GRAMMY Award-Winning Sf Girls Chorus To Release New Double CD, Heaven And Earth, November 15, 2009

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San Francisco, October 23, 2009 – The three-time Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus will release a new double CD set of premieres and repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries entitled Heaven and Earth November 15, 2009, Artistic Director Susan McMane has announced. The internationally acclaimed 31-year-old Chorus performed on stage at the swearing in of President Barack Obama in Washington, DC, and made its New York debut at Lincoln Center in April of this year.

The Chorus’ 7th recording, Heaven and Earth, features premiere recordings of commissioned music by composers Gabriela Lena Frank and Augusta Read Thomas, Britten’s Missa Brevis and Poulenc’s Litanies a la Vierge Noire with organist David Higgs; Tavener’s Glory to God for this Transient Life, a suite of stunning modern settings of the Ave Maria and other works (EDITOR NOTE: A Complete playlist may be found at the end of this release). The CDs were recorded over the course of two seasons at Skywalker Sound in Novato, CA, and performance venues with Susan McMane conducting, Susan Soehner, piano; David Higgs, organ, Emil Miland, cello; Producer and Digital Editor Steve Barnett (Barnett Music Productions, Minneapolis, MN), Recording and Mastering Engineer Preston Smith (Perfect Record, St. Paul, MN). The CD set goes on sale beginning November 15 at www.sfgirlschorus.org and is priced at $30.

About the San Francisco Girls Chorus

For more than thirty years, the thrilling sounds of the extraordinarily gifted young women of the San Francisco Girls Chorus have captured the attention and fired the imaginations of audiences worldwide. Following a phenomenal 30th anniversary season that included featured performances at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, a New York debut and unprecedented ticket sales, the San Francisco Girls Chorus has furthered its status as an internationally celebrated professional choral ensemble.

The 41 members of our professional-level ensemble are 12-17 years old and come from all over the Bay Area. Each singer represents as much as a decade of musical training and performance experience. Audience members and critics have come to expect a soaring, exquisite sound, remarkable versatility and concerts of great beauty and depth.

Founded in 1978, the San Francisco Girls Chorus is an internationally acclaimed center for choral music performances and education for girls and young women ages 7-18.  More than 300 singers from 160 schools in 48 Bay Area cities participate in what the California Arts Council calls “a model in the country for training girls’ voices”. The organization comprises a 41-voice the concert, recording, and touring ensemble, conducted by Artistic Director Susan McMane; the four-level San Francisco Girls Chorus School training program and preparatory program, supervised by Director Elizabeth Avakian; and the Alumnae Chorus.

Each year, dedicated young artists present season concerts, tour nationally or internationally, and appear with respected sponsoring organizations, including San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera. The Chorus has been honored to sing at many prestigious national and international venues, including the World Choral Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, in 2005. In March 2006 the Chorus was featured at the American Choral Directors Association Western Division Convention in Salt Lake City, and in 2007 the Chorus toured to China and South Korea.

Known as a leader in its field, the San Francisco Girls Chorus was honored in 2001 as the first youth chorus to win the prestigious “Margaret Hillis Award” given annually by Chorus America to a chorus that demonstrates artistic excellence, a strong organizational structure, and a commitment to education. Other awards include two ASCAP awards for Adventurous Programming in 2001 and 2004.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus has produced CD recordings including: Voices of Hope and Peace, which includes many SFGC commissions; Christmas, a collection of diverse holiday selections; Crossroads, a compilation of world folk music; and Music from the Venetian Ospedali, a disc of Italian Baroque music. The San Francisco Girls Chorus can also be heard on several San Francisco Symphony recordings, including three that earned Grammy® Awards. Highly regarded for collaboration, the Girls Chorus has participated in joint projects with composers Luciana Souza, Rollo Dilworth and others, and choreographers and directors including Brenda Way, Joe Goode and Stephen Petronio.

Heaven and Earth Contents

Disc 1: Heaven

1 Psalm 150, Willcocks
2 Ave verum, Fauré
3-6 Missa Brevis in D, Britten
 David Higgs, organ
7 Toccata from Suite pour l’orgue, Duruflé
 David Higgs, organ
8 Glory to God for this Transient Life, Tavener
9 Litanies à la vierge noire, Poulenc
 David Higgs, organ
10 Ave Maria, MacIntyre
11 Ave verum corpus, Poulenc
12 Ave Maria, Head
13 Ave Maria, Holst

Disc 2: Earth

1 I Dream a World, Szymko
2 I Cannot Dance O Lord, Paulus
3 The Water of Tyne, Traditional,arr. Neaum
4-5 Two Mountain Songs, Frank
I . “Envuelto por el Viento”
II . “Picaflor Esmeralda”
6-7 Two E. E. Cummings Songs, Thomas
(Recorded Live)
I . “sky candy spouting violets”
II . “(kiss me)”
8 “I Got Rhythm”, Gershwin, arr. Swingle
9 National Weather Forecast, Mollicone
10 “Blue Skies”, Berlin, arr. Okamura
Emil Miland, cello
11 “Over the Rainbow”, Arlen, arr. Kendall