Jory Fankuchen, Principal Conductor

Trevor Weston
”Aqua”  - World Premiere with Emerging Black Composer Project and the NEA

Ottorino Respighi
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Jory Fankuchen, Principal Conductor

Trevor Weston
”Aqua”  - World Premiere with Emerging Black Composer Project and the NEA

Ottorino Respighi
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Jory Fankuchen, Principal Conductor

Trevor Weston
”Aqua”  - World Premiere with Emerging Black Composer Project and the NEA

Ottorino Respighi
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Family Concert II:
ELM CATS CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT AND SIDE BY SIDE WITH
the SFCO

Sunday, March 10, 2024 | 3:00pm

After three incredible Summer Chamber Music Camp collaborations, we continue the amazing partnership with the ELM school in San Rafael. ELM Cats show off their chamber music chops and then perform Side-by-Side with SFCO All Stars. ELM provides youth with an immersive music education and resources that inspire and empower them to pursue their dreams - and it’s tuition free!!! With great thanks to the California Arts Council for making this possible!

PROGRAM

Hosted by Principal Conductor, Jory Fankuchen

Antonín Dvořák
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op 77

Jennifer Higdon
Autumn Music for wind quintet

Alfredo Casella
Three Movements from Six Studies,
Op. 70, arr. P. Lemberg

Poulenc
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano

Sergei Prokofiev
Overture on Hebrew Themes
String Quartet, Clarinet and Piano

PROGRAM

Hosted by Principal Conductor,
Jory Fankuchen

Antonín Dvořák
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op 77

Jennifer Higdon
Autumn Music for wind quintet

Alfredo Casella
Three Movements from Six Studies,
Op. 70, arr. P. Lemberg

Poulenc
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano

Sergei Prokofiev
Overture on Hebrew Themes
String Quartet, Clarinet and Piano

PROGRAM

Hosted by Principal Conductor, Jory Fankuchen

Antonín Dvořák
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op 77

Jennifer Higdon
Autumn Music for wind quintet

Alfredo Casella
Three Movements from Six Studies,
Op. 70, arr. P. Lemberg

Poulenc
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano

Sergei Prokofiev
Overture on Hebrew Themes
String Quartet, Clarinet and Piano

Jory Fankuchen, Conductor
Sara Flexer, Cello Soloist

Sumi Tonooka
Sketch at Seven
World Premiere with support from Emerging Black Composers Project and the NEA

Robert Schumann
Cello Concerto in a minor, Op 129
Sara Flexer, soloist and Debut Artist

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 “The Great”

______________________

The inspiration for the world premiere of Sumi Tonooka’s “Sketch at Seven” is “a sketch book of drawings and musical journals that I made when I was very young that was sent back to me after some forty years…..When I opened the sketchbook it was like a doorway into the past and future, mysterious and profound.”  Following a brand new piece is our brand new Debut Artist, Sara Flexer performing Schumann’s masterful Cello Concerto in a minor.  And then on to “The Great.”  Why the Great? For “the brilliance and novelty of the instrumentation, the breadth and expanse of the form, the striking changes of mood, the whole new world into which we are transported…”

Jory Fankuchen, Conductor
Sara Flexer, Cello Soloist

Sumi Tonooka
Sketch at Seven
World Premiere with support from Emerging Black Composers Project and the NEA

Robert Schumann
Cello Concerto in a minor, Op 129
Sara Flexer, soloist and Debut Artist

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 “The Great”
______________________

The inspiration for the world premiere of Sumi Tonooka’s “Sketch at Seven” is “a sketch book of drawings and musical journals that I made when I was very young that was sent back to me after some forty years…..When I opened the sketchbook it was like a doorway into the past and future, mysterious and profound.”  Following a brand new piece is our brand new Debut Artist, Sara Flexer performing Schumann’s masterful Cello Concerto in a minor.  And then on to “The Great.”  Why the Great? For “the brilliance and novelty of the instrumentation, the breadth and expanse of the form, the striking changes of mood, the whole new world into which we are transported…”

Jory Fankuchen, Conductor
Sara Flexer, Cello Soloist

Sumi Tonooka
Sketch at Seven
World Premiere with support from Emerging Black Composers Project and the NEA

Robert Schumann
Cello Concerto in a minor, Op 129
Sara Flexer, soloist and Debut Artist

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 “The Great”
______________________

The inspiration for the world premiere of Sumi Tonooka’s “Sketch at Seven” is “a sketch book of drawings and musical journals that I made when I was very young that was sent back to me after some forty years…..When I opened the sketchbook it was like a doorway into the past and future, mysterious and profound.”  Following a brand new piece is our brand new Debut Artist, Sara Flexer performing Schumann’s masterful Cello Concerto in a minor.  And then on to “The Great.”  Why the Great? For “the brilliance and novelty of the instrumentation, the breadth and expanse of the form, the striking changes of mood, the whole new world into which we are transported…”

