Kronos Shares Spotlight With Alumni
Kronos Under 30 Kronos Quartet shares a bit of its star power with three alumni ensembles in a string of upcoming concerts. Friction Quartet, Mobius Trio and The Living Earth Show will take turns opening for their trailblazing elders at Z Space in San Francisco as part of Kronos' Under 30 Project, an initiative that nurtures the careers of young musicians. Conservatory composers will also bask in the glow; Kronos performs a piece by composition department chair Dan Becker on February 6 and 7, while The Living Earth Show premieres Sooge Sohrab (The Tragedy of Sohrab) by Sahba Aminikia '13 on February 8.
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Paiement Goes Global

The Conservatory is one of ten sites worldwide to simulcast a groundbreaking opera on February 16 in a special closed screening. Death and the Powers, produced by The Dallas Opera and conducted by Nicole Paiement, the Conservatory's Jean and Josette Deleage Distinguished Chair in New Music, gives a leading role to interactive technology, from mobile apps and sensory set pieces to singing robots. Death and the PowersWith a libretto by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and a score by composer/inventor Tod Machover of the MIT Media Lab, Death and the Powers has been called "a grand, rich, deeply serious new opera" by Opera magazine. As artistic director of Opera Parallèle, the Conservatory's professional opera company in residence, Paiement has earned a national reputation for championing contemporary opera. Still, this production is bound to present some new challenges, for example, by empowering audiences in Stockholm to alter events on stage in Dallas by tapping their mobile devices.

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Kashkashian Returns
Grammy Award-winning violist Kim Kashkashian, a favorite of Conservatory audiences, returns to share her artistry in a Chamber Music Masters residency. Kashkashian works with select students on technique and musicianship in a public master class and performs in a concert featuring works by Fauré, Dvořák and alumnus Ian Dicke '04. Guest artists include faculty, students and the alumni ensemble Friction Quartet.

Master Class: Tuesday, February 11, 7:30 PM
Recital Hall, Free
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Concert: Thursday, February 13, 8 PM....
Concert Hall, $20/$15
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Van Geem Back on Board

Percussion Department Chair Jack Van Geem was elected to the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors in December. It's a homecoming of sorts; Van Geem retired from the Symphony in 2012, turning in his mallets after more than three decades as principal percussion and assistant timpanist.

 

Faculty Composers Take the Stage

Two eminent faculty composers offer rich and contrasting approaches to twenty first-century composition in a pair of upcoming recitals. Drawing inspiration from poignant verses by Yeats and Rossetti and the tonal palette of Bartók, David Conte presents two sets of songs and his second string quartet. Performers include tenor Brian Thorsett '04, staff pianist Steve Bailey and the alumni ensemble Friction Quartet. Alden Jenks marries the analog and digital worlds in works scored for computer, piano, soprano and actress. His program, including several premieres, features sopranos Lora Libby '13 and Amy Foote '10, and pianists Mikako Endo '92 and Ian Scarfe '10.  

 

Conte: Saturday, February 8, 8 PM
Recital Hall, Free
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Jenks: Monday, February 10, 8 PM
Recital Hall, $20/$15
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Musical Theatre Workshop Comes 'Round

The team Kander and Ebb wrote a string of latter-day Broadway classics and notable film scores, from Cabaret and Chicago to Funny Lady and New York, New York. The Conservatory Musical Theatre Workshop presents And the World Goes 'Round, a song-and-dance revue filled with humor, romance, drama and nonstop melody, in three performances featuring a multitalented cast of Conservatory vocalists.   

Thursday & Friday, February 13 & 14, 8 PM
Saturday, February 15, 5 PM   

Recital Hall, Free - RR*
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Upcoming Concerts

Tuesday, February 4, 8 PM  FREE
Violin Studio Recital | Students of Wei He

Thursday, February 6, 8 PM  FREE
Guitar Department Recital

Thursday, February 6, 8 PM  FREE
Voice Department Recital

Friday, February 7, 7:30 PM  FREE
Opera Workshop

Saturday, February 8, 8 PM  FREE
Faculty Artist Series
David Conte, composer, with Brian Thorsett '04, tenor; Steven Bailey, piano; and Friction Quartet

