Wednesday, January 20, 2021

SFS Announces SFSymphony+ Streaming Service

Yesterday the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen announced concert programming from February through August presented through SFSymphony+, the name of a new on-demand streaming service. As was the case with the November broadcast of Throughline: San Francisco Symphony—From Hall to Home, these offerings will not be limited to “live” performances. Rather, the programs will involve imaginative uses of video capture technique to complement the spirit of the selections being performed.

Most of the programming will involve two series:

  1. SoundBox programming will resume but with streamed video presentation
  2. The CURRENTS series, which released “Movements,” Kev Mo’s contribution to Throughline, will continue with five new programs, each exploring a different musical culture

In addition, the annual celebration of Chinese New Year will be presented in a virtual format on February 20. Finally, videos of chamber music performances featuring SFS musicians will be released for streamed viewing beginning on February 4. All of these programs will be available at 10 a.m. on the date of release.

The price for subscription to the entire season is $120. This will provide full access to all digital content at any time once the program has been released. Individual SoundBox and CURRENTS programs may be viewed for $15 per episode. Donors that have contributed $250 or more will be entitled to receive complimentary subscriptions. Finally, both the Chinese New Year program and the chamber music performances will be available free of charge.

CURRENTS is the less conventional of the two series. Because the repertoire is a significant departure from SFS programming, each program is best summarized in terms of the country being explored and the curator leading the exploration as follows:

February 18: Tabla master Zakir Hussain will present the repertoire of Indian Classical Music, joined by Indian classical violinist Kala Ramnath.

April 1: Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ will curate a survey of Native American music, which will include his own original compositions.

May 6: Zimbabwean musical culture will be examined by the Chinyakare Ensemble, which includes four percussionists and two dancers.

June 17: Mohammad Nejad with curate a survey of Persian musical culture.

July 29: Keyboardist Joshua Horowitz will curate a survey of Klezmer, most likely performing with his Veretski Pass colleagues, violinist Cookie Segelstein and Stuart Brotman on basy.

Dates and content for the SoundBox offerings will be as follows:

February 4: Salonen will curate and conduct the first program, which he has entitled Nostalgia. The program will feature three works, all of which were composed in the last decade: “Conjure” by Freya Waley-Cohen, Missy Mazzoli’s “Vespers,” composed for amplified violin with delay and soundtrack, and Caroline Shaw’s string quartet “Entr’acte.” SFS violinist Polina Sedukh will play the Mazzoli composition. Image capture will be directed by Steve Condiotti with lighting designed by Luke Kritzeck and projections provided by Yee Eun Nam.

March 11: Lineage is the SoundBox program that soprano Julia Bullock had been scheduled to curate in April of last year. She had prepared a program of vocal music reaching all the way back to Hildegard of Bingen and all the way into the immediate present. In addition Sara Cahill will give a solo performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 784, the A minor two-part invention. Daniel Stewart will conduct SFS musicians, as well as members of the SFS Chorus, directed by Ragnar Bohlin. Once again, image capture will be directed by Steve Condiotti with lighting designed by Kritzeck. Projections will be designed by Adam Larsen.

April 15: Salonen will curate and conduct a program exploring minimalism in music. He will present the world premiere of his “Saltat sobrius,” whose thematic material draws upon Pérotin’s four-voice twelfth-century organum (most likely composed for services at Notre-Dame de Paris) “Sederunt principes.” Pianist Elizabeth Dorman will be featured in a performance of Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel.” SFS musicians will perform Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music” and Terry Riley’s “In C.” Frank Zamacona will direct working with lighting designed by Kritzeck and projections designed by Larsen.

May 27: This program will be curated by harpist and jazz vocalist Destiny Muhammad. The program will bring William Grant Still’s “Serenade” together with Matt Wong’s arrangements of a variety of different jazz styles. Those arrangements will include his treatment of Muhammad’s own composition “Hope on the Horizon.” Drummer Jeon Joyce, Jr. and bassist Ron Belcher will contribute to the jazz combo work. Daniel Stewart will conduct SFS musicians. Larsen will provide projections.

July 8: SFS Collaborative Partner composer Nico Muhly will feature choreographer and dancer Emma Lanier. The program will include the world premiere of an as-yet-untitled work by the Czech composer Lukáš Janata. Muhly will also present his arrangement of Orlando Gibbons’ six-voice anthem “See, see the Word is incarnate.”

August 12: SFS Collaborative Partner and flutist Claire Chase will curate a program that has not yet been finalized.

August 26: Salonen will curate the final SoundBox program of the season, whose program has also not yet been finalized.

No comments: