Choices for April 4–6, 2025

The first weekend of next month will be even busier than the first weekend of this month. For the most part, these will involve familiar ensembles at familiar venues. However, there will be a diverse number of options from which choices can be made. As a result, readers should make sure that they have a scrolling facility for making their selections among what follows.

Friday, April 4, 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM): There will be two different events, each taking place in a different venue but beginning at the same time. Both events will be taking place at the Bowes Center, which is located at 200 Van Ness Avenue, across the street from Davies Symphony Hall. They will take place in “opposite extremes” on the first and eleventh floors, respectively. Specifics are as follows:

1. First Floor: Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) will present a multimedia musical evening entitled Women in Transit. The program has been prepared in partnership with the SFCM Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) department. E4TT and TAC partnered in holding a composition competition for students in that department. That winning entry has not yet been announced. However, the program will begin with another world premiere, a piano trio by Niloufar Nourbakhsh entitled “Cavities.” This will be followed by Han Lash’s “Orchesography,” scored for piano trio, narrator, and dancer. The title is taken from a treatise by Thoinot Arbeau, a study of social dance in France during the late sixteenth-century, which included not only illustrations but also the earliest instance of dance notation. The remaining works on the program will be “Okean,” composed for cello and fixed media by Tamara McLeod, Emma O’Halloran’s “Vertical Fields” for piano trio, and the solo cello composition “ko’u inoa,” written by Leilehua Lanzilotti. The performance will take place on the first floor in the Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall. It will be preceded by a composer talk at 7 p.m. There will be no charge for admission.
2. Eleventh Floor: The next performance by the New Music Ensemble will present a survey of compositions by Gabriela Lena Frank. This will mark the termination of her residence at SFCM as the Andrew W. Imbrie Visiting Chair in Composition. As usual, the ensemble will be conducted by Nicole Paiement. The specific works on the program have not yet been finalized. The venue will be the Barbro Osher Recital Hall on the eleventh floor.

Friday, April 4, 8 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: Next month’s Old First Concerts series will begin with a performance by 21V. This is a professional ensemble of soprano and alto voices. They have developed a repertoire to focus on contemporary times. The title of their program is Promise and Peril. It will begin with world premiere performances of works by Eric Tuan and Karen Siegel. The other composers to be included on the program will be Juan Stafforini, Diana Syrse, and Victor Daniel Lozada. This performance will be available for live stream through YouTube. The venue is located at 1751 Sacramento Street, on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. There will also be two further events this month, both taking place on weekends:

1. Saturday, April 12, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: This will be the sixteenth annual musical celebration to honor the life and work of sarod master Ali Akbar Khan.
2. Sunday, April 27, 4 p.m.: The Wooden Fish Ensemble will return with a program entitled Piano and String – 100 Years! As tends to be the case, the second half of the program will be devoted to compositions by Hyo-shin Na, two of which will be world premieres. The first half of the program will begin with the string quartet composed by Ruth Crawford in 1931, performed by violinists Sue-mi Shin and Rick Shinozaki, Sarah Lee on viola, and cellist Thalia Moore. This will be followed by two solo piano performances by Thomas Schultz. The first of these will be Ferruccio Busoni’s BWV 289 “Drei Albumblätter” (three album-leaves). Schultz will the play his solo piano arrangement of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “The Banjo.”

Saturday, April 5, 2 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: Daniel Hope will serve as both Music Director and Concertmaster in the next performance by the New Century Chamber Orchestra. The program will conclude with one of Richard Strauss’ most elaborate compositions, “Metamorphosen,” which was composed for 23 solo strings. The intermission will be preceded by a concerto grosso for string orchestra by Jungyoon Wie entitled “A Prayer for Peace.” This work was jointly commissioned with the A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, and the performance will be its West Coast Premiere. The program will begin with the “Sonata de Chiesa,” also for string orchestra, composed by Adolphus Hailstork. The church is located on Cathedral Hill on the southwest corner of O’Farrell Street.

Photograph of Ghost Ensemble by Sarah Krasnow (from their event Web page for The Lab)

Saturday, April 5, 7 p.m., The Lab: The Lab will host a visit by Ghost Ensemble, which creates experimental music that expands our perceptual horizons through shared immersive experience. They will perform “Basso Continuo,” which they commissioned for composer Sarah Davachi. The program will include three other composers known for adventurous undertakings: Pauline Oliveros, Stepančić, and Phil Niblock. The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 Sixteenth Street, just east of Mission Street.

Saturday, April 5, 8 p.m., Heron Arts: One Found Sound will present the world premiere of the winner of last year’s Emerging Composer Award, Ty Bloomfield. The title of his work is “FLUX/DRIVE.” This will follow the intermission, which will be preceded by the West Coast premiere of Sami Seif’s “Shubho Lhaw Qoio.” These recent offerings will be framed by more traditional works. The program will begin with the Adagietto movement from Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony. It will conclude with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 550 symphony in G minor (his penultimate symphony). Heron Arts is located in SoMa at 7 Heron Street.

Sunday, April 6, 3 p.m., Herbst Theatre: Chamber Music San Francisco will present a solo piano recital by Yefim Bronfman. He will begin his program as One Found Sound concluded theirs, with music by Mozart. He will play the K. 322 sonata in F major. He will then advance the timeline with performances of Robert Schumann’s Opus 8 “Arabeske” and the second set in Claude Debussy’s Images collection. The second half of the program will be devoted to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 37, his “Grand Sonata,” composed in the key of G major. Herbst Theatre is located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street and Van Ness Avenue.

Sunday, April 6, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: American Bach Soloists will perform three of the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: BWV 4, BWV 106, and BWV 192. These will all reflect the title of the program, BACH’S PARADISE. The program will then conclude with the final Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1051 in B-flat major. This was scored entirely for low-register strings with solo parts for two violas and cello.

Sunday, April 6, 4 p.;m., Chez Hanny: The first combo to visit Chez Hanny this month will be the David Janeway Trio. Pianist Janeway will lead his rhythm support by Peter Barshay on bass and drummer Sylvia Cuenca. As always, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. Admission will be $25, payable by check or cash. Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-deductible donations will also be accepted.

April 6 will also be the date of the first performance in Davies Symphony Hall; but the April schedule events will be discussed in a forthcoming article (probably tomorrow).