SFRV Announces 16th Season for 2019–2020

from the event page for the SFRV 2019–2020 season

Next month will mark the beginning of the sixteenth season (2019–2020) of San Francisco Renaissance Voices (SFRV). Don Scott Carpenter will be the ensemble’s new Music Director, and he will be joined by Assistant Music Director Liesl McPherrin. The overall title for season programming will be Renaissance Voices: Faith, Joy, Love, Play and Prose.

Regular readers probably know by now that all San Francisco performances will take place at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, located in the Sunset at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street. Ticket prices have not yet been announced, and there will be a change of venue for one of the concerts. Dates and times for all San Francisco performances are as follows:

Saturday, December 21, 4 p.m.: This will be the annual Festival of Lessons & Carols concert, a re-creation of the service that originated in 1918 at King’s College, Cambridge (in England) for the first celebration of the Christmas season following the end of World War I. These programs traditionally involve an interleaving of music from the past and the recent present. The latter will be represented by a specially commissioned work by Bay Area composer Emily Shisko. This will be a free event. However, due to its popularity, reservations are strongly recommended and may be made through an Eventbrite event page.

[updated 2/21, 8:30 a.m.: This concert has been cancelled.

Friday, February 21, 8 p.m.: This program, entitled The World at Prayer and Play, will feature William Byrd’s four-voice setting of the Mass text. Other selections will include the eight-voice setting of the “Jubilate Deo” Psalm by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, “Hosanna to the Son of David” by Orlando Gibbons and “Super Flumina Babylonis” by Philippe de Monte. The program will conclude with a collection of joyous English madrigals.]

Saturday, April 25, 8 p.m.: The title of the second program will be The World in Conflict: Music inspired by the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The subtitle refers to a spectacular meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France. The selections for performance will draw upon compositions with military implications. This concert will be the one held in a different venue, the Lakeside Presbyterian Church, located by 201 Eucalyptus Drive, where it meets 19th Avenue.

Saturday, August 15, 8 p.m.: In a program entitled The World beyond the Renaissance, SFRV will do its part in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. They will perform Beethoven’s Opus 85, his only oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives. Details about instrumental accompaniment have not yet been announced.