Saturday, October 15, 2011

October 15, 2011 - The Dark Serenade


SAN FRANCISCO
COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director

Dark Serenade

8pm, Saturday, October 15, 2011, Old First Church, San Francisco, CA
8pm, Sunday, October 16, 2011, Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, CA
Mark Alburger, John Kendall Bailey, and Martha Stoddard, conducting

Program

Phil Freihofner - Carmilla
   Lisa Scola Prosek, Soprano

Lisa Scola Prosek - The Goldfish Pond
   John Duykers, Tenor

Davide Verotta - Facing Chaos

David Graves - Amaranthine Silence

Mark Alburger - Regime Change (Solomon Suite)
   Lisa Scola Prosek, Soprano
   Olivia Flanigan, Contralto

Loren Jones - Graveyard 

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SAN FRANCISCO
COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2010

CONTACT:
SFCCO (707) 474-7273
mus21stc@gmail.com

SAN FRANCISCO COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS

"THE DARK SERENADE"

8:00PM, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15,
OLD FIRST CHURCH,
1725 SACRAMENTO STREET (AT VAN NESS), SAN FRANCISCO, CA

AND

8:00PM, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16,
CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES
4499 PIEDMONT AVENUE, OAKLAND, CA

SAN FRANCISCO, OAKLAND, AND WORLD PREMIERES OF WORKS BY
PHILIP FREIHOFNER, DAVID GRAVES, LOREN JONES, LISA SCOLA PROSEK, DAVIDE VEROTTA, AND MARK ALBURGER

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15, 2011 -- The days are growing shorter, the economy is not improving, and it's time for The Dark Serenade. Join the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, on either side of the Bay -- at 8pm, October 15 (Old First Church, San Francisco) or 16 (Chapel of the Chimes) -- in a haunted landscape of works by Philip Freihofner, David Graves, Loren Jones, Lisa Scola Prosek, Davide Verotta, and Mark Alburger.

Freihofner sets the mood in Carmilla, a beautiful post-minimalist setting of Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu's short story of vampires and women, featuring Lisa Scola Prosek. This talented soprano-composer will then showcase her own luminous Night at the Kremlin excerpt entitled The Goldfish Pond, where world-renowned tenor John Duykers will hold forth as Winston Churchill on Stalinesque situations.

Keeping to matters historically ominous, Verotta's Facing Chaos illuminates a passage from Seneca the Younger's Thyestes ("Trembling are our hearts, lest all things fall shattered in fatal ruin . . .") in a juxtaposition of aggressive Indian talas with plangent basal melodies. Such contrasts are perhaps even more extreme in the grave Graves Amaranthine Silence, where animated contrapuntal complexities are counterpoised with various pre-recorded "silences" from gardens, restaurants, and parking garages.

Alburger's Regime Change takes the terror of Ancient and Contemporary civilizations through a kaleidoscope of found musics, sung by Scola Prosek and contralto Olivia Flanigan, as a prelude to Jones's signature over-the-top outpourings in Graveyard, where the orchestra will be augmented by bouzouki and tombstones. In the spirit of Erling Wold's In the Stomachs of Fleas, resoundingly presented a few concerts back, be prepared for Haloweenic smoke-and-mirrors. Fog. Strobe lights. Maybe even a small explosion....

Be afraid. Be amazed. And prepare for The Dark Serenade.


TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's The Dark Serenade -- on Saturday, October 15, 8:00 p.m., at Old First Church (1725 Sacramento Street @ Van Ness), San Francisco; and on Sunday, October 16, 8;00 p.m., at Chapel of the Chimes (4499 Piedmont Avenue), Oakland -- are $17 general, $14 students and seniors. Tickets for 10/15 are available through the OFC Box Office at (415) 474-1608 and for both concerts at the door. For more information, please call Old First Church Box Office, the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (707- 474-7273), or visit the organizations' respective websites at www.oldfirstconcerts.org and www.sfcco.org. Tickets are also available at www.ticketweb.com. Other links to the show may be found at myspace.com/sfcco, sfcco.blogspot.com, and markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.

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CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:

OLD FIRST CONCERTS AND CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES PRESENT

Saturday, October 15, at 8:00 p.m.
Old First Church
1725 Sacramento Street at Van Ness
San Francisco, CA
(415) 474-1608

Sunday, October 16, at 8:00 p.m.
Chapel of the Chimes
4499 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA

THE DARK SERENADE
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra,

Program:

Mark Alburger - Regime Change
Philip Freihofner - Carmilla
David Graves - The Amaranthine Silence
Loren Jones - Graveyard
Lisa Scola Prosek - The Goldfish Pond from Night at the Kremlin
Davide Verotta - Facing Chaos

Tickets: $17 general, $14 students and seniors, available for October 15 through the Old First Church Box Office at (415) 474-1608, for both concerts at the door, and at www.ticketweb.com.

More information at sfcco.org, sfcco.blogspot.com, and markalburgerevents.blogspot.com