The San Fransisco Girls Chorus Announces 2014-2015 Season, Which Includes THE ROMANTIC IMAGINATION, NORTHERN LIGHTS and More

In announcing the first season of concerts curated under her artistic directorship Lisa Bielawa has made public details of the 40-voice, Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus 2014-2015 season. The season of five programs will run October 4, 2014 through June 5, 2015 and be capped off by a tour to Nordic countries including Estonia, Finland and Sweden. The season concerts will be conducted by Music Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe and will highlight music by Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Carla Kihlstedt Schubert, Beethoven, Handel, Vaughan Williams, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, Philip Glass, John Adams, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Meredith Monk and others and feature guest artists including pianistJon Nakamatsu and violinist/composer Carla Kihlstedt. Of particular note will be the West Coast premiere of Kinderkreuzzug (2010), an anti-war cantata by German-Turkish composer Ralf Yusuf Gawlick set on a 1941 poem by Bertoldt Brecht. In addition to the annual Davies Hall holiday concert, the Girls Chorus this year will collaborate with New Century Chamber Orchestra for seasonal performances. For more information, visit www.sfgirlschorus.org.

Artistic Director Lisa Bielawa says, "It's the 21st century and in San Francisco there's a lot to sing about! This season the San Francisco Girls Chorus brings a new sound to a broad range of music, from beloved classical and Romantic Lieder by Amy Beach, Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert, with Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Jon Nakamatsu-- in vibrant new arrangements made especially for our singers by Alexander Blachly, Director of New York's renowned early music ensemble Pomerium--to music from living composers, from Philip Glass to Carla Kihlstedt, who joins our singers onstage to perform with them, in a repertoire tailored to send our young singers off on their tours as musical ambassadors of their own place and time. Along the way, they sing of the joys of Christmas in the frozen Nordic countries, and of the great sadnesses of war, in this season commemorating several major war anniversaries, including the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War in a program centered around young composer Ralf Gawlick's vivid, beautiful setting of Bertold Brecht's epic poem Kinderkreuzzug. Audiences are advised to keep an eye and ear out for women composers from over 100 years ago, Beat poets, and Icelandic ogresses."

San Francisco Girls Chorus 2014-2015 36th Anniversary Season
Lisa Bielawa, Artistic Director
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Conductor

Saturday October 4, at 8pm at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Sunday October 5, at 4pm at First Congregational Church, Berkeley

The Romantic Imagination

With Jon Nakamatsu, piano

Featuring Alexander Blachly's arrangements of Lieder by Schubert ("Die junge Nonne," "Du bist die Ruh") Beethoven ("In questa tomba oscura," "Aus Goethes Faust"), Schumann ("Die Hochländer-Witwe") and Amy Beach ("I Sent My Heart"), plus Jon Nakamatsu performing two Liszt arrangements of Schumann Lieder, for solo piano, Widmung and Frühlingsnacht. He is also playing Lisa Bielawa's piece Wait for piano and drone

Monday, December 8, at 8pm at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

Northern Lights

The full complement of more than 300 voices of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and School take the Davies Symphony Hall stage in song for the annual celebration of the season, which this year will feature winter and holiday themed music from Nordic countries in anticipation of the Chorus' June tour, plus carols and audience sing-along.

December 18, 19, 20 and 21 with New Century Chamber Orchestra

The Girls Chorus will appear as guest artists with New Century Chamber Orchestra in concerts featuring works by Handel, Vaughan Williams and others. This will mark the first collaboration with the NCCO and adds to the Chorus' impressive list of partners over the years which have included regular appearances with San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera Paralelle, and occasional appearances with Joe Goode Performance Group, ODC Dance, Stephen Petronio Dance Company and others.

