Brooklyn Rider to Come to SFP PIVOT Festival

Tenor Nicholas Phan (right) and the members of the Brooklyn Rider string quartet (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

The Brooklyn Rider string quartet of violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas made its San Francisco Performances (SFP) debut in November of 2017, providing the music for Some of a Thousand Words, a duo performance by choreographer Brian Brooks and dancer Wendy Whalen. Their first recital took place about a year later as part of the SFP Shenson Chamber Series. Next week they will return to SFP for the second performance in this year’s PIVOT Festival.

As was recently cited, the overall theme of the festival is Ghost Stories. In that vein Brooklyn Rider will perform the West Coast premiere of Nico Muhly’s song “Stranger.” The quartet will be joined by tenor Nicholas Phan. This will be preceded by two other song selections, Thomas Campion’s “Never weather-beaten sail” and Rebecca Clarke’s “Daybreak.” After a brief pause, these songs will be followed by Brooklyn Rider playing Franz Schubert’s D. 810 string quartet in D minor. This quartet has its own “vocal connection,” since the second movement is a set of variations on the composer’s D. 531 song, “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (death and the maiden).

This program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 21. 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. Single tickets can also be purchased at the door as available with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for seniors. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.