SFCMP to Present a “Weekend Double-Header”

Next month will begin with the next round of performances in the 51st season of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP). This season the at the CROSSROADS event will feature two separate concerts, both celebrating the 90th birthday of Sofia Gubaidulina. The title of this coupling will be Drama and Poetry.

The first concert will begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 2. The program will feature two of Gubaidulina’s compositions: “Dancer on a Tightrope,” composed in 1993, and the earlier “In the Garden of Joys and Sorrows,” composed in 1980. This program will also present the world premiere of Amadeus Regucera’s recent composition, “At the end, Breathless and Clothed in Fire.” As usual, the performance will be preceded by a “How Music is Made” panel discussion, which will begin at 7 p.m.

The second concert will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 3. There will be only one Gubaidulina composition, but it may be the most familiar to many San Francisco listeners. “Repentance” was completed in 2008 and was performed at a San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Chamber Music Series concert during the composer’s SFS residency in February of 2009. The music involved a solo cello (Peter Wyrick) engaging with three guitars (David Tanenbaum, Thomas Viloteau, and Elliot Simpson) and a bass (Scott Pingel); and the resulting sonorities were almost magical. The program will also include the delayed world premiere of David Chisholm’s “deepfake” (originally scheduled for 2020). The remaining works will be “I am my own Achilles heel” by Du Yun and “Touch/Still” by Taylor Joshua Rankin. This performance will also be preceded by a “How Music is Made” panel discussion beginning at 2 p.m.

Tickets for this series are being sold for $25 for the pair of concerts and $15 for admission to a single performance. There will also be a Digital Access option with a $10 charge for both concerts and $5 for a single. Both concerts will be recorded on video and will be available for viewing by the middle of the week. Once available, access will continue for seven days. SFCMP Members will have free access to both the concerts themselves and the streamed source. Tickets for both options may be purchased online through a single Web page.