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San Francisco Girls Chorus

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Members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus in 2016

The San Francisco Girls Chorus, established in 1978 by Elizabeth Appling and celebrating its 40th anniversary during the 2018-2019 Season, is a regional center for music education and performance for young women, ages 4–18, based in San Francisco. Each year, more than 300 singers from 45 Bay Area cities participate in SFGC's programs. The organization consists of a professional-level performance, recording, and touring ensemble and a six-level Chorus School training program.

In addition to its annual engagements with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony, recent and upcoming artistic partnerships include the New York Philharmonic's Biennial Festival of New Music at Lincoln Center in June 2016 in collaboration with The Knights orchestra, SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras in April 2017 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and Carnegie Hall in February 2018 with the Philip Glass Ensemble.

The 2018-2019 Season marked SFGC's first year under the leadership of new Artistic Director, Valerie Sainte-Agathe. Previous Artistic Directors during SFGC's 40-year history include Elizabeth Appling (1978-1992), Sharon J. Paul (1992-2000), Magen Solomon (2000, interim), Susan McMane (2001-2012), Brandon Brack (2012, interim), and SFGC alumna Lisa Bielawa (2013-2018).

The Chorus School

SFGC's Chorus School, founded by Elizabeth Avakian, is made up of six levels: non-auditioned Prep Chorus, Training Chorus, and Levels I-IV, which choristers move through as they develop musically. Choristers spend one, two or three years in each level.

Premier Ensemble

The Premier Ensemble is the concert, recording, and touring ensemble of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, and is conducted by Artistic Director Valerie Sante-Agathe.

The Premier Ensemble performed at the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009. They sang a total of 20 minutes, as a prelude to the ceremony.[citation needed]

Before Cuba was recently opened to US citizens to visit, the Premier Ensemble toured there in July 2011, visiting Havana, Santa Clara, and Matanzas on an international tour.

They sang in the New York Biennial in 2016. They were the only group from outside NY invited to perform there.

In 2017, they sang with the Knights at the SHIFT Festival, at the Kennedy Center.

The Premier Ensemble has recorded and released nine solo CD recordings including: Voices of Hope and Peace that includes "Anne Frank: A Living Voice" by American composer Linda Tutas Haugen; Christmas, a selection of diverse holiday songs; Crossroads, a collection of world folk music; Music From the Venetian Ospedali, a disc of Italian Baroque music, for which The New Yorker proclaimed the Chorus "tremendously accomplished;" and Heaven and Earth, using recordings from 2008–09. This CD is their first double-disc release. The Premier Ensemble's February 2018 solo CD recording, Final Answer, was released on Philip Glass's Orange Mountain Music label and features works by composers Philip Glass, Lisa Bielawa, Gabriel Kahane, John Zorn, Carla Kihlstedt, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Sahba Aminikia, Matthew Welch and Theo Bleckmann.[citation needed]

Their most recent album, My Outstretched Hand, released in 2019 by Supertrain Records, features the world premiere of Colin Jacobsen's three-movement (although only two appear on the album) piece If I Were Not Me as well as Lisa Bielawa's My Outstretched Hand, previously performed at the Kennedy Center, and the two-movement Remembering the Sea by Aaron Jay Kernis.

The Premier Ensemble can also be heard on several recordings with the San Francisco Symphony, including five GRAMMY award-winning CDs Orff: Carmina Burana (1992); Stravinsky: The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Persephone (1999); Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (2008); and Mahler: Symphony No. 3 and Kindertotenlieder (2004). The Premier Ensemble has appeared in two feature films and one Netflix documentary, The Talented Mr. Ripley (2000), What Dreams May Come (1998), and Athlete A (2020).[citation needed]

Kanbar Center

The Kanbar Performing Arts Center, opened in 2005, at 44 Page Street in San Francisco, is home of the San Francisco Girls Chorus.[1]

Summer Music Camp

Each summer, SFGC holds a week-long chorus camp for choristers in its Levels II, III, IV ensembles and the Premier Ensemble at the Rio Lindo Adventist Academy in Healdsburg, California. During this camp, the young women prepare their music for the regular season, have classes in Music Theory, Sightsinging, and Dance. They also participate in fun activities such as the Counselor Hunt, Big Sister/Little Sister Night and the Square Dance.

Discography

  • My Outstretched Hand (2019)
  • Final Answer (2018)
  • Heaven and Earth (2009)
  • Voices of Hope and Peace (2006)
  • Christmas (2003)
  • Crossroads (2000)
  • Music from the Venetian Ospedali (1998)
  • I Never Saw Another Butterfly; Songs of the Twentieth Century (1996)
  • A San Francisco Christmas (1996)

Awards and honors

  • The San Francisco Girls Chorus's Premier Ensemble was invited to perform along with the San Francisco Boys Chorus in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2009, as part of the historic swearing-in ceremonies of President Barack Obama. SFGC and SFBC were the only children's choruses to receive this honor.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Kanbar Center". San Francisco Girls Chorus. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  2. ^ Benson, Heidi (2009-01-17). "S.F. boys, girls choruses go to Washington". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
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