 |
 |
 |  |
 |
|||
 |
|||
MEDIA CONTACT:
Scott Horton
(510) 735-9200
Bluescott260@hotmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS 2007-2008 SEASON OPENS WITH
“MUSIC FIT FOR A QUEEN” –900 YEARS OF ROYAL MUSIC OF ENGLAND
San Francisco, September 21, 2007 – The three-time Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus opens its 2007-2008, 29th anniversary home season by celebrating 900 years of English choral music in a program entitled “Music Fit for a Queen.” The performance will be given Friday, October 26, at 8 p.m. at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and features Chorissima, the advanced professional level performance ensemble of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, conducted by Artistic Director Susan McMane, with Susan Soehner on piano, organ and harpsichord. Calvary Presbyterian Church is located at 2515 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
The virtuosic program ranges from medieval songs to contemporary English music and from sacred to the humorously camp Gilbert and Sullivan and demonstrates the impressive range and skill of the internationally regarded San Francisco Girls Chorus as a first rate professional choral ensemble. Artistic Director Susan McMane comments, “The program features music that generations of Britons have heard soaring to the heavens in resonant churches and cathedrals and has brought them bringing down the house with thunderous applause in raucous and high-spirited theatres and concert halls—all with a decidedly regal touch, of course.”
Featured will be John Tavener’s (b. 1944) haunting and soaring Glory to God for this Transient Life, inspired by Eastern Orthodox tradition and mysticism. Two anonymous medieval songs from the 13th and 14th centuries harken back to a time when chant began to blossom into glorious polyphonic masterworks. Benjamin Britten’s ambitious Missa Brevis, Op. 63, modernizes the liturgy of the mass in quintessential 20th century English style. Heycoka Te Deum by Scottish composer James MacMillan (b.1959) is a tour-de-force in sound for girls chorus and instruments and features Leslie Chin, flute; Louis Siu, tubular bells and Chorissima, joined by the San Francisco Girls Chorus Level IV Ensemble. No survey of English choral music for royalty would be complete without Henry Purcell (1659-1695) who is represented on the program by selections from Come ye Sons of Art (Ode for the birthday of Queen Mary, 1694), one of the prolific composer’s last works. Joining Chorissima will be Kati Kyme, Maxine Nemerovski, violins; David Bowes, viola; Paul Hale, cello; Leslie Chin, flute.
A suite of folk music of the British Isles and popular choruses from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas with choreography by Brian Fisher complete the program.
About the San Francisco Girls Chorus
Founded in 1978, the San Francisco Girls Chorus is recognized internationally as a center for choral music performances and education for girls and young women ages 7-18 whose reputation for professional training and the highest performance standards are second to none. 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 five choruses: Chorissima and the concert, recording, and touring ensembles, conducted by Artistic Director Susan McMane; and the four-level Chorus School training program, supervised by Director Elizabeth Avakian.
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. In the summer of 2007 the Girls Chorus performed as one of only six choruses worldwide invited to participate in the World Vision Children’s Choir Festival in Seoul, Korea, in July, and in China in Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall. In March 2006 they were featured at the American Choral Directors Association Western Division Convention in Salt Lake City. In August 2005, they were invited to perform at the 7th World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto and also at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.
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 six solo CD recordings including: Voices of Hope and Peace, a recording that includes “Anne Frank: A Living Voice” by an American composer Linda Tutas Haugen; Christmas, a selection of diverse holiday songs; Crossroads, a collection of world folk music; and Music from the Venetian Ospedali, a disc of Italian Baroque music, for which The New Yorker proclaimed the Chorus “tremendously accomplished.” The San Francisco Girls Chorus can also be heard on several San Francisco Symphony recordings, including three that earned Grammy® Awards.
Tickets for Music Fit for a Queen are priced $12-$24 and may be purchased online at www.cityboxoffice.com or by calling City Box Office at 415-392-4499. For more information about the San Francisco Girls Chorus and “Music Fit for a Queen,” the October 26th concert, call (415) 863-1752 or visit www.sfgirlschorus.org.
###
CALENDAR EDITOR PLEASE LIST:
SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS 2007-2008 SEASON OPENING CONCERT
“MUSIC FIT FOR A QUEEN”
WHEN: Friday, October 26, at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Calvary Presbyterian Church, 2515 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
PROGRAM: 900 years of English royal choral music by TAVENER, BRITTEN, PURCELL, MACMILLAN and others.
TICKETS: $12-$24
By phone - City Box Office 415-392-4400
Online - www.cityboxoffice.com
In person – City Box Office, 180 Redwood St., Suite 100, San Francisco (Mon-Fri 9:30 am-5pm)
