Friday, May 22, 2009

May 22 - Fresh Voices IX



Fresh Voices IX Festival of New and Used Operas – Part II
Three Evenings and One Afternoon in Hell - Or Is It Heaven?

"Rash Acts and their Consequences"
"Yearning to Touch a Loved One: Dead or Alive!"

Dates
Program A:
Friday, May 22, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Program B:
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 3:00 pm & 7:30pm

Cast
May 22, 23:
Mark Alburger, Kristen Brown, Georgia Duan, Kate Howell, Alix Jerinic, Dalyte Kodzis, Peter Lindh, William Loney, Nanette McGuinness, Eileen Meredith, Maria Mikheyenko, Mark Narins, Tristan Robben, Jason Sarten, Sarah Sloan, Megan Stetson, Rachel Warner, Cynthia Weyuker

May 24: Kristen Brown, Edward Coverdale, Meghan Dibble, Cecily Graburn, Julia Hathaway, Elizabeth Henry, Michelle Jasso, C.A. Jordan, Dalyte Kodzis, Zoltan Lundy, Eliza O'Malley, Harriet March Page, Jo Vincent Parks, Joaquin Quilez-Marin, Cary Rosko, Sarah-Nicole Ruddy, Indre Viskontas, Rachel Warner, Wayne Wong

Location
Community Music Center, 544 Capp St., SF

Tickets
Cabaret Table Ticket (per person) $25.00; General Seating $15.00; Student/Senior $10.00
Box Office (Reservations voicemail box): (415) 289-6877


Featuring


Mark Alburger's Sex and Delilah, with


Maria Mikheynko
(Woman at Timnah, Prostitute, Delilah)

Mark Alburger
(Samson)


Kristen Brown
(Angel, Manoah, Lion, Philistine, Samson's Wife's Father, Israelite)

Nanette McGuiness
(Manoah's Wife, Honey Bees, Philistine, Israelite)

***



Goat Hall Productions
San Francisco Cabaret Opera
Fresh Voices IX




Community Music Center
San Francisco, CA

Mark Alburger - Sex and Delilah (Maria Mikheyenko)



I. Death



II. Defeat (Kristin Brown and Nanette McGuiness)



III. Delilah.




Dalyte Kodzis and William Loney in The Touch.

Friday, April 17, 2009

April 17 - Dioclesian / Diocletian


Goat Hall Productions P.O. Box 31056, SF, CA 94131-0056

DIOCLESIAN / DIOCLETIAN
NOHspace @ Theatre Artaud, 2840 Mariposa St., SF
8pm Friday, April 17 & 24;
8pm Saturday, April 18 & 25;
5pm Sunday, April 19 & 26

$20 general admission /
$15 students, seniors, and TBA

The all-female cast for both Purcell and Alburger are:

Kimberly Anderman, Annemarie Ballinger, Katherine Cornelius, Alison Collins,
Robin Costa, Alexandra Jerinic, Erin Lahm, Maria Mikheyenko, and Indre Viskontas

Stage Director: Harriet March Page
Fight Director / Choreography: Durand Garcia
Pianist April 17-19: Skye Atman
Pianist April 24-26: Alexander Katsman

The Prophetess: or, The History of Dioclesian
Music by Henry Purcell,
Drama adapted from Fletcher & Messinger's
The Prophetess
Diocletian: A Pagan Opera
Music by Mark Alburger,
Based on Edward Gibbon's
Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

Visit San Francisco Cabaret Opera /
Goat Hall Productions
@ www.goathall.org

***

DIOCLETIAN: A PAGAN OPERA (libretto after Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) (2000), is a trope of Henry Purcell's Dioclesian distorted by atonality, ragtime, minimalism, children's songs, rock'n'roll, and Peter Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

