Opening the 2015-2016 season in style and with generosity, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is gifting the community with a weekend festival of free performances and events. During the season itself, there are many free and low-cost concerts, some featuring big names — more about that below. But first, the news of Sept. 11-13.
Classical Kick-off Weekend focuses on Mozart and Haydn works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, voice, and piano, but there is more: For example, on Sept. 12, Scott Sandmeier leads the Conservatory Orchestra in the first of performances presenting such overlooked composers as Joseph Martin Kraus and Josef Myslivecek.
Weekend performers include pianist Eric Tran '14, faculty violist Jodi Levitz and the Thalea String Quartet, an ensemble of SFCM graduate students. Guitar, piano, and voice students of the Historical Performance Program demonstrate the art of vocal improvisation in a concert of works by Mozart and J.C. Bach that include embellishments penned by Mozart himself.
Scott Foglesong '77, chair of music theory and musicianship. lectures on the Classical style in a multimedia presentation titled "Music of the Enlightenment." A faculty voice and chamber music recital, Haydn piano sonatas and a concert by prodigies from SFCM's Pre-College Division round out the weekend.
- The Borromeo String Quartet holds a week-long teaching residence, including a marathon performance of the six Bartok string quartets, with a presentation of rediscovered alternate movements from the quartets. In addition to touring worldwide, the quartet has served in residence the New England Conservatory of Music and other schools.
- SFCM's chamber music series hosts members of the Kronos Quartet, Danish String Quartet, Takács Quartet, and violinist Geoff Nuttall of the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
More.
- Master classes include those by violinists Midori and Pinchas Zukerman, opera conductor Patrick Summers, and guitarists Alvaro Pierri and Manuel Barrueco.
- Under its new director, Jose Maria Condemi, the Conservatory opera series presents excerpts from Peter Brooks' La tragédie de Carmen in December; Mozart's Don Giovanni in the annual spring opera production; and a regional premiere of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park, the 2011 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, in May.
- The alumni-founded Del Sol String Quartet and guitarist Gyan Riley, '01, present a world premiere by Terry Riley on Dec. 6. On Dec. 13 the Conservatory Library and Archives hosts former faculty member John Adams for a discussion with faculty pianist Mack McCray about his years working and composing at SFCM during the 1970s.
- Composition department chair David Conte celebrates his 60th birthday in November with a concert featuring tributes written by former students. Guest artists include conductors Michael Morgan, Jeffrey Thomas, and members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.
- The Transformations Concert Series focuses on composers, arrangers and virtuosos who have adapted others' work to create new ones. The Conservatory Orchestra and lecturer Scott Foglesong begin the series in February with Luciano Berio's Rendering, based on an uncompleted Schubert symphony, and music by Richard Strauss. In the program 'Round Midnight, the guitar department plays standards by Thelonius Monk and Villa-Lobos in arrangements by faculty member Sérgio Assad and others. The Baroque Ensemble, directed by Corey Jamason and Elisabeth Reed, explores early Handel works later woven into his great masterpieces and proves even Handel wasn't above pinching from other composers.
- Twelve young guitarists from around the world compete for a $12,000 prize when SFCM hosts the Third International Maurizio Biasini Guitar Competition and Festival, Jan. 14-17. Under artistic director and SFCM guitar department chair David Tanenbaum, '78, the festival celebrates the tradition and evolution of classical guitar. Tanenbaum conducts the Conservatory Guitar Ensemble and faculty member Nicole Paiement directs the New Music Ensemble in an opening concert that features a world premiere by composer Clarice Assad.
- SFCM's Historical Performance Program presents a complete series, including Purcell's masque The Fairy Queen, in a concert version, with faculty members Corey Jamason and Elisabeth Reed leading the Baroque Ensemble. The group will also perform cantatas by Vivaldi and Handel, a concert celebration devoted entirely to Vivaldi, and its annual Concerto Competition winners' showcase.