San Francisco Conservatory of Music: Remainder of Term

This will probably be the final “heads-up” article for public concert activities at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The final concert of the semester that will require tickets will take place on May 6, so a separate article for events in May is unnecessary. For that matter, April will be relatively quiet, probably because the major priority at this time involves students preparing for their end-of-term recitals. Here is a chronological listing of events likely to be of interest:

Monday, April 3, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall: The month will begin with a Faculty Artist Series recital given by clarinetist Jeff Anderle. The title of the program will be History of the Bass Clarinet, Part 3, America, 2007–2017. Anderle has exercised his bass clarinet skills in a variety of chamber music settings, including his Sqwonk duo with Jonathan Russell (also on bass clarinet) and the Splinter Reeds quintet, in which he is one of the three single-reed players. (The other two are Bill Kalinkos on clarinet and Dave Wegehaupt on both soprano and alto saxophones. The double-reed players are Dana Jessen on bassoon and Kyle Bruckmann on both oboe and cor anglais.)

As the program title suggests, all selections (of which there are four) will have been composed or revised over the past ten years. They will include the world premiere of “a circle for the head” by Kyle Hovatter and Marc Mellits’ recent “update” of his 2005 composition “Tight Sweater.” The other works on the program will be Evan Ziporyn’s “Hive” (2007) and Brendon Randall-Myers’ “Nausea” (2013). Anderle will be joined by ten clarinetists: Cristian Barazal, Andrew Friedman, Nicolas Harrison, Lotte Leussink, Nicolina Logan, Sahand Soltani-Nobakht, Yihin Wang, Kevin Xu, and Carey Bell, as well as Kalinkos. Jerry Simas will join the group on bass clarinet. Other performers will be Chris Froh on marimba and Kate Campbell on piano.

This concert will be free, and no tickets will be required.

Friday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 9, 2 p.m., Concert Hall: This term the Opera department will present a “double bill” of two one-act operas. The first of these will be Jules Massenet’s “Le portrait de Manon.” The second will be Giacomo Puccini’s “Suor Angelica,” the second of the three one-act operas he collected under the title Il trittico. Tickets will be $20 for general admission and $15 for students, seniors, and Conservatory members. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through Click4tix event pages, one each for the Friday and Sunday performances.

Monday, April 10, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall: The second Faculty Artist Series recital of the month will be given by bassist Stephen Tramontozzi. Program details have not yet been announced, but Tramontozzi will be playing at least one of his own compositions. Other composers on the program will be Béla Bartók, Frank Martin, Geoff Keezer, David Conte, and David Garner. This concert will be free, and no tickets will be required.

Saturday, April 15, 8 p.m., Recital Hall: The Historical Performance Department will offer a concert by its Baroque Orchestra. The program will present this term’s Baroque Ensemble Concerto Competition Winners, as well as Georg Philipp Telemann’s TWV 55:G4 orchestral suite entitled Ouverture des nations anciens et modernes. This concert will be free, and no tickets will be required.

Wednesday, April 19, 8 p.m., Concert Hall: The New Music Ensemble, conducted by Nicole Paiement, will celebrate the centennial of the birth of pioneering maverick composer Lou Harrison with a program entitled Lou Harrison: The man, the poet, the artist: A Birthday Celebration. As the title suggests, this will involve a general discussion of Harrison’s life and works; but it will also feature performances of several of his important pieces. [added 4/8, 9:50 a.m.: Program details have now been announced. Harpist Madeline Jarzembak and cellist Sungkyung Park will play Harrison's 1949 duo suite. This will be followed by his Village Music suite, performed by harpsichordist Corey Jamason. Finally, Paiement will conduct the Ensemble in a performance of the suite Solstice, composed between 1949 and 1950.] This concert will be free, but reservations will be required. Reservations may be arranged online through a Web page created for this particular event. Seating will be general admission.

Saturday, May 6, 8 p.m., Concert Hall: The season will conclude with the final Orchestra concert. The soloist will be soprano Natalie Image (’17) in a performance of Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville, Summer of 1915.” The opening selection will be Ruth Crawford Seeger’s “Rissolty, Rossolty,” which she composed between 1939 and 1941. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to the 1947 version of the music that Igor Stravinsky composed for the ballet “Petrushka.” Eric Dudley will conduct. Tickets will be $20 for general admission and $15 for students, seniors, and Conservatory members. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through a Click4tix event page.