Music News
Frey Stepping Down
One of the Bay Area’s best-known and longest-serving music administrators, Adam Frey, is leaving the job of executive director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the end of the season. Frey, who majored in music at Harvard and received his M.B.A. from UC Berkeley, has guided SFCMP through 18 years of significant growth. The reason for leaving: “to pursue fresh challenges,” is a less than satisfactory explanation.
Adam Frey
Since 1991, SFCMP operated under the artistic leadership of: Stephen L. Mosko, and then Donald Palma, Jean-Louis LeRoux, and finally David Milnes. The group has presented expanding annual seasons of concerts, commissioned 43 new works, presented 44 U.S. premieres and 75 world premieres, and won nine national ASCAP-Chamber Music America Awards for Adventurous Programming.
Board President Susan Hartzell expressed regret on Frey’s resignation, but added: “Adam leaves us at a time when our financial reserves are at a high water mark. The ensemble’s increasingly ambitious artistic achievements would not have been possible without his attentive and skillful management.” Frey said:
There have been extraordinary people and extraordinary pieces. It was a thrill to meet John Cage and Elliott Carter and to work with such musicians as Dawn Upshaw and Phyllis Bryn-Julson, violinist David Abel, and pianist Raquel Boldorini. Our collaboration with the impressive Chorissima ensemble of the San Francisco Girls Chorus was also memorable.
Some pieces that stand out for me include Stockhausen’s Mantra, Nancarrow’s Studies, Linea by Berio, and Grisey’s Vortex Temporum, conducted by David Milnes with Julie Steinberg as piano soloist. Another high point was Jean-Louis LeRoux conducting the chamber version of Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra. Yet I think we are doing some of the most ambitious work in our history right now, this season, and with what we have planned for the 2009-2010 season.
SFCMP is expected to announce a national search soon for a successor to Frey.
Musical America Awards
Christopher Rouse has been named Composer of the Year by Musical America for 2009. Also to be recognized at the awards ceremony in Lincoln Center next month is Yo-Yo Ma as Musician of the Year, Marin Alsop as Conductor of the Year, Stephanie Blythe as Vocalist of the Year, and the Pacifica
Quartet as Ensemble of the Year.
Rouse is celebrating his 60th birthday this season with performances around the globe, including the Feb. 5 Minnesota Orchestra world premiere of his Oboe Concerto, led by Osmo Vänskä, with soloist Basil Reeve. The composer will be in Minnesota to celebrate the premiere, which takes place just prior to his actual birthday (Feb. 15).
Christopher Rouse, with Marin Alsop
Best known for his orchestral scores, Rouse has made a remarkable contribution to the repertoire with 24 symphonic works to date. His latest piece, the Concerto for Orchestra (which premiered at the Cabrillo Festival this past summer and will have an East Coast premiere in Baltimore this Friday, Nov. 21, led by Conductor of the Year Marin Alsop), is Rouse’s 11th concerto.
MTT at Google: A Report From Lisa Hirsch
As Leah Garchik reported in Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle, Michael Tilson Thomas and friends made an appearance at Google’s Mountain View campus on Friday, November 14. This was billed as the first of several “Musicians@Google” appearances by MTT and other members of the Symphony. The maestro’s primary co-conspirators were concertmaster Alexander Barantschik and triple-threat Edward (”Ted”) Abrams, childhood member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and graduate of Curtis, who plays clarinet and piano and is now a conducting intern at MTT’s New World Symphony.
Alexander Barantschik and Edward Abrams
MTT’s retinue of 30 included John Goldman, President of the Symphony’s Board of Governors, Executive Director Brent Assink, Director of Public Relations Oliver Theil, and Director of Development Robert Lasher, as well as Board members James Hormel, Nancy Bechtle, Ellen Newman, and other Symphony associates. Also in attendance, in keeping with Google tradition, were the Maestro’s two poodles, Banda (small, apricot) and Shayna (large, chocolate). MTT expressed some chagrin that there weren’t more dogs in attendence, but Googlers are well-trained about where their pooches might or might not be welcome. Perhaps the next SFS@Google event announcement can include an open invitation to dogs.
Michael Tilson Thomas
John Goldman introduced MTT and the Symphony to an overflow crowd of Googlers, expressing his delight and that of the Symphony at being part of the Musicians@Google series and noting that the Symphony has performed on the Peninsula since 1918 (!).
As usual, MTT had the audience eating out of his hand, whether talking or playing the piano. The talk was as much metaphorical as musical, and perhaps not quite on target for the audience of nerds, engineers, and other technically oriented Googlers, many of whom are musicians, regular attendees of classical music events, or both.
