Arts United: S.F. Forum on Aug. 23
The local arts community, spearheaded by a representative working group called the San Francisco Arts Alliance, is hosting a Mayoral Arts Forum at 6 p.m. next Tuesday at Yerba Buena's Novellus Theater.
The subject is "State of the Arts in San Francisco." Free registration is available on-line.
The name is fortuitous (and probably not accidental) because the forum is moderated by KQED's Michael Krasny, acclaimed host of NPR's, yes, "Forum." As far as the Mayoral part, the participation of Ed Lee is not confirmed, while mayoral candidates Michela Alioto-Pier, John Avalos, David Chiu, Bevan Dufty, Tony Hall, Dennis Herrera, Joanna Rees, and Leland Yee have promised attendance. (Eight candidates constitute only half of the populous field.)
The event is hosted by some 40 local arts organizations, including almost all of the city's biggest. According to Thea Skaff, San Francisco Performances' new director of communications and publicist for the event, the following information posted on the Arts Forum Web site comes from 15 members of the Arts Alliance:
Over 4 million people participate in the events, programs, and services provided by San Francisco's arts organizations each year.More than 5,000 Bay Area residents work at our arts organizations every day.
These organizations offer high quality educational programming, serving almost 700,000 young people every year.
The purpose of the forum is "to educate political candidates and the community about what the arts community does for us, and what we can do to help." Sounds like an excellent idea.
The Higdon Opera That Got Away
An article in The Philadelphia Inquirer comments on the announcement that Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain is being commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera for premiere in 2016:
The Higdon announcement is dramatic — not just because the Philadelphia composer won last year's Pulitzer Prize for music, but because the project had seemed dead when Higdon and librettist Gene Scheer split with the San Francisco Opera. The project's two years under San Francisco's aegis, 2009 to 2011, were mostly spent looking for subject matter and being thwarted, sometimes by lack of suitability for operatic adaptation, but more significantly by rights issues.Also coming to Santa Fe: a co-commission with the Opera Company of Philadelphia of Oscar — about the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde — due in 2015, with David Daniels in the title role. Theodore Morrison is the composer and John Cox is the librettist.
Heroic Santa Fe is also presenting a third new work, the 2014 American premiere of Miss Fortune, by the British composer Judith Weir. The opera, commissioned by and given its world premiere this summer at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, is based on the Sicilian folktale Sfortuna. This will be Weir's third opera to have its U.S. premiere at Santa Fe.
Where Have All the Alums Gone?
Don't bother, they're here.
Cellist Sebastian Plano has turned to composition, and that was the news prompting a quick survey of what all the recent graduates of the S.F. Conservatory of Music are doing.
Plano, who received his Master's degree from the Conservatory this year, sent an e-mail, reminding me of an accidental/happy encounter with a student performance of the Debussy String Quartet in G Minor, also calling attention to the release of his debut album.
Reminiscent of John Adams in a mellow mood, Plano's The Arrhythmical Part of Hearts is — to use a simplified description — in the post-Minimalist, neo-neo-Romantic vein, with a dash of trance music. The entire album is available on-line: Take a listen.
Born in Argentina, Plano has traveled extensively, and when he settled in San Francisco, he put into music "a deep appreciation for living with and learning from people of different cultures around the world." He describes his self-produced and self-recorded album as "a mixture of forms and genres, carefully combining diverse stylistic elements into thoughtful arrangements that bear the stamp of a single, unifying vision."
Plano has also formed the San Francisco Cello Quartet with fellow graduate Severin Sutter and Conservatory students Juan Mejia and Erik Hassler. There is already a group with that name (consisting of Michelle Djokic, Nina Flyer, Miriam Perkoff, and Eric Sung), so it will be interesting to see who adjusts. My recommendation to the newer quartet is to use "Cello Ensemble," which avoids lawsuits and allows them to expand without limit.
Among the Saints
Several Conservatory alumni appear in the current Ensemble Parallèle production of Four Saints in Three Acts, conducted by faculty member Nicole Paiement, and with an addition to the Virgil Thomson score by Luciano Chessa, also on the faculty.
Alumni cast members include Kristen Choi (M.M., voice, ‘11) as St. Theresa II, Wendy Hillhouse (B.M., voice, ‘80) as Commere, Brooke Munoz (M.M., voice, ‘11) as St. Cecilia, and Jonathan ("Joe") Smucker (Postgraduate Diploma, voice, ‘04).
Elise Blatchford (M.M., flute, ‘07) and Leander Star (B.M., horn, ‘07) are members of the Chicago-based wind quintet, The City of Tomorrow, which won the Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In October, they embark on a Fischoff Gold Medal Tour, which includes performances in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.
Liarmakopoulos
Achilles Liarmakopoulos (B.M., trombone, ‘06), a former student of Mark Lawrence, is now trombonist of the Canadian Brass. The ensemble's leader, Chuck Daellenbach, says of the trombonist: "We are thrilled to have Achilles join us. He is young, charismatic and one of the finest trombonists performing today. We all love his presence, focus and personality and think he will be an ideal member of our ensemble."
In March, Liarmakopoulos released his debut solo CD, Tango Distinto, on the Naxos label, featuring works of Astor Piazzolla.
ZOFO
The ZOFO piano duo, comprising Keisuke Nakagoshi (M.M., piano, ‘06) and partner Eva-Maria Zimmermann, has signed a recording contract with the Grammy Award-winning Sono Luminus label. The CD, to be recorded at Skywalker Studios, will feature works of Bernstein, Shapero, Debussy and Stravinsky. ZOFO performs a preview of the repertory on Aug. 23 in a noontime concert at San Francisco’s Old St. Mary’s Church.
