As Orchestras Implode, Infant New Millennium Tunes Up
Photo Bernard J. Putz
Even the mighty Philadelphia — performing in Davies Symphony Hall last weekend — is struggling with money problems bad enough to force it into bankruptcy. Other orchestras, big and small, are facing similar problems, from Dallas to Florida to Syracuse to Louisville to New Mexico, and beyond.
There are exceptions, of course, including the San Francisco Symphony, which is doing well enough in the midst of its big, expensive centennial season. On an operating budget of $68.8 million, it carries a $2.3 million operating deficit, working hard on reducing it. But the real contrast to retrenchment or worse is the birth of a new orchestra, and that's the story right here, in the Bay Area.
With panache and perhaps wry hutzpah to outdo the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the New Millennium Chamber Orchestra is making its debut on June 15 in San Carlos' Trinity Presbyterian Church. The ensemble includes outstanding local talent, such as award-winning middle school orchestra and band leaders Colyn Fischer, Tabitha Tetreault, and Jordan Webster), and alumni of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra.
Dagmar Dolatschko (self-described "co-founder, co-conspirator and second fiddle") and conductor James Richard Frieman are responsible for forming New Millennium. They wanted "to provide performance opportunity for talented Peninsula musicians of all ages, who have busy lives and don't always have time for intensive rehearsal or practice schedules, but they would like to play in a fun, supportive environment, where they can continue to develop their craft and meet other like-minded colleagues."
Photo by Bruce Robinson
As on the stage, so are participants in the audience, "looking for affordable opportunities to enjoy live performances of entertaining, exciting, and listenable works for orchestra," says Dolatschko, "without going all the way to San Francisco or San Jose."
Response from the community was pretty much instant and definitely intense: 40 players so far, including four horns, three oboes, two clarinets, and a full set of strings, plus harp, harpsichord, and timpani — joining in less than two months. Backgrounds range from high school seniors and college grads to lawyers, medical professionals, professors, and entrepreneurs; there are several professional musicians among the ranks.
The program is generous, attractive, and varied: Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No.1; Beethoven's Egmont Overture; Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn; Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte; Respighi's Ancient Dances and Airs, Suite No. 1; and Copland's Variations on a Shaker Melody.
Cabrillo Festival, SFS, Youth Orchestra Receive ASCAP Awards
For the 29th consecutive year, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music was honored with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Awards were announced at the League of American Orchestras’ 67th annual conference in Dallas last weekend. The other festival award went to the Aspen Music Festival and School; Robert Spano is music director designate.
San Francisco Symphony won the Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming. During its current centennial season, SFS offered the American Mavericks Festival both in Davies Hall and on a national tour. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra received the Award for American Programming on Foreign Tours.
Led by Music Director Marin Alsop, Cabrillo's 50th season, July 28-Aug. 12, features six world premieres, three West Coast premieres, a special anniversary commission by Scottish composer James MacMillan, and the premiere of Hidden World of Girls: Stories for Orchestra — a multimedia collaboration with NPR’s The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson), Emmy-award winning composer Laura Karpman, three early-career female composers, and media design firm Obscura Digital.
Fourteen composers-in-residence will celebrate the Cabrillo anniversary: Clarice Assad, Mason Bates, Alexandra du Bois, Michael Ippolito, Laura Karpman, Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, John Mackey, James MacMillan, Dylan Mattingly, Andrew Norman, Behzad Ranjbaran, Huang Ruo, Greg Smith, and John Wineglass.
Among other ASCAP honors: John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music to the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (Delta David Gier); Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming to the Minnesota Orchestra (Osmo Vänskä); for programming contemporary music: Los Angeles Philharmonic (Gustavo Dudamel), Nashville Symphony (Giancarlo Guerrero), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. MTT's New World Symphony was among Group 2 (smaller orchestras) winners.
Getty Foundation's $1.5 Million Grant to Orchestra League
In other news from the League of American Orchestras convention, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation has given a $1.5 million grant to the League "to support orchestras in deepening their involvement with their communities."The grants give priority to programs that are "highly innovative, relevant, and responsive to community needs; a prerequisite for qualifying orchestras is the existence of partnerships with cultural and/or community organizations, such as schools or social service providers."
"For 25 years the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation has been an important source of support to the orchestra field," said League President and CEO Jesse Rosen, "and this new project underscores their dedication to the long-term health of our nation’s orchestras."
Orchestra applications are due on August 15; grants will be announced in November.
Why Did Nixon Take 25 Years to Come Home?