Of course, the music-making was sublime. Barantschik played the Gavotte and Rondo from J.S. Bach’s Sonata in E Minor for solo violin, followed by a MTT discourse on the nature of triads and thirds. The two then performed a movement of Mozart’s E Minor Sonata for violin and piano, K. 304, which had been an opener for last year’s Symphony performances of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. Abrams got to strut both his clarinet and piano chops, playing Gershwin’s “Promenade” (aka “Walking the Dog” from Shall We Dance, a Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire vehicle, complete with Banda and Shayna parading about the room) with MTT at the piano and finally joining him for a movement of Poulenc’s Sonata for Piano Four Hands. Before the Poulenc, we were treated to a excerpt from the Rite of Spring episode of Keeping Score; the influence of the Stravinsky on the 1918 Poulenc sonata couldn’t be more clear.
The closing Q&A session was special fun and could have gone on for hours. Engineer Max Ziff, a former member of the Symphony Chorus, mentioned singing in the Stravinsky opera double bill and asked about the Thomashefskys, a favorite MTT subject. This gave me the perfect vehicle for introducing myself, because I reviewed the Stravinsky program. I asked about future commissions and the return of the (complete) Robin Holloway Fourth Concerto for Orchestra, performed incomplete in February 2007 after Holloway delivered about twice as much music as the Symphony expected. MTT wiped his brow over the commission question and, without disclosing specific composers, noted that they hope to bring in composers who haven’t worked with orchestras before. As to Holloway, he would bring back a different work that was also incompletely performed owing to the illness of the soprano soloist.
One Googler asked Alexander Barantschik about his violin, the famed “David” Guarnerius del Gesu, owned by a series of great violinists and played in the first performance of the Mendelssohn violin concerto. He replied that the violin is beautiful but unforgiving, and that he has to work hard to work with the instrument. “A Strad takes care of beautiful sound, this does not. It is one of my best teachers.” And MTT gave a thoughtful and practical reply to an inquiry about Oliver Knussen’s Third Symphony and how one listens to new music, suggesting that one “listen for the beautiful or striking moment and work from there.”
The Musicians@Google series is a subset of Talks@Google; you can view all @Google talks on YouTube about a week after they take place.
S.F. Opera’s Promise of Full Measure
From several major brands, a quart of ice cream today is not only significantly higher in price, but in fact contains only three-quarters of a quart. Or, “same size as a half-gallon” actually means only 1.75 quarts.
No such outrage for San Francisco Opera. Losing millions of dollars in the perfect storm of sharply declining equity values and an anticipated reduction in attendance and contributions, the Opera will nevertheless serve up a full measure of quality. So says General Director David Gockley, who promises to maintain the highest standards, even while warning patrons about a reduction in the size of coming seasons (see item below), and appealing for sustained or even increased support.
David Gockley (right), with Nicola Luisotti
Speaking from the stage before the Sunday premiere of a new (“tremendous”) La Bohème, Gockley spelled out the company’s problems and the challenges it faces. At the same time, he said — with emotion audible in his voice — that vocal excellence and artistic standards of future productions will not be compromised:
We will never, I repeat never, compromise on vocal casting, musical values or the professionalism of our productions!
While revenues and contributions are declining, the cost of running the company, including long-range contract obligations, remains the same. And, there is the matter of the company’s endowment fund.
Consisting in small part of bequeathed retirement accounts, with large investments of its own, the endowment is experiencing the same kind of near-meltdown in recent days as your own IRA or Keogh. Always a matter of attention and concern on the part of administrators and boards, the endowment — ideally a multiple of the operating budget, which now stands at $61 million — was valued at $68.4 million in Fiscal 2005.
That was also the time of the endowment being “raided” to balance the budget, so it dipped briefly, then increased significantly with the help of some record-large donations. But now, there is a significant loss in this safety-net “savings account,” with no end in sight for the downswing.
The basic challenge for Gockley is the company’s survival, but he upped the ante considerably with his uncompromising promise to not compromise.
The Future Is Not What It Used to Be
A planned revival of Britten’s Peter Grimes in San Francisco became one of the first victims of the all-enveloping fiscal crisis. With its large cast and limited audience appeal (”there is no accounting for taste!”), Grimes is yielding to more popular fare.
The Opera season prognostication here a month ago is suddenly doubtful on several counts — besides Grimes, there is also my erroneous placement of Die Walküre next year, rather than 2010. What is still likely is that there will be two Puccinis, a Verdi, Massenet’s Werther (2010), Strauss’ Salome, Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, and — possibly — a Janáček. Basically, though, it’s all up in the air.
