San Francisco Girls Chorus Announces 2019-2020 Season
SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS ANNOUNCES 2019-2020 SEASON
Subscription Season Highlights Include a Co-Production with Berkeley Ballet Theater Featuring World Premiere SFGC Commissions by Angélica Negrón and Aviya Kopelman; Special Preview of SFGC-Commissioned Opera by Matthew Welch; Annual Holiday Concert at Davies Symphony Hall Featuring Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols with Clerestory; and Numerous Guest Artist Collaborations.
Special Appearances Around the Bay Area Include San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet School at Lycée Français de San Francisco, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, TEDxSanFrancisco, Opening Celebration for the Presidio Theatre, Berkeley Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and Kronos Quartet.
Season Also Includes September 27 Release of SFGC’s Latest Album, My Outstretched Hand, Featuring The Knights & Trinity Youth Chorus On Supertrain Records
San Francisco, CA – September 3, 2019 – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) today announced its 2019-2020 season featuring four subscription performances and numerous appearances with leading arts organizations throughout the Bay Area. Led by Artistic Director and Conductor Valérie Sainte-Agathe, the season will celebrate the empowerment of women during a year of national celebrations around the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Works from two rising star women composers, Angélica Negrón (SFGC commission) and Aviya Kopelman (SFGC co-commission with the Israel Institute), will be premiered in a choreographed program co-presented with Berkeley Ballet Theater that shines a light on the legacy of women who took part in the United States suffrage movement. An evening of 17th century Latin American Baroque masterworks will showcase music written by Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, one of the first published feminists of the Americas and champion of women’s rights to education. Based on the diary of author Angeles Monrayo, an SFGC commissioned opera by Matthew Welch, Tomorrow’s Memories, will be presented in a special preview performance ahead of the full world premiere during the 2020-2021 season. And continuing its popular annual holiday tradition at Davies Symphony Hall, SFGC will showcase the talents of more than 300 young women from across its seven Chorus levels in a program that features a rare performance of Benjamin Britten’s masterwork A Ceremony of Carols for mixed chorus featuring Clerestory. Guest artists joining SFGC for these programs include The Living Earth Show, Amaranth Quartet, El Mundo, Sopranos Nell Snaidas and Jennifer Ellis Kampani, Harpist Bridget Kibbey, Guitarist Florante Aguilar, Violinist Patti Kilroy, and Percussionist Levy Lorenzo.
In addition to its own subscription series, SFGC and ensembles from its Chorus School will appear on stages around the Bay Area in collaborations with the San Francisco Symphony (Mahler Symphony No. 8 in MTT’s final performances and ‘Twas the Night); San Francisco Opera (Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel); San Francisco Ballet School at Lycée Français de San Francisco; Berkeley Symphony (Symphonic II: You Have A Voice); New Century Chamber Orchestra (Set V: Music of Spheres); and Kronos Quartet (Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and in collaboration at SFJAZZ). Additional appearances include the Presidio Theatre’s Opening Celebration, 2019 TEDxSanFrancisco, and the Full Series at UC Berkeley Arts Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
SFGC will also mark the start of the season with the September 27 release of its latest album, My Outstretched Hand, which features conductor Eric Jacobsen, Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra The Knights and Trinity Youth Chorus on Supertrain Records. Representing the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between current Artistic Director, Valérie Sainte-Agathe, former Artistic Director, Lisa Bielawa, and featured guest artists, the album includes world premiere recordings of choral-orchestral works by three American composers: My Outstretched Hand by Lisa Bielawa (The Knights commission), Remembering the Sea-Souvenir de la Mer by Aaron Jay Kernis (SFGC commission), and If I Were Not Me by Colin Jacobsen. All three works were commissioned for the 2016 NY PHIL Biennial Festival at Lincoln Center and premiered on June 9, 2016, in a concert featuring SFGC, The Knights, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The album continues to exemplify SFGC’s commitment to championing music of our time and builds on its existing discography of over a dozen recordings. My Outstretched Hand was made possible, in part, by support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Isabelle and Charles Hamker.
“I am constantly amazed at the unbounded energy that the powerful young women of the San Francisco Girls Chorus display not only through their exceptional artistry as performers but also toward one another, the community and the world at large,” said Valérie Sainte-Agathe. “Through music, we possess the unique opportunity to impact change in the world and this season explores the ways in which we can use this energy to move forward and build upon the many accomplishments in this ongoing story of empowerment. We are excited to celebrate powerful women through diverse storytelling, collaborate in numerous cross-disciplinary projects and showcase music across a broad spectrum of eras and styles. And continuing our commitment to presenting the music of today, we are thrilled to release our latest album, My Outstretched Hand, and premiere two SFGC commissions by talented women composers Angélica Negrón and Aviya Kopelman as well as provide audiences with a special preview of a significant new commissioned opera by Matthew Welch.”
