It's somewhat unusual to hear a prominent corporate securities attorney discuss her favorite pianist, Murray Perahia's "rubato reminiscent of Rubinstein's," but it makes perfect sense coming from Alisa Won. The incoming Board Chair of San Francisco Classical Voice has classical music in her blood. Not only is she a classical pianist, her father, Kyung-Soo Won, 84, is an acclaimed, globetrotting conductor.
Twice music director of the Seoul Philharmonic (in the 1970s and 1990s), he headed the Korean Broadcasting System Orchestra during the 1988 Olympics, conducted the London and Moscow Philharmonic, Berlin Radio and Vienna Tonkünstler orchestras, and many more — and he led the Stockton Symphony for 27 years.
Founded by Manlio Silva, an Italian immigrant pharmacist in 1926, the Stockton orchestra under Won, beginning in 1967, morphed from a 20-member community orchestra into a professional ensemble, gaining "metropolitan" status, as ranked by the American Symphony Orchestra League.
In his teens, Won was one of the best violinists in Korea. He endured the hardship of the Korean War and escaped a communist prison camp in 1950. Five years later, he came to the U.S. to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music to become a conductor and a U.S. citizen. He worked with and was praised by Pierre Monteux, Neville Marriner, David Zinman, and Eric Kunzel. Later on, Won frequently returned to Seoul as guest conductor of the KBS (Korean Broadcast System) Orchestra, served twice as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic, concurrently holding the same posts with the Stockton and Modesto orchestras.
Alisa Won, 46, was born in New Orleans (where her father was assistant conductor of the Philharmonic), spent her childhood in Stockton, received degrees from UC Berkeley (history) and Georgetown (law doctorate), and well into her professional life got the nickname of "Obiwon" from fellow attorneys. A partner in large law firms most of her career, she is now a partner at Sideman & Bancroft LLP.
Early in life, she studied piano, and especially enjoyed playing Chopin, Mozart, and Bach. Growing up "with a diet of instrumental/orchestral music," she still manages — in addition to an impressive career and raising children — to attend performances, and serve as advisory trustee of the May Treat Morrison Chamber Music Foundation, in addition to her current SFCV position as board secretary, before she assumes the top position on the board.
The Morrison Foundation supports the May Treat Morrison Chamber Music Center at San Francisco State University. The organization's public face is the 55-year-old Morrison Artist Series, with some 350 admission-free concerts, attended by more than 100,000.