The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) had originally planned to conclude its 2019–2020 concert season in Herbst Theatre with a semi-staged preview of a choral-opera commissioned for American composer Matthew Welch entitled Tomorrow’s Memories. The performance was scheduled to take place in Herbst Theatre on Tuesday, June 16. Due to the cancellation of all public performances, events, and gatherings at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center as of this past March 7, this preview event will not be taking place.
By way of compensation, SFGC will be presenting its first-ever virtual festival featuring the SFGC Premier Ensemble. This will consist of four live-streamed videos, one of which will present a scene from Tomorrow’s Memories. The other three will revisit significant past programs. All of these virtual events will be streamed through the SFGC YouTube channel. Whether they will remain on YouTube following the live-stream has not yet been announced. Schedule specifics are as follows:
Friday, June 5, 7 p.m.: This will be a never-before-seen video of Rightfully Ours co-produced with the Berkeley Ballet Theater and first performed this past March 1. This work was conceived to commemorate the Centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (granting women the right to vote); and the program consisted of eight new pieces of choreography set to choral works by eight living composers. Where necessary, instrumental accompaniment was provided by the Amaranth Quartet (violinists Abigail Shiman and Kashi Elliott, violist Christina Simpson, and cellist Bridget Pasker) and The Living Earth Show (TLES) duo of guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson.
Saturday, June 13, noon: This is another co-production, this time with Voices of Music and the San Francisco Early Music Society. The program features a performance in its entirety of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. That performance took place in June of 2018 as part of that summer’s Berkeley Festival & Exhibition.
Saturday, June 20, 7 p.m.: This will be the preview of a scene from Tomorrow’s Memories.
Members of SFGC performing “Music with Changing Parts” will Philip Glass in the foreground (photograph by Carlin Ma, courtesy of SFGC)
Friday, June 26, 7 a.m.: The final event will be a rebroadcast of a video originally produced by Medici TV, which will also be streaming the video (hence the early hour of performance). The program is devoted entirely to Philip Glass’ 90-minute “Music with Changing Parts,” which which was performed in Carnegie Hall in February of 2018. This marked SFGC’s debut appearance with Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble; and, following the Carnegie event, all of the performers came to San Francisco for a repeat performance in Herbst Theatre on the evening of February 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment