Thy hand, Belinda!

Found on Twitter, written by @petrarchian, posted here with permission:

PURCELL: Thy hand, Belinda
CDC: did she wash it
PURCELL: Darkness shades me
CDC: so that's a... no?
PURCELL: On thy bosom let me rest
CDC: don't touch each other's faces with your dirty hands!
PURCELL: More I would, but Death invades me
CDC: IT WOULDN'T IF YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS

The CDC's advice above is good; wash your hands a lot, do your best to limit how much you touch your face, don't shake hands with other people. I am, uncharacteristically, using paper napkins on door handles and serving utensils at work, given the number of people who touch those things.

Expecting Cancellation Number 3

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla

Photo by Frans Jansen

I am guessing that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's visit to SF will go forward, but who knows who will be conducting it? Because I just can't believe that MGT will be traveling less than three months after the birth of her second child.

Music@Menlo 2020

UPDATED: Because I counted and originally published the 2019 numbers.

Well, I've got an email from Music@Menlo, and....wow, their roster of artists is something else. On this page, there's a 3 x 16 grid of artists, plus a row of 2 that is, 50 photos in the grid. There are 48 individuals and 2 string quartets, so, 56 individuals. Of these, 14 are women. (This is slightly better than 2019.)

That's completely astonishing, in 2020.

Of the works on the regular series of eight concerts, not one is by a woman. Not going to bother looking over the Carte Blanche and other series.

Good work, Music@Menlo!

Friday Photo

Confectionary Department

Harrod's, London

November, 2019

LA Opera 2020-21 Season

LA Opera's 2020-21 season was announced last month, and I'm finally catching up. Here's the short version, shamelessly copied from operatattler.com:

September 26- October 18 2020: Il Trovatore

October 18– November 7 2020: Tannhäuser
November 21–December 13 2020: La Cenerentola
January 30– February 21 2021: Don Giovanni
February 27- March 21 2021: Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves
April 15-18 2021: Du Yun's In Our Daughter's Eyes
April 30 2021: Tamerlano (concert version)
May 15- June 5 2021: Aida

First order of business: try to spot roles vacated by the former GD, who, whatever he did administratively, could be guaranteed to sell out whatever opera he appeared in. 

My bet: It's Il Conte di Luna in a well-cast Il Trovatore, starring Angel Blue, Gregory Kunde, Vladimir Stoyanov, Ekaterina Semenchuk, and Morris Robinson. Stoyanov hasn't sung di Luna lately, according to Operabase, so....just guessing, of course.

Alternatively, perhaps he was singing the lead in Don Giovanni! (How...appropriate....that would be.)

Anyway, let's take a look at that season. One thing that jumps out is that it includes two recent operas, and, rather astonishingly, both were composed by women. Those would be Breaking the Waves, which is a brilliant heartbreaker, and In Our Daughter's Eyes, which I have not seen. Good for you, LAO!

That Tannhäuser stars the rising dramatic tenor Issacah Savage, and he might be enough of a reason to see it. La Cenerentola I would ordinarily pay little attention to, except that this production is directed by Stefan Herheim and I know I will never be closer to a Herheim production than Oakland to LA. The casting looks good.

The Aida is Francesca Zambello's production, which has been seen at SF and Seattle, and maybe somewhere else by this point. Good-looking cast; I thought the production decent, and one that drives home the extent of the colonialist side of the story.

Handel's Tamerlano is brought in by the English Concert and will be done in concert; Harry Bicket conducts a cast of Bejun Mehta, Sophie Bevan, Michael Spyres (!), Jakub Josef Orlinski, and Avery Amereau. That's....a terrific cast.

The Brightness of Light, a song cycle by Kevin Puts, stars Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfrey. There's also a concert called Veils for Desire by Matthew Aucoin, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Paul Appleby, narration by Wayne Kostenbaum, directed by Zack Winokur, and this does sound interesting (GAY GAY GAY). It will be at the Wallis, not the Dot.

It's a decent season and feels less top-heavy with warhorses than SFO's season.

Salonen/Bullock; Stucky, Britten, Ravel

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Photo: Minna Hatinen, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

(Get used to seeing this photo a lot)

Last week's SFS program, with MDD Esa-Pekka Salonen and soprano Julia Bullock, was wonderful: 

• Stucky, Funeral Music for Queen Mary, after Purcell; 
• Britten, Les Illuminations 
• Ravel, Three songs to texts by Mallarme and Mother Goose Suite (Ma Mere l'lye)

The first thing I have to say is that I have never much cared for Mother Goose, but apparently it was because I'd never heard Salonen conduct it. This was utterly beguiling from beginning to end. Beyond a doubt, it helped that I was sitting in Row J; the last time I heard it at Davies I was in the first tier even though I was reviewing. That was in 2006; the conductor was Leonard Slatkin, and he didn't go a great job with anything on the program, including a weirdly dull Pictures at an Exhibition.

