Jessica Bejarano is the Founder and Music Director of the San Francisco Philharmonic, Curator and Scholar in Residence with the San Francisco Opera and serves as board member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO). In 2019 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. Jessica was featured on ABC’s hit show, To Tell the Truth and in addition, Lil’ Libros (book company) is excited to announce that they will publish Jessica’s first bilingual children’s book Winter 2024! More 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.
Jessica and the San Francisco Philharmonic are sponsored by Tecate beer company and more recently were invited to perform with American legendary rock band – Journey and more recently, local rap legend, Andre Nickatina. Jessica is the first woman in history to guest conduct the American Youth Symphony in Los Angeles and was one of twelve female conductors selected from around the world to conduct at the International Women’s Conference in New York City.
Jessica has guest conducted in Russia, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Czech Republic and Valenzuela. Jessica earned her Master of Arts in Orchestral and Choral Conducting from UC Davis, Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Wyoming and Associates of Fine Arts from Casper College.