September 27 - Solidarity

June 13 - SFCCO - Dreams of the Restless

SAN FRANCISCO
COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger, Music Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2009

CONTACT:
SFCCO (707) 451-0714
mus21stc@gmail.com

SAN FRANCISCO COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS
"DREAMS OF THE RESTLESS"
8:00PM, SATURDAY, JUNE 13, OLD FIRST CHURCH,
1725 SACRAMENTO STREET (AT VAN NESS), SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO AND WORLD PREMIERES OF WORKS BY
MICHAEL COOKE, ALLAN CROSSMAN, PHILIP FREIHOFNER, LOREN JONES, LISA SCOLA PROSEK, DAVIDE VEROTTA, ERLING WOLD AND FOGNOZZLE, AND MARK ALBURGER

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2009 -- To dream, perchance to sleep. Not a chance of the latter, as the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra presents Dreams of the Restless, 8pm, Saturday, June 13, at Old First Church in San Francisco. Composers Michael Cooke, Allan Crossman, Philip Freihofner, Loren Jones, Lisa Scola Prosek, Davide Verotta, Erling Wold, Fognozzle, and Mark Alburger will explore the world of suggestion and dreams, inspired by abstract ponderings, restless fears, and childlike hopes in all new compositions, featuring exotic instruments, tribal rhythms, and a fantastic light show.

Cooke's A Child Sleeps sets the musical cradle rocking with variations on a Chinese lullaby graced by the addition of sheng and gucheng, as performed by the composer and Gangqin Zhao. Crossman ups the ante in Plasticity by scoring for a unique instrument -- the Sonoglyph, an invention of featured soloist Tom Nunn.

Not to be outdone in the otherworldly capacity, Jones hallucinates worlds of music in Eagle Bear Woman and Two Islands, in respective homages to Native American and Indonesian traditions.

While the nightmare of a natural world gone awry is captured in Scola Prosek's Voodoo Storm, Wold and Fognozzle's In the Stomach of Fleas takes its malaise from outbreaks of bubonic before and after the great San Francisco Earthquake. Also earthshattering will be Freihofner's monumental Obelisk, Verotta's enigmatic Verso L'immagine Feroce, and Alburger's King David Suite (The Young and the Restless), in three portraits of angst-ridden youth (David, Jonathan, and Absalom).

***

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's "Dreams of the Restless" on Saturday, May 13, 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, May 13, at 8:00 p.m.

Old First Church
1725 Sacramento Street at Van Ness
San Francisco, CA
(415) 474-1608

DREAMS OF THE RESTLESS
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra

Program:

Mark Alburger - King David Suite (The Young and the Restless)
Michael Cooke - A Baby Sleeps
Alan Crossman - Plasticity, for Sonoglyph and Chamber Orchestra
Philip Freihofner - Obelisk
Loren Jones - Eagle Bear Woman and Two Islands
Lisa Scola Prosek - Voodoo Storm
Davide Verotta - Verso L'immagine Feroce
Erling Wold and Fognozzle - In the Stomach of Fleas

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

Restless Dreams

Saturday, June 13,
Old First Church, San Francisco
Mark Alburger, John Kendall Baily, and
Martha Stoddard, conducting

Philip Freihofner - Obelisk




Lisa Scola Prosek - Voodoo Storm




Davide Verotta - Verso L’immagine Feroce
(Toward the Ferocious Image)



Allan Crossman - Plasticity
(Tom Nunn, Sonoglyph)




Loren Jones - Eagle Bear Woman
- Two Islands

Michael Cooke - A Baby Sleeps
(Theme and Variations for Sheng, Guzheng, and Orchestra

Mark Alburger - King David Suite (The Young and the Restless)
I. O for the Wings of a Dove (Psalm 55)
II. Incantation (The Witch of Endor)
III. Song in the Forest of Ephraim (The Death of Absalom)

Erling Wold and fognozzle
- In the Stomach of Fleas

May 23 - Goat Hall Productions: Fresh Voices IX

Second night of Fresh Voices IX, with



Cynthia Weyukker setting up for another musical-saw-tour-de-force.




A very fine show overall, graced by a demonstratively responsive crowd for each featured work, including



Sex and



Delilah.

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.

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.

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.

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)