Saturday, March 9, 2019

SFCM: April–May, 2019

Since there is relatively little activity at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) during the month of May, this will be the final summary of the season, folding the May events in with those taking place in April.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 the concerts taking place towards the end of the season. Unless stated otherwise, all concerts are free. Nevertheless, reservations are recommended; and, where necessary, a hyperlink to a Google Forms Web page will be attached to the date-and-time information. Here is a chronological listing of the remaining events in the month that are likely to be of interest to serious and attentive listeners:

Friday, April 5, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 7, 2 p.m., Concert Hall: This will be the annual full-length opera production presented by the Opera and Musical Theatre Department. This year that opera will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 492 The Marriage of Figaro. Staging will be by Department Chair Jose Maria Condemi. The conductor will be Curt Pajer, Musical and Managing Director of Opera. Casting has not yet been announced. General admission for both performances will be $20, with a $15 rate for seniors, students, and SFCM Members. Tickets may be purchased online through separate Click4Tix Web pages. Hyperlinks for each of those pages have been attached to the above performance dates.

Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13, 8 p.m., Recital Hall: The full-length musical production to be presented by the Opera and Musical Theatre Department will be The Fantasticks, whose original Off-Broadway production ran for a total of 42 years. Staging will be by Michael Mohammed, Director of the Musical Theatre Workshop. The Music Director will be Michael Horsley.

Tuesday, April 23, 7:30 p.m., Concert Hall: The final program to be presented by the SFCM Orchestra will be led by visiting conductor Christian Reif, currently concluding his tenure with the San Francisco Symphony as Resident Conductor and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the SFS Youth Orchestra. He has prepared a traditional overture-concerto-symphony program. The concerto soloist will be pianist Jinzhao Xu (class of ’20), performing Camille Saint-Saëns’ Opus 103 (fifth) piano concerto (popularly known as “The Egyptian”) in F major. It will be preceded by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s tone poem “Night on Bald Mountain.” The program will conclude with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 36 (fourth) symphony in F minor. General admission will again be $20, with a $15 rate for seniors, students, and SFCM Members. Tickets may be purchased online through a Click4Tix Web page by using the above hyperlink.

Thursday, May 2, 7 p.m., Osher Salon: This will be the annual performance of the SFCM New Music Ensemble at which the winning composition in the competition for the annual Hoefer Prize will be performed. This year’s winner is SFCM alumnus Derek David (class of ’07). As in the past, Nicole Paiement will conduct. The remainder of the program has not yet been announced.

Thursday, May 2, and Friday, May 3, 7:30 p.m., Concert Hall: The season will conclude with a chamber opera production staged by Heather Mathews, Associate Program Director of the Opera and Musical Theatre Department. The performance will present the one-act opera “Later the Same Evening,” composed by John Musto and first performed in July of 2011 at the Glimmerglass Festival. Mark Campbell provided the libretto, as he has done for the other three operas that Musto has composed to date. Once again, Curt Pajer will conduct.

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