Logistically, financially, and considering security and health issues, musicians’ touring has always been a challenge, but it was well met by organizations from the San Francisco Symphony to local choruses and youth orchestras — before the pandemic.
However, since 2020, the international stream of orchestras and choruses across the globe has diminished, to the point that the cancellation of the SF Symphony’s 2025 European tour became one of the factors in SFS Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s decision to leave his position.
It’s against that background that SF Classical Voice is reporting on the continued activities of the illustrious San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), on tour even now, completing 12 days of concerts and collaborative activities in South Africa.
SFGC’s Premier Ensemble, led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, was performing in Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria, Pilanesberg, and Cape Town and participating in cultural exchange and collaborations with artists such as the UP Youth Choir, AfrikaRiz & Mandla Khumalo with Imbizo Choir, South African Youth Choir, and Sing in Harmony National Girls Choir, as well as various local school choirs.
Born in Martinique, Sainte-Agathe has had a global career performing and directing music of geographic and ethnic diversity. Her work with SFGC began in 2013, and she has also had engagements with numerous local organizations, most recently being appointed chorale director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale.
The repertoire for SFGC’s South African tour included Toro Ya Alkebulan by Mokale Koapeng, with lyrics adapted from a poem (“He Had A Dream, an African Dream”) by Njeri Wangari, commissioned by Classical Movements 2024. SFGC gave the world premiere of this piece in San Francisco in the spring.
SFGC’s summer has overall been busy. The girls joined forces with La Maîtrise de Caen (Boys Chorus) for the world-premiere production of Thierry Pécou’s O Future at Théâtre de Caen in France, directed by Bernard Kudlak. Librettist and scenographer Alice Kudlak created the text for the opera, using interviews with SFGC choristers as well as choristers from La Maîtrise de Caen.
O Future follows the path of a group of children, concerned about the future of the earth and in search of meaning. The work draws on the cultures and wisdom of ancient and forgotten peoples: the Aztecs, the Cree of North America, the Bushmen of South Africa, and the Moai of Easter Island. The entire opera was broadcast on France 3 TV, and the replay is currently available online.
SFGC also performed as part of the Kronos Festival in San Francisco in June, marking the Quartet’s 50th anniversary and the farewell performances of longtime Kronos members John Sherba and Hank Dutt. SFGC took the stage at SFJAZZ with Kronos to perform works by Vladimir Martynov, Yoko Ono, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, and Pete Seeger.
SFGC has been recognized with numerous honors, including four Chorus America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and, in 2002, Chorus America’s prestigious Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence, becoming the first youth chorus to achieve that honor. Each year, hundreds of singers of diverse backgrounds from 45 Bay Area cities, ranging from age 4 to 18, participate in SFGC’s programs.
