SAN FRANCISCO
COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2008
CONTACT:
SFCCO (707) 451-0714
mus21stc@aol.com
SAN FRANCISCO COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS
VARIATIONS ON THE GHOST OF SOUSA DANCING
8:00PM, SATURDAY, JUNE 7,
OLD FIRST CHURCH,
1725 SACRAMENTO STREET (AT VAN NESS), SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCO AND WORLD PREMIERES OF WORKS BY
ALLAN CROSSMAN,
GARY FRIEDMAN,
LOREN JONES, AND
A COLLABORATIVE COMPOSITION BY
MARK ALBURGER,
ALEXIS ALRICH,
JOHN BEEMAN,
HARRY BERNSTEIN,
MICHAEL COOKE,
DAVID GRAVES,
LOREN JONES, AND
ERLING WOLD
SAN FRANCISCO, May 1, 2008 -- Democrats against Republicans; Democrats against Democrats -- perhaps the best thing we can do in these contentious times is agree to disagree, and that's what the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra does best, as its members present, at 8pm on June 7 in Old First Church (1725 Sacramento Street, SF), Variations on the Ghost of Sousa Dancing, an evening of cheeky variance and the state of our unions.
The centerpiece will be an eight-composer collaboration, The Sousa Variations, based on John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever, which will be given a topsy-turvy treatment -- literally turned upside-down -- in Michael Cooke's Stripes and Stars. "I like it better inverted," notes the composer, and you may, too. Meanwhile, Loren Jones brings the march to Iraq with the addition of Middle Eastern modes and doumbek drum, in a work that he maintains was informed by a co-collaborator named John Philip Sousa Khan.
The conspiracy continues in David Graves's sepulchral Sousa Variance, a darkly meditative turn in tandem with Erling Wold's freshly-inspired On the Death of David Blakely. If some honor and tweak the music, others obliterate it, as Mark Alburger's double-homage to the March King and Charles Ives in Variations on Americana. And, for true mystery, marching orders by Alexis Alrich, John Beeman, and Harry Bernstein will sure to inspire.
America. Gotta love it. Or march out and leave it -- for Canada in the spirit of Coastal Ghost, where Allan Crossman provides northern chills and thrills on a Nova Scotian legend -- or even farther afield for China, in Gary Friedman's Olympian Concerto for Erhu and Orchestra.
As for those who stay, there's never a time to be satisfied with received norms, as Jones will remind us further in Haight-Ashberry and The Castro, two movements of his historic Dancing on the Brink of the World.
Maybe music can change the state of the universe... Can't we all... just... get along?
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TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's Variations on the Ghost of Sousa Dancing on June 7, 8.00 p.m. at Old First Church, 1725 Sacramento Street (at Van Ness), San Francisco, are $15 general, $12 students and seniors. Tickets are available through the Old First Church Box Office at (415) 474-1608 and at the door. For more information, please call Old First Church Box Office, or the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra at (707) 451-0714, 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, myspace.com/blackhatrecords, myspace.com/erlingwold, myspace.com/markalburger, and markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.
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CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
OLD FIRST CONCERTS PRESENTS
Saturday, June 7, at 8:00 p.m.
Old First Church
1725 Sacramento Street at Van Ness
San Francisco, CA
(415) 474-1608
VARIATIONS ON THE GHOST OF SOUSA DANCING
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra
Program:
Coastal Ghost (Allan Crossman)
Theme and Variations for Erhu and Orchestra (Gary Friedman)
Dancing on the Brink of the World: Haight Ashberry and The Castro (Loren Jones)
and
The Sousa Variations
an eight-movement collaboration consisting of
Variations on Americana (Mark Alburger)
Stripes and Stars (Michael Cooke)
Sousa Variance (David Graves)
Stars and Stripes for Desert (Loren Jones)
On the Death of David Blakely (Erling Wold)
and music of Alexis Alrich,
John Beeman, and
Harry Bernstein
Tickets:$15 general, $12 students and seniors, available through the Old First Church Box Office at (415) 474-1608, at the door, and at www.ticketweb.com.
More information and pictures at sfcco.org and markalburgerevents.blogspot.com