The Stucky is a terrific piece, true to the Purcell but also unusually orchestrated, winds and brass plus piano and harp. The Britten was fantastic, so very beautifully sung by Julia Bullock. Once again I could only marvel at the variety and brilliance of Britten's string writing. Bullock is one of E-PS's "creative partners", so I am looking forward to hearing her regularly in the next few years. 

The Ravel/Mallarmé was completely new to me and I liked it a lot. It's really a chamber piece, for piano, string quartet, flute, piccolo, and some clarinets (Carey Bell and Jerome Simas were both up there, with Simas juggling three instruments.)

Joshua Kosman has a much longer review and I agree with him 100% except that I have always loved Les Illuminations and its gnomic text.

Upcoming Retirements at San Francisco Symphony

An announcement from SFS brings news of retirements that are pending:

End of the 2019-20 season:

• Section Percussion Tom Hemphill (46 years of service)
• Section Bass Lee Crocker (39 years of service) 

End of this calendar year:

• Bass Trombone John Engelkes (39 years of service) will retire at the end of December 2020

End of the 2020-21 season:

• Associate Principal Flute Robin McKee (36 years of service)
• Principal Flute Tim Day (14 years of service)
• 4th Chair Cello Margaret Tait (45 years of service) will retire at the end of the 2020–21 season.

The email includes this, although I seem to have missed anything official from the orchestra about Michael Grebanier's death:

Principal Cello and Principal Flute auditions will begin in May and continue through the 2020–21 season.

Museum Mondays

St. George & the Dragon?

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

November, 2019

AB5 and the Arts

A law intended to protect gig economy employees, particularly those working for services such as Lyft and Uber, has had the unintended consequence of requiring small performing arts company to treat contractors as employees, greatly increasing the cost of putting on performances.

Joshua Kosman and Carolyn Said covered this in a Chron article published in December. In January, Island City Opera postponed their planned production of a great rarity, Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers.

I have email telling me that San Francisco Renaissance Voices has cancelled their own planned program owing to lack of AB-5-related funding.

You bet that I am worried about the 2020 seasons of many small music, theater, and dance companies that I care about. Consider a letter to your state reps and Governor Newsom about the consequences of AB-5 for the performing arts in California. The law desperately needs to be amended.

Friday Photo

Art Deco interior of 1355 Market St.

San Francisco, CA

February, 2020

The Soul of the Americas Doesn't Include Women

Music @ Menlo has a two-day Focus Residency coming up, called The Soul of the Americas. Here's the program that will be played in association with the residency:

May 8: Concert Program

COPLAND: El Salón México for Solo Piano
BERNSTEIN: Three Meditations from Mass (version for piano, cello, and percussion)
BARBER: Souvenirs for Piano, Four Hands, op. 28 
GOLIJOV: Mariel for Cello and Marimba
VILLA-LOBOS: Divagação for Cello, Piano, and Drum;
“A maré encheu” from Guia prático; and “O Polichinelo” from A prole do bebê no. 1 for Solo Piano
GINASTERA: Pampeana no. 2, Rhapsody for Cello and Piano, op. 21
GERSHWIN: Cuban Overture for Piano, Four Hands, and Percussion

Really nice to know that women don't have souls, or something like that, she wrote while listening to Florence Price, although Copland writing fake Mexican music and Gershwin writing fake Cuban music do count.

Thoughts on the Transbay Terminal

Section of the Salesforce Transit Center

Salesforce Tower in the background

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

February, 2020

Back in the 1930s, San Francisco built a downtown terminal for trains coming into the city from the East Bay. Called the Transbay Terminal, it operated from 1939 to 1959 as a train/tram station, and was then converted entirely to bus use. It closed in 2010 and was then demolished to make way for the new Transbay Terminal. Wikipedia has a helpful article about the old terminal. You can see lots of photos via Google.

By the 1980s, when I started arriving in SF at the terminal, it was not in great shape, but it was awfully convenient, because I was dropped off about two blocks from my first job here, at 333 Market. Subsequently, I worked in the Embarcadero Center, 505 Sansome St., the Icehouse building in Levi Plaza, and back to 505, all for the same company and all at varying distances from the terminal.

