SFCM Highlights: December, 2023

As was observed last year, most of the performances taking place at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) in December are end-of-term recitals. As a result, the only highlighted event for December of 2022 was the end-of-term SFCM Orchestra Concert. This year there will be two such events, both taking place during the first full week of the month, one of which will be the Orchestra performance. Each of those will have its own Performance Calendar Web page as attached to the date of the performance. Both of those Web pages will include a hyperlink for making free-of-charge reservations and another hyperlink for viewing the live-stream. Both of the events will begin at 7:30 p.m. Further specifics are as follows:

Tuesday, December 5, Barbro Osher Recital Hall, 200 Van Ness Avenue: Once again Chamber Music Tuesday will feature a guest ensemble, the Esmé Quartet. That group has recently welcomed SFCM String and Piano Chamber Music Chair Dimitri Murrath as their new violist. He will join Esmé violinists Wonhee Bae and Yuna Ha and cellist Ye-eun Heo in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 13 (second) string quartet in A minor. Murrath and Heo will also join student violinists Shintaro Taneda and Mathea Goh for the opening selection, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 575 string quartet in D major. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 70, the string sextet in D minor given the title “Souvenir de Florence.” The Esmé players will be joined by two students, violist Isabel Tannenbaum and cellist Ayoun Alexandra Kim.

Saturday, December 9, Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street: The conductor for the final concert of the season will be Bay Area native Vinay Parameswaran, who recently served as the Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony. He has prepared a program following the usual overture-concerto-symphony plan with an interesting twist. The concerto soloist will be SFCM Faculty member Jeff Anderle, playing bass clarinet in “Walking With Ghosts,” which was written for him by Mary Kouyoumdjian. The program will begin with the overture to Gioachino Rossini’s opera Semiramide. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 55 (third) symphony in E-flat major, usually known as the “Eroica” symphony.