Plans for One Found Sound’s Ninth Season

Readers may recall that pandemic conditions did not prevent One Found Sound (OFS) from presenting their eighth season in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021. This involves some highly imaginative approaches to the use of streaming technology, much of which involved the inventive use of video created by Max Savage, Video Producer for the Noisy Savage video production house. Yesterday OFS announced that it would return to live performances for its ninth season, which will begin next month. Inventive approaches to media will still contribute to the listening experience, but the physical immediacy of both orchestral and chamber music offerings will return.

The overall theme of the season will be Constellations. Each program will have its own title, which will serve as a reflection on that theme. There will be three orchestral concerts, two chamber music recitals, and the annual fundraising gala, which will feature a world premiere performance. All of the events will take place on Saturday evenings at Heron Arts, which is located in SoMa at 7 Heron Street on the block between 7th Street and 8th Street. In order of occurrence, the programs will be as follows:

October 16, 8 p.m., constellations: phoenix: The return to live performance will feature female composers from two different centuries. The earlier music will be the Opus 36 (third) symphony in G minor written by Louise Farrenc in 1847. This will be preceded by Jessie Montgomery’s “Records from a Vanishing City,” which was given its world premiere by Orpheus in Carnegie Hall on October 27, 2016. The program will then conclude with Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s “Chokfi’,” which he had prepared for the CURRENTS program, which he curated for streaming by SFSymphony+ this past April. The program will feature immersive multimedia experiences involving film, light, and sound crafted by both Savage and cinematographer Yuito Kimura.

November 13, 8 p.m., constellations:helios: The first chamber music offering will feature two recent compositions for string quartet. The first of these will be “American Mirror” by Derrick Skye. The second will reflect on the program’s title, “Warmth From Other Suns” by Carlos Simon.

December 11, 8 p.m., constellations:terra: This program will begin with the world premiere of “Ecosystem.” Composed for string orchestra by Joel Hoo, this work was the winner of the inaugural OFS Emerging Composer Award, which was made possible by the Richardson family. The program will conclude with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 385 (“Haffner”) symphony in D major. Between these two selections, OFS will present “Tree Line,” composed by Tōru Takemitsu in 1988.

February 5, 8 p.m., constellations:aurora: Mozart in December will be followed by Ludwig van Beethoven in February. The program will conclude with his Opus 93 (eighth) symphony in F major, particularly significant for reminding us all that this composer had a rich sense of humor. The program will also feature Vietnamese-American soprano Bích-Vân Nguyễn in a performance of Thu Điếu by Viet Cuong. Between these two selections will be a performance of “Primal Message” by Nokuthula Ngwenyama.

March 12, 8 p.m., constellations:mars: The second chamber music offering will feature music for woodwind quintet and percussion. It will begin with “Homage to Duke” by Jeff Scott, the horn player of Imani Winds. This will be followed by “Aires Tropicales” by Paquito D’Rivera, one of the composers that figures significantly in Imani’s repertoire. The final selection will be music from the third volume in Ivan Trevino’s Song Book series scored for wind quintet and percussion. This selection was performed as a music video created by Savage featuring choreography by Babatunji Johnson this past March, and it will be given an encore presentation.

May 21, 6:30 p.m., constellations:GALActic!: The season will conclude with the annual fundraising party. The music will feature the world premiere of a clarinet concerto composed by Mary Kouyoumdjian, jointly commissioned by OFS and the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra. The clarinet soloist will be Jeff Anderle.

Admission to all of these events will be by individual tickets. As of this writing there do not appear to be any options for subscriptions. All tickets may be purchased through the hyperlinks attached to the above dates.