Old Transbay Terminal

Eventually, it became apparent that the Transbay Terminal was decrepit and needed to be demolished and replaced by something more modern. There was a big push to make it possible for CalTrain to eventually be able to run trains directly into the terminal, that is, downtown, and so despite the fact that this was completely on spec, the new terminal ("Salesforce Transit Center," thank you naming rights, this is a civic building that shouldn't have a corporate name) was built with sublevels that could, if necesssary, accommodate full-sized trains. I expect there is a lot of infrastructure either already built or with space for eventual build-out; for trains, you need power, platforms, tracks, ventilation, elevators and escalators to the platforms, maintenance space, some way to turn the things around (unless they just back up to get out of the terminal), etc.

The project did not include the actual tunnels or tracks to the current San Francisco terminus of Caltrain, which is located at Fourth and Townsend. This screen shot of Google Maps shows the locations of CalTrain and, sort of, the new Transbay Terminal, which would be around the middle top of the screen shot:

It's around a mile as the crow flies, I think.

Now, I started writing this blog post a while back, between the opening of the new terminal on August 12, 2018 and its ignominious closing about six weeks later, on September 25, when cracks were discovered in a couple of major support beams. Fortunately, the temporary terminal two blocks away had been fenced, but not rendered unusable, in that time period. It went back into service until the new terminal re-opened on August 11, 2019.

I am not, personally, hugely thrilled about the new terminal. It cost an enormous amount of money, around $2.2 billion. I have not investigate how much of the cost is attributable to making the building rail-ready. It is very large and casts a fairly big shadow. There is a park on the roof that has some issues (I think some of the plants weren't doing well?) but which I hear is very nice and has pleasant amenities. I went up there once, but either I am coming or going when I pass through, and while I have time to poke around a bit, I don't have time to linger. 

The areas that I do see are big and empty:

Taken from escalator, going down into the lobby.

Photo by Lisa Hirsch, September, 2019

When the transit center opened, there were no static maps showing the location of each transbay bus, just video displays that changed way too fast for you to actually scan them. Apparently there were complaints, because now there are stands with printed maps all over.

Those four bright white pylons on the floor? They have signage pointing to each transit system you can readily access from the terminal. But guess which major transit system is missing?

If you guessed BART, you'd be right! Because nobody coming off a transbay bus might want to find BART! That's right, there is no signage telling you which direction BART is in.

Pylon, up close

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

February, 2020

Upstairs, the build-out included queue guides embedded in the floor where each bus stops...but apparently this wasn't enough, because they had to use masking tape to add a lot of guides:

Go this way.

Photo by Lisa Hirsch, September, 2019

Seriously? Nobody thought of this??

And here's a point that amazes me, and that I think is a legal violation: I have been unable to find any kind of finding aid for people who are blind or have limited vision. I can't find any Braille and I can't find audio help. There isn't even an information desk with live humans in the lobby, not that you could find it without help, if you were blind. But the center claims that it is ADA-compliant:

Yes, the transit center is designed to serve people with disabilities and is fully compliant with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). This includes ADA-compliant entrances, exits, paths of travel, restrooms, and five sets of public elevators throughout the building for the Bus Deck and rooftop park.

Maybe they don't understand what "fully compliant" means.

Auditions at San Francisco Symphony

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

The auditions page of SFS has provided me with a few tip-offs to upcoming changes in the orchestra, including the retirement of Assistant Concertmaster Mark Volkert a couple of years ago.

SFS has apparently conducted or no longer is accepting applications for the Associate Principal Horn position vacated by Nicole Cash; auditions are upcoming for Associate Principal Second Violin, which is billed as a one-year opening.

There are two new auditions since I last looked:

• Principal Cello, open owing to the death of longtime principal Michael Grebanier in December
• Principal Flute. Aaaaaand this means Tim Day is leaving the orchestra after 15 years. 

Holy New Music Director, Batman!

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Photo: Minna Hatinen, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

Esa-Pekka Salonen and SFS released E-PS's first season as music director, and hoo boy, it is something. Briefly, after a five-minute look at the press release and season calendar:

• Lots of new music and old music new to SFS
• Multiple opera performances, including Elektra (Goerke, Magee, other good folks!) and Bluebeard's Castle 
• Themes!
• New guest conductors
• New guest soloists
• Composers I spotted: Adès, Ginastera, Chavez, Salonen, Price, lots of others
• MTT: four weeks, mostly old favs, but including the Missa Solemnis
• Blomstedt: two weeks

More later, and if you want to check all of this out yourself, you can read the calendar and press releases at SFS.

