Sunday, September 10, 2023

SFCM Highlights: November, 2023

Highlighted events at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) will be relatively modest during this coming month of November, but there will be much to enjoy in the diversity of content. As in the past, the Performance Calendar Web page will provide the most up-to-date information about the many concerts and recitals that will be presented to the general public. Each Web page will also include a hyperlink for making reservations, most of which will be without charge. If the performance will be live-streamed, there will be a separate hyperlink to enable viewing. Specifics for the highlighted events are as follows: [added 10/20, 11:45 a.m.:

Monday, November 6, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street: Composer David Garner will present a showcase of his chamber music. As the 2023 recipient of the Hoefer Prize, he composed a four-movement work for double wind quintet (pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns). The program will also include a performance of his suite for bass clarinet and piano, which will be performed by Jerome Simas and Dale Tsang, respectively. In addition, trumpeter Aaron Priskorn will join Tsang in a performance of Garner’s sonata for trumpet and piano.]

Tuesday, November 7, 7:30 p.m., Barbro Osher Recital Hall, 200 Van Ness Avenue: Chamber Music Tuesday will feature a guest appearance by the L’Arc Trio of violinist Maria van der Sloot, cellist Christine Lee, and pianist Jung-eun Kim. They met as students in the postgraduate chamber music program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They came together as a trio in 2018 and made their debut at the Berkeley Piano Club in January of 2019. They will give the world premiere performance of Vivian Fung’s piano trio “Ominous Machine.” The program will begin with the “Pareidolia” string quartet by Jonathan Bingham, who was the 2022 Emerging Black Composers Project winner. The program will conclude with Ernest Bloch’s first piano quintet.

Friday, November 10, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street: The SFCM Wind Ensemble, consisting of woodwind, brass, and percussion students, will be conducted by Brad Hogarth. They will be joined by the brass quintet Brass Over Bridges for the world premiere performance of “Transfigurations,” composed by SFCM faculty member Stefan Cwik. The work was originally written for brass quintet but was subsequently rearranged for the Wind Ensemble, making for a “second premiere.” The program will begin with Andrea Tarrodi’s “Serenade in Seven Colours,” followed by two works from the twentieth century known for their jazzy rhetoric. The first of these will be the Little Threepenny Music suite of eight excerpts from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera arranged for winds. The second will be Darius Milhaud’s “La création du monde,” (the creation of the world), a ballet composed for a libretto by Blaise Cendrars.

Thursday, November 16, and Friday, November 17, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street: The fall performance by the Opera Program will present two one-act operas. The first of these is the lesser known, Pietro Mascagni’s “Zanetto.” The title character is a gentle and naive young man having his first encounter with a courtesan. Much better known will be the second opera, Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.” This is basically a comedy of greed and love among the members and friends of a family whose paterfamilias is dying.

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