SFCMP Continues 54th Season This Month

Swedish composer Mika Pelo (from the event page for the performance being discussed)

One week from this Saturday, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) will continue its 54th concert season with its third program. The title of the program is Northern Lights, and it will present four works by composers from two Scandinavian countries. Sweden will be represented by Jesper Nordin and Mika Pelo, who will begin each half of the program. Each of those works will be followed, respectively, by works by Finnish composers Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg.

Pelo’s offering will be a world premiere made possible through an SFCMP commission. The title of the composition is “Working from a Postcard;” and it will incorporate live electronics. This will be followed by a United States premiere of “Jubilees,” which Lindberg composed in 2002. The first half of the program will be presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with Jesper Nordin’s “Surfaces scintillantes,” completed in 2007, followed by the earliest work on the program, “Lichtbogen,” which Saariaho completed in 1986. She conceived this piece as a musical reflection on the Northern Lights.

This performance will take place in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater on Saturday, April 12, beginning at 7:30 p.m. It will be preceded by an “Under the Hood” pre-concert conversation with Pelo at 6:30 p.m. The venue is on the fourth (top) floor of the Veterans Building, which is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. General admission will be $45 with student admission for $18. Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box Office Web page.