It’s Bad All Over
The country’s largest company, the Metropolitan Opera, is reducing its next season by four operas — so far. A long-promised Ghosts of Versailles revival is canceled and replaced by La Traviata. Singers scheduled to appear in the John Corigliano opera, including Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas Hampson, will appear in the Verdi. Among likely cancellations: Lulu, Lady Macbeth, and The Nose.
Young Ones, Meet Donizetti
A picture is worth a thousand words, so the following five photos — by Kirsten Loken Anstey for San Francisco Opera — must be worth … 5,000?
At two Saturday matinees, during the past couple of weeks, thousands of young people had their introduction to opera, at the family Performances of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in the War Memorial.
and, on the stage:
Alek Shrader as Nemorino and Ji Young Yang as Adina
Photo by Kirsten Loken Anstey
A Quantum of Puccini
If you hesitate about catching the new James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, but you are an opera fan, then go by all means.
The movie, 007’s 22nd saga on the silver screen, has an extended, mind-boggling scene as the setting for a summit of evil international conspiracy. For the sake of secrecy, the bad guys pick Bregenz, Austria, for their meeting. So far so good, but then there is this:
The meeting takes place during a Tosca performance in Bregenz’s Lake Constance Seebühne. Meeting participants are issued special earpieces to discuss the deal while seated in the audience. That would be during the performance (with Karine Babajanyan as Tosca, Brandon Jovanovich as Cavaradossi, and Sebastien Soules as Scarpia). Two thousand audience members and not one shushing the conspirators — typical Austrian opera fan behavior!
An eye on 007
So, we have the Te Deum in the background while the discussion goes on. Bond is istening in, of course, and then the shooting begins within and around the audience, the gunshots intermingled with church bells. The shooting continues without a pause — but behold — on stage it’s already Act 2 and most of the audience stays with the opera instead of ducking the crossfire. Attention, spoiler coming: Bond films are not strictly reality based.
From the Conservatory to New Century
Violinist Leonie Bot, completing her master’s of Music in Violin and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, is “graduating” next month to become a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg has announced the newest member of the ensemble will make her debut in the Dec. 11-14 holiday performances.
Bot is studying with Axel Strauss, who appeared as guest concertmaster with New Century last year. Originally from the Netherlands, she completed her bachelor of music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where she studied with Istvan Párkányí. Her violin, made by Pierre Pacharelle, is owned by the Dutch National Instrument Foundation.
Buddhafonias Premiere
Ticket prices to benefit concerts are usually hefty, but here’s a “gala benefit concert” with free admission, funds to be raised — presumably — by donations. The date is Nov. 24, the place is the Metropolitan Ballroom at the Westin Hotel in San Francisco.
Sponsored by the organization called Happiness & Its Causes, the event will feature the premiere of the “orchestral poem” Buddhafonias, by Jorgé Sarmientos. The San Francisco Sinfonietta, conducted by Igor Sarmientos, the composer’s son, will also perform works by Dvořák and Guatemalan composer Enrique Anleu Diaz.
Addams Family Director in S.F. Thanksgiving
Theater director and designer Julian Crouch is “taking a break,” says the announcement, from directing the Broadway-bound Nathan Lane/Bebe Neuwirth Addams Family musical to visit Herbst Theatre. There, he will join Dan Zanes for a San Francisco Performances Thanksgiving weekend program. It’s the premiere of “Holiday House Party with Dan Zanes and Friends”, with Crouch directing four local youngsters using shadow puppets Crouch has designed.
A scene from Crouch’s The Wolves in the Walls
Crouch is known for the off-Broadway hit Shockheaded Peter: a Junk Opera (which played at A.C.T. in 2000) and recent Metropolitan Opera productions of John Adams’ Dr. Atomic and Philip Glass’s Satyagraha.
The “Holiday House Party” will transform the Herbst into Zanes’ Brooklyn living room, with musical friends of all types dropping by. Not long after these premiere performances, the show heads to Broadway for a three-week run. Shows are at noon and 5 p.m., on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30.
Zanes and Friends
The Happy Mystery of Quinn Kelsey
The first voice you hear in La Bohème is that of Marcello, the painter. When the San Francisco revival bowed on Sunday, the first voice boomed out like no other was a focused, powerful baritone filling the house. What a find! What a singer! But who is he?
