They may be brand-new, but the Phonochrome chamber ensemble knows how to pick an easy-to-remember debut date. It's Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, in the S.F. Conservatory of Music, with the concert title of "Love at the end of the world."
Three musicians at the Conservatory founded the ensemble: pianist Allegra Chapman, flutist Elizabeth Talbert, and cellist Laura Gaynon. Chapman has graduated from SFCM after completing a one-year post-graduate diploma; previously, she received a master's degree in piano performance from The Juilliard School, and bachelor's from Bard Conservatory. Talbert and Gaynon are finishing their master's degree this semester in the chamber music program, Gaynon coming from Yale, and Talbert from Carnegie Mellon.
The group plans to expand beyond the initial concert, and even for the debut, they will have the participation of violinists Cassandra Bequary and Joseph Maile, clarinetist Sophie Huet, and cellist Jerry Liu.
The program, exploring French music from the 20th century, spanning the course of two world wars, includes Messiaen's 1941 Quartet for the End of Time, Philippe Gaubert's 1926 Three Watercolors, and Debussy's 1917 Violin Sonata.
The Debussy sonata, dedicated to his wife, is his final work before his untimely death in 1918, the year World War I ended. Messiaen wrote the quartet in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp; the work is a song of love for the angel of the apocalypse, with emphasis on the peaceful eternity and the absence of time after the cataclysm.
Admission is free, a reception will follow the concert.