SFGC to Celebrate Many Holidays in One Concert

San Francisco Girls Chorus in Davies (photograph provided by the San Francisco Girls Chorus)

This month the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) will continue its tradition of participating in the series of holiday concerts held in Davies Symphony Hall. However, the title of this year’s concert will be Greetings From All Seasons! Taken as a whole, the program will celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Chuseok, Holi, Chinese New Year, Maslenitsa, Nowruz and Dio de los Muertos. The selections will present music from more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Ireland, China, Haiti, Mexico, the Philippines and Korea.

The composers to be featured on the program will be Gustav Holst, William Byrd, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Danielpour, Eric Banks, George Gemora Hernandez, David Conte, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. Music Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe will lead not only the 300 SFGC choristers but several significant guest soloists, including soprano Michele Kennedy, who is an SFGC alumna. Instrumentalists will include Stanford University Organist Robert Huw Morgan, Peter Maund, percussionist for Ensemble Alcatraz, and Shira Kammen, playing a variety of instruments all associated with music from different pre-Classical periods. The audience will also be invited to sing along in selections of music for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s.

The main entrance to Davies is on Grove Street, halfway between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. This year’s concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, December 18. Tickets are being sold for $60 in Premier seating, $45 in Preferred seating, and $30 in the Second Tier. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through a City Box Office Web page which includes a seating chart with information of where tickets are currently available. The chart also shows the locations of wheelchair-accessible seats. In addition tickets may be ordered over the phone by calling City Box Office at 415-392-4400.