Opera — and San Franciscans — in China
Here's yet more about alumns, but here in an international setting. Merola/Adler veteran Thomas Glenn, 1995 Merolina Katherine Chu (who is program director), and recent S.F. Conservatory graduates Emma McNairy, Julia Metzler, and Evgenia Chaverdova are all in China, participating in the "I Sing Beijing" project.
From the story in Time magazine:
As if any more proof was needed of China's growing dominance, it is now being bellowed at full volume by tenors and sopranos. Chinese composers have become a major source for opera in Europe and North America, while more opera festivals are staged in the People's Republic than anywhere else. "The future of opera may be in China," says Tian Hao Jiang, China's most celebrated operatic export and a mainstay at New York's Metropolitan Opera. "So it's about time to reverse the trend. Instead of Chinese singers always coming to the West, Western singers are coming to learn Chinese."That's the idea behind Tian's "I Sing Beijing," a summer program bringing some 20 promising young professionals from the U.S., Europe and South America to China to learn to sing in Mandarin, a program that will culminate with a gala concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on August 18. For participants, it's a chance to see China and eat dumplings; to study Mandarin and perform in it.
Adds The Los Angeles Times:
A documentary about the historic "I Sing Beijing" is being directed by the two-time Academy award-winning film-maker of From Mao to Mozart — Isaac Stern in China, Allan Miller.
Adventurous Alumnae from San Domenico
Hortensia Suleeman ’10
... is continuing her cello study in New York, taking lessons from Marion Feldman, who also teaches at the Manhattan School of Music and whom Hortensia describes as a cross between local cello teacher Millie Rosner and San Domenico faculty member Sergei Riabtchenko.
Hortensia has been playing for the NYU Symphony Orchestra, having just performed in the pit orchestra for NYU's production of Die Fledermaus. She was part of an ensemble that performed and modeled for the eyewear designer Illesteva during NY Fashion Week, and more recently, she has collaborated with NYU composers and film score writers to record tracks for film projects.
Genevieve Durst ’09
... has held a reading of a play she wrote, entitled Yurodivy, her dramatic adaptation of Dmitri Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet — which happens to be the work that the San Domenico Orchestra performed when it took first place at the National Orchestra Festival last year.
Troyens Coming? It Could ...
Berlioz' mighty Les Troyens, last seen around here in 1968 in Berkeley's Greek Theater, is being presented by Covent Garden next summer, in a production by David McVicar, with Jonas Kaufmann as Énée.The Royal Opera is co-producing the work with La Scala and the San Francisco Opera, so we turned to SFO's Jon Finck, fingers crossed, heart pounding: will it come to the War Memorial?
The answer is yes: "SFO casting to be announced at a later date. San Francisco Opera had the pleasure of presenting the American stage premiere of Troyens in 1966 with soprano Regine Crespin," Finck added.
The premiere claim is a bit rocky. Against an amazing list of U.S. premieres, the Les Troyens record is this:
The first American stage performance of Les Troyens (an abbreviated version, sung in English) was given by Boris Goldovsky with the New England Opera Theater on March 27, 1955, in Boston. San Francisco Opera staged a heavily cut version of the opera (reducing it to about 3 hours), billed as the "American professional stage premiere," in 1966, with Régine Crespin as both Cassandra and Dido and tenor Jon Vickers as Aeneas, and again in 1968 with Crespin and Guy Chauvet; Jean Périsson conducted all performances.The first complete American production of Les Troyens was given in February 1972 by Sarah Caldwell with her Opera Company of Boston, at the Aquarius Theater. In 1973, Rafael Kubelík conducted the first Metropolitan Opera staging of Les Troyens, in the opera's first performances in New York City and the third staging in the United States.
Fiscal Uncertainty and the Arts
The astonishing stock market trampoline performance last week brought new, intense worries to arts organizations, from big opera companies to string quartets. "Double dip" is feared in the economy, but in funding the arts it might have already happened: after the shock of the 2008 meltdown, 2010 signaled a slow return to a modicum of normalcy, but now, with the new uncertainty, where will corporate donation — half or more of most nonprofit budgets — come from?
Which Philadelphia Is Coming to Davies Symphony Hall?
When the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Charles Dutoit, visits Davies Hall, June 9-10, 2012, part of the San Francisco Symphony centennial season American Orchestra Series, it will not be the orchestra of lore or even of last year.
During the current fiscal crisis, labor dispute, bankruptcy, and the ongoing bitter dispute about $23 to $35 million owed to the musicians' union while the company endowment still stands at $120 million, a dozen musicians either left or are planning to leave Philadelphia, including several principal chairs.
So far, in spite of all the turmoil, the orchestra is still functioning well, but without some of the major issues resolved, it will be a tough season coming up there, handicaps that may make their effects felt even in June.
Honeck Takes Pay Cut
Pittsburgh Symphony Music Director Manfred Honeck has done what probably more conductors will do in the coming days unless the economy suddenly improves. Honeck took a voluntary 10 percent pay cut in line with a decrease of 9.7 percent agreed to by musicians in their new three-year contract. The conductor's salary was $546,700 for last year.
He said he felt he couldn't lead the orchestra without sacrificing part of his pay. The orchestra has run a combined deficit of about $3 million for the 2009 and 2010 seasons, citing flat attendance and state funding cuts of about $1.5 million.
Rats! It's Neuenfels' Lohengrin
If you can't quite believe reviews of Bayreuth's current production of a Lohengrin full of rats, take a look. Don't let minors or sensitive/sensible music fans see what Hans Neuenfels hath wrought. I suppose this 12-minute excerpt may spare the viewer from the more "interesting" portions of the rat infestation.