Performances with NCCO will be givenFriday, Dec 18, 2014, 8pm, at First Congregational Church in Berkeley; Thursday, Dec 19, 2014, 8pm, at First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto; Saturday, Dec 20, 2014, 8pm, at Nourse Auditorium in San Francisco; and Sunday, Dec 21, 2014, 5pm, at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael

Friday, April 17, at 8 pm at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Sunday, April 19 at 4 pm at First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Children's Crusade

West Coast premiere of Kinderkreuzzug, an anti-war cantata by German-Turkish composer Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, with text by Bertoldt Brecht; plus works by Lili Boulanger (Pie Jesu) and Philip Glass (Father Death Blues), with instrumental ensemble.

St. Mark's Lutheran Church, SF (4/17) and First Congregational Church, Berkeley (4/19)

Friday June 5, at 8pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

American Vanguard
With Carla Kihlstedt, violinist/composer

The Girls Chorus will shine at what it does best-compelling, technically impeccable and emotionally rich performances of significant music. This program features modern and contemporary American masterworks the Chorus has been invited to tour Nordic counties including Meredith Monk, John Cage, Carla Kihlstedt, Lou Harrison, and others

2014-2015 SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS AND TICKETS

Subscription packages will be available in August. Subscribers will receive 10% discount over single ticket prices. For subscription orders, call 415-863-1752 x304 or visit www.sfgirlschorus.org for more information. Single tickets for non-subscribers are priced $18-$65 and are available for purchase starting August 2014 through City Box Office; by phone at 415-392-4400; online atwww.cityboxoffice.com; or in person at City Box Office, 180 Redwood Street, Suite 100, San Francisco (Monday - Friday, 9:30am-5pm).

About the San Francisco Girls Chorus

For 36 years, the thrilling sounds of the extraordinarily gifted young women of the San Francisco Girls Chorus have captured the attention and fired the imaginations of audiences worldwide. Following a phenomenal 30th anniversary season that included featured performances at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, a New York debut at Lincoln Center and unprecedented ticket sales, the San Francisco Girls Chorus has furthered its status as an internationally celebrated professional choral ensemble. In 2010, the ensemble won its fourth and fifth Grammy Awards for Mahler's Eighth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. In 2013 it toured to Berlin, Germany, to participate in new Artistic Director Lisa Bielawa's large-scale spatial symphony, Tempelhof Broadcast, and performed as part of the San Francisco iteration of the ambitious piece, Crissy Broadcast, in October 2013.

The 40 members of the professional-level ensemble are 11-17 years old and come from all over the Bay Area. Each singer represents as much as a decade of musical training and performance experience. Audience members and critics have come to expect a soaring, exquisite sound, remarkable versatility and concerts of great beauty and depth.

Each year, dedicated young artists present season concerts, tour nationally or internationally, and appear with respected sponsoring organizations, including San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera. The Chorus has been honored to sing at many prestigious national and international venues, including the World Choral Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, in 2005. In 2007 the Chorus toured to China and South Korea, and Cuba in 2011.

Known as a leader in its field, the San Francisco Girls Chorus was honored in 2001 as the first youth chorus to win the prestigious "Margaret Hillis Award" given annually by Chorus America to a chorus that demonstrates artistic excellence, a strong organizational structure, and a commitment to education. Other awards include three ASCAP awards for Adventurous Programming in 2001, 2004 and 2011.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus has produced CD recordings including Heaven and Earth, a two-disc set that represents some of the greatest sacred and secular repertoire ever written for treble voices; Voices of Hope and Peace, which includes many SFGC commissions; Christmas, a collection of diverse holiday selections; Crossroads, a compilation of world folk music; and Music from the Venetian Ospedali, a disc of Italian Baroque music. The San Francisco Girls Chorus can also be heard on several San Francisco Symphony recordings. Highly regarded for collaboration, the Girls Chorus has participated in joint projects with composers Luciana Souza, Rollo Dilworth and others, and choreographers and directors including Brenda Way, Joe Goode and Stephen Petronio.

For more information about the San Francisco Girls Chorus, its School, programs and performances, visit www.sfgirlschorus.org.

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