SFCMP Will Again Conclude Season with Weekend

Poster design for this concert showing Julius Eastman, Myra Melford, and Sidney Corbett (from the SFCMP event page for this concert series)

About a year ago San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) concluded its 2017–18 season with an at the CROSSROADS event consisting of four concerts over the course of a single weekend (two concerts on Friday and two on Saturday). Next month the current season will again conclude with an at the CROSSROADS offering that will span both Friday and Saturday. This time, however, there will be only two different programs, one on each of the two evenings.

The title of the entire event will be Guerrilla Sounds: Julius Eastman’s Legacy. Each program will present an Eastman composition representative of his impact on future generations of composers. The Friday offering will be “Stay on It,” while Saturday will serve up Eastman’s taste for provocative titles with “Gay Guerrilla.” The remainder of each concert will involve world premiere performances, and each evening will present a work written on commission. The composer for the first evening will be Sidney Corbett, and Myra Melford will perform as soloist on Saturday as part of her own commissioned work. Composers of the other premiere performances on Friday will be Fernanda Aoki Navarro and LJ White; and those for Saturday will be Adam Strawbridge and Wyatt Cannon. Both Cannon and Strawbridge are winners of the 2019 SF Search for Scores program, and both composers were inspired by Eastman’s life and legacy.

These two concerts will take place on Friday, May 10, and Saturday, May 11. On both evenings the concert will begin at 8 p.m. The venue will be the SFJAZZ Center, located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street. Tickets for a single concert will be $35 with a $15 rate for students, teachers, and arts employees. A pass for the entire weekend will be $60 with the reduced rate of $25.

Tickets will also provide admission to the post-concert party, which will begin at 9:30 p.m. In addition each concert will be preceded by a How Music is Made event. This will involve the participation of one or more of the composers, along with music demonstrations. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. when grilled sandwiches will be available, along with full bar service. SFCMP has created a single event page for all advance purchase of tickets online.