San Francisco Ballet group of his students, he founded the Utah Civic Ballet (now known as Ballet West) in 1963; the company remained under Christensen's directorship until 1978. Under Balanchine's tutelage at American Ballet, Lew Christensen became the first American-born "danseur noble". The United States Army drafted Christensen to fight in World War II. After the war ended, he joined Balanchine's and Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Society (soon to become New York City Ballet), eventually becoming ballet master; he served in the role from 1946 until 1950. In 1951, he joined his brother Willam as co-director of San Francisco Ballet. When Willam moved to
Quartet San Francisco with the Santa Fe Opera. She is co-concertmaster of the Oakland East Bay Symphony and concertmaster with the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra. She is on the faculty of the Music Department at Stanford University. James "Jim" Shallenberger, a founding member of the Kronos Quartet, played violin on the 2002 recording "Quartet San Francisco". Shallenberger is a member of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Orchestras. He is one of the extended faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. "Pacific Premieres", the group's fifth album, was released in 2013. The album consists