Tactus SF welcomes a new director

Tactus SF, a Bay Area (CA)-based chamber choir specializing in a cappella music of the Renaissance, is delighted to welcome its new Music Director, Sven Edward Olbash. Sven will lead Tactus SF in three sets of concerts in the 2024-25 season. 

A San Francisco-based voice teacher, singer, and conductor, Sven is a multidisciplinary teaching artist with a special interest in the therapeutic potential of music, particularly for those dealing with grief. 

His album you who sow in tears will reap in joy with medieval vocal ensemble Euouae is available for streaming at euouae.bandcamp.com. As founder of Voice Science Studio, Sven helps choral and solo singers eliminate vocal limitations while developing more efficient muscular coordinations.

He has been a guest conductor for San Francisco Renaissance Voices and the Gregorian Institute of Canada and has completed two Music Performance Residencies with SF Opera. 

As a singer, Sven has performed in recital at Old First Concerts & Center for New Music, at Other Minds Festival, and with new music ensemble Volti. 

He holds degrees in singing and voice pedagogy from Boston University and New England Conservatory and lives in Lower Haight with his chihuahua Tupperware.

Outgoing Music Director Elizabeth Kimble, who has led Tactus SF since 2021, has just finished a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and will be increasingly engaged in that work, while maintaining aspects of her musical life as composer, conductor, singer, and teacher. Tactus SF is grateful for her inspired leadership over the past three years. 

Tactus SF was founded in 2016. It has been an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society until incorporating and gaining 501(c)3 status this past season. The choir is a member of ChorusAmerica. Further information can be found at www.tactus-sf.org.