Ensemble For These Times To Present EL TIEMPO LATINE Concert In San Francisco

Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) will present EL TIEMPO LATINE, the closing concert of its 18th Home Season, on May 16 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. The performance will also be livestreamed on the ensemble’s YouTube channel.

The program celebrates the release of E4TT’s sixth recording, El Tiempo Latine, which explores contemporary chamber music by Latine composers. The concert will feature works from the album by Gabriela Lena Frank, Tania León, Carla Lucero, Claudia Montero, Brennan Stokes, and José Bragato.

Performers for the concert include soprano Nanette McGuinness, coloratura soprano Chelsea Hollow, violinist Lylia Guion, cellist Megan Chartier, and pianist Margaret Halbig. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m., with a pre-concert composer talk scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Cellist Megan Chartier has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Her current positions include core cellist with the Astralis Chamber Ensemble and principal cellist of Opera San Luis Obispo. She has previously served as principal cellist of the Miami Symphony and the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy and has performed with ensembles including the San Antonio Symphony, Nu Deco Ensemble, and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

Violinist Lylia Guion has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer in France and the Bay Area. Her orchestral work includes performances with the Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio-France and, in California, with the Berkeley, Oakland, California, Marin, and Skywalker Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Pacific Chamber Orchestra and Midsummer Mozart Festival. She has also served as concertmaster with Livermore and Pocket Opera and teaches violin while maintaining a private studio.

Pianist Margaret Halbig serves as associate chair of the Voice Department and principal vocal coach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was pianist for the Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco from 2014 through 2023 and previously served as collaborative piano coordinator of Interlochen Arts Camp. Halbig is also the pianist and a board member of the contemporary music collective Ninth Planet.

Coloratura soprano Chelsea Hollow has premiered numerous contemporary works, including roles in Dolores by Nicolas Benavides and Hutong by Kui Dong. Her debut album Cycles of Resistance, released in 2023, features 22 commissioned works exploring themes of human resilience in multiple languages. She has also participated in discussions on art and activism with the United Nations Office of Human Rights.

Soprano Nanette McGuinness, co-founder and Artistic Executive Director of E4TT, has performed in more than 25 operatic roles across two continents and in 13 languages. Her concert repertoire includes Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Ravel’s Shéhérézade, Berlioz’s Nuits d’été, and Handel’s Messiah and Solomon. McGuinness has appeared on multiple recordings and earned her PhD in Music from the University of California, Berkeley.

Winner of the 2021 American Prize for Chamber Music Performance, Ensemble for These Times includes McGuinness, Chartier, Halbig, and co-founder and Senior Artistic Advisor composer David Garner. The ensemble has appeared internationally in Berlin, Hungary, Kraków, and Madrid, and at venues throughout California. Its previous recordings include Emigres & Exiles in Hollywood (2024), The Guernica Project (2022), Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan (2020), The Hungarians: From Rózsa to Justus (2018), and Surviving: Women’s Words (2016). The ensemble’s sixth album, El Tiempo Latine, will be released May 8 on Aerocade Music.