MARK ALBURGER is an award-winning ASCAP composer of postminimal, postpopular, and postcomedic sensibilities, published by New Music. He is Music Director of San Francisco Cabaret Opera and San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, Instructor in Music Theory and Literature at Diablo Valley College and St. Mary's College, Editor-Publisher of 21st-Century Music Journal, oboist, pianist, vocalist, recording artist, musicologist, author, and music critic. He began playing the oboe and composing in association with Dorothy and James Freeman, George Crumb, and Richard Wernick; and studied with Karl Kohn at Pomona College, Joan Panetti and Gerald Levinson at Swarthmore College (B.A.), Jules Langert at Dominican University (M.A.), Roland Jackson at Claremont Graduate University (Ph.D.), and Terry Riley. Among his 174 opus numbers are 12 concertos, 11 chamber ensemble pieces, 4 masses, 20 operas, 2 piano suites, 11 song cycles, 9 symphonies, and a five-hour work-in-progress opera-oratorio (The Bible). Sex and Delila, in preparation for next Spring's Sex and the Bible, will receive its premiere this May during SF Cabaret Opera's Fresh Voices IX Festival.


Mark Alburger - DIOCLETIAN, Op. 90 (2000)

I. FIRST PARAGRAPH MUSIC
"Diocletian . . . abject and obscure . . . was successively promoted . . .in the . . . war."

II. Aria (Mezzo-Soprano) & Chorus, E-I-E-I-O THUNDER
"[P]erfect form of government"

III. Aria (Soprano) & Chorus, HAPPY FUNERAL MUSIC
"[T]he nation was gradually reduced to a state of servitude; compelled to perpetual labour"

IV. Aria (Soprano), WHAT SHALL I DO?
"Christianity introduced stricter notions"

V. Aria (Bass) & Chorus, SPEAK, FLAME
"[S]ubdued"

VI. COUNTRY DANCE
"[F]or a while fortune [graced his retirement]"


CHARACTERS

Edward Gibbon

Maria Mikheyenko


Diocletian

Alexandra Jerinic


Drusilla

Kimberly Anderman


Pagans and Christians

Annemarie Ballinger, Alison Collins, Kat Cornelius,
Robin Costa, Erin Lahm, Indre Viskontis



Mark Alburger - DIOCLETIAN
(after Edward Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire,
and Henry Purcell's Dioclesian)


I. FIRST PARAGRAPH MUSIC

Edward Gibbon:

Abject and obscure,
successfully promoted,

declared the most worthy of the
imperial throne,

Diocletian may be viewed as
founder of Byzantium.

Ostentation was the first principal of the
new system.

II. E-I-E-I-O THUNDER

(The stately magnificence [in the spirit of] the court of Persia.
Sumptuous interior with slaves, officers, eunuchs, [etc.])

Diocletian:

Great Diocletian
a bore has become.
Oh me oh my
What heart is heretofore
stirred.

Chorus:

E-I-E-I-O
All praise the thundering Jove

Old Mars and Venus
mutually inspire
all of life's passions.


III. HAPPY FUNERAL MUSIC

(Drusilla, wife of Diocletian, a Christian, among Christians)

Drusilla:

Sing in suppression,
affliction,
derision.

Oh sing in
our oppression and injury,
servitude, labor, confinement and pain.

Sing yet
while servile.
Oh sing still

(Christians -- clergy and common people -- murmuring.
Soldiers, armed with rustic weapons, suppress the people, murmuring fades.)

Chorus: Happy


IV. WHAT SHALL I DO?

(Drusilla is led to prison, Diocletian's voice fades in and out at every usage of "her," "man," "she")

Drusilla:

What shall I do?
What shall I do to show how much I love her?

I will love more.
I will love more, than man ever loved before me.

To show how much I love her? What shall I do? What shall I do?
How many millions of sighs can suffice? How many millions of sighs can suffice?

Than man ever loved before me? I will love more. I will love more.
Till for her own sake she will implore me. Till for her own sake she will implore me.


V. SPEAK, FLAME

(Drusilla, brought before Diocletian and the people, as a religious traitor to be burned)

Diocletian:

Speak flame,
Brazen flame.

Stand in the center of the universe
Call the listening world.

Joy can be yours
With well-chosen words

Great Diocletian waits

Chorus:

Great Diocletian
The Great Persecutor

Sound his renown

O! O sacred flame
Embalm his name
With honor here
and glory after death


VI. COUNTRY DANCE

(The people fade away, Drusilla and Diocletian remain frozen in place)

Edward Gibbon:

21st year of his reign Diocletian executed
his memorable resolution abdicating empire --

action not naturally expected from a prince who never practiced
lessons of philosophy either in attainment or the use of power

Notwithstanding severity of a rainy cold winter
Diocletian left soon after the ceremony -- pale, wan --

retiring immediately to a villa in Luciana where it was
impossible to find any lasting tranquility or peace.

