Press Contact: Jenny Lee, Director of Communications (510) 841-2800 x304 • [email protected]

For Immediate Release

WORLD PREMIERE FROM GABRIELA LENA FRANK WITH SOPRANO JESSICA RIVERA AND SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS HIGHLIGHTS BERKELEY SYMPHONY’S SEASON FINALE APRIL 26

Under Construction Concert on April 29 Presents World Premieres of Finished Works by Nils Bultmann, Evelyn Ficarra, and Noah Luna

Berkeley, CA –March 28, 2012 – The world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Holy Sisters, featuring soprano Jessica Rivera and the award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus, will be presented as part of Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony’s season finale on Thursday, April 26, at 8 pm in Zellerbach Hall. Kodály’s alluring Dances of Galánta and Bartók’s masterpiece Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta complete the program.

Tickets for the concert are $20-$60. Composer Gabriela Lena Frank and members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus participate in a pre-concert talk, beginning at 7:10 pm, free to ticketholders. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (510) 841-2800 or visit www.berkeleysymphony.org.

A Berkeley Symphony commission, Gabriela Lena Frank’s Holy Sisters is part one of a larger two-part work. Holy Sisters features Biblical texts adapted and interpreted by celebrated Portuguese poet José Tolentino de Mendonça who was inspired by its female protagonists. Soprano Jessica Rivera, for whom the part was written, returns to Berkeley Symphony for the third time after acclaimed performances in works by Esa Pekka Salonen and Samuel Barber. The premiere also marks the Symphony’s third collaboration with the highly respected San Francisco Girls Chorus, which is scheduled to premiere the second installment of the work in spring 2013.

In the second part of a year-long mentorship program, unique to Berkeley Symphony, Joana Carneiro will conduct works by Nils Bultmann, Evelyn Ficarra, and Noah Luna in the final concert of the Under Construction Series at 7 pm on Sunday, April 29, at St. John Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. Originally performed during a workshop in January, this concert features the completed and polished versions of compositions that these composers have worked on with Maestra Carneiro, Gabriela Lena Frank, and the members of Berkeley Symphony all year. Audience members are invited to join in on the collaborative process of composition during this concert and may learn more about the composers’ progress and insights on their blog, at: underconstructioncomposers.wordpress.com.

2011-12 Zellerbach Hall Concert IV Announcement 2 Berkeley Symphony

About the Composer and Artists Gabriela Lena Frank has garnered numerous awards and high praise for her work as a composer and pianist, including a 2012 Grammy nomination and the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Her work incorporates Latin American folklore, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. Ms. Frank’s upcoming premieres include a new concerto for orchestra for Annapolis Symphony and a new work for the band Huayucaltia and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. A frequent collaborator with artists in other disciplines, Ms. Frank is developing a number of projects with Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban playwright , among them La Centinela y la Paloma (The Keeper and the Dove), a song cycle for Dawn Upshaw and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra that premiered in February 2011. She is currently Berkeley Symphony’s Creative Advisor and is highly involved with the Under Construction New Music series.

Possessing a voice praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “effortless precision and tonal luster,” Jessica Rivera is established as one of the most creatively inspired vocal artists before the public today. The intelligence, dimension, and spirituality with which she infuses her performances on the great international concert and opera stages has garnered Ms. Rivera unique artistic collaborations with many of today’s most celebrated composers including , , and Nico Muhly. Her incredible voice has brought her together in collaboration with such esteemed conductors as Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, , and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Most recently, Ms. Rivera was heralded in the world premiere of John Adams’ newest opera, A Flowering Tree, singing the role of Kumudha, in a production directed by as part of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. Since then, she has performed A Flowering Tree for her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, and most recently, the Cincinnati Opera.

Founded in 1978, the San Francisco Girls Chorus is an internationally recognized choir for girls and young women. They have been invited to perform with ensembles such as the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and many others. The chorus has performed at many international venues, including the World Choral Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, the prestigious World Vision Children’s Choir Festival in Seoul, Korea, and in the Gateway to Music Festival at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. The Girls Chorus is also a leader in commissioning new music for treble voices, and has won two ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, most recently in 2011.

2011-12 Zellerbach Hall Concert IV Announcement 3 Berkeley Symphony

Calendar Editor, please note:

Berkeley Symphony Zellerbach Hall Concert Thursday, April 26, 2012 | 8 pm Joana Carneiro, conductor Jessica Rivera, soprano San Francisco Girls Chorus

Kodály, Dances of Galánta Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Gabriela Lena Frank, Holy Sisters (World Premiere Commission)

Concert Venue: Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Tickets: $20~$60 Call (510) 841-2800 or visit www.berkeleysymphony.org

Under Construction New Music Concert Sunday, April 29, 2012 | 7 pm Joana Carneiro, conductor

Works by Bay Area composers Nils Bultman, Evelyn Ficarra, and Noah Luna

Concert Venue: St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley Tickets: $10~$20 Call (510) 841-2800 or visit www.berkeleysymphony.org

For PSAs: On Thursday, April 26 at 8 pm, at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, Joana Carneiro conducts Berkeley Symphony in music by Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, plus a world premiere by Gabriela Lena Frank, featuring soprano Jessica Rivera and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. For tickets, call 510-841-2800, or visit www.berkeleysymphony.org.

#Berkeley Symphony#