Traditionally, Old First Concerts (O1C) programming for the month of December involves more than the usual number of performances and a focus on different aspects of the holiday spirit. This year six concerts have already been finalized and a seventh is in the works (but has not yet been assigned an event page). All of the concerts continue to be “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in Old First Presbyterian Church limited to 100 tickets, all being sold for $25 (no reduced rate for seniors or students). Hyperlinks to the event pages (which include hyperlinks for streaming) will be attached to the date and time of the performances as follows:
Friday, December 3, 8 p.m.: Guitarist Larry Ferrara will return for another installment in his Holiday Guitars concerts. As was the case with his last O1C holiday concert (in 2019), he will be joined by a fellow guitarist. This year his colleague will be Zachary Donaldson, and they will be joined by flutist Sandra Betti. There will also be festive holiday music arranged for Guitars à la mode, a guitar ensemble directed by Ferrara. Composers to be featured on the program will be Johann Sebastian Bach, John Dowland, and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Saturday, December 4, 8 p.m.: Last year O1C launched its seasonal December programming with a performance by the San Francisco Yiddish Combo (SFYC), which is led by cellist Rebecca Roudman. The SFYC Facebook page describes the ensemble as “a loose collective of top San Francisco Bay Area musicians performing traditional Klezmer music with an updated twist.” The musicians that will be joining Roudman from the “loose collective” have not been finalized, but the spirit of Yiddishkeit should be as strong this year as it was last December.
Sunday, December 5, 4 p.m.: Like Ferrara, the Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco, led by Artistic Director Susan McMane, last presented a holiday concert in 2019, making the group’s O1C debut. This season they will be joined by harpist Meredith Clark in a performance of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. The program will also feature music by the contemporary Basque composer Javier Busto. Other composers included on the program will be Hildegard of Bingen, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Randall Thompson. All seats in Old First Presbyterian Church have been sold, so streaming is the only option for enjoying this program.
Saturday, December 11, 8 p.m.: Last year Musae, a women’s vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, was one of several choirs that participated jointly in an O1C holiday program. This time they will have a program of carols and hymns all to themselves! Their program will cover a wide band of music history from hymns, carols, and conducti from the Middle Ages at one end and the immediate present (including an arrangement of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Michele Weir) at the other. In addition, the Jewish festival Hanukkah will be acknowledged with a performance of “Ma’oz Tzur,” arranged for chorus by Asia Mei. The Musae Artistic Director is Laney McClain Armstrong.
Sunday, December 12, 4 p.m.: Another vocal ensemble that contributed to last year’s joint program will also return to present its own concert. The women of Musae will be complemented by the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. The performance will be shared by three divisions of Ragazzi, the Ragazzi Young Men’s Ensemble, the Concert Group, and the Choral Scholars.
Friday, December 17, 8 p.m.: The final holiday offering will feature another season regular, Golden Bough. The performers are Margie Butler, Paul Espinoza, and Kathy Sierra. In addition to providing vocals, they are all instrumentalists backing themselves on an array of rare and more common acoustic instruments including: Celtic harp, penny-whistle, violin, octave-mandolin, mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, recorder and bodhrán. They specialize in Celtic songs of winter, but they also offer their unique take on better known Christmas carols.
Saturday, December 18, 8 p.m.: The program that has not yet been finalized will be a Robin Sutherland Tribute Concert. December 18 is the date on which one of San Francisco’s most valued pianists died in 2020. This past January the Ross McKee Foundation presented a memorial concert for Sutherland, featuring seven pianists who also shared their thoughts about him. This year the plan is for the memorial event to take place on the date of his death. A hyperlink to the event page for this concert will be created once the information is available. [added 11/18, 1:15 p.m.: The hyperlink has been added. Four pianists will perform: Christopher Basso, Elizabeth Dorman, Keisuke Nakagoshi, and Marc Shapiro. In addition, Jack van Geem and Daniel Hallet will conclude the program with an arrangement for two marimbas of selected movements from Bach’s BWV 988, generally known as the “Goldberg Variations.” The other Bach selection on the program will be the BWV 825 partita in B-flat major. The program will begin with selections from Claude Debussy’s Children’s Corner suite. This will be followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 54 sonata in F major. Shorter offerings will include Ottorino Respighi’s “Notturno,” William Bolcom’s “Graceful Ghost Rag,” and Shapiro’s arrangement of “Some Other Time,” from Leonard Bernstein’s score for the musical On the Town.]
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