Pacific Opera Project Continues to Not...Quite...Get It.

Pacific Opera Project released this statement, which I have seen only second hand so far, about their upcoming Cosi fan tutte, which was to be set in the world of Gone with the Wind, that is, a world where the "heroes" owned other humans, beat and raped them, sold them away from their families:

“In unanimous agreement between board and staff, Pacific Opera Project has elected to change the setting of our March production of Cosi fan tutte. 1. We recognize that some view a Gone with the Wind setting as offensive and we apologize for that offense. 2. Appearing insensitive to these concerns is against everything POP stands for and damages our reputation as an inclusive and diverse company, 3. something we have carefully cultivated over the past nine seasons with productions such as our Japanese/English ‘Madama Butterfly’ and our Star Trek inspired ‘Abduction from the Seraglio,’” the company stated on its Facebook page. “POP’s strongest quality has always been creativity — the ability to adapt and innovate to any location, circumstance, or constraint. 4. We look forward to the challenge of reinventing a production, now only six weeks away. 5. We’re confident that a POP ‘Cosi’ — whether set traditionally, in the Civil War, or in outer space — will be one of the most accessible, affordable, and entertaining you have ever seen.

“We thank our unwavering fans for your support during this time of transition and we look forward to seeing you at the show.”

Let me dissect the statement, which isn't exactly framed as an apology, but which comes across as a classic non-apology apology. I have put numbers in the statement for your convenience.

1. We recognize that some view a Gone with the Wind setting as offensive and we apologize for that offense.

They don't understand or they're not admitting what was wrong with the setting. There is no self-analysis or acceptance of responsibility.

2. Appearing insensitive to these concerns is against everything POP stands for and damages our reputation as an inclusive and diverse company

They are concerned with appearances and how the company looks; they are concerned about their reputation more than about the damaged done by their setting an opera in the world of a novel that glorifies slavery and the slave-owning South.

The problem is that they are unaware and insensitive.

3. something we have carefully cultivated over the past nine seasons with productions such as our Japanese/English ‘Madama Butterfly’ and our Star Trek inspired ‘Abduction from the Seraglio,’”

So they think they have a reputation for diversity and inclusion, but how did the Japanese/English Butterfly mitigate the racism of the opera? And about that Abduction, a musicologist I know who is way more familiar with it than I am says that it is problematic, as is the opera. Again, how do they think their production mitigated the problems with the source material?

4. We look forward to the challenge of reinventing a production, now only six weeks away.

You people are making this hard for us! Yes, they are blaming their critics for problems they brought upon themselves through their own lack of thoughtfulness.

5. We’re confident that a POP ‘Cosi’ — whether set traditionally, in the Civil War, or in outer space — will be one of the most accessible, affordable, and entertaining you have ever seen.

They're subtly defending the GWTW Cosi here.

6. “We thank our unwavering fans for your support during this time of transition and we look forward to seeing you at the show.”

I translate this as follows:

No thanks to those of you who called this to our attention. (Noting here that I emailed some questions to the company via their publicist before blogging or tweeting about the production, giving them a chance to explain themselves or take note of the types of questions I was asking.)

My translation of the above:

We're sorry we offended, which could hurt our ticket sales, so we'll change stuff  but we don't understand why you're so upset because we didn't do anything wrong, and you meanies are making it haaaard for us.

If you want to see everything's been tweeted about them since last Thursday, try this search:

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40pacoperaproj&s=09 

Museum Mondays

Death of the Virgin

German, 1430-40

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

November, 2019

Friday Photo

Streetlamp and tree

Pelham St., London

November, 2019

More on Pacific Opera Project

I blogged on Tuesday about Pacific Opera Project, which has an upcoming revival of a Cosi fan tutte production set during the Civil War and based on Gone with the Wind.

Not only didn't I get answers to most of the questions I asked, the company's Twitter account started blocking everyone who asked them questions there, deleting their own tweets, then reposting their own tweets without the negative comments attached.

Hoo boy, you know, this is not a good way to find fans.

Here's what I posted on Twitter:

Personal to Pacific Opera Project: believe it or not, all publicity is not good publicity. Deciding not to answer questions that a music journalist asks you and blocking people on Twitter who are asking you questions? This doesn't make you look good. It makes you look defensive and uncommunicative.

Just Stop.

