PIVOT to Conclude with Koh-Mazzoli Duo

Jennifer Koh and Missy Mazzoli (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

The final performance in this year’s PIVOT Festival produced by San Francisco Performances (SFP) will be a duo recital by violinist Jennifer Koh with Missy Mazzoli at the piano. Mazzoli is probably better known as a composer, rather than a pianist. Here in the Bay Area, many may have had their first contact with her music when West Edge Opera presented Breaking the Waves, her operatic reconception of the 1996 film by Lars von Trier with the same title. Some readers may recall that this performance earned the August entry in my year-end account of memorable concerts in 2019. Mazzoli’s PIVOT appearance will mark her SFP debut, while the recital will be Koh’s eleventh SFP appearance.

The program will consist entirely of eight of Mazzoli’s compositions. It will feature the world premiere of a reworking of “Hail, Horrors, Hail” to include additional electronics. (This will probably also be the offering closest to the overall Ghost Stories theme of the PIVOT Festival.) Koh will perform two solo interludes, both taken from Mazzoli’s Vespers for Violin collection. In addition, she will begin the program with a solo performance of Mazzoli’s “Dissolve, O My Heart,” which she had selected for the first of the three albums in her Bach & Beyond series. The other works to be performed will be “Tooth and Nail,” “Orizzante,” “Kinksi Paganini,” and “A Song for Mick Kelly.”

This program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 23. 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.