Francisco Frontrunners. He currently lives in San Francisco with his partner Will.
HANS BRIGHTBILL | Director
Hans Brightbill Ph.D. is a research scientist at Genentech studying the molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory disease. Hans joined BARS in 2008 and has served on the Board and as co-principal cello in the orchestra. Along with degrees in Biological Sciences (B.S., UC Irvine) and Immunology (Ph.D., UCLA), Hans earned a degree in cello performance (B.M.) and has continued to play throughout his life. In addition to BARS, Hans is principal cello of two other Bay Area community orchestras. In the past few years, Hans was the featured soloist for performances of Blochâs Schelomo and in June toured Costa Rica with the Sonoma County Philharmonic performing the Elgar Cello Concerto. Hans lives in San Francisco with his husband Anthony.
IAN HARWOOD | Director
Currently the Associate Executive Director of Berkeley Symphony, Ian Harwood was the founding Executive Director of BARS and has since held positions with the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Tucson Symphony Orchestras and the Aspen Music Festival and School. At these institutions, Ian has been involved in concert and event operations and production, recording and digital media, labor negotiations, marketing, fundraising, and strategic planning. Mr. Harwood studied Biochemistry and Music at the University of Rochester and Eastman School, and earned his PhD in Biophysics at UCSF. He was named a Orchestra Management Fellow of the League of American Orchestras in 2011, and has lectured at Roosevelt University (Chicago) and the Lubar School of Business (University of Wisconsin â Milwaukee).
Our History
BARS continues to redefine the orchestra experience for audiences and members alike though musicâs potential for education and personal enrichment.
October 21, 2007 5 Bay Area musicians meet to form a new type of LGBTQ ensemble: âWe are happy with âBay Area Rainbow Symphonyâ as an organization name.â
March 5, 2008 First rehearsal at Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. 27 musicians attend.
June 8, 2008 Premier concert, part of the Old First Concerts series. Despite having only 8 violins, 3 violas, 5 cellos, and 2 double bases in an ensemble of 39, over 200 audience members attend.
June 16, 2008 Rehearsals begin for second concert. Over 60 musicians attend.
September 6, 2008 First LGBTQ orchestra elected into the Lesbian and Gay Band Association.
September 13, 2008 First performance at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Concert sells out.
January 2009 Received 501(c)3 non-profit status. BARS musicians march in the first LGBTQ contingent of the presidential inauguration parade with the Lesbian and Gay Band Association.
June 2009 Daniel Canosa takes the baton as first Artistic Director.
November 2009 Drum Drive fundraising campaign launched for acquisition of timpani and other percussion equipment.
March 2010 BARS first collaboration with San Francisco Gay Menâs Chorus.
March 2011 In just 1.5 years, BARS raises funds and purchases timpani. Jessica Bejarano is named BARS first assistant condcutor.
April 2011 Founder and Executive Director Ian Harwood is named a League of American Orchestras Management Fellow.
May 2011 BARS introduces Lauren Brown as itâs first Front of House Manager.
December 2011 Richard Horan, BARSâs President, becomes Executive Director.
June 2012 BARS announces a Guest Conductor season where four finalist candidates audition to be BARS next Music Director.
August 2012 Dawn Harms is appointed Music Director of BARS.
December 2012 BARS makes it debut at Davies Symphony Hall in collaboration with the SF Gay Menâs Chorus.
June 2013 BARS collaborates with the SF Gay Menâs Chorus in the world premier of Andrew Lippaâs I Am Harvey Milk at the Nourse Theater.
November 2014 Renown conductor Michael Morgan makes his first guest conducting appearance with BARS.
June 2015 BARS performs its first all-female composer concert featuring internationally acclaimed soloist Sara Davis Buechner.
April 2016 BARS performs âTales of Our Cityâ at Davies Symphony Hall with SF Gay Menâs Chorus and Armistead Maupin.
June 2016 BARS performs a free benefit concert at the SF Conservatory of Music in Memory of the Orlando Victims
November 2016 Alasdair Neale makes his first guest conducting appearance with BARS.
March 2017 BARS makes its debut at Herbst Theatre with the worldâs most famous double bass soloist, Gary Karr.
March 2018 BARS celebrates its 10th Anniversary at Herbst Theatre with renowned soprano Patricia Racette.
February 2019 BARS performs with over a dozen instruments from the Violins of Hope project honoring the spirit of musicians who were in Nazi concentration camps.
November 2021 BARS returns to the stage for a sell-out live performance after a pause for the COVID pandemic, performing Corigliano, Beethoven and Florence Price.