Photos by Cory Weaver
The Friday San Francisco Opera premiere of John Adams' 1987 Nixon in China received rave reviews, from Lisa Hirsch's in SFCV to Joshua Kosman's in the San Francisco Chronicle to the unstinting acknowledgement of former skeptics. Not since SFO's 2010 Die Walküre has there been such critical unanimity in the city.
So why did it take a quarter century for this masterpiece to move a half a block from Herbst Theatre to the Opera House?
S.F. Opera General Director David Gockley, who gave Nixon a home at the Houston Grand Opera which he managed back then, provides the answer in the program:
We were planning were planning the fall 1987 opening of the Wortham Center, Houston's new opera house. Aida (with Freni and Domingo) would be the marquee offering, and Abduction From the Seraglio was chosen as well.I also was looking for a contrasting piece, perhaps a premiere. Simultaneously, I was pursuing the wunderkind director Peter Sellars for a production, and he proposed an opera based on Nixon's grandbreaking 1972 trip to China.
I remember responding, "Are you joking?" But the twinkle in his eye told me he was serious. As is typical of him, Peter was more than a director. He brought the composer and librettist together for the first time, and he was intimately involved with the casting.
When I heard the score for the first time — in a reading presented at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco — I realized what we had. It was a stunning breakout score by the man who would emerge as the greatest composer of his generation. We were home free.
I found myself sitting four seats away from then-SFO General Director Terry McEwen, who had been invited to the reading to generate his interest to the opera. As the reading concluded, he exclaimed, "Over my dead body."
Peter's vision was so intense that he willed it into existence. He, John, and Alice have bequeathed us a piece that not only stands on its own, but has given hope to the entire American operatic scene.
Flutes, United
Among participants featured in three concerts: Festival Founder-Director Viviana Guzman, Linda Lukas (S.F. Symphony), Gary Schocker (flutist and composer), Nicole Esposito (U. of Iowa), Christina Jennings (U. of Colorado), and Mario Caroli (Italy).
The programs include Jennings performing Schnittke's Suite in the Old Style, Lukas performing Louise Farrenc's Trio for Piano, Flute, and Cello, Op.45 (with cellist David Goldblatt and pianist Marc Shapiro); a Flute Choir concert, exhibits, youth and adult competitions, masterclasses, and workshops.
If you're a father and flute-fancier, Sunday is your lucky day: free admission for you!
Jazz Pianist from Iceland
A prominent Icelandic jazz composer and pianist, Sunna Gunnlaugs, will make her debut in the Bay Area during her North American tour with her trio. The concerts are scheduled at Berkeley's Hillside Club (June 16) and San Francisco's Chez Hanny (June 17). Known to jazz fans from Europe to Japan, the trio's music incorporates Icelandic folk melodies and soundscapes, and it has been compared to Bill Evans. Gunnlaugs' new album is Long Pair Bond.
Gunnlaugs lived in the U.S. for a decade, as a student in New Jersey, and she became part of New York's jazz community. She assembled several quartets during that time and her 2000 album Mindful featured bassist Drew Gress, saxophonist Tony Malaby, and her husband Scott McLemore on drums. Dreams was recorded by Gunnlaugs, McLemore, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and saxophonist Loren Stillman.
Even against the lure of her growing fame in New York, Gunnlaugs and Virginia-born McLemore decided to move back to her native Reykjavik where they are raising their family, leaving music to such tours as the one bringing them to San Francisco this week.
Operalia Winners: Brugger, Jagde
Photo by Kristen Loken
Third-year Adler Fellow tenor Brian Jagde received the second-place prize plus an award for performing Wagner-Strauss repertoire. He is scheduled to appear as Cavaradossi in the San Francisco Opera's Tosca in November. He is an advocate for music education, supporting the San Francisco Opera's ARIA program, Music in Schools Today, and local schools in each region where he performs.
Useful Opera Trivia
With the coming of a new San Francisco Opera production of The Magic Flute, the question arose if it's among the most frequently performed operas here.
Not even close, says SFO Archivist Kori Lockhart. Her meticulous records show this lineup through 2010:
1. La Bohème — 221
2. Madama Butterfly — 195
3. Tosca — 163
4. Carmen — 167
5. La Traviata — 157
6. Aida — 148
7. Rigoletto — 127
8. Il Barbiere di Siviglia — 120
9. Il Trovatore — 110
10. Don Giovanni — 102
11. Lucia di Lammermoor — 99
12. Faust — 90
13-15. Der Rosenkavalier — 79; Otello — 79
16. Pagliacci — 75
17. La Forza del Destino — 74
18. Die Walküre — 73
19. Tristan und Isolde — 69