Old First Concerts: February, 2020

Readers may recall that the first announcement of monthly plans for the new year presented by Sunset Music and Arts merged the months of January and February, due to the sparseness of the January calendar. Given that December activities are beginning to wind down, this is probably as good a time as any to follow up on the January calendar for Old First Concerts (O1C) with the one for February. There will be five events in February, one of which will honor Valentine’s Day. Should it be necessary, any additions or modifications will be handled by posts to the shadow page for this site on Facebook.

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 February:

Sunday, February 2, 4 p.m.: Duo Concertante consists of Canadians Nancy Dahn on violin and Timothy Steeves on piano. They have made it a point to supplement the “standard repertoire” duo compositions with recently composed selections. To that end the duo has commissioned over thirty-five new works from many of Canada’s leading composers, one of which, “Frisson,” composed in 2018 by Randolph Peters, will be featured as part of their return visit to O1C. The program will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1018 sonata in F minor. The second half of the program will be devoted to the nineteenth century: Robert Schumann’s Opus 105 (first) sonata in A minor and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 47 (“Kreutzer”) sonata in A major.

Friday, February 7, 8 p.m.: Guitarist Zane Forshee will present a program entitled Full Circle. Much of the program will be devoted to couplings of recent music with the works of past composers. For example, Ronald Pearl will be represented by “My Name is Red;” but this will be followed by “Four at III,” which is Pearl’s reflection on the lute music of John Dowland. Similarly, Ingram Marshall’s “Soe-pa,” scored for solo guitar with electronics, will be coupled with a lute composition by Johann Sebastian Bach, his BWV 998 set of prelude, fugue, and allegro movements in E-flat major. Marshall’s electronics will, in turn, be preceded by Judah Adashi’s “my heart comes undone” (the title of a song by Björk) scored for electric guitar and loop pedal. Spanish influences will be provided by Isaac Albéniz (an arrangement of his Opus 202 “Mallorca,” originally composed as a piano solo) and Joaquín Rodrigo (his solo guitar composition “En Los Trigales”).

Sunday, February 9, 4 p.m.: Following up on its O1C visit this past October, the Wooden Fish Ensemble will present the latest program of compositions by Hyo-shin Na, which will include one world premiere and four United States premieres. As in the past, these will be complemented by performances of traditional Korean music. In addition Thomas Schultz will give a solo piano performance of “Which Side Are You On?” from Frederic Rzewski’s North American Ballads collection.

Friday, February 14, 9 p.m.: The special Valentine’s Day concert will be presented by Conspiracy of Venus. This is a 25-woman vocal ensemble led by Director Joyce Todd McBride. Their repertoire comes from pop hits. However, they dwell on the more provocative selections, and their vocal interpretations are consistently dynamic.

Friday, February 28, 8 p.m.: Another returning artist will be mezzo Melinda Becker, who last appeared in an O1C concert this past June. This time she will be joined by pianist Anne Rainwater, and they perform together as the New Moon Duo. They will present the world premiere of Canto Caló, a song cycle by Nicolas Benavides that reflects the composer’s New Mexican heritage, a heritage he shares with Becker. The other composers represented on the program will be Gabriela Lena Frank, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, Tania León, and Johannes Brahms; and there will be a special guest appearance by cellist Natalie Raney.