Friction Quartet Announces 2024–2025 Season

The space in the Noe Valley Ministry where Friction Quartet will perform (from any of the Web pages for the events being discussed)

At the beginning of this month, the Friction Quartet announced the dates for its 2024–2025 season performances in San Francisco. Many readers probably already know that the members of this ensemble are violinists Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor on viola, and cellist Doug Machiz. Dates have been finalized for four programs. Unfortunately, only three of them will be performed in San Francisco, all at 7:30 p.m. in the Noe Valley Ministry at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street. Program details have not been finalized, but each event will have its own characteristic title. Each of the dates below will be hyperlinked to the Web page for purchasing tickets, which have a variety of options, one of which is a private livestream link. Information that is currently available will be as follows:

Thursday, October 10, Song and Dance: Floor will curate a program true to its title. The composers of the dance music will be Astor Piazzolla and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh. Songs by Carlos Paredes, Antonín Dvořák, and Kenji Bunch will be arranged for quartet performance. In addition, there were be arrangements of two familiar pop songs by Floor and Machiz.

Thursday, December 12, Collections: Machiz will curate a program featuring two composers familiar to the Bay Area. John Adams will be represented by his eleven-movement suite John’s Book of Alleged Dances. The other composer will be Clarice Assad, whose “Canções da America” is based on South American folk music. The remaining work on the program will be “Family Group with Aliens,” composed by Piers Hellawell on a Friction commission.

Friday, May 23, Folklore: The final program will reflect on different sources of folk music, curated, again, by Floor. American sources have inspired a composition by Jessie Montgomery entitled (surprisingly and wittily enough) “Source Code.” Sarang Kim composed “Two Hearts,” based on Korean fiddling and supported by a Friction commission. Sergei Prokofiev’s second string quartet was inspired by folk tunes from what is now Kabardino-Balkaria. Finally, Floor will shift over to melodica for the performance of Yevgeny Sharlat’s “RIPEFG.”