Old First Concerts: July, 2023

Cellist Sarah Hong and pianist Makiko Ooka (from the event page for the recital they will be performing)

As of this writing, Old First Concerts (O1C) will be presenting only one concert this coming July. It will mark the return to Old First Presbyterian Church of Le Due Muse, a duo whose members are cellist Sarah Hong and pianist Makiko Ooka. This will be their first appearance since June of 2019, when they presented an imaginative program of the music by Franz Schubert.

The title of next month’s program will be An Evening of Music by Latin American Composers. The selections will account for four of those composers as follows:

1. Manuel Ponce will be represented by his cello sonata, preceded by an instrumental arrangement of his song “Estrellita.”
2. As many will have guessed, there will be an arrangement of the “Ária” movement from the fifth of the Bachianas Brasileiras compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos, preceded by the cello-piano arrangement of “O canto do cisne negro” (the song of the black swan), which was performed by cellist Oliver Herbert and pianist Carlos Ágreda at the end of last month.
3. There will be one selection by Alberto Ginastera, the second of his three “Pampeana” rhapsodies, which he scored for cello and piano.
4. The program will conclude with two familiar Astor Piazzolla compositions, “Oblivion” and “Le Grand Tango.”

The performance will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 23. O1C events will continue to be “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in the Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue. All tickets are being sold for $25 (no reduced rate for seniors or students). Tickets may be purchased through this concert’s event page.