Readers may recall that this past May San Francisco Performances (SFP) and the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts presented video streams of three great classical guitarists, each performing from his/her current home country. The performers were David Russell, based in Palencia, Spain, Marko Topchii, in Ukrainian Kiev, and Xuefei Yang, playing in the fifteenth-century Zhizhu Temple in Beijing, China. Today I discovered that these videos are still available for viewing along with eight additional videos on the Online Series Web page on the Omni Foundation Web site.
The videos shared with SFP are part of a series entitled Omni On Location with recordings filmed from historic sites around the world. There is also a second series entitled Live from St. Marks. As the title suggests, this consists of concerts filmed at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is a frequent venue for Omni recitals. These videos are made with the soloist performing before a limited audience. Tickets must be purchased. However, seating is not reserved, meaning that those with tickets can situate themselves in areas that are not dominated by the video crew.
Su Meng (courtesy of the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts)
Late yesterday afternoon, Omni announced the first video shoot of the new series. The recitalist will be Su Meng, who is on the faculty at both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Born in China in Qingdao, Su began her guitar studies at the age of five. She has won first prize in numerous international competitions around the world and holds both a Master’s degree and an Artist Diploma from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she studied under Manuel Barrueco. Barrueco also encouraged her to partner with guitarist Wang Yameng, leading to the formation of the Beijing Guitar Duo. In that capacity they were Guitarists-in-Residence for SFP between 2011 and 2015.
For her Omni video shoot, Su has prepared four “number-based” compositions. She will begin with three of the five movements that Astor Piazzolla collected under the title Cinco Piezas (five pieces). This will be followed by Marc Neikrug’s Three Pieces for Guitar. She will then turn to Seven Desires by Tan Dun, who was born in the Hunan province of China but is now Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Su’s program will conclude with a set of five bagatelles collected by William Walton.
The video shoot will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 17. All tickets are being sold for $55, and only 50 will be sold. The best way to determine if tickets are still available is to call 415-242-4500. In addition Omni has created an event page, which includes a video of Su playing the toccata composed by Sun Wukong.
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