Hungarian king to be serenaded in Golden Gate Park
Saint Stephen I (Szent István) was Grand Prince (997–1000) and then the first King of Hungary (1000–1038), responsible for imposing Christianity on the previously pagan region, an accomplishment that was rewarded by sainthood. Not the first, or last, to have trouble with the intricacies of Finno-Ugric Magyar, St. Stephen made Vatican-friendly Latin the country's official language, a rule persisting until ... incredibly, as late as 1844.
St. Stephen's birthday, on Aug. 20, is a national holiday in Hungary, but in San Francisco, it will be marked on the previous day, a more convenient Sunday. A free Golden Gate Park Band concert, a 130-year-tradition, honors St. Stephen by presenting the country's music and dance.
Participants include the Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Ensemble, soprano Diana Pray of the American Bach Soloists, and two violinists from Hungary joining the woodwind-and-brass ensemble to play Hungarian folk songs by Béla Bartók. The band concert begins at 1 p.m.
If your ethnic-music interests lay elsewhere, wait until the following Sunday, and on Aug. 26, Ukrainian-American Day will be celebrated in the park.
Golden Gate Park Band is a historic organization, 30 years older than San Francisco Symphony, which is celebrating its centennial. The thousand-acre park itself is only a couple of decades older than the generations of musicians in their splendid red uniforms.
One tune the band should play at every concert: "Tradition!" from Fiddler on the Roof.
Longevity and fierce loyalty are hallmarks of band members. Although they earn only $100 for an hourlong rehearsal and two-hour concert, the musicians have played Sunday after Sunday for years or decades. The legendary Richard Snyder, who died last year, played saxophone with the band from 1957 through 2007, when he was 91.
San Francisco native Michael Wirgler was principal clarinetist with the band for 25 years before becoming music director in 1999. The ensemble consists of 30 professional musicians (except for oboist Keith Sklower, a computer programmer at UC Berkeley), who belong to Musicians Union Local 6.
"Most us play with other groups, too, and teach," says Wirgler. "Two of our musicians, for example, are in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra; saxophonist Jeff Sanford is a well-known jazz artist."
The concerts draw audiences numbering between 500 and 1,000. The band's $100,000 annual operating budget is funded by Grant for the Arts, other organizations, and even cash contributions collected in a yellow jar near the stage.
Repertory includes marches, opera, show tunes, classical, and big band swing. Traditional music is mixed with new works. There are frequent collaborations with ethnic and arts groups, dancers, and singers.
The Sunday tradition has always been maintained, but the venue changed for a while. "We were a nomadic group over the past several years," says Wirgler, "because of repairs of the (1989) earthquake damage on the bandshell, then the reconfiguration of the Music Concourse.
"Rebuilding of the museums flanking the Concourse (de Young in 2005, California Academy Sciences in 2008) made us move to the Botanical Gardens for a few years, and then later on we had to put on our concerts on the floor level in front of the band shell.
"But today we are back in our home and the Music Concourse and the new museums are a magnet for people to come and enjoy our concerts."
Adler Fellows' reunion backstage: David Lomelí and Maya Lahyani Photo by Sara Gartland
That sounds like an aria from the Barber of Seville, but the reference is to the double appearance of the Verdi opera in the state.
San Francisco Opera opens the season with Rigoletto on Sept. 7, Nicola Luisotti conducting (see next item). A day later, on Sept. 8, KUSC is streaming a podcast beginning at 2 p.m. of the Aug. 12 Hollywood Bowl performance of the opera, Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Here are the two casts, SFO first with both names in the double-cast production, LA Philharmonic second:
Rigoletto — Željko Lucic/Marco Vratogna; Željko Lucic
Duke — Francesco Demuro/David Lomelí; David Lomelí
Gilda — Aleksandra Kurzak/Albina Shagimuratova; Irina Lungu
Sparafucile — Andrea Silvestrelli; Alexander Tsymbalyuk
Maddalena — Kendall Gladen; Nancy Fabiola Herrera
Lomelí and Gladen are Merola/Adler veterans, along with Maya Lahyani (La Contessa di Ceprano in LA), and there will be several of their colleagues in the San Francisco production's comprimario roles.
Once the San Francisco Opera's 90th season opens on Sept. 7, productions will be described, judged, acclaimed, or criticized by us, ink-stained wretches. In advance of that, it's only fair to have the man responsible for the company and what it will present to have the first, if not the last, word.
The Daniel Slater production of Lohengrin in Houston
So, General Director David Gockley, what is the season like?
* Rigolettois a revival of our very decent Michael Yeargan-designed production, offering some promising debuts (Aleksandra Kurzak, Francesco Demuro, etc.) and led by music director Nicola Luisotti, who makes every Verdi opera he conducts into an event.
* While The Capulets and the Montagues will offer a stylish new co-production with Munich, it really is about the bel canto vocalism of Joyce DiDonato and her fellow cast members, including debuting artists Nicole Cabell (Giulietta) and Saimir Pirgu (Tebaldo), under the baton of Riccardo Frizza.
