SFCA Announces Plans for 2021–22 Season

San Francisco Choral Artists in Concert (photograph by Jennifer Nixon, from the SFCA Web site)

About a week and a half ago San Francisco Choral Artists (SFCA) announced the plans for its 2021–22 season. As usual, the season will begin next month with the annual focus on holiday music from around the world. However, that performance will be videotaped for later streaming. The remaining two concerts of the season, however, will be “physical,” rather than “virtual.” Nevertheless, as of this writing, tickets are only being sold for next month. Specifics are relatively modest as follows:

1. December 18: This will be when streaming will begin of the videotaped seasonal program entitled out of darkness… light! Selections will include works by contemporary composers including Alice Parker, Hyun Chul Lee, and Abbie Betinis. Composers from the past include Francis Poulenc from the twentieth century  and seventeenth-century composers Antonio de Cabezón and William Byrd. Cabezón was a keyboardist; but his works included settings for liturgical texts, some of which may have influenced Byrd. Access to the video will require a ticket, but that ticket is acquired on a “pay what you wish” basis through an SFCA Web page. Once the payment has been processed, directions for viewing the streamed video will be provided through electronic mail. The video will be available through January 6 (the last of the twelve days of Christmas).
2. Sunday, March 13, 4 p.m., Sha’ar Zahav: The full title of the second program will be joyful voices, stomping feet: song and dance in the Jewish tradition. Once again the Klezmer trio Veretski Pass will appear as guest artists. The program will include long-awaited premieres of works by Composer-in-Residence Alexis Alrich and Composer Not-in-Residence Timothy Kramer. There will also be music by a leading twentieth-century Jewish composer, Darius Milhaud, and the sixteenth-century madrigalist Salamone Rossi. Sha’ar Zahav is located in the Mission at 290 Dolores Street on the northwest corner of 16th Street.
3. Sunday, June 5, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The final program is a musical tribute to transportation machinery entitled boats & trains & flying machines. Music by winners of the New Voices Project will be included in the program, along with more premieres from Alrich and Kramer. Twentieth-century composers on the program will include Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and Gavin Bryars. St. Marks is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street.