As was the case for the first two weekends of this month, next month will begin with another weekend for which serious choices will have to be made. This time there will be one account of a series with a second offering later in the month. Specifics are as follows:
Friday, April 5, and Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 6, and Sunday, April 7, 2 p.m., Miner Auditorium, SFJAZZ Center: Opera Parallèle has prepared a program for its fourteenth anniversary season entitled Birds & Balls. This will be a pairing of two one-act operas based on sportsmanship, competition, and gender equality. “Vikensport, or The Finch Opera” was commissioned by soprano Dawn Upshaw in 2010 for the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard Conservatory of Music. It is based on a Flemish folk sport of “Finch-sitting,” where the winning contestant is the one with the most melodious bird. David Little is the composer of this “chamber opera with wings,” working with librettist Royce Vavrek. “Balls” is similarly based on an actual sport. This time, however, the sport is more familiar; and the libretto is about one of the more notorious “battle of the sexes” that took place in the last century, the tennis game between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
Ticket prices for Friday and Sunday will be between $40 and $185. The Friday tickets are subject to an SFJAZZ Member Discount and are almost sold out. Ticket prices for both Saturday performances are between $30 and $175. The SFJAZZ Center is located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street.
Friday, April 5, 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), Barbro Osher Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.: The title of the next program to be presented by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) will be entitled Expression: Ism. E4TT musicians Nanette McGuinness (soprano and co-founder) and Dale Tsang (pianist) will be joined by an impressive diversity of guests: Elizabeth Hall (vibraphone), Laura Reynolds (cor anglais), Lylia Guion (violin), Amy Brodo (cello), and Taylor Chan (piano). The title is a reflection on the three Second Viennese School Composers, Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern.
Schoenberg will be represented by the first and third of his three Opus 11 piano compositions. The seven Early Songs composed by Berg during his studies under Schoenberg will be given a chamber arrangement for soprano, cor anglais, cello, and vibraphone by TJ Martin. The Webern selection will be his 1906 (also under Schoenberg’s tutelage) composition of a rondo sonata movement for piano. The more recent works will be the “Olive Garden” movement from Adam Schoenberg’s Picture Etudes, the winning piece from the SFCM Technology and Applied Composition Department composition competition, the second piano trio by E4TT co-founder David Garner, and Valerie Liu’s “Mystic Trio,” scored for cor anglais, cello, and piano.
As is the case for most SFCM events, there will be no charge for admission; and this performance will be live-streamed. A Web page has been created for both reserving seats and connecting to the livestream. The performance will take place on the top floor of the Bowes Center building, which is at 200 Van Ness Avenue.
Friday, April 5, 8 p.m., The Lab: The month will begin with a two-set offering. Patricia Wolf is based in Portland, Oregon. She complements her efforts as a musician with both field recordings and sound designs. Her approach to composition is minimalist, and she integrates the natural sounds of ecological sources. Alexandra Spence is also a sound artist, as well as a musician. Her sources include field recordings, analog technologies, and object interventions. Her objective is to achieve “a kind of communion or conversation” with the surrounding environment. Admission will be $17 for all, and tickets may be purchased through the event page. The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street, a short walk east from the intersection with Mission Street, which serves both BART and both north-south and east-west Muni buses.
As of this writing, there is only one other music event taking place this month at The Lab. [added 4/8, 8:23 a.m.: There will also be an event on Friday, April 12. Access: Untitled will be a program of interactions of sound and images curated by Artists Television Access, also beginning at 8 p.m.] It will be at the same time on Saturday, April 13. Specifics are as follows:
Arnold Dreyblatt is one of the second generation of minimal composers based in New York. He studied music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier. He also learned about media from Woody and Steina Vasulka. He will perform two recent works, both of which will last for roughly half an hour.
“Transmission” was completed in 2021 and uses his own tuning system. He plays an amplified upright bass prepared with music wire and mechanical transducers, He also engages software for real-time audio processing. “Nodal Excitation” was completed in 2022 after about three years of effort. This one requires an upright electric bass and involves the exploration of the higher (as in more remote) overtones. Admission will again be $17, purchased through the event page.
Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m., Monument SF, and Sunday, April 7, 3 p.m., Century Club of California: Ian Scarfe, Director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, will bring his musicians for two performances of the same program in San Francisco. The highlight of the program will be the suite that Aaron Copland extracted from the music he composed for Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring.” This will be performed with the original score for an ensemble of thirteen instruments. This will be followed by a new work for the same instrumentation composed by Sam Reider. All further specifics are being managed by Groupmuse, which has created separate Web pages for the Saturday and Sunday performances.
Two of the members of Nancy Karp + Dancers (from the City Box Office Web page for next month’s performance)
Saturday, April 6, 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 7, 3 p.m., Taube Atrium Theater: This will be the first event in the 2024 Season of Nancy Karp + Dancers. There will be two works on the program, the first of which will be a premiere. The title of the premiere will be “Eppur si muove,” which is supposedly what Galileo Galilei muttered after he was forced to recant his claim that the Earth moves around the Sun. (The loose translation is “Nevertheless, it moves!”) For this work Samuel Adams has prepared an extended version of his “Sundial” composition, scored for string quartet and percussion. Percussionist Haruka Fujii will perform with the members of the Friction Quartet, violinists Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor on viola, and cellist Doug Machiz.
The second offering will be the reprise of “fly through the night, and land near dawn.” The music brings together three works composed by David A. Jaffe and scored for violin, cello, mandolin, and mando-cello. Jaffe himself will perform the latter two instruments, joined by two of the Friction Quartet members.
The run time for this concert is expected to be one and a quarter hours. Tickets for both performances may be purchased through a single City Box Office Web page at prices between $30 and $60. The theater is located on the top floor of the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue. This is on the northwest corner of McAllister Street with convenient north-south and east-west bus transportation.
Sunday, April 7, 4 p.m., Chez Hanny: This will be the first of the two jazz performances to be presented next month. The program will feature jazz violinist Jeremy Cohen. He will lead a quartet, whose other members will be pianist Larry Dunlap, drummer David Rokeach, and Jim Kerwin on bass.
The venue is Frank Hanny’s house at 1300 Silver Avenue, with the performance taking place in the downstairs rumpus room. Those planning to attend should think about having cash for a preferred donation of $25. All of that money will go to the musicians. There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend are encouraged to bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served; and the doors will open at 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 7, 7:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: The Academy of St Martin in the Fields will return, led, once again, by Joshua Bell. He will also be the concerto soloist in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s E minor concerto. The symphony for this overture-concerto-symphony program will be Robert Schumann’s Opus 61, the second of his four symphonies. The overture will be “Flight of Moving Days” by jazz composer and arranger Vince Mendoza, which was commissioned to mark the centenary of the founding of the ensemble by Sir Neville Marriner. Ticket prices range from $125 to $399, and a Web page has been created for online purchases. Davies is located on MTT Way (formerly Grove Street) between Franklin Street and Van Ness Avenue.
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