San Francisco Performances: Opening Night

Stewart Goodyear (right) with the members of the Catalyst Quartet (from the event page for the SFP Opening Night performance)

Those that have been following this site regularly probably know that today is the day that single tickets go on sale for all San Francisco Performances (SFP) events in the 2021–2022 season. They may also recall that the season will begin with a new series entitled Uncovered, curated by the Catalyst Quartet, the string quartet whose members are violinists Karla Donehew and Abi Fayette, violist Paul Laraia, and cellist Karlos Rodriguez. The series was conceived to bring to a broader audience compositions from the African American tradition of chamber music, presenting the work of composers whom history has overlooked due to their race or gender. Each of the four programs in the series will feature a guest artist, and commentary prior to each performance will be presented by bass-baritone Dashon Burton.

UNCOVERED is also the name of a series of recordings that Catalyst has planned for release on Azica Records. The first release took place at the beginning of this past February with an album devoted entirely to the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. At that time the second violinist was Jessie Montgomery, and only one of the three recorded compositions was a string quartet, the Opus 5 “Fantasiestücke” (fantasy pieces), which Coleridge-Taylor completed in 1896. That collection of five short pieces was flanked on either side by a quintet, beginning with the Opus 1 piano quintet in G minor, composed in 1893, and concluding with the Opus 10 clarinet quintet in F-sharp minor, composed in 1895. The musicians that joined Catalyst were pianist Stewart Goodyear and clarinetist Anthony McGill.

The program for the first SFP Uncovered recital will include two of these compositions, Opus 5 and Opus 1, the latter again with Goodyear as pianist. However, the remaining work on the program will present another African American composer, George Walker, born in 1922, almost a decade after the death of Coleridge-Taylor. While the earlier composer was sometimes referred to as the “African Mahler,” Walker is remembered not only for his music but also for having been the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. To be fair, though, he did not win that award until 1996! Catalyst will play his first string quartet, composed half a century earlier in 1946. (Walker was a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music at that time.) The second movement of this quartet was subsequently repurposed for string ensemble in 1990 under the title “Lyric for Strings.”

This program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 7. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is the main entrance to the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel.

Ticket prices are $65 (premium Orchestra and front and center Dress Circle), $55 (remainder of Orchestra, all Side Boxes, and center rear Dress Circle), and $45 (remaining Dress Circle and Balcony); and they may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. In addition, since this is the first concert of the series, subscriptions are still available to cover all four concerts. The respective prices are $240, $200, and $160. Single tickets can also be purchased at the door as available with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for seniors. Subscription orders may be placed by calling the SFP subscriber hotline at 415-677-0325, which is open for receiving calls between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Single tickets may be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.