SF GIRLS CHORUS ANNOUNCES 2015-2016 SEASON
WORLD PREMIERES BY AARON JAY KERNIS, GABRIEL KAHANE AND THEO BLECKMANN PLUS UNUSUAL WORKS BY 17TH CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN, CANONS BY HAYDN, BRAHMS AND FRANCK AND MUSIC OF TIMO ANDRES AND THIERRY ESCAICH
GUEST ARTISTS INCLUDE NY EARLY MUSIC ENSEMBLE TENET, SOPRANO DEBORAH VOIGT, CELLIST JOSHUA ROMAN AND COMPOSER-PIANIST TIMO ANDRES
PERFORMANCES WITH SIMON BOLIVAR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA IN SEPTEMBER
San Francisco, CA August 7, 2015 – San Francisco Girls Chorus Artistic Director Lisa Bielawa has announced details of the 37-year-old, five-time Grammy Award-winning Chorus’ 2015-2016 season, which will feature premieres by leading American composers and performances with a variety of noted guest artists. The four-program season runs October 30, 2015 through June 12, 2016 in San Francisco and the East Bay and features premieres by Aaron Jay Kernis, Gabriel Kahane and Theo Bleckmann and guest artists including New York early music ensemble TENET, soprano Deborah Voigt in a special American Christmas program at Davies Hall, cellist Joshua Roman and composer-pianist Timo Andres, all conducted by Music Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe. The season will be preceded by a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Venezuela’s celebrated Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and others under the baton of sensational conductor and LA Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel September 25 at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre. At the other end of the season will be the Chorus’ return to New York’s Lincoln Center in performances of music by Kernis, Kahane, Bleckmann and Bielawa. For more information, visit www.sfgirlschorus.org.
Says Artistic Director Lisa Bielawa, “So much of the world's great music arose out of magical collaborations between composers and performers--each inspiring and challenging the other to reach new heights. The 2015-16 season begins with a peek into a veritable microcosm of collaborative inspiration, the nunneries of 17th-century Italy, where gifted women composers and musicians of all ages came together, free from the strictures of domestic life, and brought forth a whole repertoire of breathtaking virtuoso works by and for their colleagues and protegés. It is fitting, then, that it ends with an actual celebration of this process in our own time, a concert of works created by composers expressly for our singers, inspired by their sound and their spirit. Throughout the season, the focus will be on collaboration, with the SFGC sharing the stage with NYC early music group Tenet, iconic American artist Deborah Voigt, young superstar cellist and musical entrepreneur Joshua Roman, and wunderkind pianist-composer Timo Andres. These are all artists whose careers are helping redefine the field of classical music, and we are proud to be collaborating with them all on that journey!”
SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS 2015-2016 SEASON SCHEDULE Lisa Bielawa, Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Conductor
Surprising Freedoms Friday, October 30, 2015 at 8 pm, Mission Dolores, San Francisco Sunday, November 1, 2015 at 4 pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley Guest Artists: TENET Early Music Ensemble Jolle Greenleaf, soprano and artistic director Molly Quinn, soprano Virginia Warnken, mezzo-soprano Jeffrey Grossman, chamber organ Charlies Weaver, theorbo Steven Lehning, viola da gamba
Acclaimed New York early music ensemble TENET will join the Chorus for the season opening concert of music composed by and for women in Italian monasteries in the 17th century that reveals a different view of cloistered life during the baroque era. Separated from many worldly indulgences, women in monasteries were often able to pursue active careers and acclaim by perfecting the creation of music and literature, resulting in masterworks of stunning and rarely heard beauty.
An American Christmas Monday, December 7, at 8 pm, at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco Guest Artist: Deborah Voigt, soprano
Which beloved Christmas carols were written in America? Audiences will discover this and more as the full complement of more than 350 voices of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and School from ages 7 to 18 will be lifted in celebration of the holiday season—American style with superstar soprano Deborah Voigt. From colonial times, America shaped its own brand of holiday celebration fusing cultural traditions and forging new ones. Join us for a uniquely American holiday in music including performances by all levels of the Chorus School and audience sing-alongs.
In addition to the Davies Symphony Hall holiday concert, the Girls Chorus will team up again this year with New Century Chamber Orchestra and violinist/Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg in San Francisco (Herbst Theatre), Berkeley (First Congregational Church), Palo Alto and Marin (Marin-Osher JCC).
Echoes of the Classics Canons by Brahms, Franck and Haydn Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 4 pm at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Guest Artist: Joshua Roman, cello
Dynamic young artist and 2011 TED Fellow Joshua Roman joins the Chorus and singers from the Chorus School in a program that shows how great composers lifted canons and rounds to high art.
Luminous Premieres Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 7 pm, San Francisco Conservatory of Music Premieres by Aaron Jay Kernis, Gabriel Kahane and Theo Bleckmann plus Timo Andres’ Comfort Food and Thierry Escaich’s Vocis cælestis (2009)
The season-closing concert features premieres created expressly for the San Francisco Girls Chorus by an engaging and diverse trio of gifted American composers. Aaron Jay Kernis’ work was premiered by the New York Philharmonic when he was just 23 years old. Full of dramatic virtuosity, his style often features a dense and lush tonal palette with glorious melodies stacked one on top of another in sensual, sonic, heart-stirring constructions. Contemporary bard Gabriel Kahane’s pop-infused style has been praised by Rolling Stone magazine for its beguiling and insightful lyrics, soul-touching simplicity and contemporary relevance. Theo Bleckmann is a Munich-born jazz vocalist and composer whose work is playful yet sophisticated. Completing the program is composer/pianist Timo Andres, who will accompany his serene meditation on comfort foods inspired by a list of them from friends.
TICKETS Subscriptions, priced $150, and single tickets, priced $18-$65, may be purchased through City Box Office.
MEDIA CONTACT Scott Horton Communications 510-735-9200 Scott@SHCommunications.org