 ***




April 18

***


April 24




Noh




Space

***



Cast party at Adam and Indre's, with Harriet, Maria, Annemarie,




Kim, Robin, Alison and her husband.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

February 28 - Free-for-All (But for You, $15)


SAN FRANCISCO
COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
January 18, 2009 SFCCO (707) 451-0714 mus21stc@gmail.com

SAN FRANCISCO COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS
"FREE-FOR-ALL (BUT FOR YOU, $15)"
8:00PM, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, OLD FIRST CHURCH,
1725 SACRAMENTO STREET (AT VAN NESS), SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO AND WORLD PREMIERES OF 11 WORKS, BY
JOHN BEEMAN, MICHAEL COOKE, PHILIP FREIHOFNER, GARY FRIEDMAN, DAVID GRAVES, LOREN JONES, LISA SCOLA PROSEK, DAVID SPRUNG, CLARE TWOHY, DAVIDE VEROTTA, ERLING WOLD, AND MARK ALBURGER

SAN FRANCISCO, January 18, 2007 -- Hiya friends, Music Director Mark Alburger here, with the largest set of new and pre-owned new-music premieres from the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, here at Old First Church (1725 Sacramento Street at Van Ness) at 8pm on February 28.

Let's just take a look at the extras of this beautiful new program by composers John Beeman, Michael Cooke, Philip Freihofner, Gary Friedman, David Graves, Loren Jones, Lisa Scola Prosek, David Sprung, Clare Twohy, Davide Verotta, Erling Wold, and Mark Alburger.

In String Theory, Cooke cooks up a drive-in pasta house of quantum mechanics and general relativity, featuring graphical notation and improvisation for the entire 23-piece ensemble. In similarity and contrast, Freihofner's What Are You Going to Dream Tonight is a compact dream-deal of free writing for mixed quartet of oboe, clarinet, electric keyboard, and viola. Continuing in the economical use of forces is the Wind Sextet of Friedman, and John Beeman's Adago, after which David Graves and Clare Twohy team up for a fire sale in the collaborative Fireproof Winds.

In another joint-deal Scola Prosek presents a Serenade for Trumpet, based on a melody by her soloist son Eduard and the drive-in movie side of film noir. Jones takes up related cinematic connections by taking on all customers in February's Children, with added options of electric guitar and bass, harp, synthesizer, and three percussionists.

Sprung's sprung Serendipities is an ambitious deluxe package for double-dealing large ensemble, followed by the add-on, hallucinogenic Yanitl, from wheeler-dealer Verotta. And to sew up the deal, we take to the back seat (although taking a back seat to none) in Wold's bawdy-improper Two Waltzes for Lynne and Alburger's deliciously inappropriate Sex and the Orchestra.

It's a beautiful program, friends, with chords to match. Free-for-All (But for You, $15)!

***



TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's "Free-for-all (but for you, $15)" on February 28, at 8:00 p.m. at Old First Church, 1725 Sacramento Street (at Van Ness), San Francisco are $15 general, $12 students and seniors. Tickets are available through the Old First Church Box Office at (415) 474-1608 and at the door. For more information, please call Old First Church Box Office, or the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra at (707) 451-0714, or visit the organizations' respective websites at www.sfcco.org and www.oldfirstconcerts.org. Tickets are also available at www.ticketweb.com. Other links to the show may be found at myspace.com/sfcco, and markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.

###

CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
OLD FIRST CONCERTS PRESENTS
Saturday, February 28, at 8:00 p.m. Old First Church
1725 Sacramento Street at Van Ness
San Francisco, CA
(415) 474-1608

FREE-FOR-ALL (BUT FOR YOU, $15)
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra

Program:

Mark Alburger Sex and the Orchestra
John Beeman Adagio
Michael Cooke String Theory
Philip Freihofner What Are You Going to Dream Tonight?
Gary Friedman Romance for Wind Sextet
David Graves / Clare Twohy Fireproof Winds
Loren Jones February's Children
Lisa Scola Prosek Serenade for Trumpet
David Sprung Serendipities
Davide Verotta Yanitl
Erling Wold Two Orchestral Waltzes for Lynne

Tickets:$15 general, $12 students and seniors, available through the Old First Church Box Office at (415) 474-1608, at the door, and at www.ticketweb.com.

