San Francisco Girls Chorus Receives $75,000 Grant for Large Scale, Commissioned Cantata To Be Premiered in June 2013
San Francisco Girls Chorus Receives $75,000 Grant for Large Scale, Commissioned Cantata To Be Premiered in June 2013
Gerbode and Hewlett Foundations Award One of Six Grants to SFGC
The San Francisco Girls Chorus is one of only six California organizations to receive a major grant for the creation of new music from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Girls Chorus will be joined by the Berkeley Symphony and soprano Jessica Rivera on a cantata for treble chorus, chamber orchestra and vocal soloists written by Grammy®-winning Bay Area composer Gabriela Lena Frank, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz. The work will explore the cultural clash and interchange between the European colonial and indigenous worlds as well as the roles and perception of women in each, drawing upon Latin text by Portuguese poet José Tolentino de Mendonça as well as texts in Spanish, the Incan language Quechua and the Aztec language Nahuatl. The complete work, consisting of a Prelude and Cantata Mayor, will receive its premiere in June 2013. The commissioning and production of this world premiere is made possible by The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Composer Collaboration Awards 2010 initiative.
The Composer Collaboration Awards are the last in a three-year $1,350,000 initiative by the Gerbode and Hewlett Foundations to support new works involving dynamic partnerships in contemporary dance, theater and music. The awards in 2008 supported choreographer collaborations, while the 2009 awards were granted for works involving playwrights. The 2010 grants were awarded to the following recipients: the Cabrillo Festival, the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums, the Jewish Community Centers of San Francisco, the Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana de San Jose, the Z Space Studio and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. These organizations join the distinguished list of past Gerbode recipients including Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ODC Theater, Intersection for the Arts, and the Jewish Theatre San Francisco. All commissioned musical works resulting from the 2010 grants will be premiered between December 2011 and June 2013.
