about left coast 2016 Through stirring presentations of chamber music across ARTISTIC DIRECTOR 2017 the Bay Area, Left Coast dissolves boundaries between Anna Presler old and new music and connects musicians and audience. Imaginative programs offer our audiences ARTISTIC ADVISOR put SEASON multiple ways to engage with the music. Kurt Rohde Loren Founded in 1992, the ensemble includes fourteen PRESIDENT here 24 musicians; the players perform in different Will Schieber combinations, using strings, winds, guitar, percussion, voice, and piano to present a wide range of repertoire. VICE PRESIDENT Left Coast presents a season of five concert sets Lena Zentall annually, with performances in both San Francisco and Berkeley. TREASURER Brahms Through the Looking Glass Will Schieber In addition, Left Coast offers Music from the Inside Out - an education program for young musicians, SECRETARY and Intersection - a workshop for adult amateurs. Carol Christ Sam Nichols in zwei farben for violin and electronics (2017) 6 min The group has commissioned over one hundred new Anna Presler violin • Sam Nichols electronics works, sponsors an annual composition contest that BOARD draws applicants from around the world, and carries Jonathan Arons on a tradition of performing the very best that today’s Martin Cohn Jennifer Jolley The Lives and Opinions of Literary Cats (2017) 6 min composers, whether established or emerging, have Kate Knickerbocker to offer. Parker Monroe Anna Presler violin • Tanya Tomkins cello • Eric Zivian piano Laurie Pitman Left Coast gratefully acknowledges the support of San Andrea Plesnarski Francisco Hotel Tax Fund Grants for the Arts. Kenneth Lim Trio in C Flat (2017) 7 min MANAGING DIRECTOR Anna Presler violin • Tanya Tomkins cello • Eric Zivian piano LEFT COAST MUSICIANS Nick Benavides Nikki Einfeld Leighton Fong PUBLICITY Michael Goldberg Genevieve Antaky INTERMISSION Phyllis Kamrin Loren Mach MARKETING, WEBSITE, AND SOCIAL MEDIA Tom Nugent Lena Zentall Johannes Brahms Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8 (1891) 35 min Stacey Pelinka I Allegro con brio Andrea Plesnarski PHOTOGRAPHY Anna Presler Jordan Murphy II Scherzo. Allegro molto Kurt Rohde Jeanette Yu III Adagio Jerome Simas Lena Zentall IV Allegro Michel Taddei Anna Presler violin • Tanya Tomkins cello • Eric Zivian piano Tanya Tomkins Eric Zivian Left Coast gratefully acknowledges the support of San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund Grants for the Arts. AFTER THE Share your thoughts on music and more with the Left Coast musicians at our CONTACT US CONCERT after-concert gathering! 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 415.617.LCCE (415.617.5223) Saturday, March 18, 7:30 pm www.LeftCoastEnsemble.org Following the San Francisco concert meet us for food [email protected] Berkeley Piano Club and drinks at SAUCE, located just down the street at 131 Gough, between Oak and Page. See you there! Tuesday, March 21, 7:30 pm San Francisco Conservatory of Music 20162017 season 24, program 4 - march 2017 notes and biographies contributors Sam Nichols Jennifer Jolley SERAPHIM / $2,500 + SUPPORTING PARTNERS / FRIENDS / up to $124 ORGANIZATIONS in zwei farben for violin and electronics (2017) The Lives and Opinions of Literary Cats (2017) Jonathan Arons and $250–$499 Ross Bauer Arts for Oakland Kids n zwei farben translates as “in two colors”, was asked by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble to Claire Max Stan Adler and Lynn Jacobs Linda and Gilbert Benavides ia phrase Brahms used in an 1890 letter to I write a piece that imagines the Brahms’s B Major Trio Carol Christ Nick and Maggie Benavides Alberto and Eva Bertoli Aaron Copland Fund Heinrich von Herzogenberg, the husband of his being heard through the looking glass, and all I could Martin and Kathleen Cohn Margaret Dorfman Hendrik Bluhm and Ina Stahl for Music friend Elizabet von Herzogenberg. Brahms was hear were cats. Philanthropic Fund Tom and Judith Dunworth Charlie Bowen Judith Flynn Janie Green in honor of Colleen Brent ACMP The Chamber interested—actually, obsessed—with ambiguity. ​ Let me explain: there was a time when John and Paula Gambs Music Network As a composer he was keenly attuned to context Johannes Brahms signed his musical works with the Martin Cohn John and Mary Caris Kate Knickerbocker Anne Kamrin Jamie and Alan Carlson and nuance, able to pull many different strands of moniker “Johannes Kreisler,” a fictitious composer found Therissa McKelvey and Sally Landis Bliss and Gita Carnochan Alice M. Ditson Fund music together to create richly detailed webs of in E.T.A Hoffman’s novel The Life and Opinions of the Heli Roiha Laurie Pitman Louise George Clubb Columbia University associative meanings. At several points in his letters, Tomcat Murr. In this novel, a printer’s error accidentally Parker Monroe and Henry Presler Alice Corning however, he describes his fear that his words will be splices and mixes the Tomcat Murr’s autobiography – Tere Darragh Louise Shalit Arthur Davis Ann and Gordon misconstrued. The possibility that his reader might yes, an