More information at sfcco.org and markalburgerevents.blogspot.com

***


SAN FRANCISCO
COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director

Free-for-All (But for You, $15)

8pm, Saturday, February 28, Old First Church, San Francisco, CA
Mark Alburger, David Sprung, Martha Stoddard, and Erling Wold, conducting

Program

Phil Freihofner - What Are You Going to Dream Tonight

Davide Verotta - Yanitl

John Beeman - Adagio

Gary Friedman - Romance for Wind Sextet

Lisa Scola Prosek - Serenade for Trumpet



David Sprung - Serendipities

Intermission


Erling Wold - Two Orchestral Waltzes for Lynne
I. Ludmilla Waltz
II. Empress Waltz

Mark Alburger - Sex and the Orchestra, Op. 171
I. Happy Funeral Music (The Little Death)
II. Downfall (Detumescence)

Michael Cooke - String Theory

David Graves / Clare Twohy - Fireproof Winds

Loren Jones - February's Children

***

Rehearsal pictures may be found at

markalburger2009.blogspot.com

dated February 19, 22, 26, and 27.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

December 25 - Merry Happy


Uncertain Times!

Yet, wishing you the best in 2009!

Mark Alburger
Harriet March Page











The Nativity According to St. Matthew, Op. 72

VIII. Then Herod

***

Daily Blog
markalburger2009.blogspot.com (2009)
markalburger.blogspot.com (2008)
myspace.com/markalburger (2007)

Past and Upcoming Events
markalburgerevents.blogspot.com

Complete Works (In Progress, Always)
markalburgerworks.blogspot.com

Music History (Textbook)
markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com

21st-Century Music (Online Versions of the Monthly Journal)
21st-centurymusic.com (Archive)
21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com (In Progress, Always)

Performing Groups
stcco.org
(San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra)
goathall.org
(San Francisco Cabaret Opera / Goat Hall Productions)

Saturday, November 8, 2008

November 8 - SFCCO Moving Targets



SAN FRANCISCO COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director

Moving Targets

Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 8 pm
Old First Presbyterian Church
1751 Sacramento Street/Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94109

Martha Stoddard,  conducting

Program

Gary Friedman
     Octet for Winds    
          Meanderings
          On The Go

Davide Verotta
     Sinfonia Per Orchestra da Camera  

Lisa Scola Prosek
     Badessa
          I. La Badessa
          II. Little Fast Ones  

Intermission

Sheli Nan
     Signatures in Time and Place  
          I. Romanesque
          II. The Corinthian Order

Clare Twohy
     untitled  

Martha Stoddard
     In Search of Planet X  

***
 
Flute
Bruce Salvisberg
Harry Bernstein

Oboe
Phil Freihofner
Gary Friedman

Clarinet
Rachel Condry
David Treganowen

Bassoon
Michael Cooke
Michael Garvey
Lori Garvey

French Horn
Cathleen Torres
Frank Lahorgue

Trumpet
Pierce Yamaoka

Piano
Davide Verotta

Percussion
Victor Flaviani
Anne Szabla
Davide Verotta
Alexis Alrich

Violin I
Monika Gruber

Violin II
Hande Erdem

Viola
Clare Twohy

Cello
Dan Reiter
Moses Sedler

Bass
Ellen Lin

Friday, November 7, 2008

November 7-16 - Opera Apocalypse


Goat Hall Productions /
San Francisco Cabaret Opera



OPERA APOCALYPSE!



