Under the guidance of Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen the San Francisco Symphony continues to contribute to the world of online productions with the latest SoundBox and CURRENTS programs on the SFSymphony+ platform.
Lineage is the title of the most recent program in the SoundBox series – billed as ‘Eclectic programming for adventurous listeners’ – and curated on this occasion by SF Symphony Collaborative Partner and classical singer, Julia Bullock. In this program, she brings together a diverse selection of musical material spanning 900 years, which – in her words – “…captures an audio and visual snapshot of how lineage can inform, influence, impact, and express itself in a musical context”.
The program features works by Nina Simone, Weldon Irvine, Hildegard von Bingen, Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn, JS Bach, George Walker, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Aruán Ortiz, Elizabeth Ogonek, Francis Poulenc, Ricky Ian Gordon and Esperanza Spalding.
Julia has headlined productions and concerts at some of the world’s foremost arts institutions, was San Francisco Symphony’s Artist-in- Residence for the 2019-2020 season, Artist-in-Residence of London’s Guildhall School for the 2020-22 seasons, opera-programming host of new broadcast channel All Arts, founding core member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Most recently she has been named 2021 Artist of the Year by Musical America, which writes: “Smart, savvy, and with her velvety soprano shot through with steel, Julia Bullock is one of the most dramatically electrifying and vocally arresting singers on today’s operatic stages.”
Julia Bullock’s Lineage program is available to view on this segment of the SFSymphony+ website.
Running concurrently with SoundBox is the San Francisco Symphony series CURRENTS – ‘Exploring the intersections of musical cultures’. The latest program, entitled Thunder Song, has been curated by composer and pianist Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, who joins with musicians of the Symphony to celebrate the meeting of classical music and the art of American Indian storytelling.
CURRENTS: Thunder Song – Courtesy San Francisco Symphony
Featured in this program are works by Tate himself, as well as Rochelle Chester and Louis W Ballard. “The music,” says conductor Edwin Outwater, “is quite virtuosic, dynamic and trance-like. It’s quite a trip for the listener.” According to the Washington Post, “Tate is rare as an American Indian composer of classical music. Rarer still is his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism”.
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, who uses symphonic music, ballet and opera to give voice to his native culture. Dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition, he has had commissioned works performed by the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, ensembles such as the National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota, Buffalo Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony and South Dakota Symphony orchestras, as well as by Colorado Ballet, Dale Warland Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Recent commissions include his bassoon concerto, Ghost of the White Deer, for Dallas Symphony Orchestra, his Chickasaw oratorio, Misha‘ Sipokni’ (The Old Ground), for Canterbury Voices and Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and Standing Bear: A Ponca Indian Cantata for Hildegard Center for the Arts. His music was also recently featured on the HBO series Westworld.
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s CURRENTS program is available to view on this segment of the SFSymphony+ website.
Previous SoundBox and CURRENTS streams are available to view on this segment of the SFSymphony+ website.
Information sourced from:
San Francisco Symphony program notes
Artists’ websites
New Music USA