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IN Music News THIS WEEK:
Long-Term Contract for McGegan
SF Opera Center Plans
Queler is Now a 'Lady Chevalier'
Rattle Coming, Upshaw Isn't
Inaugural Season for Chamber Music Group
Cleveland Musicians in Santa Rosa Master Classes
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By Janos Gereben
New Concert Hall at JCC
The San Francisco Jewish Community Center's new building at California and Presidio includes the Eugene & Elinor Friend Center for the Arts. Scheduled to open in February, the arts complex features a 480-seat theater/concert hall, lecture halls, galleries, music, art, dance, technology studios, a 5,000 square-foot restaurant, and underground parking. The entire Center, rebuilt from the ground up in an $81 million project, will open some of the other facilities beginning in January.
These new venues, says JCCSF arts center director Lenore Naxon, are "modern, accessible and welcoming . . . providing space that will complement the other halls already available in the city." Program information will be announced later this month, but Classical Voice has learned that the Jerusalem Quartet from Israel will make its debut here in February, Lara Downes will bring three of her Echoes of Change program from UC-Davis, the Contemporary Music Players will have a five-concert season, and Naxon is planning a series of recital programs by San Francisco Conservatory of Music students, some cooperative ventures with San Francisco Performances.
The major theater/concert venue, the complex's largest facility, is Kanbar Hall, named for major contributor Maurice Kanbar, whose donation also enabled the San Francisco Girls Chorus to find a new home in the Civic Center. The hall has retractable theater seating, rising from the first to the second floor; the proscenium stage is 42 feet wide. The hall has adjustable acoustical paneling to brighten or deaden sound for performances, parties, community events.
Another new venue is the Fisher Family Hall, a flexible space built for lectures, banquets, community and corporate gatherings. It can be divided into two separate soundproof rooms. Gallanter Hall, named for Sandy and Linda Gallanter, is a 90-seat room for
lectures, film and video presentations. K-S Gallery, named
for Suzie Katz and Alan Snyder, will house traveling exhibits.
JCCSF is the longest-serving Jewish center on the West Coast, established in 1877. For information, see www.jccsf.org.
Long-Term Contract for McGegan Nicholas McGegan, music director of Philharmonia Baroque from shortly after the period-instrument ensemble's birth more than twenty years ago, is assured of continuing in that position through 2007. Board president Nancy Kivelson and executive director Robert A. Birman have announced the new contract for the Berkeley-based British conductor.  Kivelson and Birman took office in 2001 when the leadership of Philharmonia Baroque was in question, as a rumor was making the rounds about the possibility of McGegan being forced out temporarily or permanently. The nub of the problem back then was believed to have been the conflict between the conductor and then-executive director George Gelles (who left the orchestra for the executive position with the Carmel Bach Festival, which he quit before starting work). Asked about the Philharmonia's problems at that time, Birman declined to comment on the "distant past," telling Classical Voice instead that McGegan "has a supportive team working in partnership with him since October 2001, which has made a world of difference and has been terrifically healthy for everyone involved — musicians, founders, staff, volunteers, and audience alike." Kivelson commented on McGegan's contract extension by saying that "Nic remains essential to the success and vitality" of the orchestra, and the conductor responded with ". . . there has never been a better energy at Philharmonia than exists today." Under the terms of the new contract, he will conduct a minimum of four concert programs per season (up to 20 concerts in total), and will continue to appoint guest conductors and soloists in collaboration with Birman. During the orchestra's 25th season in 2005-2006, McGegan will lead a minimum of five programs. McGegan currently also serves as artistic director of Germany's International Handel Festival, Göttingen; he is Baroque Series Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Artist-in-Residence of the Milwaukee Symphony; music director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of that orchestra's summer home, the Killaloe Festival. Among his many guest appearances, McGegan makes his debut with the New York Philharmonic next month. See www.philharmoniabaroque.org.
SF Opera Center Plans The San Francisco Opera Center will present Thomas Pasatieri's The Seagull in April, and the Schwabacher Debut Recitals series, to be given for the first time in its 22-year-long existence in Temple Emanu-El's Meyer Music Hall, will feature soprano Karen Slack, mezzo Allyson McHardy, tenor Thomas Glenn, baritone Andrew Garland, and a "Festival of Song" presented by Steven Blier. http://sfopera.com/oc_operacenter.asp.
Queler is Now a 'Lady Chevalier' Eve Queler, founder and music director of the Opera Orchestra of New York, was made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for her "scholarly endeavors, inspiring performances, and for making forgotten opera unforgettable." (Can a lady be a "chevalier"?) OONY has presented more than 80 operas in concert including many French masterpieces, such as Bizet's Les P'cheurs de Perles; Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots; Hérodiade and Le Cid by Massenet; Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, and Lakmé by Delibes. Queler has also given American exposure to French singers such as Christiane Eda-Pierre, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Tibère Raffali, Marc Vento, Martial Singher, and Jean-Luc Viala.
Rattle Coming, Upshaw Isn't Simon Rattle's first US tour with the Berlin Philharmonic, heading to Davies Hall on November 24-25, is being greeted enthusiastically on the East Coast by audiences and critics. Dawn Upshaw, scheduled to sing with the orchestra, cancelled all her appearances because of illness. Instead, Canadian soprano Valdine Anderson will be the soloist in Dutilleux' Correspondances on Tuesday. (Dutilleux, 87, who wrote this work recently, attended last week's performances in Carnegie Hall.) The rest of the program: Haydn's Symphony No. 88, Debussy's La Mer, and Sibelius' Symphony No. 7. On Monday: Heiner Goebbels's Aus einem Tagebuch, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. See www.sfsymphony.org.
Inaugural Season for Chamber Music Group The recently-formed Chamber Music San Francisco will present its inaugural season of seven programs (twice each) in the California Legion of Honor's Florence Gould Theater, in April and May. Participating in the programs: the Jupiter Trio, violinist Lara St. John, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, violist Elizabeth Prior Runnicles, the Broderick Ensemble, Peter Grünberg, the Mozart Players, and the St. Petersburg String Quartet, also recitals by sopranos Sheri Greenawald (with pianist John Parr, violinist Helen Nightengale, and cellist Thalia Moore), and Laura Aikin. See www.chambermusicsf.org.
Cleveland Musicians in Santa Rosa Master Classes Members of the Cleveland Orchestra will be participating next month in a Santa Rosa Symphony program of master classes and recitals for young musicians. The events are open to the public. See www.santarosasymphony.com.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the
Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.)
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