Jory Fankuchen, Conductor

This Concert is Dedicated to the
Memory of Constance Bernstein

Florence Price
Andante Moderato for String Orchestra (1929)

Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, arranged for String Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 3, Op. 56 “Scottish”

Jory Fankuchen, Conductor

This Concert is Dedicated to the
Memory of Constance Bernstein

Florence Price
Andante Moderato for String Orchestra (1929)

Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, arranged for String Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 3, Op. 56 “Scottish”

Jory Fankuchen, Conductor

This Concert is Dedicated to the
Memory of Constance Bernstein

Florence Price
Andante Moderato for String Orchestra (1929)

Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, arranged for String Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 3, Op. 56 “Scottish”

Guest Conductor - Jory Fankuchen

William Grant Still
Panamanian Dances

Frank Martin
Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani,
Percussion and Strings

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 4 “Italian”

Guest Conductor - Jory Fankuchen

William Grant Still
Panamanian Dances

Frank Martin
Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani,
Percussion and Strings

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 4 “Italian”

Guest Conductor - Jory Fankuchen

William Grant Still
Panamanian Dances

Frank Martin
Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani,
Percussion and Strings

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 4 “Italian”

Family Concert II:
SIDE BY SIDE WITH
the ELM Cats

Sunday, March 19, 2023 | 3:00pm

After two incredible Summer Chamber Music Camp collaborations, we continue the amazing partnership with the ELM school in San Rafael. ELM Cats and SFCO All Stars will perform Side-by-Side, featuring “Mix of the Culturas” composed by Giancarlo Castro D'Adonna. ELM provides youth with an immersive music education and resources that inspire and empower them to pursue their dreams - and it’s tuition free!!!

SFCO All Stars,
All the Time!

Hosted by
Incoming Music Director,
Cosette Justo Valdés

PROGRAM

Antonin Dvořák
Terzetto
for two violins and viola

Jonathan Bingham
Pareidolia
World Premiere for String Quartet commissioned by the SFCO with NEA and Emerging Black Composers Project
Performed by the
Chamber Music Society of San Francisco

Amy Beach
Theme and Variations
for Flute and String Quartet

Edmund Rubbra
Suite from “The Buddha”
for flauta, oboe, violin, viola and cello

Jean Francaix
Sérénade for Small Orchestra

Performers:
Debra Fong, Hrabba Atladottir, Natasha Makhijani, Jory Fankuchen, Clio Tilton, Darcy Rindt, Samsun van Loon, Michel Taddei, Stacey Pelinka, Peter Lemberg, Peter Josheff, Karla Ekholm, Katie Dennis, John Freeman, Don Benham

SFCO All Stars,
All the Time!

Hosted by
Incoming Music Director,
Cosette Justo Valdés

PROGRAM

Antonin Dvořák
Terzetto
for two violins and viola

Jonathan Bingham
Pareidolia
World Premiere for String Quartet commissioned by the SFCO with NEA and Emerging Black Composers Project
Performed by the
Chamber Music Society of San Francisco

Amy Beach
Theme and Variations
for Flute and String Quartet

Edmund Rubbra
Suite from “The Buddha”
for flauta, oboe, violin, viola and cello

Jean Francaix
Sérénade for Small Orchestra

Performers:
Debra Fong, Hrabba Atladottir, Natasha Makhijani, Jory Fankuchen, Clio Tilton, Darcy Rindt, Samsun van Loon, Michel Taddei, Stacey Pelinka, Peter Lemberg, Peter Josheff, Karla Ekholm, Katie Dennis, John Freeman, Don Benham

SFCO All Stars,
All the Time!

Hosted by
Incoming Music Director,
Cosette Justo Valdés

PROGRAM

Antonin Dvořák
Terzetto
for two violins and viola

Jonathan Bingham
Pareidolia
World Premiere for String Quartet commissioned by the SFCO with NEA and Emerging Black Composers Project
Performed by the
Chamber Music Society of San Francisco

Amy Beach
Theme and Variations
for Flute and String Quartet

Edmund Rubbra
Suite from “The Buddha”
for flauta, oboe, violin, viola and cello

Jean Francaix
Sérénade for Small Orchestra

Performers:
Debra Fong, Hrabba Atladottir, Natasha Makhijani, Jory Fankuchen, Clio Tilton, Darcy Rindt, Samsun van Loon, Michel Taddei, Stacey Pelinka, Peter Lemberg, Peter Josheff, Karla Ekholm, Katie Dennis, John Freeman, Don Benham

From Ben Simon:

My final MainStage program goes from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (he died too soon to finish it) is paired with the wacky musical humor of PDQ Bach’s (the last and oddest of JS Bach’s twenty-odd children) Unbegun Symphony, for which he was born too late to start! My chosen soloist for this final program is the remarkable Amaryn Olmeda, a 14-year old virtuso who is already making her mark on the classical music scene. Amaryn is a tremendous talent with unlimited potential, and will performing one of my favorite violin concerti. Felix Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto E minor.

