Magik*Magik Orchestra

Since its inception in 2008, Magik*Magik Orchestra has become the Bay Area’s go-to orchestral group for rock bands looking to transform their music through the addition of classical elements. Magik*Magik Orchestra is a modular orchestra with a focus on collaboration. Based in San Francisco, their mission is to attract new listeners and participants to the orchestral experience. 

Minna Choi founded her Bay Area collective of classical instrumentalists with a modern persuasion when she was a graduate student at San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2008. Since then, the orchestra’s recorded and performed live with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, folk-popsters The Dodos, and avant-garde pianist Hauschka. Her album with Vanderslice, White Wilderness, is a seamless blend of idiosyncratic pop and Choi’s contemporary chamber music, and in February, it placed 11th on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. “There’s a lot more freedom in the San Francisco music scene to try whatever is your heart’s delight,” says Choi, who’s developing a second album with Vanderslice and setting up independent shows for the orchestra.