The season opens on Saturday, October 19, 2019 at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco with Daring Sisters / Atrevidas Hermanas, a program that pays homage to one of the leading feminist figures of the 17th century Latin American Baroque era, Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz. Known as an intellectual, scholar, philosopher, poet and composer, de la Cruz stands as a national icon of Mexico for her staunch advocacy of women’s rights to pursue an intellectual life, and to study and be recognized as equal to men. SFGC will be joined by a variety of Latin American and Spanish Baroque music specialists including soprano Nell Snaidas, who also serves as curator; soprano and SFGC alumna Jennifer Ellis Kampani and Richard Savino’s GRAMMY-nominated chamber ensemble, El Mundo. Selected works by de la Cruz will be featured alongside music written by Mexican, Bolivian and Peruvian composers, many of whom were inspired to pursue more scholarly paths as a direct result of de la Cruz’s advocacy and influence. The program will be sung in Spanish, Nahuatl and Quechua and will include works by Andres Flores, Juan Garcia de Zéspedes, Juan de Lienas and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
In celebration of the festive season, SFGC returns to Davies Symphony Hall on Monday, December 16, 2019 for its popular annual holiday concert A Ceremony of Carols. Inspired by the culmination of its summer tour of England and France, SFGC brings two masterpieces by two significant British composers of the 20th and 21st centuries: a rare performance of the mixed version of Benjamin Britten’s monumental masterpiece A Ceremony of Carols and The Fayrfax Carol by Thomas Adès. Bay Area vocal ensemble Clerestory features in Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols and will join hundreds of choristers including seven levels of the Chorus School, the Premier Ensemble and SFGC alumnae. American harpist Bridget Kibbey returns following her June 2019 debut with the ensemble as well as Bay Area experimental duo The Living Earth Show in a program that also features Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Ēriks Ešenvalds’s Stars, Ysaÿe Maria Barnwell’s Wanting Memories and other holiday repertoire including traditional Christmas carol sing-alongs.
The season continues on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with Rightfully Ours, a fully-staged choral music and dance co-production with the Berkeley Ballet Theater. Inspired by the 100th anniversary of the suffragette movement and the legacy of women who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the program will feature choreographed choral works by six living composers including world premiere performances of two new works by women composers, Angélica Negrón and Aviya Kopelman, commissioned and co-commissioned with the Israel Institute, respectively. Led by SFGC Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe and Berkeley Ballet Theater Artistic Director Robert Dekkers, more than 40 dancers and 40 choristers will share the stage in a program that also includes Sahba Aminikia’s Music of Spheres (SFGC 2017 premiere) and Carla Kihlstedt’s Herring Run (SFGC 2016 commission) as featured on the ensemble’s 2018 recording Final Answer, as well as Steve Reich’s Clapping Music, Libby Larsen’s The Womanly Song of God (SFGC 2003 commission) and Meredith Monk’s Panda Chant.
Concluding the season on Tuesday, June 16th, 2020 is Songs from the Archipelago, a program that will explore the musical intersection of western classical and Filipino classical music. The centerpiece of the program will be a semi-staged preview of Tomorrow’s Memories, a brand new SFGC-commissioned choral-opera from American composer Matthew Welch. Scheduled for its world premiere during the 2020-2021 season, Tomorrow’s Memories is based on the 1924-1928 diary writings of Filipina immigrant Angeles Monrayo and highlights the importance of the Filipino diaspora’s cultural impact throughout the United States, particularly in the Bay Area. Alongside Tomorrow’s Memories, the chorus will perform a selection of works composed in the western classical style but drawing heavily on folk songs of, and using instruments from, the Philippines from Filipino composers including Daya Daya Kupita by Nilo Alcala, winner of the 2019 American Prize in Composition as well as music by San Francisco-based George Hernandez, founder of the Philippine Saringhimig Singers, and the Philippines’ most well-known woman composer Lucrecia Roces Kasilag. Featured guest artists for this program include guitarist Florante Aguilar, violinist Patti Kilroy and percussionist Levy Lorenzo.
Four-concert subscriptions to San Francisco Girls Chorus self-produced concert season go on sale September 6 and are available at a discounted price of $170. Call (415) 392-4400 or visit http://www.cityboxoffice.com to purchase a subscription.
Single tickets range in price from $28 to $62 and will go on sale September 6. Discounted student tickets are available at $10 with valid ID.
The 2019-2020 season is made possible, in part, by support from San Francisco Grants for the Arts, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the California Arts Council, and other institutional, corporate, and individual funders.
