Plans for One Found Sound’s Seventh Season

The One Found Sound string section (courtesy of One Found Sound)

As was the case last year, One Found Sound (OFS), which calls itself the “conductorless, collaborative, chamber orchestra,” will begin its seventh season in September. This is a very competitive time, considering how many other performing arts groups will be launching their respective seasons next month. However, OFS opened their sixth season at the end of September of 2018; so it appears that the group is prepared to do the same next month. The overall title of the season will be Sounds of 7; and, as was the case last season, all performances will take place at Heron Arts in SoMa, beginning at 8 p.m. [updated 8/24, 8:55 a.m.: The December 14 concert will be held at Monument SF, rather than at Heron Arts.] While there will be several “auxiliary events” of note, the season itself will again consist of three concerts, each with its own title, as follows:

Friday, September 27, Celestial: The most “cosmic” of the selections on the program will be Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question.” However, the idea of a relationship between individual stars and constellations may have motivated the opening selection, Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1048 (third) “Brandenburg” concerto in G major. This was written for one-to-a-part performance by nine string players: three violinists, three violists, and three cellists (with continuo support specified for violone and keyboard). The result is an ingenious conception of a whole that emerges as more than the sum of its parts. The program will conclude with the eleventh (in F major) of the twelve symphonies for string ensemble that Felix Mendelssohn composed between the ages of twelve and fourteen.

Saturday, December 14, Chroma: As might be guessed, the title refers to different sonorous colors that emerge from imaginative combinations of instruments. The program will conclude with Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments.” Like BWV 1048, this was written in 1920 for one-to-a-part performance by 24 players of wind and brass instruments. (Stravinsky wrote a revision in 1947 requiring only 23 players, removing the requirement for an alto flute from the instrumentation.) Similarly imaginative approach to winds will be found in the opening selection. Francis Poulenc composed a suite of arrangements of dance tunes collected by Claude Gervaise in Le livre de danceries for wind ensemble supplemented by drum and harpsichord. The result was the seven-movement Suite française. This will be followed by “Youth,” composed late in life by Leoš Janáček and scored for a sextet of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and bass clarinet.

Friday, February 21, Wonder: This program was inspired by literary sources of imagination. The second half of the program will be devoted to Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of a five-movement suite he originally composed for piano duet. Each of the individual movements was inspired by a fairy tale. This will be preceded by “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” Samuel Barber’s setting of excerpts from a prose poem of the same name written by James Agee in recollection of his childhood. The program will begin with the string orchestra arrangement (by the composer) of Caroline Shaw’s 2011 string quartet entitled “Entr’acte.”

Heron Arts is located in SoMa at 7 Heron Street on the block between 7th Street and 8th Street. [added 8/24, 9 a.m.: Monument SF is also in SoMA at 140 9th Street.] General admission tickets are being sold for $25. Tickets may be purchased online in advance through Eventbrite. Tickets are being sold only for individual concerts, and the hyperlinks on the above dates will lead to the appropriate event pages for ticket purchases. The price for tickets purchased at the door will be $30.

In addition, there will be two Chamber Music Series concerts, each focusing on a single extended composition. Both performances will take place on a Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Dates and content will be as follows:

1. November 9: Ludwig van Beethoven: Opus 20 septet in E-flat major for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, and bass
2. March 28: Igor Stravinsky: “L’Histoire du soldat” (the soldier’s tale), scored for three actors, one or more dancers, and a septet of violin, bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, and percussion

Information about venues and ticket prices has not yet been released. When it is available, it will be found on the EVENTS Web page on the OFS Web site.

In addition, OFS will team up with Indre Viskontas for a program entitled Music + The Brain. Viskontas holds a doctoral degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California at Los Angeles. In November of 2016, she gave a similar presentation of her work in a musical context in a Faculty Artist Series recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, partnering on that occasion with the members of the Telegraph Quartet. Music + The Brain will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16. Again, information about venue and tickets has not yet been released and will subsequently be available through that same EVENTS Web page.

Finally, the annual Gala will again wrap up the season at Heron Arts. The date has been set for Friday, May 8; and the theme will be Virtue and Sin. Further details have not yet been announced. Once again they will be made available through the EVENTS Web page.