CMSF will Launch its New Series of San Francisco Debuts Next Month

Those who used to follow reports on Examiner.com may recall the announcement of Early Bird subscriptions to the 2017 season of Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF), which went out this past June. At that time it was also announced the CMSF would also be launching a new Debut Series of concerts that would be held only in San Francisco that would provide a platform for lesser-known artists to make their debut here. The announcement promised that further information would be provided once programming specifics had become available. As of this writing, those specifics have only been given for the last of the five concerts in the series. However, because the first of those concerts will take place in a little over a month, it seems appropriate to provide as much information as is currently available.

All performances will begin at 8 p.m. but on different days of the week. All but two of the concerts will take place at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), at 50 Oak Street, a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station, will host the first concert of the series; and the second will be held at Herbst Theater, located in the Veterans Building on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. There will be a single price for tickets, and there will be no assigned seating. However, CMSF supporters will have a preferred seating section set aside for them. Specifics for the five recitals are as follows:

Tuesday, February 7, SFCM, Ning Feng: Violinist Feng was born in China in 1981 but studied in London and now lives in Berlin. He won the Gold Medal at the 2006 International Paganini Competition in Genoa. He will be accompanied at the piano by Jeeyoon Kim.

Tuesday, February 28, Herbst Theatre, Seong-Jin Cho: Pianist Cho was born in Seoul in 1994. He won the Gold Medal at the 2015 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. He will give a solo piano recital.

Saturday, March 11, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Sara Daneshpour: Pianist Daneshpour will be the only American to perform in this new series. However, she has already established an international reputation, having won first prize at both the 2007 International Russian Music Piano Competition in 2007 and the Concours International de Musique du Maroc in 2012. She is currently studying with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music and previously studied with Leon Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music. She will also give a solo recital.

Saturday, April 1, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Haochen Zhang: 25-year old Chinese pianist Zhang won the Gold Medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition. He was appointed Artist-in-Residence with the Hangzhou Philharmonic for the 2015–16 season. He will also give a solo recital.

Friday, May 5, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Mayuko Kamio: Osaka-born violinist Kamio won the Gold Medal at the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition, having already been the youngest winner of the Menuhin Violin Competition in 1998. She is the only performer to have announced her program, which will consist of three sonatas for violin and piano. The composers will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (K. 304 in E minor), Maurice Ravel (Opus 77 in G major), and the only such sonata, in the key of A major, by César Franck. However, Kamio’s accompanist has not yet been announced.

Tickets for individual concerts are all being sold for $40 with a $35 rate for seniors aged 65 and older and students. Tickets for children under the age of sixteen are being sold for $20. Subscriptions to the entire series are available for $150 with no special reduced rates. Hyperlinks for advance online purchase of both subscriptions and single tickets have all been set up at the top of the Debut Series Web page. Both tickets and subscriptions may also be purchased by called 415-392-4400.