* The Moby-Dick production will bring Jake Heggie's acclaimed Melville adaptation to the composer's hometown, with its world premiere cast and conductor (Patrick Summers) intact. Ben Heppner and Jay Hunter Morris will share the role of Captain Ahab. The eye-popping multimedia production by Leonard Foglia is reason enough not to miss this one.
David Gockley Photo by Terrence McCarthy
* Lohengrin's rented production (from Geneva) is updated by director Daniel Slater to a post-World War II Communist dictatorship, but the setting does not get in the way of telling the story clearly and effectively. Eurotrash it is not! The original production did not have a swan, an omission which I have corrected. Castwise we're looking forward to Brandon Jovanovich's first Grail knight, and in the pit, Luisotti's first Wagner.
* Tosca will be played in the classic Thierry Bosquet sets for what is probably the last time.Luisotti leads two casts, which are bound to be compared and contrasted. Romanian Angela Gheorghiu and American Patricia Racette will vie for the public's favor. If I were you, I would not miss either one.
Always a vital question, especially during this Great Recession, how is San Francisco Opera's fiscal health? There is good news there, cautiously: "For the first time in three years SFO is able to work from a balanced budget, though success at achieving it will depend on 90 percent of capacity paid attendance and raising a whopping $35 million in contributions."
Gockley is speaking of Fiscal 2013, covering the upcoming 2012-2013 season. The proposed budget is $67.1 million, still below expenditures of peak, debt-incurring years, but holding fairly steady, although — inevitably — decreasing numbers of productions and performances correspond to reality since Gockley's arrival in 2006. (His extended contract runs through 2016.) In two years, since FY 2011, the budget ($71 million) was reined in, and the $1.8 million deficit is disappearing ... if all goes well.
"Going forward," he says, "success will depend on a combination of creative cost-cutting, full-houses, increased annual contributions and a growing endowment. We are loath to make further cuts in the number and quality of productions and pray that the depressed economy will continue to rebound.
Asked about the troubles at many companies, most recently and prominently, at the Seattle Opera, Gockley responded:
Other than the free-spending Met, American opera companies are "hunkered down," seeking to control damage, in the face of a depressed economy, the decline of the subscription model, and stubbornly high production and labor costs. Cutting productions is the choice many companies have taken, most recently the excellent and resourceful Seattle Opera. Hopefully a recovering economy and fierce community pride will bring Seattle out of its tailspin in time to send its wonderful — and soon to retire — General Director Speight Jenkins, out in style. He deserves it!
Santa Rosa Symphony opens its 2012-2013 season (its 85th) on Sept. 30 as the resident orchestra of the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University.
Weill Hall, opening to the lawn seating area Photo by David Wakely
Santa Rosa's three most recent music directors will participate in the concert: Conductor Emeritus Corrick Brown leads Beethoven's Consecration of the House Overture; Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane will be the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4; and Music Director Bruno Ferrandis conducts the concerto. Also on the program: Ravel's Boléro (which also shows up on the San Francisco Symphony's Sept. 19 opening gala) and Copland’s Canticle of Freedom, featuring the 100-voice Symphony Honor Choir.
To mark the occasion, the orchestra has commissioned a work by Petaluma resident Nolan Gasser (whose Secret Garden is coming to S.F. Opera). His Sonoma Overture pays homage to the county's natural beauty and its people.
Weill's Hall's 1,400 seats are soldout, but the back wall of the concert hall will be opened for the performance to allow reserved table seating outdoors for $25 per person, and free seating on the lawn. Large screens and amplification are planned in the outdoor area.
The 200-voice San Francisco Choral Society, under Robert Geary's direction, will perform Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at Davies Symphony Hall at 8 p.m. on Aug. 17 and 18. The semi-staged production will be complete with theatrical lighting, costumes, dancers from the Perceptions Contemporary Dance Company, the California Chamber Symphony, and the Contra Costa Children’s Choir.
Soloists are soprano Marnie Breckenridge and bass Eugene Brancoveanu. Stage direction is by Brian Staufenbiel, who will also sing the countertenor role of the toasted swan.
Also on the program is Emma Lou Diemer’s Songs for the Earth, pieces written to poems by Emily Dickinson, Omar Khayamm, Hildegaard von Bingen, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, and Mary Oliver.
San Francisco Arts Town Hall 2012 will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, beginning at 6 p.m. on Aug. 20, moderated by Belva Davis. Formerly called the San Francisco Arts Forum, the meeting will bring together candidates for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, arts organizations, and the general public.
The event will also include performances by the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars and Marc-Bamuthi Joseph, and a post-forum receiption. Admission is free, but registration is required.
The fast-approaching San Jose Zero1 Biennial will feature ISHKY's "Pi in the Sky" as part of the festival. ISHKY is the name, the whole name. He is apparently a San Francisco artist, "professional communicator," and designer.
His project: Between between Sept. 12 and 16, weather permitting, a team of five synchronized aircraft equipped with dot-matrix technology will skywrite the first 1,000 numbers of Pi's infinite sequence.
