MYSTICS AND ECSTATICS
Sunday, June 4, 4:00 pm Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
San Francisco Girls Chorus With special guests Trinity Youth Chorus Mellissa Hughes, soprano and Melissa Attebury, Director of the Trinity Youth Chorus Jonathan Woody, Bass
We are delighted to share the stage with the esteemed Trinity Youth Chorus from Trinity Wall Street in Manhattan in their West Coast debut. Trinity Wall Street has been an innovator in quality music programming in New York since 1697. An expanded SF Girls Chorus, including members of the Chorus School, will join with this superb youth chorus and orchestra for shared musical adventures. Vivaldi’s “Gloria,” which our singers will just have presented at the Kennedy Center in April, takes place alongside contemporary British composer John Tavener’s mystical “Hymns of Paradise,” and the US premiere of “Song of Seals” for youth chorus and instruments by Glasgow-based young composer Emily Doolittle. The concert features narrations in English and Gaelic combined with an ecstatic array of vocal sounds. Finally, soprano Mellissa Hughes leads the choruses in an improvised tapestry of luxurious colors, using a unique artistic practice developed by the Trinity Wall Street choruses.
Tickets: $36 Reserved, $26 General Admission, $18 Student
SEASON INFORMATION:
JOURNEYS EARTHLY AND DIVINE
Join us for the San Francisco Girls Chorus 2016-2017 Season! Subscriptions and single tickets to our concerts can be purchased through City Box Office at 415-392-4400 or by visiting http://www.cityboxoffice.com/SFGC.
This season, we explore the vagaries and foibles of love, the deep solemnity of spiritual devotion, the ecstasy of the natural world and the excitement of joining together with others to make joyful noise in community. Our season looks to the British Isles and its generations of music traditions, in anticipation of our summer tour to England and Scotland. The variety of styles and musical languages that have come from this part of the world is redoubtable. A rich tapestry to explore – come join us!
PAST PERFORMANCES:
OUT OF DARKNESS
Saturday, February 25, 8:00 pm Mission Dolores, San Francisco
Sunday, February 26, 4:00 pm First Presbyterian Church, Oakland
San Francisco Girls Chorus Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Principal Conductor With special guest, Paul Vasile
Lent is a time for inner contemplation, in anticipation of the re-emergence of the light. Many composers, including Felix Mendelssohn, who began life in a prominent Jewish family and fervently converted to Lutheranism later, used the Hebrew Psalm texts – or Tehillim – to meditate on the more solemn side of faith. In the Romantic era, the organ took on grander proportions, bringing a symphonic profundity to devotional music. This concert features Mendelssohn’s epic “Three Motets,” Poulenc’s serene “Litanies a la Vierge Noire” and psalm settings by Brahms, Grieg, Arvo Pärt and others. Virtuoso organist Paul Vasile joins the SF Girls Chorus on the grand organs at these magnificent churches.
Ticket sales for this concert have ended.
LOVE'S JOURNEY
Saturday, October 29, 8:00 pm Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
San Francisco Girls Chorus Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Principal Conductor With special guest Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano and members of Magik*Magik Orchestra
Unrequited love, yearning love, betrayed love, self-love, difficult love, waning love – great composers and poets have explored all of these. Celebrated mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin joins our young singers to tell you these stories in an evening dedicated to Love in its less lovely moments. Holst’s “Seven Part Songs” sets the tone, with love poetry by Robert Bridges. Czech master Leoš Janácek’s “The Wolf’s Trail” is a comic tale about cuckoldry. The French, long considered to be authorities on Love, also weigh in, with works by Milhaud, Debussy and Chausson. New York experimentalist John Zorn meditates on the character of Harlequin’s girlfriend, the coy Colombina.
Ticket sales for this concert have ended.
A HIGHLANDS HOLIDAY
Monday, December 19, 7:30 pm
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
San Francisco Girls Chorus and Chorus School Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Principal Conductor With special guests Matthew Welch, Composer/Bagpiper and Joshua Roman, Cellist
This holiday season we come together with a joyful program that looks ahead to the SF Girls Chorus 2017 summer tour to the British Isles. Some of the most beloved holiday music comes from the UK. Bagpiper/composer Matthew Welch and local pipers will join with hundreds of choristers from all of our training programs to present seasonal works and sing-alongs like you’ve never heard, with the sound of voices and bagpipes filling Davies Symphony Hall.
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: Cellist and TED Fellow Joshua Roman!
Ticket sales for this concert have ended.