Tuesday, August 8, 2023

LCCE to Contribute to California Festival

Many (most?) readers may have first become aware of the California Festival (whose full title is California Festival: A Celebration of New Music) when plans for the 2023–24 season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) were announced at the end of this past March. SFS performances will involve Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen sharing performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and the San Diego Symphony led by Music Director Rafael Payare. These will be only three of the over 50 contributing organizations.

Two of those organizations that are also based in the Bay Area will be the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. These two groups will join forces for a program entitled Voices Through Change. The “voices” will be those of Californian women composers. The program will interleave instrumental and vocal works by Pauline Oliveros, Gabriela Lena Frank, Reena Esmail, Gabriella Smith, Lisa Bielawa, and Ursula Kwong-Brown. The ensembles will join forces to premiere a new work by Sarah Gibson. Other composers included on the program will be Nicolás Lell Benavides, Caroline Shaw, and Hildegard von Bingen.

LCCE will also present a second program entitled Art Song and Keyboard Music of California. This program will span more than a century of Californian music. The earliest of the composers will be Henry Cowell, who will rub shoulders with Elinor Remick Warren, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Vivian Fung, Addie Camsuzou, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Gabriella Smith.

Voices Through Change will be performed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Sunday, November 5, at 5 p.m. The venue for Art Song and Keyboard Music will be the Noe Valley Ministry on Sunday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m. Both of these programs will be part of the 2023/24 LCCE season. When further information is available, it will appear through the season’s home page. As of this writing, only season tickets can be purchased.

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