At the high-water mark of our 51st season, we take a collective look in the mirror with a set of generational responses from across the globe to the poetry and drama of existence. Celebrating her 90th birthday, Eastern European master Sofia Gubaidulina is a luminary among the first generation of female composers to have risen to international prominence, with a music hailed for its unflagging dramatic and emotional intensity. Two of her works anchor the first concert in an exploration of the existential, while the winning composer of our annual SF Search for Scores responds to the theme. Continuing the emphasis on the emotional and dramatic, the searing intensity and athleticism of Amadeus Regucera’s musical language comes to life in a newly-commissioned work of instrumental theater, calling upon the poetry of Filipino writer José Garcia Villa as inspiration and composed with the individual personas and dramatic capabilities of our Contemporary Players musicians in mind. For our second concert, Chinese-American composer Du Yun’s latest essay for string quartet leads off with her typical hyper-dramatic flair, and Australian composer David Chisholm explores the murky implications behind the idea of the projected self in the internet age. One more work of Gubaidulina’s rounds out the celebratory focus on her achievement, a deeply moving expression of her profound sense of the spiritual and the eternal.
Program 2 Schedule
2:00pm – 2:40pm How Music is Made program: Composer talk and music demonstrations with composer David Chisholm, facilitated by Eric Dudley
3:00pm Concert
4:30pm Post-Concert Party
Program 2
Du Yun – I am my own Achilles heel (2018)
David Chisholm – deepfake (2020; delayed world premiere)
-intermission-
*Taylor Joshua Rankin – Touch/Still (2019)
Sofia Gubaidulina – Repentance (2008)