Monday, February 10, 8 PM  $20/$15
Faculty Artist Series | Alden Jenks, composer

Tuesday, February 11, 7:30 PM  FREE
Master Class | Kim Kashkashian, viola

Thursday, February 13, 8 PM  $20/$15
Chamber Music Masters | Kim Kashkashian, viola

Thursday, February 13, 8 PM  FREE, RR*
Musical Theatre Workshop

Friday, February 14, 8 PM  FREE, RR*
Musical Theatre Workshop

Friday, February 14, 8 PM FREE
Phonochrome | Love at the End of the Word: A Valentine's Day Concert

Saturday, February 15, 5 PM  FREE, RR*
Musical Theatre Workshop

Saturday, February 15, 8 PM  FREE
Staff Recital | Steve Bailey, piano

Sunday, February 16, 12 PM  CLOSED
Special Event | Death and the Powers simulcast (Invitation Only)

Monday, February 17, 7:30 PM  FREE
Master Class | Ian Howell, countertenor

Monday, February 17, 8 PM  FREE
Faculty Artist Series | Trombone Faculty & Friends

Tuesday, February 18, 7:30 PM  FREE
Master Class | Alisa Weilerstein, cello

Wednesday, February 19, 8 PM  FREE
Cello Department Recital

Wednesday, February 19, 8 PM  FREE
Piano Department Recital

Friday, February 21, 7 PM  FREE
Master Class | SoloDuo, guitar

Saturday, February 22, 8 PM  $20/$15.....
Scott Sandmeier, conductor
with 2014 San Francisco Opera Center Adler Fellow Efraín Solís '13, baritone
(Rescheduled from February 15)


View our performance calendar for complete information including concert changes and updates.

RR* = Reservations required.

Call the Box Office for tickets and reservations at 415.503.6275.

Conservatory Supporters
To reserve tickets, please contact June Hom at 415.503.6201 or jhom@sfcm.edu. To become a Conservatory supporter visit our website.
SFCM
February 4, 2014
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Featured Video
Cathy Cook, Chair of Voice Cepartment, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Voice Department Chair and opera luminary Catherine Cook discusses her career on stage and in the studio.

Other Events
Efrain Solis

Baritone and San Francisco Opera Center Adler Fellow Efraín Solís '13 tours the Bay Area with the New Century Chamber Orchestra before landing back home at the Conservatory later this month. Solís and two other members of San Francisco Opera's elite young artist program join NCCO for Rita, a rarely-heard comedy by Donizetti, in performances from February 12-16. On February 22, the Conservatory Orchestra features Solís in a performance of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen conducted by music director Scott Sandmeier.  

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On Saturday, February 8, The San Francisco Symphony greets the Year of the Horse with a concert of traditional Chinese and western favorites featuring violin soloist and pre-college alumna Alina Ming Kobialka. Proceeds benefit the symphony's education and community programs in Bay Area schools. Later this month, Kobialka heads to Austin, Texas, to compete in the 2014 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition with other pre-college students and alums including Stephen Kim, Stephen Waarts and Alex Zhou.
Robin Sutherland
Ten hands. Five alums. Two pianos. One Gala. Noe Valley Chamber Music stages its annual benefit concert on February 9 featuring Robin Sutherland '76. The San Francisco Symphony principal keyboardist will be joined by an alternating cast of fellow pianists including Christopher Basso '04, Scott Foglesong '79, Keisuke Nakagoshi '06 and Nicholas Pavkovic '11 for Rachmaninoff's Suite for Two Pianos. 

Phonochrome, a new chamber group fronted by graduate student Elizabeth Talbert on flute, postgraduate student Laura Gaynon on cello and alumna pianist Allegra Chapman '13, delivers an impressionistic valentine to the Conservatory at its San Francisco debut on February 14. "Love at the End of the World" includes pieces by Debussy and Gaubert as well as Messiaen's ethereal Quartet for the End of Time, written and premiered while the composer was held in a German prison camp during World War II. The show ends on an appropriately sweet note: with a dessert reception.   


 Café menu available from Café Crème two hours before performance and during intermission. Order in advance at 415.503.6295 or cafecremesf@gmail.com.

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