autodidact cat wrote his own autobiography Will and Linda Schieber Donald and Mary Shively Beth and Norman Edelstein Getty Foundation have her own interpretation of his intended meaning – with a book about the composer Johannes Kreisler, Anonymous Mary E. Wilson and Jo Floyd seemed to pain him. In this particular letter Brahms and the reader has a hard time figuring out who is the Harvey V. Fineberg Charles and Liz Fracchia Amphion Foundation acknowledges that one of his earlier messages to cat and who is the composer. Anonymous John Gates Herzogenberg was deliberately ambiguous and And if one cat isn’t enough, at the beginning ANGELS / $1,000 - $2,499 Chris and Patty Gilbert The Bernard Osher potentially confusing. In my short piece for violin of Through the Looking-Glass, Alice is playing with her Tim Allen Eric and Paula Gillett Foundation and electronics I try to capture the playful delight Bernice Green PARTNERS / $125–$249 Christina and John Gillis kittens Snowdrop and Kitty, one of which is behaving Richard Fabian Fromm Music in ambiguity that I find in both the music and the badly (it’s the black one), right before she steps Nancy Axelrod Margot Golding Faye Hinze Norman Bookstein and Kay Sprinkel Grace Foundation writing of Brahms. It’s dedicated (with straightforward through that infamous looking-glass. Thomas Laqueur and Gillian Kuehner Krista Gullickson gratitude) to Anna Presler. This ultimately begs the question: is this cat Carla Hesse Patricia Bourne Kurt Hauch Grants for the Arts; - Sam Nichols music or composer music? Is Johannes Brahms now Elizabeth Theil and Patricia Brison Barbara Heroux City and County of Johannes Kreisler, or even Tomcat Murr, Snowdrop, Brian Kincaid Frances Kendall Siegfried and Sarah Hesse San Francisco omposer and sound artist Sam Nichols creates or Kitty? Millicent Tomkins Marty and Pamela Krasney Philip Hicks Cwork that brings together a sensitive exploration - Jennifer Jolley Anonymous in honor of Elkhanah Pulitzer Richard Hutson and New Music USA of sound with an interest in ambitious, large-scale Mildred Oliva and David Salem Kathleen Moran structures. He’s received commissions from a number ennifer Jolley is a composer and sound artist Marilyn Shaw Laurie San Martin and Barbara Imbrie San Francisco Arts of ensembles and organizations, including the Fromm Sam Nichols David Jaffe Commission Jinfluenced by urban environments and nostalgia. Cultural Equity Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Left She is the co-founder of North American New Opera June Schneider Cary and Elaine James BENEFACTORS / $500–$999 Frances Singer Martha Jones Grants Program Coast Chamber Ensemble, Earplay, the Empyrean Workshop (NANOWorks Opera), a chamber opera M. Catherine McGuire Ensemble, and the Composers Conference at Ross Armstrong Randolph and Frances Starn company devoted to developing and staging short Andrew Clason and Lena Zentall G.A. Mendelsohn Vendini Wellesley College. His string quartet Refuge, a Left contemporary operas by emerging North American Sherrod Blankner Marian Parmenter (Mark Tacchi, CEO) Coast commission, was selected for performance at composers, and also authors Why Compose When You Chris and Diane Davies Janet Pelinka the ISCM’s “World Music Days 2014” in Wracłow, Can Blog?, a web log about contemporary composing. Jennifer Howard and Elizabeth Pena Zellerbach Family Poland. Refuge has been performed by a number Originally from Los Angeles, Jolley is an Anthony Cascardi William and Ann Putnam Foundation of groups, including ACME, the Left Coast Chamber Assistant Professor of Music at Ohio Wesleyan Dan Joraanstad and Ryan Rey Ensemble, the Lutosławski Quartet, and the Mivos University. She earned both her D.M.A. and M.M. at Bob Hermann Horizons Bill and Carol Rohde Quartet. He’s received awards from Composers, the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory Foundation Richard Rogers Inc. (Lee Ettelson Prize), the League of Composers, of Music and her B.M. at the University of Southern Andrea Plesnarski in honor of Sondra and Recent contributions Milton Schlesinger may not yet be the University of Illinois (3rd prize, 2010 Salvatore California Thornton School of Music. She teaches Louis Hinze reflected. Francoise Stone Susan Shalit and Martirano Memorial Composition Prize), and the Third various music composition courses including computer Mary Logger Millennium Ensemble, among others. Recent projects Sean Varah music programming and sound art. Anonymous Kate Stenberg include This Is Not a Toy for a Child, a cello concerto Michel Taddei for David Russell and the UC Davis Symphony Bruce Tarter and Orchestra. Upcoming projects include a new piece for Gabriela Odell composer/violist Kurt Rohde, and a collaboration with We gratefully acknowledge Alicia Vaccaro artist Robin Hill and ensemble mise-en. Sam teaches Mary Wildavsky in the UC Davis Department of Music, where he co- the generous individuals and Alex Zwerdling directs the Sound Lab, and co-organizes a biennial music festival in collaboration with the Mondavi foundations whose contributions Center for the Arts.