San Francisco Conservatory of Music: September, 2018

As was observed this past Friday, it is not too early to start making plans for the 2018–19 season. Activities at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) will get under way during the first week of September, even though the “official” Kick-off Weekend will not take place until the end of the month. Unless otherwise specified, all events will be free of charge; and reservations will not be required. The SFCM building is located at 50 Oak Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street, a short walk from the Van Ness Muni Station. Readers are encouraged to consult the Performance Calendar Web page at the SFCM Web site for the most up-to-date information about any of these offerings. Here is a chronological listing of events likely to be of interest to serious and attentive listeners:

Thursday, September 6, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall: The first Faculty Artist Series concert of the season will be presented by Ian Swensen, who holds the Isaac Stern Chair of Violin and co-chairs String and Piano Chamber Music. Pianist Weicong Zhang will accompany him in two duo sonatas, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 23 (fourth) sonata in A minor and Maurice Ravel’s second sonata in G major. The two of them will then be joined by cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau to perform Bedřich Smetana’s Opus 15 trio in G minor. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

Monday, September 17, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall: The second Faculty Artist Series concert will feature the members of the Historical Performance faculty. These are violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and the Co-Directors of the Baroque Ensemble, cellist Elisabeth Reed and harpsichordist Corey Jamason. They will be joined by violinist Carla Moore appearing as a special guest. Program details have not yet been announced; but the selected composers will be Henry Purcell, Jean-Marie Leclair (whose contribution to the repertoire includes sonatas for two violins), Dieterich Buxtehude, and Johann Christoph Pepusch. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

[added 8/28, 6:30 a.m.:

Friday, September 21, 7:30 p.m., Osher Salon: Brian Calhoon (class of ’07) will return to SFCM to give the next Alumni Artist Insights concert. The title of his program will be Marimba Cabaret. Calhoon is both a vocalist and a percussionist, and he will present a unique collection of music for marimba and voice with a repertoire that reaches out into jazz, pop, and show tunes. He will be joined by fellow alumnus and percussion faculty member (class of ’06) Stan Muncy. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.]

[added 8/30, 6:05 a.m.:

Saturday, September 22, 5 p.m., Recital Hall: Pianists Yi-Fang Wu and Miles Graber will give a Pre-College Faculty Concert of duo piano music. The program will be framed by compositions for two pianos: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's K. 448 sonata in D major and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Opus 17 (second) suite in C major. Between these two selections they will give a four-hands-on-one-keyboard performance of Franz Schubert's D. 940 fantasia in F minor. This performance will be free, and reservations are neither required nor available in advance.]

Sunday, September 23, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall: By my records I have not written about an OcTUBAfest concert since October of 2011, but it appears to be an annual event. In trying to track down information about past dates, I discovered that the label is shared across several different educational institutions, all dedicated to promoting the talents of their tuba students. The astute reader will notice that this year’s concert is taking place in September. This sort of deflates the cleverness of the name and recalls Walt Kelly’s ongoing joke about Friday the Thirteenth taking place on a Wednesday. Details have not yet been announced; but this tends to be one of the most interesting free concerts (with no option for reservations) of the season.

Monday, September 24, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall: The final Faculty Artist Series concert of the month will involve three faculty members involved with chamber music for strings and piano. This will includes both co-chairs Swensen and Dimitri Murrath and Jennifer Culp, Chair of the Strings Department. The one selection that will involve piano as well as strings will be Robert Schumann’s Opus 47 quartet in E-flat major, which will feature Paul Hersh as pianist. The Schumann selection will be preceded by the third of Beethoven’s Opus 9 string trios, written in the key of C minor, and Ichiro Nodaira’s arrangement of the chaconne that concludes Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 D minor partita for solo violin, rescored for four violas. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

The month will then conclude with five Kick-off Weekend concerts as follows:

Saturday, September 29, 5:30 p.m., Recital Hall: This will be the annual opening concert featuring the Pre-College students. Details have not yet been announced. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

Saturday, September 29, 7:30 p.m., Concert Hall: Three students will join four members of the faculty in a program music of chamber music for strings and piano. Participating faculty will be Swensen, Murrath, Culp, and Fonteneau; and the program will include a reprise of the Beethoven C minor string trio. The program will also include Leoš Janáček’s sonata for violin and piano and the string quartet that Henri Dutilleux entitled “Ainsi la nuit” (thus the night). While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

Sunday, September 30, 2 p.m., Recital Hall: Jamason is preparing a different kind of Historical Performance concert, which will honor three significant anniversaries. The most familiar will probably be that of Scott Joplin, born 150 years ago. However, the program will also feature music by two remarkable women ragtime composers, Irene M. Giblin and May Aufderheide, both of whom were born 130 years ago in 1888. Faculty members will be joined by both collegiate and pre-college piano students. In addition, Jamason will prepare visual projections to display the artistry of sheet music covers prepared for the ragtime age. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

Sunday, September 30, 7 p.m., SFJAZZ Center: This will be the first “side-by-side” concert that brings the students of the Roots, Jazz, and American Music program together with the SFJAZZ Collection. The performance will take place in Miner Auditorium. The SFJAZZ Center is located on the northwest corner of Fell Street and Franklin Street. While reservations are not required, they are recommended and may be arranged through a Google Forms Web page.

Sunday, September 30, 7:30 p.m., Concert Hall: The weekend will conclude with a performance by the New Music Ensemble led by conductor Nicole Paiement. The program will feature the four-movement suite Grand Central, for which Composition alumnus Ian Dicke (class of ’04) was awarded the 2012 Hoefer Prize, named after Jacqueline Stanhope Hoefer and granted annually to an SFCM graduate to cover all fees involved in producing a new work. The performance requires live audio processing, which will also be the case for the other work on the program, Steve Reich’s “City Life.”