MainStage I - Beginnings and Endings

Sunday, October 23, 2022
3:00 PM 5:00 PM

First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley 2407 Dana Street Berkeley, CA, 94704 (map)

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Welcome Back! Notes from Ben Simon, MD.

For my penultimate program as Music Director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, I’ve chosen three true chamber orchestra works close to my heart. Aaron Copland’s own chamber arrangement of his famous Appalachian Spring suite is a lovely distillation of the large orchestral version and an iconic classic of American music. Samuel Barber’s beautiful Knoxville: Summer of 1915 , featuring wonderful Bay Area soprano Ann Moss, is a nostalgic look back at a simpler time in our history and another well-loved bit of Americana.

Igor Stravinsky’s earth- shattering Rite of Spring, causing the audience to a riot at its Paris premiere in 1913, is a powerful shot across the bow of classical music by the 31 year old Russian composer. Written for a huge symphony orchestra, this amazing chamber orchestra version was commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in 2011 as the first of our Incredible Shrinking Orchestra Projet under the direction of Gabriela Lena Frank, working with six graduate composers at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. It’s a work I’ve always wanted a second chance to perform and it’s freshness and power remains in our “Rite Lite” version.