Saturday, December 7, 2019

The San Francisco Performances 2020 Salon Series

Edward Simon, curator of the Salon Series (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

As was announced this past April, the Salon Series will return to San Francisco Performances next month. As a result of renovations, the Hotel Rex can no longer provide a venue for this unique approach that provides an intimate relationship between audience and performers. Fortunately, a new venue has been found in the same building that houses Herbst Theatre. All performances will take place in the Education Studio on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building, whose main entrance is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street.

The overall format will be somewhat different. Jazz improviser, composer, arranger, and band leader Edward Simon will serve as curator for the four programs that will be presented in this series. In addition the series will be sponsored this season by KDFC, the San Francisco non-commercial radio station that broadcasts classical music 24 hours daily. Each of the four events will include appearances by KDFC on-air hosts. Each will begin on a Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. and last for about an hour. The specific dates and their related performers are as follows:

January 15: The series will begin with a solo recital by Simon, which he will use to survey works by the Catalan composer Federico Mompou. Simon will perform selections from three of the collections that Mompou compiled during his lifetime. The largest of these is Música callada (silent music), consisting of four volumes composed, respectively, in 1959, 1962, 1965, and 1967. The twelve pieces in the Cançons i danses (songs and dances), each of which couples a song with a dance (somewhat in the spirit of Johann Sebastian Bach coupling a prelude with a fugue), were composed between 1921 and 1979. The final collection will be the set of twelve preludes composed between 1972 and 1960.

February 5: Simon will be joined by violinist Hrabba Atladottir and cellist Eric Gaenslen. The program will present a performance of Astor Piazzolla’s suite Estaciones Porteñas (known in English as “the four seasons of Buenos Aires”). Piazzolla composed these four pieces separately for his own nuevo tango ensembles. Only much later did they begin to be performed as a group. José Bragato prepared the arrangement of this music for piano trio that will be performed.

February 26: Simon will present his own program of solo piano jazz.

April 15: Simon will be joined by flutist Marcos Granados. The duo will play Simon’s Venezuelan Suite. The rest of the program will be devoted to Sound American music including compositions by the Venezuelan singer Simón Díaz.

Subscriptions for all four programs are now on sale for $140. Subscriptions may be purchased online in advance through a City Box Office event page. Single tickets will also be sold by City Box Office for $40. They may be purchased through the hyperlinks attached to each of the above dates. All tickets can also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.

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