Mark Alburger's Antigone



John Bilotta's Quantum Mechanic



Amy Beth Kirsten's Ophelia Forever

8pm, Friday-Sunday, November 7-9
The Next Stage
1620 Gough (near Bush), SF

8pm, Friday, November 14; 7pm Sunday, November 16
Chapel of the Chimes
4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland

7:30pm, Saturday, November 15
Temple United Methodist Church
1111 Junipero Serra Boulevard (@ 19th Avenue), SF



ANTIGONE

ANTIGONE (libretto after Jean Anouilh and Sophocles) is a "grid" opera based on W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute, from which is taken form (often including exact number of measures, tempo markings, and keys), but little content. Much of the music was written in the spirit of the title character: that of rebellion -- major keys become minor, very slow tempi become very fast, stolid rhythms become almost irrationally syncopated. The opera also alludes to Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten, 50's rock, J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 140 ("Wachet Auf"), Ancient Greek music, 70's pop, Arthur Sullivan, Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 3, the Beach Boys, John Barry's Dances With Wolves, Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Ebony Concerto, Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Aida, Meredith Willson's The Music Man, Alburger's Sonata for Oboe, Piano, and Percussion, and Balinese gamelan music.

Antigone - Eliza O'Malley (11/7 and 9)
Antigone - Letitia C. Page (11/8)
Creon - Micah Epps
Haemon / Messenger / Guard III - Michael Desnoyers
Ismene - Kimberley Anderman
Nurse / Eurydice - Meghan Dibble
Guard I - Maria Mikheyenko
Guard II - Erin Lahm
Antigone's Handmaid - Alix Jerinic
Ismene's Handmaid / Antigone Dancer - Dalyte Kodzis
Oedipus / Haemon Dancer - William Loney
Page - Lisa McHenry
The Puppetmaster - Terence Bennan
The Fixer - Adam Broner

Artistic Director - Harriet March Page
Music Director - Mark Alburger
Piano - Keisuke Nakagoshi
Choreographer - William Loney

Dress Rehearsal 11/6/08



[I. CHORUS - "Here we are"
Dibble, O'Malley, Jerinic, Kodzis, Lahm, Mikheyenko,
Desnoyers, Bennan, Epps, Broner, McHenry]



[V. DUET - "Where is your pain"
Jerinic, Kodzis, Anderman, Dibble]



[VI. DUET - "Haemon"
O'Malley, Desnoyers]



[VII. ARIA - "I can't sleep"
Dibble, Jerinic, O'Malley, Anderman]



[Jerinic, Kodzis, Page, Anderman, Lahm, Mikheyenko]



[VIII. DUET - "It's like this"
Mikheyenko, Bennan, Epps, Broner, Loney]



[XI. TRIO - "What is this"
Mikheyenko, O'Malley, Bennan, Epps, Broner, Loney]


[IX. CHORUS - "The spring is wound"
Dibble, Anderman, Mikheyenko, Jerinic, Kodzis, Desnoyers, Epps, Loney]



[Mikheyenko, Broner, Bennan, Epps, Desnoyers,
O'Malley, Anderman, Dibble, Jerinic, Kodzis]



[Bennan, Broner, Mikheyenko, Desnoyers, Anderman,
O'Malley, Dibble, Jerinic, Kodzis, Loney]



[XVI. DUET - "Antigone / You, too"
Kodzis, Anderman, Bennan, Epps, O'Malley, Broner, Jerinic, Loney]



XVIII. DUET - "It's you"
Lahm, O'Malley, Mikheyenko]



XIX. ARIA - "News to break your heart"
[Mikheyenko, Kodzis, Epps, Bennan, Desnoyers, Loney]




[Lahm, Mikheyenko, Epps, Bennan, Desnoyers, Broner, McHenry]



[Loney, Mikheyenko, Kodzis, Bennan, Epps, Desnoyers]




[Lahm, Mikheyenko, Loney, Kodzis, Epps,
Bennan, Desnoyers, Broner, McHenry]


[Mikheyenko, Loney, Epps, Kodzis, Broner, Desnoyers]


[Lahm, Mikheyenko, Loney, Kodzis, Epps,
Bennan, Broner, Desnoyers, McHenry]




[XX. SEXTET - "I've had them laid"
Epps, McHenry, Broner]


[Lahm, Mikheyenko, McHenry, Epps, Broner]



[XXI. CHORUS - "There we are"
Dibble, Page, Anderman, Jerinic, Kodzis, Lahm,
Mikheyenko, Desnoyers, Bennan, Epps]



[Kodzis, Lahm, Mikheyenko, Desnoyers,
Bennan, Epps, Broner, McHenry, Loney]