jazz creative music new music chamber music t early music h e s t 12noon-8pm r i sunday n september 25 G Q 2016 u a r t e t — t h e F Playbill i r s t 2 5 0 y e a r s SFMUSIC DAY LIVE + FREE 35 groups . 155 artists . 4 stages herbst theater . green room atrium theater . education studio san francisco war memorial veterans building 401 van ness avenue . san francisco www. sffcm. org © 2016 dpdp SFMUSIC DAY Sunday September 25, 2016 12:45 Montclair Women’s Big Band ** page 43 1:30 Kasey Knudsen Sextet** page 39 intermission 2:45 Friction Quartet page 36 3:30 Redwood Tango Ensemble** page 47 4:15 Dialogue - Ben Goldberg & Myra Melford** page 32 intermission 5:30 Del Sol String Quartet page 21 6:15 Quartet San Francisco page 22 7:00 Kronos Quartet page 23 HERBST THEATER HERBST 12:00 Sunset Duo** page 51 12:45 martha & monica page 41 1:30 Delphi Trio page 31 intermission 2:45 SF Conservatory of Music Faculty Artists Quartet page 17 3:15 Telegraph Quartet page 18 3:55 Chamber Music Society of San Francisco page 19 4:30 Thalea Quartet page 20 intermission 5:30 New Esterházy Quartet page 46 THE GREEN ROOM 6:15 Earplay page 33 7:00 Vajra Voices** page 54 early & chamber music contemporary & new music jazz & creative music ** Presidio Sessions Artists _ concert schedule page 63 2 . SFMusic Day 2016 LIVE + FREE 12 noon - 8:00pm 12:00 The String Quartet—The First 250 Years by Kai Christiansen page 8 12:30 St. Lawrence String Quartet page 15 1:45 Sunrise Quartet page 48 intermission 2:45 A|B Duo** page 26 3:30 Strobe** page 50 4:15 Black Cedar page 27 intermission 5:30 Nathan Clevenger Group page 30 6:15 Phillip Greenlief - BARBEDWIRE page 37 Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater Atrium Taube Dianne and Tad ATRIUM THEATER ATRIUM 7:00 VNote Ensemble** page 55 12:00 Rent Romus’ Life’s Blood Ensemble page 48 12:45 Rova Saxophone Quartet** page 49 1:30 LIEDER ALIVE ! page 40 intermission 2:45 Lisa Mezzacappa’s avantNOIR** page 42 3:30 Ian Carey Quintet + 1 page 29 4:15 Akira Tana | Otonawa page 52 Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera for Center Wilsey Diane B. intermission John M. Bryan Studio Education M. John 5:30 tbd_a quartet** page 53 6:15 David James’s GPS** page 38 7:00 Terrence Brewer Quartet page 28 EDUCATION STUDIO EDUCATION 2016 field report the string quartet - the first 250 years presented by Kai Christiansen SFMusic Day 2016 . 3 SFMusic Marketplace Visit the SFMusic Marketplace in the main lobby to chat with rep- resentatives of the Bay Area’s chamber music presenting and music service organizations and receive information about their upcoming seasons, events and programs. Learn how their work contributes to the richness of our musical community and meet musicians from the SFMusic Day performing ensembles. SFMusic Marketplace participants Berkeley Chamber Performances . BeMusic.al . Cal Performances Community Music Center . The Crowden School . Earplay Roland Feller Violins . Jazz in the Neighboorhood . Morrison Artist Series . Music at Kohl Mansion . Noe Valley Chamber Music Old First Concerts Refreshments A pop-up “plaza” offering unique and delicious dishes and drinks will link the inside and outside of the Veterans Building. Family owned and operated food trucks will be parked on Van Ness Street right out front, and the War Memorial’s own C+M Cafe will ex- pand into the front lobby until 6:00. Prepare to lounge and enjoy in comfort all day long! 4 . SFMusic Day 2016 Welcome to SFMusic Day . Live + Free! “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” Henry David Thoreau Last year my friend, colleague and SFMusic Day 2015 curator Kevin Chen used this quote to describe his own relationship to music, to jazz, and to the community of music lovers in the Bay Area. In this current year, so fraught with injustice and vulnerability, Thoreau’s wisdom seems even more poignant, and crucially relevant. It with great anticipation and excitement that I write to greet you to this year’s SF Music Day Live + Free. I am certain that Music Day, with its friendly atmosphere and sheer quantity of music free to the public, will be a day to remember. I anticipate that for many of you, your experiences will be firsts…perhaps the first time that you hear jazz in a concert hall, and can really listen to every note? Perhaps you have never heard a hurdy-gurdy in real life? Perhaps a first live string quartet? I myself have vivid memories of my two first experiences with string quartets. A friend in Amsterdam invited me to hear the Arditti Quartet. We arrived in the disused warehouse that had been transformed into a new art and music space - and I was surprised to see only four large speakers. It