Nicholas Phan to Curate Next Salon Series

Poster design for the next SFP Salon Series (courtesy of SFP)

At the beginning of this week San Francisco Performances (SFP) announced the next installment in its Salon Series. The 2020 Salon Series marked a new approach to presenting concerts under this rubric. The series consisted of four programs managed by a single curator. The curator for that first series was jazz improviser, composer, arranger, and band leader Edward Simon. Due to COVID-19, however, Simon was able to present only the first three of the programs he had prepared; and pandemic conditions meant that there was no Salon Series in 2021.

Next month, however, the Series will return with one concert in January followed by three during the first three weeks of February. The curator will be tenor Nicholas Phan (who will be wrapping up this year as the tenor soloist in the San Francisco Symphony performances of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 Messiah oratorio). As I recall, Simon did not provide an overarching title for the four programs he had planned; but Phan is calling his Series The Women. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the women’s right to vote in the United States, the programs will present works by women composers dating as far back as the late Renaissance and advancing to the twentieth century.

All performances will take place in the Education Studio on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building, whose main entrance is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Each will begin on a Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and last for about an hour. The specific dates and titles of the programs are as follows:

January 20, Women of the Baroque: The featured composer on this program will be the Italian composer, lutenist, and singer Maddalena Casulana. She is distinguished as the first female composer in the history of Western music to have an entire book of her music printed and published. That book was Il primo libro di madrigali (the first book of madrigals), which was published in Venice in 1568. The other major composer on the program will be Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, who may be more familiar to some readers because pianist Sarah Cahill has performed one of the keyboard suites she composed in 1687. Phan will be joined by two guest vocalists, a soprano and a baritone not yet identified. Instrumental accompaniment will be provided by a small Baroque ensemble.

February 3, Les Parisiennes: This program will advance in time to the Belle Époque period in Paris, which is usually framed as beginning around 1871 and continuing up to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This period is frequently associated with the sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger, both of whom composed songs. Phan previously recorded 21 of those songs for his Clairières album. In July of 2020 Phan performed some of these songs, accompanied at the piano by Jake Heggie, for his contribution to the SFP Sanctuary Series of streamed videos. The pianist for his Salon recital has not yet been announced, nor has the identity of the soprano and mezzo vocalists that will join him.

February 10, England, Czechoslovakia, Germany: Departing from France and Italy, the next program will shift to three countries each of which has made a significant mark on music history. Germany will be represented by women that tend to be better known as either a sister (Fanny Mendelssohn) or a wife (Clara Schumann). The English composer has the closest connection to the suffragist movement in the United States. Ethel Smyth composed the “March of the Women,” which become the official anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union, the suffragist counterpart in Britain. The “Czech connection” is a bit of a stretch, since Alma Mahler was born in Vienna; but her husband, Gustav, was born in Bohemia. Once again, the pianist has not yet been announced, nor has the identity of the soprano and baritone guest vocalists.

February 17, Modern Women: The final program will focus on three American women composers from the twentieth century: Margaret Bonds, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Florence Price. Phan will also present works by some of today’s women composers. Once again, the pianist has not yet been announced, nor has the identity of the mezzo and baritone guest vocalists.

Subscriptions for all four programs are now on sale for $160. Subscriptions may be purchased online in advance through an SFP Web page. Single tickets will also be sold for $45. They may be purchased through the hyperlinks attached to each of the above dates. All tickets can also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.