The aircraft will fly in a 100-mile loop around the San Francisco Bay Area. Each number will measure over a quarter-mile in height. A sixth plane will fly above the writing team, documenting the entire process. ISHKY has also partnered with Stamen Design, a creative firm specializing in data-visualization, to develop a platform for the public to document and share experiences of the event.
The piece will begin above the ZERO1 Garage in San Jose and will follow a flight path determined by ISHKY to include "a pantheon of educational and mathematics institutions." Moments after creation of the numbers, "the piece will dissolve into an unprecedented visual anomaly that prompts curiosity, providing rich opportunity for social interaction."
How do you interact in the context of the planned event? The only way I can imagine is a conversation on order of "Did you see that?" and, probably, "No, I can't see it now."
Andy Horn, right, with Robert Gurney, of S.F. Lyric Chorus
Andy Horn, 76, may next be taking his Finger Lakes Choral Festival to Carnegie Hall, but first he has three important softball games next week. To play.
When New York-based Horn (it's Adrian on paper, but Andy to everyone) organized last Sunday's successful choral orgy in Davies Symphony Hall, there were references to his San Francisco past, which included playing sparkplug for a number of choruses here, so I decided to dig some more. The process is simple: Ask Horn a question and he will give you a straight, complete answer. Nothing defensive or calculated from this maestro.
So how did he become a San Francisco choral poobah back in the good old times?
I was a stockbroker working in the Bank of America Building in the early 1970s and had done no serious music since 1962, the year I decided that wrangling with disinterested junior high school kids in general music classes was not a job for someone who loved music, so I ditched it and served a tour of duty as a Naval Aviation officer.
My hiatus from music ended in 1974 when I became a member of the original San Francisco Symphony Chorus. That early group was a hotbed of musical activity. Many of our singers were soloists, conductors and teachers, and would often get together to sing in small groups. Chanticleer, Coro Hispano, and other ensembles got their start that way.
In 1978, one of the SFSC singers who was a faculty member at San Francisco State put an item in the Symphony Chorus notes that she needed someone to take her place as music director for a production to be put on through the drama department. It sounded interesting so I applied, and to my surprise was offered the position. Now for a moment, think of the contrast of working with enthusiastic, talented and motivated young adults versus squirrelly adolescents.
After that experience I was hot to get back into conducting, so I applied for a few choral positions, unsuccessfully. So what's an ambitious guy who wants to direct a chorus to do? I started my own chorus. Thus began a long choral career based on doing things my own way, but always caring deeply about the satisfaction of my singers.
I started the City Chorus in 1979. It was originally called the Recreation Chorus, and was sponsored by the Recreation and Parks Department. At that time there was a Recreation Symphony, so I approached the music supervisor and suggested that having a chorus would be a complementary activity. She bought they idea, especially since I came cheap.
Along about 1984, I moved to the East Bay for personal reasons and gave up the chorus. Two years later and in a doctoral program at Teachers College, Columbia University, I moved back to the S.F. I had permission to take some course work at SFSU, and while there presented an idea to offer an evening section of the 35 voice Choral Union and change its name to University Chorus. Within two years, largely due to the popularity of the evening section, enrollment soared to 225 voices. In spite of this success, my independent ways didn’t fit in very well with the university structure, so I left and started the San Francisco Choral Society in 1989. The Society started with 120 singers, many from University Chorus, and a gig with a professional orchestra.
Three years later, the Choral Society had grown to 275 voices and was performing before capacity audiences at Davies Symphony Hall, but having started a second family, my wife and I decided to leave SF in 1992 to have a little affordable green space around us.
In a roundabout way, that's how the Finger Lakes Choral Festival in New York got its start — but only after stops (and chorus work) in Sequim, WA, and Fredonia, NY. Finally settling near Rochester (and no choral work) I decided to start my own chorus again. Not wanting to start small, I incorporated the Finger Lakes Choral Festival and hired the Rochester Philharmonic to perform the Verdi Requiem at the 3,000-seat Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center.
It was a great concert and put FLCF on the map instantly, but resulted in a $13,000 loss. But hey! I used to be a stockbroker, and know that corporations often lose money in their first few years of operation. The important thing is that they later become profitable. †So FLCF was on its way and erased the deficit over the next three years, and here we are.
Now you might think that this wealthy ex-stockbroker bought his way to success. Not! When the S.F. Choral Society first performed at Davies Hall in 1990, we were living on $700 a month and put the $16,000 required up front money on my credit card. In Italy they call that "coglioni." When FLCF suffered a $13k deficit, we were living on my wife's teacher's salary and Social Security, and we personally carried the deficit for three years.
A prominent conductor once asked me, "What’s the secret of your success?" Without hesitation I replied, "My musical incompetence!" I went on to explain that geniuses often don’t understand the problems of ordinary people.
So what's next? I have already started to get information on performing at Carnegie Hall. And if that doesn't come to fruition, I have a busy softball schedule and a 65-tree fruit orchard to tend.
Sounds like a very busy, musical version of Candide.
