Wednesday, April 21, 2021

NCCO Announces Virtual Spring Season

Daniel Hope with the NCCO musicians (photograph by Matthew Washburn, courtesy of NCCO)

Yesterday afternoon the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) announced its first performance as an ensemble with Music Director Daniel Hope in over a year. That performance will take place as a streamed concert film presented by Stanford Live. The program will include the world premiere of a concerto by Tan Dun, which was jointly commissioned by NCCO and the Odessa Classics Festival. The streaming of that video will be followed by two free episodes from NCCO’s new Resonance series film project. All three of these videos will be made available on three successive Thursdays at noon as follows:

May 20: The title of the Stanford Live program will be New Century: Reunited. Hope will lead as both Concertmaster and soloist in the Tan concerto. This composition is a double concerto for violin, piano, and string orchestra; and the piano soloist will be Alexey Botvinov. Botvinov will also perform the piano obbligato part in Ernest Bloch’s first concerto grosso, composed in 1925. The program will begin with Aaron Jay Kernis’ newly composed “Elegy (for those we lost),” dedicated to those who have suffered and died in the past year from both the pandemic and from racial violence and hatred.

City Box Office has created an event page for purchasing tickets. Pricing is flexible with tickets available for $10, $20, $30, and $40. They can also be purchased by calling City Box Office at 415-392-4400. After the order has been processed, the purchaser will receive the hyperlink for viewing the performance. Because the film is being presented by Stanford Live, it will also be available through the Films & Screenings Web page on the Stanford Live Web site. Unfortunately, only Stanford students can view the offerings on this Web page at no charge. All others can only gain access by becoming a Stanford Live member at the level of $100 or more. That membership will provide not only complimentary access but also twelve months of benefits.

May 27: The first Resonance offering will feature artist and couturière Colleen Quen. It will follow her on the journey of creating a mixed media sculpture inspired by a performance of the two dances that Claude Debussy composed for harp and string orchestra, “Danse sacrée” and “Danse profane.” This music will be performed by harpist Meredith Clark with one-to-a-part accompaniment by violinists Iris Stone and Karen Shinozaki, violist Elizabeth Prior, cellist Michelle Djokic, and Anthony Manzo on bass. The program will be streamed through the NCCO home page.

June 3: The second Resonance program will present Antoine Hunter, also known as Purple Fire Crow, founder and director of the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival and his own Urban Jazz Dance Company. The film will follow his creating choreography for Missy Mazzoli’s string quartet “Death Valley Junction.” The music will be performed by a quartet whose cellist will again be Djokic. The other members will be violinists Deborah Tien Price and Nicole Sauder and violist Jenny Douglass. The program will also be streamed through the NCCO home page.

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