SFS to Premiere “Socially Significant” Songs

In 1937 Broadway saw a hit musical with an unlikely cast consisting of rank and file members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The show, entitled Pins and Needles, was created by Harold Rome; and it became the longest-running show on Broadway until Oklahoma surpassed it. I remember seeing excerpts on television; and what stuck me was the opening number, entitled “Sing me a song with social significance.”

Composer Gabriel Kahane (from the SFS Web page for emergency shelter intake form)

In that context next month will begin in Davies Symphony Hall with the San Francisco Symphony presenting its premiere of a song cycle “of social significance.” The title of this composition is emergency shelter intake form, and it was composed by Gabriel Kahane on a commission by the Oregon Symphony, which performed the world premiere in 2018. That performance was subsequently recorded and is available in both physical and digital form through a Bandcamp Web page. There are thirteen songs in the cycle. They deserve to be enumerated with their titles as follows:

1. What Brings You Here
2. The Chorus of Inconvenient Statistics
3. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
4. If You Answered Yes...
5. Have You Ever Been Evicted?
6. Certainly We Can All Agree
7. Have You Received Any Income in the Past Thirty Days?
8. Do Your Co-Workers Know That You Have Lost Your Home?
9. Are You Eligible for a Section 8 Voucher?
10. Has Your Physical Health Ever Caused You To Lose Your Housing?
11. A Brief History of The Subprime Mortgage Loan Crisis
12. Have You Ever Been Denied A Lease?
13. Thank You for Completing This Form

The titles are taken from a questionnaire presented to those seeking a shelter bed.

Mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran, making her debut in the SFS Orchestral Series, will personify this questionnaire, whose text oscillates between cold, bureaucratic questions, and more lyrical accounts of the myriad challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness. There is also a Chorus of Inconvenient Statistics (Kahane, Kristen Toedtman, and Holcombe Waller, all making Orchestral Series debuts), which locates these personal vignettes within a broader political and economic context, crossing seamlessly across classical and pop genres in a work that addresses an often uncomfortable topic with candor, sensitivity, and humor. The final movement will also include the Community Music Center Choir (directed by Martha Rodrígues-Salazar) and the artists of Skywatchers, which is based in the Tenderloin.

By way of an “overture,” the first half of the program will be devoted entirely to George Gershwin’s piano concerto, given the title “Concerto in F.” This was composed in 1925 and may well have influenced Maurice Ravel (who cultivated a productive friendship with Gershwin), when he titled his concerto “Piano Concerto in G.” (Neither Gershwin nor Ravel wanted to commit to an overall mode of either major or minor.) Conrad Tao will make his Orchestral Series debut as the soloist, following up on the trio recital to which he contributed at the beginning of last month in Herbst Theatre. The entire program will be conducted by Edwin Outwater.

This program will be given only two performances, both at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 2, and Friday, February 3. Ticket prices range from $35 to $135 and may be purchased through a single Web page or by calling the SFS Box Office at 415-864-6000. The entrance to Davies is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.