Wednesday, October 7, 2020

SFGC Plans Three Virtual Events for Fall

Readers may recall that, this past June, the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) presented its first-ever virtual festival, consisting of four live-streamed videos. Since lockdown conditions continue to prevail, SFGC announced, at the end of last month, that it would present three similarly virtual performances for its fall 2020 offerings. One of these involves participation in a TED Conference, which means that not all specifics have been finalized. The other two will be free events streamed through the SFGC YouTube channel for which donations are suggested.

The TED event will take place on Thursday, October 22, with the start time to be announced at a later date. It will be a rebroadcast of excerpts from Quantopia: The Evolution of the Internet. This is a musical portrait of network evolution conceived by composer and multimedia artist DJ Spooky. Greg Niemayer contributed to the project with techniques of data visualization and interactive video design.

The first program to present SFGC in a concert setting will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 20. The performance will involve collaboration with Ars Minerva and its Artistic Director Céline Ricci. The program will feature a performance of excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, Juditha Triumphans, based on the Book of Judith from the Apocrypha. Instead of a traditionally staged performance captured on video, videographer Mike Axinn of One to One Box will develop a project based on the video medium. The performance of the music will be supplemented with video clips and artwork to highlight both the SFGC choristers as they discover and learn about their roles and the impact of dramatic movement on the presentation of the narrative. The program will also include arias by two of Vivaldi’s contemporaries, Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda. Harpsichordist Corey Jamason, Chair of Historical Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, will appear as guest artist. The resulting video will be accessed through the SFGC YouTube channel.

The annual tradition of a December holiday concert at Davies Symphony Hall will be replaced by a streamed concert entitled Island Holiday. The program, which will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 20, will be organized around music from the Caribbean and other islands supplementing the traditional holiday favorites. Angélica Negrón’s “Cosecha” (harvest), composed on an SFGC commission, will be given its world premiere performance. The title refers to plants, fruits, vegetables, and herbs illustrated by Puerto Rican artist Rosaura Rodriguez. There will also be a preview of the choral-opera Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary, composed on an SFGC commission by Matthew Welch and scheduled for its world premiere performance during the 2021–2022 season.

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