Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s 2019-2020 Season culminates with Sheltering Music, a uniquely curated concert of solos and duets by Ensemble musicians that can be practiced and performed in the shelter of one’s home. The performance will be streamed live on Monday, June 1 at 7:30pm, either from the SF Conservatory of Music Recital Hall or from the musicians’ homes. For details visit www.leftcoastensemble.org.
In the interest of health and safety and in compliance with the Bay Areas’ Shelter in Place directive, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s final concert of the 2019-2020 season has been updated to include solos and duets selected and performed by Left Coast musicians Stacey Pelinka (flute), Jerome Simas (clarinet), Michel Taddei (double bass), Eric Zivian (piano), Leighton Fong (cello), Anna Presler (violin), Phyllis Kamrin (viola), and Loren Mach (percussion). The concert features classic works from Beethoven, Blavet, and R Schumann, along with contemporary pieces by Elliot Carter, Veronika Krausas, Jörg Widmannn, and others.
Sheltering Music includes Beethoven’s rarely performed Piano Sonata, Op. 78, selected by Left Coast pianist Eric Zivian for its succinct beauty. Zivian also performs R Schumann’s Bird as Prophet, for piano. Flutist Stacey Pelinka brings her talent to another avian-inspired piece, Peter Vasks’ Landscape with Birds. "In this work, Vasks uses extreme contrasts between registers and short, rapidly repeating fingers to personify birdsong,” explains Pelinka. “The performer is required to sing while playing to create an unusual, mysterious effect."
The concert features the short film Cloisonné accompanied mesmerizing double bass music composed by Veronika Krausas and performed by LCCE’s Michel Taddei. Complementing the program are selections from Diaphonic Suite by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Gigue en Rondeau, a baroque work by Michel Blavet that Pelinka describes as “simple and haunting.” Anna Presler and Leighton Fong will play some of Jörg Widmannn’s tiny duos for violin and cello, and Left Coast clarinetist Jerome Simas performs Elliott Carter’s picturesque Steep Steps for bass clarinet. Plus, there will be more for viola and percussion.
“Since we anticipate continued restrictions on congregating we are preparing to broadcast the concert to our audience online, either from the recital hall or our homes,” said Anna Presler, LCCE’s Artistic Director. “One way or the other, we look forward to playing some remarkable music for you. As is often the case, what at first seemed like an impossible programming restriction has actually opened up new artistic possibilities.”