Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Omni Foundation will Extend SFP Guitar Series with Five Recitals

This past Thursday this site summarized the content of the five concerts in the 2017–2018 Guitar Series presented by San Francisco Performances (SFP). These events are offered in partnership with the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. However, Omni has its own Dynamite Guitars season, which will include all five of the SFP offerings and add five more to the package. All of these concerts will begin at 7:30 pm. Four will take place in the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, three in Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor, and one in the Green Room on the second floor. The remaining concert will take place at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. The specifics for the five additional offerings are as follows:

Wednesday, October 18, Herbst Theatre: This will be the return of Brazilian guitarist Yamandu Costa, who gave his last Omni performance in Herbst in April of 2016. Costa plays a seven-string guitar, whose additional string extends the instrument’s lower register. His repertoire tends to focus on indigenous music from southern Brazil and northern Argentina, with particular attention to the “gaucho” rhythms of his sources.

Saturday, February 3, Herbst Theatre: The next returning artist will be the American musical icon Leo Kottke. Kottke’s style draws on blues, jazz, and folk music. In spite of past problems with his right hand, he specializes in syncopated polyphonic melodies. He plays both six-string and twelve-string instruments.

Saturday, March 24, Green Room: This will be the D’Addario Performance Series recital of the Omni season. The program will be shared by two contrasting styles. Russian Grisha Goryachev is one of the very few guitarists in the world who is currently reviving the tradition of solo flamenco guitar performances in a concert setting. He will be complemented by Italian Andrea de Vitis, who specializes in the classical guitar repertoire.

Saturday, April 7, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: One of Japan’s premiere guitarists, Shin-ichi Fukuda, will give a solo recital. His repertoire focuses primarily on the contemporary concert repertoire. The Cuban composer Leo Brouwer dedicated to him the “Concerto de Requiem” that he composed for guitar and orchestra as a memorial piece for Toru Takemitsu.

Saturday, April 21, Herbst Theatre: This will be the second edition of a four-set smorgasbord of different approaches to guitar virtuosity. The opening set will be taken by the duo of guitarists Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo. They will be followed by the Brazilian Badi Assad, a singer as well as a guitarist and sister of the Duo Assad guitarists, Sérgio and Odair. The geography will then shift to Finland with a solo set taken by Olli Soikkeli. The evening will then conclude with a solo set by Cesar Garabini, born in Brazil and currently living in New York City.

Subscription packages for the 2017–2018 season are currently available by calling 415-242-4500. The price of the full series of ten concerts provides a 20% discount over the purchase of ten individual tickets. There is also the Create-Your-Own option. The subscriber can create his/her own package of four or more concerts and receive a 14% discount. Single ticket prices are $45 and $55 for St. Mark’s, $45 for the Green Room, and $35, $45, and $55 for Herbst Theatre.

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