SFEMS 2023–24 Season: Call for Concert Proposals
SFEMS is requesting concert proposals for our 47th season in 2023–24. We aim to present a minimum of five concerts during the next concert season from October through May, with presentations from Bay Area, national, and international ensembles of high artistic merit that perform with due attention given to historical performance practice within the time span of c. 1000–1850 CE.
While the primary criterion for selection to appear on the SFEMS concert series is artistic quality, we seek a diversity of voices, instruments, periods, and sizes of performance groups in order to create an inclusive and compelling concert season. In particular, we welcome the opportunity to share seldom-heard composers and styles!
We are actively seeking to present ensembles that specialize in preserving and promoting non-Western traditional music, in addition to historically informed concerts of Western European music from the Medieval and Renaissance periods through the early Classical era.
In a further effort to include a broader range of artists, we are also seeking more proposals from performers of color, as well as ensembles of emerging professional musicians.
Help us explore the past to inspire the future!
Concert Proposal Submission Form
Proposals should be sent electronically to the SFEMS Concert Committee, in the care of committee chair Joyce Johnson Hamilton, using the online Concert Proposal Submission Form above. The deadline for receiving concert proposals for the 2022–23 season is Friday, September 30, 2022 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.
A Google, or Google-related, account will be needed to fill out the Proposal Submission Form.
In the proposal form, ensembles should be prepared to provide:
- ensemble name, contact person (with email and phone), website, and personnel;
- at least one, and up to three, program titles and descriptions for programs approximately 90–120 minutes in length;
- at least one, and up to three, audio-only recordings that substantially represent the personnel who are proposed to appear on the series.
Ensembles must guarantee that all performers named in a proposal have agreed to participate; the group shall delegate to one member the authority to conclude arrangements with SFEMS.
Local Ensembles
For the purposes of concert proposals, local ensembles are based within 180 miles of San Francisco and may have no more than one-third of the individual artists, rounding down, based outside of this geographical ambit.
Artists’ fees for local ensembles will be $1,500.00 per performer, up to a total of $7,500.00 for five performers. An additional travel stipend may be negotiated for non-local artists performing with local ensembles.
Non-Local Ensembles
Artists’ fees by non-local ensembles will be negotiated along similar guidelines as local ensembles, taking into consideration the additional expenses of travel and housing.
Additional Guidelines
- The primary criterion for selection to appear on a SFEMS concert series is artistic quality.
- Subject to the primary criterion of artistic quality, an effort is made to distribute performance opportunities and to avoid excessive frequency of appearance of any ensemble or individual artist. Ensembles or featured artists that have, or will have, performed within the preceding three concert seasons will not be eligible for consideration.
- Concert committee members, selected by the President of the Board of Directors, are expected to maintain the confidentiality of their participation. They are chosen from a list of individuals nominated for their awareness of the field, diversity of expertise, impartiality, and absence of potential conflicts of interest.
- Concert Committee discussions and deliberations are to be kept confidential.
- The Concert Committee will present a slate of proposed concerts to the SFEMS Board of Directors for approval. The Executive Director is charged with negotiating and executing contracts for SFEMS, with due attention given to logistical and financial considerations.
- If necessary, the Concert Committee will meet again to propose alternate selections if logistical or financial considerations make a selection impractical. Any such changes are subject to Board review.