With the reopening of “all businesses and activities” in San Francisco, this site will be able to return to homing in on “physical” performance experiences, as it did prior to the restrictions of lockdown conditions. Nevertheless, as most readers have observed by now, that return will be a gradual process. As a result, I anticipate “phasing out” reports about streamed performances as the “physical” opportunities gradually increase.
In that context I wish to call attention to the decision to stream the entire Chelsea Music Festival, entitled Weaving the Moment, which will take place next weekend on Friday, June 25, and Saturday, June 26. Those familiar with “the other coast” probably know that Chelsea is a particularly dynamic neighborhood of New York City, attracting artists, composers, and performers. Festival programs span musical genres ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz, and the Festival itself commissions composers whose works are not in the traditional Western canon. As a result, the concerts tend to venture into that “bleeding edge” that this site endeavors to promote.
The Festival will present only two concerts, one on each of the two days. Programming has not yet been entirely finalized. However, this is the information available thus far:
Online poster for the Chelsea Music Festival, showing oboists Amanda Hardy and John Ferrillo playing Eric Nathan’s “Just a Moment” (from the Festival Web site)
Friday, June 25, 4:30 p.m. (Pacific time): The highlight of this program will be the world premiere of “Just a Moment,” composed by Eric Nathan. This piece was commissioned by the Festival with additional financial assistance from Dr. Michael Sporn. The work was dedicated to the two oboists that will perform it, Amanda Hardy and John Ferrillo. The composer conceived this piece as a meditation on distance and intimacy; and, as a result (which can be seen in the above photograph), only one of the oboists will be on stage, while the other one will play in the balcony. The other performers for this concert will be violinist Augustin Hadelich and pianist Orion Weiss. Selections will include two compositions by Claude Debussy, his sonata for violin and piano and the “Clair de lune” movement from his Suite bergamasque, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk,” composed for solo violin, and selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 988 collection of the so-called “Goldberg” variations on an aria theme.
Saturday, June 26, 11:45 a.m. (Pacific time): Sadly, the program for this concert has not been finalized. All that is known as of this writing is that the program will include the United States premiere of two works by Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril, which will be performed by violist Jesus Rodolfo and pianist Reed Tetzloff. There will also be a screening of footage from the Festival archive not previously seen in public.
Admission to the video streams will require a contribution to the Festival. A Web page has been created for making the donations, itemizing the options and specifying how much of the donation is tax-deductible. The links to the two concerts will be available for 30 days. Donations may be made through the Web, with one hyperlink to Venmo and another for using either a credit card or PayPal.
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