Old First Concerts: April, 2019

It would appear that April will not be as complicated as the current month has been when it comes to overlapping activities. As a result, the April schedule for Old First Concerts (O1C) can be examined on its own at a bit more leisure. All O1C events take place at the Old First Presbyterian Church, located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. If purchased in advance online from an O1C event page, general admission will be $23 with a discounted rate of $18 for seniors aged 65 or older. Hyperlinks for online purchase through specific event pages will be attached to the date-and-time information given below. Tickets for full-time students showing valid identification will be $5; and children aged twelve and under will be admitted for free. There is also a discount available for those parking at the Old First Parking Garage at 1725 Sacramento Street, just up the street from the church. Here are the specifics for the month of April:

Friday, April 5, 8 p.m.: The month will begin with a recital by rising young violinist Patrick Galvin, accompanied at the piano by Jungeon Kim. The second half of his program will be devoted to the world premiere of “The Road of the Pilgrim,” composed by Chilean-American Axel Herrera. The recital will open with Franz Schubert’s D. 574 sonata in A major, followed by a solo performance of the concluding Chaconne movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 partita in D minor.

Sunday, April 7, 4 p.m.: Two members of the New Piano Collective, Bobby Mitchell and founder Jeffrey LaDeur, will present a program entitled Schumann Revisited, conceived to present the music of Robert Schumann in a new light. The Opus 15 Kinderszenen (scenes from childhood) suite will be reconceived as Kinderszenen Revisited. The reconception will include opportunities for improvisation, narration, and the performance of three piano études newly composed by Martin Scherzinger. This will be followed by Georges Bizet’s four-hand arrangement of Schumann’s Opus 56 Canonic Studies collection. The remaining selections will be Schumann’s Opus 72 collection of four fugues and the Opus 17 Fantasie in C major.

Friday, April 12, 8 p.m.: 23-year-old pianist and composer Audrey Vardanega will return to Old First; and, as has been the case regularly in the past, she will bring company. For this recital she will be joined by violinist Hannah Tarley and cellist Monica Scott. The three of them will play the second (in E-flat major) of the two piano trios that Ludwig van Beethoven published as his Opus 70. They will then play Schumann’s Opus 88, the piano trio that he entitled Fantasiestücke. The program will conclude with a duo performance by Scott and Vardanega of Leoš Janáček’s “Pohádka” (a tale).

Saturday, April 13, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.: The Ali Akbar College of Music (AACM) will present a two-concert Birthday Tribute to Ali Akbar Khan.

The afternoon session will begin with a survey of Kahn’s works performed by a group comprised of both Classical Indian and Western musicians. This will be followed by the AACM Tabla Ensemble performing a composition by Director of Percussion Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. The ensemble will be joined by two guest percussionists, Vidwan T.H. Subash Chandran and Ganesh Kumar. The session will conclude with a trio performance by Kahn’s youngest son Manik on sarod, Arjun Verma on sitar, and Raginder Singh Momi on violin. They will be “backed by a rhythm section” consisting of Chaudhuri’s son Nilan on tabla and Rohan Krishnamurthy on mridangam.

The evening session will begin with a vocal performance by Shrinivas Joshi and his son Viraj. Instrumental accompaniment will be provided by Prashant Pandav on tabla and Avinash Dighe on harmonium.They will be followed by a duo performance featuring another of Kahn’s sons, Alam, playing sarod. Percussionist Chaudhuri will return to accompany him on tabla.

Note that the event page presents the payment options for those planning to attend either one concert or both of them.

Sunday, April 14, 4 p.m.: Pianist Hadley McCarroll will present a program juxtaposing the old and the new. She will give world premiere performances of compositions by two of her colleagues, Scott and Matt Ingalls. However, she will begin with a selection of keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. These will include two preludes from the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 850 in D major and BWV 849 in C-sharp minor. She will also perform two of the sinfonias (otherwise known as three-part inventions), BWV 795 in F minor and BWV 801 in B minor. The program will also include a selection of the études by Claude Debussy and Helmut Lachenmann’s “Ein Kinderspiel” (child’s play).

Friday, April 26, 8 p.m.: The Meráki Quartet, whose name comes from the Greek word for “soulfully artistic,” will make its O1C debut. The cellist is Isabelle Nichols; and the other three members, Sofia Matthews, Jun Yong Liu, and Anna Renton, all play both violin and viola. They will begin with a set of variations on a theme by Preben Antonsen. This will be followed by Claude Debussy’s Opus 10 quartet in G minor. The second half of the program will be devoted to Béla Bartók’s Opus 7 (first) string quartet.