We finish this concert with the very apt Farewell Symphony by Franz Josef Haydn, in which the players leave the stage one by one during the final movement. Composed as a humorous reminder to his employer Prince Esterhazy that his musicians all wished to return from his summer estate to their homes in Vienna, it’s a brilliant piece of musical theater and seems a fitting close to my twenty-one wonderful years leading this amazing orchestra. I am leaving my heart with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra!

Program:

Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8
”Unfinished Symphony”

PDQ Bach Unbegun Symphony

Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e minor
Amaryn Olmeda, violin

Franz Josef Haydn Symphony No. 45 in f# minor
“The Farewell Symphony”

From Ben Simon:

My final MainStage program goes from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (he died too soon to finish it) is paired with the wacky musical humor of PDQ Bach’s (the last and oddest of JS Bach’s twenty-odd children) Unbegun Symphony, for which he was born too late to start! My chosen soloist for this final program is the remarkable Amaryn Olmeda, a 14-year old virtuso who is already making her mark on the classical music scene. Amaryn is a tremendous talent with unlimited potential, and will performing one of my favorite violin concerti. Felix Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto E minor.

We finish this concert with the very apt Farewell Symphony by Franz Josef Haydn, in which the players leave the stage one by one during the final movement. Composed as a humorous reminder to his employer Prince Esterhazy that his musicians all wished to return from his summer estate to their homes in Vienna, it’s a brilliant piece of musical theater and seems a fitting close to my twenty-one wonderful years leading this amazing orchestra. I am leaving my heart with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra!

Program:

Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8
”Unfinished Symphony”

PDQ Bach Unbegun Symphony

Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e minor
Amaryn Olmeda, violin

Franz Josef Haydn
Symphony No. 45 in f# minor
“The Farewell Symphony”

From Ben Simon:

My final MainStage program goes from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (he died too soon to finish it) is paired with the wacky musical humor of PDQ Bach’s (the last and oddest of JS Bach’s twenty-odd children) Unbegun Symphony, for which he was born too late to start! My chosen soloist for this final program is the remarkable Amaryn Olmeda, a 14-year old virtuso who is already making her mark on the classical music scene. Amaryn is a tremendous talent with unlimited potential, and will performing one of my favorite violin concerti. Felix Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto E minor.

We finish this concert with the very apt Farewell Symphony by Franz Josef Haydn, in which the players leave the stage one by one during the final movement. Composed as a humorous reminder to his employer Prince Esterhazy that his musicians all wished to return from his summer estate to their homes in Vienna, it’s a brilliant piece of musical theater and seems a fitting close to my twenty-one wonderful years leading this amazing orchestra. I am leaving my heart with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra!

Program:

Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8
”Unfinished Symphony”

PDQ Bach Unbegun Symphony

Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e minor
Amaryn Olmeda, violin

Franz Josef Haydn
Symphony No. 45 in f# minor
“The Farewell Symphony”

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.

Program:

Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring

Samuel Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Ann Moss, soprano

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Arranged for Chamber Orchestra

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.

Program:

Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring

Samuel Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Ann Moss, soprano

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Arranged for Chamber Orchestra

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.

Program:

Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring

Samuel Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Ann Moss, soprano

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Arranged for Chamber Orchestra

THE FUTURE IS COMING!

Christine Brandes

The fourth of four special one hour audition concerts for the position of SFCO Music Director, to receive the baton from Benjamin Simon in in 2023.

Mozart G Major Violin Concerto
I. Allegro
Robin Sharp, solo violin

Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major
I. Poco Sostenuto - vivace

Dvorak Serenade for Strings
IV. Larghetto

Eleanor Alberga
Tower

RECEPTION TO FOLLOW

THE FUTURE IS COMING!

Chad Goodman

The third of four special one hour audition concerts for the position of SFCO Music Director, to receive the baton from Benjamin Simon in in 2023.

Mozart G Major Violin Concerto
I. Allegro
Robin Sharp, solo violin

Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D Major
I. Adagio Molto - Allegro con brio

Mahler Symphony #5
IV. Adagietto

William Grant Still
Patterns

RECEPTION TO FOLLOW

THE FUTURE IS COMING!

Ming Luke

The second of four special one hour audition concerts for the position of SFCO Music Director, to receive the baton from Benjamin Simon in in 2023.

Mozart G Major Violin Concerto
I. Allegro
Robin Sharp, solo violin

Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D Major
I. Adagio Molto - Allegro con brio

Elgar Serenade for Strings
II. Larghetto

Jesse Montgomery
Records from a Vanishing City

RECEPTION TO FOLLOW