Monday, September 6, 2021

SFCM Highlights: October, 2021

Following the opening of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) fall concert series with the first concert to be given by the SFCM Orchestra on the last Saturday of this month, SFCM will present three distinctively different highlighted concerts next month. These will include the launch of a new chamber music series on Tuesday evenings and two different orchestral ensembles. The new series will also be associated with a new venue. Thus, in this account, each item will be identified by date, time, and venue, all of which will be hyperlinked to specific items on the Performance Calendar Web page, which will provide information about ticketed attendance and streamed viewing as follows:

Tuesday, October 12, 7:30 p.m., Barbo Osher Recital Hall, 200 Van Ness Avenue: Appropriately enough, the new chamber music series will be launched in the new Conservatory building. The performances will involve not only side-by-side performances by students and faculty but also (at least for the debut of this series) a guest artist. That guest will be pianist Shai Wosner, who will join students and faculty for the first and last selections on the program. These will be Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 120 piano trio in D minor, which will also include Strings Chair Jennifer Culp, and Johannes Brahms’ Opus 26 (second) piano quartet in A major, which will include Violin Chair Ian Swensen. Student pianist Yichun “Helen” Wu will be joined by pianist Jung-eun Kim (class of ’06) for a four-hand performance of Franz Schubert’s D. 947 Allegro movement in A minor, given the subtitle “Lebensstürme” (storms of life). This will be followed by a student performance of twelve miniatures for string quartet, György Kurtág’s Opus 13, which he called “Microludes.”

Saturday, October 23, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street: Conductor Edwin Outwater will return to lead the second concert to be given by the SFCM Orchestra, and Swensen will return to appear as guest soloist. He will join the orchestra for a performance of Ernest Chausson’s Opus 25 “Poème.” This will be the “concerto” portion of an overture-concerto-symphony program. The symphony will be Jean Sibelius’ Opus 43 (second) in D major. The overture will be Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 72b, the third and last of the “Leonore” overtures to be composed in his effort to create the right overture for his Fidelio opera. For this selection the Orchestra will be led by student conductor Jaco Wong (class of ’22).

Sunday, October 31, 2 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street: SFCM Baroque Orchestra Directors Elisabeth Reed and Corey Jamason will present a program of instrumental music by Arcangelo Corelli, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, and André Cardinal Destouches. The latter is best known for having composed the opéra-ballet entitled Les élémens (the elements); and choreography for this music will be performed by dancer Jennifer Meller. There will also be a guest appearance by Marc Schachman, familiar to many as the oboist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

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