Les Délices (pronounced Lay DAY-lease) explores the dramatic potential and emotional resonance of long-forgotten music. Founded by baroque oboist Debra Nagy in 2009, Les Délices has established a reputation for its unique programs that are “thematically concise, richly expressive, and featuring composers few people have heard of.” The New York Times added, “Concerts and recordings by Les Délices are journeys of discovery.”
“Woman Scorned” explores universal themes of desire, jealousy, shame and revenge by giving voice to the spurned lovers of antiquity. Rising star soprano Hannah De Priest gives voice to the sorceress Circe in a bone-chilling cantata by Colin de Blamant, and wreaks vengeance as the witch Medea in works by Clérambault and Couperin.
This concert will take place online (YouTube).
Morrison Chamber Music Center
SF State’s Morrison Chamber Music Center is home to the Jane H. Galante Concert Series, renamed in 2020 in memory of the center’s founding trustee. Formerly known as the Morrison Artists Series, it is the longest running chamber music concert series in San Francisco, featuring superb, admission-free performances by some of the world’s most acclaimed ensembles since 1955. The San Francisco Chronicle writes: “indispensable.” The center also provides educational opportunities to students and the community including lectures, master classes, artist residencies, mentoring and school outreach. The Morrison Chamber Music Center is funded, in part, by a generous gift from the May Treat Morrison Chamber Music Foundation. Professor Cyrus Ginwala serves as artistic director of the Jane H. Galante Concert Series, and the Alexander String Quartet serves as quartet-in-residence and directs the center’s instruction program.