Kelsey (left) in the S.F. Bohème, with Piotr Beczala
Photo by Terrence McCarthy
When I saw Quinn Kelsey’s name and the notation that it was his debut in the house, I was still wondering where he might have come from. The information came as a double surprise. For many years now, I have followed the Merola Program closely. Kelsey, it seems, was in the 2002 class of Merola. Also, I lived in the Islands and always kept an eye on the Hawaii Opera Theater. Kelsey, I now learned, is from the Islands, and he sang with HOT, including the 2000 production of Tristan und Isolde.
I don’t know how Kelsey slipped by under my radar, but he is now very much present on my list of Singers with a Big Future. What I heard from this “mystery singer” on Sunday was one of the most powerful and affecting baritones in memory. And yet, with all that “muscle,” Kelsey was a thoughtful, supportive partner in duets, and didn’t blow down the walls just because he could. That’s both artistry and class.
As Monterone in Chicago Lyric
An Adler Close-up
The 2008 class of Adler Fellows (of the program named after Kurt Herbert Adler) will have its season-ending concert on Dec. 6, an event meaningfully dubbed “The Future Is Now.”
Each of the nine promising young singers in the program has a story about the road leading them to the stage of the War Memorial; featured here is one of them, the soprano Ji Young Yang.
During her Merola and Adler years, she appeared as the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, Pamina in the family matinees of The Magic Flute, Julia Agnes Lee in Appomattox, the Singer in La Rondine, and The Rose in The Little Prince. Currently, she sings Princess Xenia in Boris Godunov, Giannetta in The Elixir of Love — and the lead role of Adina in the Elixir’s family matinees.
See and hear excerpts from her matinee performance, with Alek Shrader as Nemorino, former Merolini Eugene Brancoveanu as Belcore, and Dale Travis as Dulcamara.
Ji Young Yang as Sophie, a role she will repeat in Der Rosenkavalier Trio at the Adlers’ Dec. 7 concert
Photos by Terrence McCarthy
With these and other performances, Yang has garnered praise on the extravagant order of “an impressive combination of confident musicality, a sense of the drama, clear diction, and — above all — a purity of voice” and also: “In addition to her unique, silvery sweet timbre, which brings to mind the voices of Toti dal Monte and several other interwar sopranos, Young’s inner radiance, outward beauty, and riveting presence proclaim stardom.”
As Giannetta, with Ramón Vargas as Nemorino, in the current SFO Elixir
Yang’s musical journey began at age 3 in her native Seoul when a choir director noticed how her voice carried during services. Soon, she sang in the church choir, studied piano and solfège, and was accepted in the famous World Vision Choir, which is part of an international Christian ministry organization. Her first solo, at age 10: the “Alleluja” from Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, and sung “without the proper melisma.” Her parents, even without musical background of their own, supported her fully.
As Adina, in the Elixir family matinee
Photo by Kristen Loken Anstey>/p>
Yang attended Seoul’s middle and high schools for the arts, and at age 16, she traveled from Korea to Salzburg, attending the month-long 1996 Mozarteum master class with Thomas Quasthoff, the great baritone being “very lovely, nice and kind to me,” and inspiring the soprano “for the first time to fall in love with lieder, especially Schumann.”
Yang’s second trip from Korea and Seoul National University led her to New York and the Manhattan School of Music, where she experienced two connections representing “turning points in my life” — finding Patricia Misslin as her voice teacher (”sharing” Misslin with Renée Fleming and many other famed singers), and Warren Jones as coach. Yang considers Misslin “mother, girlfriend, and moral compass.” Meanwhile, to meet living expenses, she “worked very hard,” singing in church choirs and doing whatever students do in Manhattan to make ends meet.
As Xenia, in Boris Godunov with Jack Gorlin (Fyodor)
She took part in many concerts in and out of school, perhaps most memorably in a St. John the Divine concert production of La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Julius Rudel.
Between earning her degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, Yang took time out to return to Korea and get married — to a dentist, the profession of her father as well.
She became a member of the Merola class of 2006, was named an Adler Fellow the next year, and is completing her second year in the program. Yang’s future is wide open; “I better find a manager,” she says. At the Dec. 6 Adler concert, she will sing excerpts from Handel’s Semele, and — along with Heidi Melton and Katharine Tier— the final Trio from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier.
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.
I’m pleased with Rouse’s recognition. Perhaps his greatest achievement this year, one equalled by hardly any other composer ever, is his writing of a singable 12-tone melody, a passacaglia that forms the centerpiece to his Concerto for Orchestra. Marin Alsop confessed to finding it “haunting.”
Posted by Jeff Dunn on November 18, 2008 at 10:17 pm