People (pundits, the media, randos on Twitter) are already counting major Democratic presidential candidates out, after the awarding of, what, 24 delegates in NH and 41 in Iowa, when you need 1991 to win the nomination and after one caucus and one primary in tiny, disproportionately white states.

Just stop this.

Also, take note of the fact that in NH, it appears that the three moderates (Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, 155,456) won 50% more votes, together, than Sanders and Warren (103,100). Where are the votes of Steyer, Yang, Gabbard, etc. going to coalesce as they drop out? For that matter, where will all of the moderate votes coalesce?

We'll know a lot more after Super Tuesday.

Visa Problems

Perhaps this is a Trump-admin created problem, given the reason. Received from SFS:

SIBERIAN STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT ON MARCH 15 IS CANCELED

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra concert scheduled for March 15 at Davies Symphony Hall has been canceled due to visa approval issues. The ensemble is not able to travel to the United States for their tour. There are no plans to reschedule this performance. The following options are available for those who have already purchased tickets to the performance:  Exchange your tickets* for one of the following performances: March 8, 2:00pm: Michael Barenboim & the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble March 17, 8:00pm: Flute Recital with Sir James Galway April 16–18, 8:00pm: Tchaik 5 & Mason Bates April 19, 2:00pm: Chineke! Orchestra with Stewart Goodyear Exchange your tickets for a gift certificate, which can be used at any time. Donate your tickets, and receive a tax deduction for the total ticket value. Receive a refund for the value of the ticket. If you need assistance with your ticket, contact the Box Office by phone at 415-864-6000, email at patronservices@sfsymphony.org, or in person at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco. We apologize for the inconvenience. *Ticket exchanges into other concerts are subject to availability. If you are exchanging into a more expensive section, for a premium or more expensive concert, you will be charged the difference in price. Any special offers used for the initial purchase will not apply to exchanges. Payment must be made at the time of the exchange.

Just No.

Pacific Opera Project, a small opera company located in the Los Angeles area, has sent out a press release about their upcoming production of Cosi fan tutte. The big selling point: it's based on Gone with the Wind.

I am shuddering just to think about this. The production is a revival; the show was first done in 2012.

I'm wondering whether Pacific Opera Project, which has an Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity statement on their web site, somehow missed the fact that Gone with the Wind was a pro-slavery, pro-South, pro-Lost-Cause book (and film).

I just don't see how you can set any production during the U.S. Civil War, which was fought over slavery, without incorporating a sharp critique of slavery and racism. Maybe this production has this, but honestly, it's 2020 and if you're doing Cosi, or any other opera, you might consider the implications of basing your production on such a book. I mean, I was not happy to see that their trailer has a woman dressed in a maid's outfit - in the south at that time, possibly an outfit worn by an enslaved woman - tightening a corset.

I have pretty serious Just Don't Do This thoughts about the production, yes, without having actually seen it, so I sent some questions to the company via their publicist:

• Does the company have any thoughts on the the extent to which [Gone with the Wind] is very much pro-slavery, pro-plucky-Southern-women, pro-Lost-Cause?
• How is the company mitigating the underlying and often blatant racism of the book?
• It appears that there might be a singer in blackface in the photos. That would be the singer tightening a corset and dressed in a maid's / slave's costume. Is that the case?

The publicist said she would run my questions past the artistic director. I told her that my questions were for quotation and attribution for a blog post.

Here is the response that I have received: 

Thank you for being in touch. Our only comment is that Jessica Mamey is Lebanese and most definitely not in blackface.

That's....not forthcoming and doesn't address the larger questions.  As folks on Twitter have noted, it's still not a good look. (I have just read that the only person of color in the current cast....is the maid. Oh fucking facepalm.) Neither is the guy holding a woman in the air and looking up into her hoop skirts, or the Confederate soldier look-alike. In fact...the whole production looks like a big mistake from here.

Museum Mondays

Altar piece

Victoria & Albert Museum, London 

November, 2019

Friday Photo

Oakland Shadow

December, 2019

Valley of the Moon Festival, 2020

The upcoming Valley of the Moon Festival is, well, what you might expect this year: there's a whole lot of Beethoven, but 1) original instruments 2) a good chunk is off the beaten track. The musicians are a very fine bunch.

Here's the full schedule:

WHAT:

The sixth annual VALLEY OF THE MOON MUSIC FESTIVAL presenting a program in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, The Obsession: Beethoven’s Influence 1770 – 2020.