CALENDARS EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE
SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS 2019-2020 SEASON
San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents
Daring Sisters / Atrevidas Hermanas
Saturday, October 19, 2019, 7:30 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, conductor
Nell Snaidas, curator & soprano
Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano
El Mundo, Richard Savino, director
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San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents
A Ceremony of Carols
Monday, December 16, 2019, 7:00 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, conductor
Bridget Kibbey, harp
Clerestory
The Living Earth Show
Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols
Thomas Adès: The Fayrfax Carol
Ysaÿe Maria Barnwell: Wanting Memories
Ēriks Ešenvalds: Stars
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Dona Nobis Pacem
Traditional: O Come, All Ye Faithful
Traditional: The First Nowell
Franz Gruber: Silent Night
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San Francisco Girls Chorus and Berkeley Ballet Theater Present
Rightfully Ours
Saturday, February 29, 2020, 7:30 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
San Francisco Girls Chorus
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director and Conductor
Berkeley Ballet Theater
Robert Dekkers, Artistic Director and Choreographer
The Living Earth Show
Amaranth Quartet
Sahba Aminikia: Music of Spheres
Carla Kihlstedt: Herring Run
Aviya Kopelman: Belong Not (World Premiere; SFGC Co-Commission with the Israel Institute)
Libby Larsen: The Womanly Song of God
Meredith Monk: Panda Chant
Angélica Negrón: Title TBD (World Premiere; SFGC Commission)
Steve Reich: Clapping Music
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San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents
Songs from the Archipelago
Tuesday, June 16th, 2020, 7:30 p.m., at Herbst Theater, San Francisco
Florante Aguilar, guitar
Patti Kilroy, violin
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Matthew Welch: Preview of Tomorrow’s Memories (SFGC Commission)
Nilo Alcala: Daya Daya Kupita
Other repertoire by George Hernandez and Lucrecia Roces Kasilag
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ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES AROUND THE BAY AREA
Presidio Theatre Opening Celebration
September 21, 2019
Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
TEDxSanFrancisco
October 3, 2019
Herbst Theater, San Francisco
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival with Kronos Quartet
October 4, 2019
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
San Francisco Ballet School
November 1, 2019
Lycée Français de San Francisco
Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with San Francisco Opera
November 15 - Dec 7, 2019
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
‘Twas the Night with the San Francisco Symphony
December 19-20, 2019
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
Symphonic II: You Have A Voice with Berkeley Symphony
February 6, 2020
Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley
UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Full
February 8, 2020
BAMPFA, Berkeley
41st Season Gala
March 27, 2020
Julia Morgan Ballroom, San Francisco
SFGC with Kronos Quartet
May 9 & 10, 2020
SFJAZZ, San Francisco
Set V: Music of Spheres with New Century Chamber Orchestra
May 13-14 & 16-17, 2020
Bing Concert Hall, Palo Alto
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael
Soloist Intensive Performance
May 2, 2020
Bayview Opera House, San Francisco
Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand with MTT and San Francisco Symphony
June 25 - 28, 2020
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS
Stunning range, flexibility, drama, and power are among the hallmarks of the 41-year-old San Francisco Girls Chorus’s Premier Ensemble, recognized as one of the world’s leading youth vocal ensembles. Led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, the Premier Ensemble has achieved an incomparable sound that underscores the unique clarity and force of impeccably trained treble voices.
Recent concert highlights include a July 2019 tour to England and France that featured six performances in London, Windsor, Cambridge, and Paris; appearances on all three days of the 2019 KRONOS FESTIVAL; multiple performances of Stravinsky’s Persephone with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in September 2018; debut performances in February 2018 at Carnegie Hall alongside Philip Glass; June 2018 performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Voices of Music for the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition; an April 2017 debut performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with The Knights for SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras. SFGC has also traveled the world as a musical ambassador for San Francisco, with tours to the Nordic countries, Germany, Japan, China, South Korea, and Cuba, and performed for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Praised by Gramophone Magazine as a “remarkable tapestry of teenage voices,” SFGC has been a champion of the music of our time since its founding, having commissioned more than three dozen works by leading composers including Philip Glass, Richard Danielpour, Aaron Jay Kernis, Gabriel Kahane, Augusta Read Thomas, and Chen Yi. In February 2018, SFGC released its most recent album, Final Answer, on Philip Glass’ Orange Mountain Music label. The album features Kronos Quartet and includes works by nine living composers, among them Philip Glass, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Lisa Bielawa, John Zorn, and Gabriel Kahane. The Premier Ensemble has been recipient of numerous music industry awards, including five GRAMMY Awards, four ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming, and the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from Chorus America.
In addition to its Premier Ensemble, SFGC is renowned as a regional center for choral music education and performance for girls and young women ages 4-18. Hundreds of singers from 46 Bay Area cities participate in this internationally-recognized seven-level Chorus School, hailed as “a model in the country for training girls’ voices” by the California Arts Council.
For more information, visit http://www.sfgirlschorus.org.
PHOTO CREDITS
SF Girls Chorus / Ben Tomlin
Nell Snaidas / Gary Payne
Jennifer Ellis Kampani / Jennifer Ellis Kampani
SFGC Holiday Concert / SFGC
Berkeley Ballet Theater / Natalia Perez
Matthew Welch / Matthew Welch
PRESS CONTACT
Brenden Guy, Marketing & PR Consultant
(415) 640-3165
brendenguy@gmail.com
marketing@sfgirlschorus.org