turned out the quartet members were each in a separate helicopter hovering above the city, their playing broadcast into the hall, mixed at a console by the composer - Karlheinz Stockhausen. On the other side of the spectrum, my future wife took me to hear her friends, the Wihan Quartet from Prague, playing Haydn quartets in Paris. It was such a fervent performance; their CD of the Opus 76 quartets remains one of my favorite recordings to listen to time and time again. I love the idea that Music Day may be the memory bank that holds fond recollections many years from now. The richness of the medium of chamber music has inspired composers and players for hundreds of years.The history of the string quartet tells an epic story of humanity through four centu- ries - and the instruments of today will continue to flourish and inspire for centuries to come. While I welcome you to savor the rich palette of sounds that await you, I en- courage you to take risks, knowing that no matter the genre or style of music, musicians are sharing their most intimate and honest passions with you. Dominique Pelletey Executive Director SFMusic Day 2016 . 5 18 OctOber 2016 triO brillante Delight in the rich timbres of clarinet, viola and piano. 6 December 2016 GalaX Quartet with cOntraltO Karen clarK Enjoy conversations between tradition and innovation through Baroque instruments and voice. 10 January 2017 FarallOn Quintet Savor the engaging sounds of past and present with clarinet and strings. 7 march 2017 FreQuency 49 Celebrate Women’s History Month in style with this stellar wind and piano sextet. 25 april 2017 aleXanDer StrinG Quartet with pianiSt GWenDOlyn mOK Thrill to the scintillating musicianship of these local heroes. All concerts at 8 PM, Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley www.berkeleychamberperform.org email: [email protected] 510-525-5211 Come make music with us! Private Lessons Ensemble Classes Theory & Musicianship Performance Opportunities Summer Music Camps Concerts and Hall Rentals Instrument Rentals Scholarships & Financial Aid People of all ages, abilities and financial means are welcome. Mission District Branch (Main) Richmond District Branch 544 Capp St. San Francisco 741 30th Ave., San Francisco (415) 647-6015 (415) 221-4515 www.sfcmc.org 2016 Field Report The String Quartet—The First 250 Years A string quartet combines four independent but meticulous- ly coordinated players featuring closely related instruments from the violin family: two violins, viola and cello. Perfected in the late 17th century by master Italian luthiers, these are among the supreme instruments of the Western tradition. A bowed string can produce a huge range of sounds from the initial percussive at- tack to the extended draw featuring everything from a whisper to an electric growl with such beautiful, resonant singing in between. A quartet of bowed instruments spans a sonic range of sev- eral octaves from bass (the cello) to soprano (the violin) with a dynamic range from soft to loud. Although each player is generally restricted to a single, singing line (chords are possible but relatively infrequent), the four parts can combine to sound the richest harmo- nies as a perfectly blended whole, or diverge into a complex web of counterpoint and innumerable tex- tures between these extremes. Each voice is impor- tant, exposed, transparent but engaged in conversa- tional give and take, with solos, duets, trios and quartets ever changing in a fluid texture. Perhaps less obvious is the remarkable rhythmic capability of a string quartet: with virtuosic agility in the fingers and the bow, a quartet can achieve an astonishing range of rhythms from a nearly static sheen to the most violent, rocking groove. The time keeping percussive effects are “embedded” in the sound, inseparable from the pitches and sonorities of the notes themselves. The String Quartet’s Beginnings The string quartet was born sometime around 1760. Following the Baroque Era that ended around 1750, at least a few early classical composers began composing for string quartet, but ex- act composition dates are difficult to determine. The Austrian composer Jo- seph Haydn is appropriately named the father of the string quartet, but he was not the first or the only one, although he quickly became greatest. His creative genius and lifelong dedication produced a series of outstanding quar- tets that defined the new genre, closely entwined with the emerging Classical 8 . SFMusic Day 2016 (Stradivarius violin circa 1709 . Courtesy americanhistory.si.edu) photo: Eric Chengphoto: The String Quartet—The First 250 Years St. Lawrence String Quartet Geoff Nuttall and Owen Dalby, violin .