MUSICIANS:

Violin

Liana Bérubé

Elizabeth Blumenstock

Cynthia Freivogel

Francisco Fullana

Monica Huggett

Catherine Manson

Rachel Barton Pine

Anna Presler

Rachell Wong (TANK Trust Laureate)

Viola

Andrew Gonzalez

Phyllis Kamrin

Cello

Tanya Tomkins

Clarinet

Eric Hoeprich

Fortepiano

David Belkovski (TANK Trust Laureate)

Christian De Luca (TANK Trust Laureate)

Eric Zivian

Contralto

Emily Marvosh

Tenor

Kyle Stegall

WHEN:  

April 25 – 26, 2020 in residence at the Green Music Center

Saturday and Sunday

July 18 – August 2, 2020 in residence at the Hanna Center

Saturdays and Sundays

PROGRAM:  

April 25, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.

MUSICIANS FROM VALLEY OF THE MOON MUSIC FESTIVAL IN CONCERT WITH SONOMA STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Johannes Brahms, Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102

Beethoven, Symphony No. 5

Liana Bérubé, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Alex Kahn, conductor

*   *   *

April 26, 2020 at 3 p.m.

“BEETHOVEN: THE SHATTERING OF FORM”

All-Beethoven program:

Sonata for Piano in E-flat major, Op. 27, no. 1

Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, no. 3

Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, Op. 30, no. 1

Clarinet Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Catherine Manson, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

* * *

July 18, 2020 at 4 p.m.

"A CROWN UPON HIS HEAD, A THORN IN HIS PAW"

Beethoven, An die Ferne Geliebte

Robert Schumann, Fantasy, Op. 17

Antonin Dvořák, Songs

Dvořák, Piano Quintet

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Francisco Fullana, violin

Rachell Wong, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

* * *

July 19, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“THE MOST PRESCIENT MESSENGER OF THE FUTURE”

C. P. E. Bach, Sonata for Violin and Fortepiano in C minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata in E minor, K. 304

Igor Stravinsky, Duo Concertant

Beethoven, Songs

Beethoven, String Quintet, Op. 29 (“Storm”)

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Liana Bérubé, violin

Francisco Fullana, violin

Rachell Wong, violin

Phyllis Kamrin, viola
Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

David Belkovski, fortepiano

* * *

July 25, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“A GIANT MARCHING BEHIND”

Joseph Haydn, Piano Trio

Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms, Songs to Goethe texts

Brahms, Sonata for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 108

Emily Marvosh, contralto

Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

Christian De Luca, fortepiano

* * *

July 26, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“BEETHOVEN WAS WRONG!”

Carl Maria von Weber, Piano Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 8

Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy et al., French songs

John Cage, Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard

Maurice Ravel, Piano Trio

Emily Marvosh, contralto

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

* * *

August 1, 2020 at 2:30 p.m.

FREE CONCERT

Featuring VMMF apprentices to be announced this spring

* * *

August 1, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“MUSIC IS THE SHORTHAND OF EMOTION”

Clara Schumann, Piano Trio

Leoš Janáček, String Quartet No. 1 (“Kreutzer Sonata”)

Beethoven, Sonata in A minor, Op. 47 (“Kreutzer”)

Liana Bérubé, violin

Cynthia Freivogel, violin

Monica Huggett, violin

Anna Presler, violin

Phyllis Kamrin, viola

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

* * *

August 2, 2020 at 11 a.m.

“HIS WORSHIPPER AND ADMIRER”

Carl Czerny, Funeral March

Franz Schubert, Sonatina for Violin and Piano

Beethoven, Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 (“Archduke”)

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

* * *

August 2, 2020 at 4 p.m.

“NO LONGER MUSIC, BUT A NEW ART”

Beethoven/Ries, Eroica Symphony, first movement

Berlioz/Liszt, Harold in Italy, first movement

Beethoven, Sonata for Violin and Piano

Brahms, String Quintet in G major, Op. 111

Cynthia Freivogel, violin

Andrew Gonzalez, viola

Tanya Tomkins, cello

Eric Zivian, fortepiano

with participating apprentices

WHERE:

Green Music Center

Sonoma State University

1801 East Cotati Avenue

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

Hanna Center Auditorium

17000 Arnold Drive

Sonoma, CA 95476

TICKETS:

$25 - $45 

Discount tickets available for individuals under 35 years old, for early bird reservations, and for groups of six or more. Discounts also apply to packages of two or more concerts.

Tickets will go on sale this spring at valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.tix.com or by phone at 888-596-1027.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org