The San Francisco Bach Choir (SFBC) announces its 79th season, welcoming its new Artistic Director, Dr. Magen Solomon. The season begins in October with an afternoon concert of rarely-performed gems by Italian baroque masters. The audience is warmly invited to meet Dr. Solomon at a reception hosted by the Choir after the performance. December brings the Choir’s traditional moving and spirited Christmas concert featuring music from the 15th to the 21st century, and including candles, carols, processions, and choirs singing in the round. In March the Choir explores J.S. Bach’s astonishing range of emotion and style as revealed through three contrasting masterworks, the cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140), the Lutheran Mass in F (BWV 233), and the motet Lobet den Herrn (BWV 230). In May the Choir performs intimate and rapturous songs of love and nature from across six centuries, featuring Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder waltzes, accompanied by piano duo Steven Bailey and Mai-Linh Pham.
The season begins on Sunday October 19, with “Splendida Musica Italiana,” a program of psalms, songs and canticles of the Italian baroque. This season’s opening performance highlights glorious but infrequently performed works, including Catholic and Jewish psalm settings by Monteverdi and Salamone Rossi, Durante’s Magnificat, and Alessandro Scarlatti’s Salve Regina accompanied by the bright and distinctive color of two violins with continuo. This short but delicious concert of Italian music will be followed by an equally delectable champagne reception, introducing our new Artistic Director, Magen Solomon. The concert starts at 4:00 p.m., with a free, pre-concert lecture at 3:00 p.m.
The Choir’s traditional holiday concert, “Jubilate! A Candlelight Christmas,” will take place this year on Saturday, December 6, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday December 7, at 4:00 p.m., with acclaimed Renaissance wind band The Whole Noyse. Our beloved, traditional program features seasonal music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, from Dufay, Gabrieli, Praetorius, Byrd, and Lasso to Mendelssohn and Aprahamian. There will be carols for all, and a special piece with SFBC alumni. The festive sound of Renaissance & baroque brass and winds makes a great celebration. Our singers surround you to share the beauty, joy and tranquility of this glorious music.
The true magic of the candlelight performance was captured by one reviewer from San Francisco Classical Voice: “After the intermission, the audience was suddenly plunged into utter darkness…the choir slowly processed into the church, each member carrying a candle….choir members were stationed in the aisles, the front, and the balconies. Tiny points of light and individual voices blended in a warming glow that filled the space. The audience was enchanted…”
On Saturday March 7 and Sunday March 8, 2015, The Choir presents “A Bach Sampler,” with the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra and soloists, featuring a cantata, a mass, and a motet by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s immense genius displays itself in every musical genre he attempted. We sample three in this program: the Lutheran Mass in F, one of his few works to feature virtuosic horn-playing; his exuberant motet Lobet den Herrn; and Cantata 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme. The drama of this engaging cantata evokes the baroque musical innovation, opera, as the wise and foolish virgins are urged to hurry out to meet the bridegroom.
The season concludes on Sunday May 10, with “Love, Loss, and Landscape.” Through the centuries both the ecstasy and the pain of love have been expressed through images of the natural world. We explore love’s inner and outer landscapes with Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder waltzes, partsongs of Haydn, Fauré, Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Fanny Mendelssohn and Felix Mendelssohn, as well as Renaissance madrigals sweet, silly, and sly. The magnificent piano duo of Mai-Linh Pham and SFBC’s own Steven Bailey will accompany this performance.
The San Francisco Bach Choir is an auditioned volunteer choir providing the Bay Area with exceptional concerts focused particularly on the music of J.S. Bach, his contemporaries, and predecessors, and on rarely heard music of the Renaissance and baroque periods. Founded in 1937, it is one of the oldest continually performing community choir in the western United States. The Choir uses an historically informed approach, period instruments, and professional instrumentalists and soloists.
Newly appointed Artistic Director of the San Francisco Bach Choir Magen Solomon has been active in Early Music as a conductor, singer, scholar, and editor for over three decades. She has been Artistic Director of the San Francisco Choral Artists since 1995; together they have premiered over 230 choral works, performed at major choral conferences, won prizes, and released three CDs. She has served as Artistic Director of the Stockton Chorale and the Oakland Symphony Chorus, and has taught and conducted at the University of Southern California, Santa Clara University, and Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges. Active across the US and abroad as a clinician, teacher, and guest conductor, Dr. Solomon has directed the California Bach Society, Pro Coro Canada, UC Santa Cruz Chamber Singers and other ensembles. She has collaborated on performances of major choral works with Michael Tilson Thomas, Nicolas McGegan, Helmuth Rilling, Kent Nagano, and Christoph von Dohnányi among others. She is editor of the “New Voices In Research” column in the Choral Journal, and has published an edition of Johannes Eccard’s Newe deutzsche Lieder (1578) with A-R Editions.
All concerts will be held at the historic Calvary Presbyterian Church at Fillmore and Jackson Streets in San Francisco.
Tickets for General Admission are $30 in advance, $35 at the door; for seniors (age 62+) Advance $25/Door $30; for students with a valid ID $10; youth up to age 18 are admitted free. You can take advantage of a special Early Bird Discount (an additional $5 off General and Senior tickets) if purchased by October.
For more information about the San Francisco Bach Choir, to order tickets, or to learn more about auditions for the 2014–2015 season, visit the SFBC website at www.sfbach.org, visit us on Facebook, or call the SFBC office toll free at 855-4SF-BACH (855-473-2224).
