Kids Around the Bay

S.F. Girls Chorus Welcomes New Artistic Director and Conductor

Earlier this week, the board of the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus announced that, following a year-long search, it had hired a new artistic director: chorus alumna, Lisa Bielawa. Bielawa, 44, is a composer-vocalist and a long-time member of the Philip Glass Ensemble. She has a degree in English from Yale and is the daughter of the composer, Herbert Bielawa. In 1997, she co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers (under 40). She joins the chorus on July 1.

“In the last 20 years,” she told us, “ I’ve been in so many choral music environments. Recently, we did a concert in the Netherlands; I sang as a soloist with the Estonia Philharmonic Chamber Choir and once more I realized the strength of all these very rich and powerful vocal music traditions, not just Western Classical music. This is something I’m very passionate about and what’s really cool is that now suddenly I have this lens with which to focus it all.”

Bielawa is quick to add that her career is very much an extension of her experiences in the San Francisco girl’s chorus. She described a particular moment in 1984.

“Every Christmas I would compose anthems for the girls to sing. And then we would have a slumber party and record them. I gave a copy to Elizabeth Appling (the chorus founder) before one of our concerts and she did the most amazing thing; she invited me to conduct my pieces at Davies Symphony Hall. I have been in so many performances in my life but that was most exciting of all. She was the one who really helped me discover my calling as a composer.

In addition to Bielawa, the Chorus board has hired a new music director and principal conductor: Valeria Sainte-Agathe. Born in Martinique, Sainte-Agathe has an M.A. from the University of Montpellier, which is in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Southern France. She also studied piano performance at Colorado State University. She was the musical director for the Junior Opera and Young Singers Program of the Montpellier National Symphony and Opera from 1998 to 2011. As part of her charter, she trained young singers for opera and symphony concerts, including the International Radio France Festival. Sainte-Agathe replaces Susan McMane, the previous director of the chorus.

An Arts Festival in Public Schools

The San Francisco Unified School District Arts Festival runs from March 2 to 10 at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and is focused on visual, literary, media, and performing arts. Fifty artistic groups from San Francisco public schools will attend. About half are devoted to music. The festival, now in its 27th year, grew out of an effort by the San Francisco Arts Commission, but was eventually taken over by the school district.

We spoke with Catherine Theilen-Burke, who has organized the festival for the last 18 years and is a visual arts teacher. “It’s all a way to say to parents in the city, please consider the educational opportunities in public schools and while you may have heard about the drastic cutbacks that have been made in California public schools, San Francisco has done an amazing job of keeping something of the arts in schools.”

Because of Proposition H, and other financial sources, there are now 51 ‘itinerant’ teachers, of which 16 are music teachers. One day every week, a music teacher comes to each of the 72 elementary schools in the city and offers an instrumental music program to interested students. Some instruments are provided for free; others are available to rent.

Theilen-Burke added, “And of course this is part of becoming employable. Despite all these drastic cutbacks in programs, and no question that the arts are still marginalized in many places, I think things are on the upswing, because more and more people in education, in business, and in government recognize that for students to be qualified for jobs in the 21st Century they must develop an ability to be creative and a sense of creativity.”

The event schedule for the arts festival has yet to be finalized; we will include it in next week’s column. Meantime, more information is available here.

Music in the Schools Series: Crowden School

We’ve added a new resource for parents: descriptions of school music programs in the greater Bay Area. We provide a look at the music resources and philosophy that different schools offer. This week we talked to Eugene Sor, of the Crowden School in Berkeley. He is interim music director of the Crowden School and director of its sister organization, the Crowden Center for Music in the Community.

The Crowden School was founded in 1983 in a church basement by Anne Crowden, who had served on the music department faculties at the UC Berkeley, Stanford, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was a violinist intensely interested in the virtues of string instruments and chamber music. In the beginning, she offered bowing and technique classes to 11 students and from that the school was born. She ran it for 16 years and died in 2004.

The school now has 55 students and covers fourth through eighth grade. Admission includes an audition, an academic placement test, and informal visit to the school, along with a personal interview. The basic requirement is that a student be interested in learning a string instrument. There are some exceptions for those studying piano.

“Our mission,” Sor told us, “is to give students both a well-balanced music education and an outstanding academic education.”

Chamber music is at the core of the curriculum and is also the metaphor that best describes what we’re trying to impart — finding your voice. Certainly one of the great joys of playing chamber music is that unique harmony you experience within yourself and within a group. Moreover, to participate in the ensemble you’re obligated to practice, again by yourself and with the group. I, myself, learned more sitting in a music room, by myself or with a coach, than I did sitting in a conventional classroom. It’s not only the hands-on experience, but it’s also the way you study the music; the way you hear music; the way you appreciate textures and interpretations — and the way you come to understand music history and theory. The benefits apply to critical thinking and to becoming responsible and self-reliant.

But in the end, I think the most important aspect of this education is that you learn how to listen to each other on a deeper level and you learn the real meaning of community and how a community succeeds, which means understanding the art of leading and following; improvising and communicating; and finally, trusting. Trusting yourself and others. And there’s one other thing — you learn how to enjoy music and just have fun. That’s so important.”

About Town

February 15, 7:30 p.m., at Pleasanton Civic Arts at the Firehouse Arts Center: A musical variety show starring kids between six and 18, including soloists and ensembles. A must for parents and young musicians in the East Bay who want to see and hear what their peers are doing. Tickets: $12 at the door; $8 in advance. For more information, call (925) 931-4848.

February 16, noon to 5 p.m., Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University: a “meet-up-style” afternoon offered by instrument aficionados, builders, inventors, and members of the instrument-building community near and far. And so a chance to meet people, watch demonstrations and performances. It’s a hands-on event and all ages are welcome. Admission is free. More information.

February 16, 11 a.m. Something a little different: Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito presents a performance by ABADA Capoeira, an international organization focused on the Afro-Brazilian martial art that fuses acrobatics, dance, percussion, and song. Founded in 1991, by master capoeira artist Marcia Treidler, “Mestranda Cigarra,” this interpretation of Capoeira grew out of the experience of African slaves in Portuguese-colonized Brazil who developed this rigorous form of self-defense. ABADA shows how they camouflaged the art with music, song, and dance so they could practice it undetected. Tickets are $7 for members; $17 for general admission. More Information.