Your home for piano,
chamber music
and world music concerts
1751 Sacramento Street (Cross street Van Ness Avenue)
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: 415.474.1608
Liszt Birthday Gala
Sunday, October 22
at 2pm
10 Pianists!
Stephen Bailey, Michael Boyd, Riley Cook, Daniel Glover, Machiko Kobialka, Jeffrey LaDeur, Gwendolyn Mok, Robert Schwartz, Sandra Wright Shen, William Wellborn, piano. Dominic Pang, organ.
Liszt's greatest music!
Including brilliant transcriptions of works by Beethoven, Chopin, Paganini, and Wagner, music from the Years of Pilgrimage, the Hungarian Rhapsodies, Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H and more!
Champagne reception!
Cascada de Flores: A Musical Altar for our Muertos
Sunday,
October 29
at 4 pm
Arwen Lawrence and
Jorge Liceaga, voice, dance & guitar;
Kyla Danysh, voice & violin;
Saúl Sierra-Alonzo, bass & leona;
Marco Díaz, piano & trumpet.
Cascada de Flores celebrates love, life, and music, inspired by the troubadours of Mexico and the Americas. In an evening of song, strings, zapateado and heart, a musical altar will be dedicated to loved ones and inspiring cultural icons that have passed: You are welcome to bring a photo, or favorite item of someone you have lost to place on the altar. Through sones from different regions of Mexico, danzones, waltzes, boleros, guarachas and compositions using these traditional forms, we remember and celebrate together. Portions of the proceeds from this concert will be donated to efforts that help the people of Oaxaca and Sonoma County, California.
Nato, violin;
Monica Chew, piano
Formed in spring of 2016, Minsky Duo’s mission is to present extraordinary music from both popular and obscure composers. While audiences will hear the chamber music they know and love, Minsky Duo also presents listeners with provoking works they will soon not forget. This all-American program includes the Bay Area premiere of Ned Rorem’s sonata for violin and piano, Aaron Copland’s sonata, Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting by Charles Ives, and Road Movies by Bay Area composer John Adams, and a world premiere of some preludes and fugues for piano by American composer Aaron Andrew Hunt.
Nocturnes: Nightfall Illuminated
Alisa Rose, violin; Amy Zanrosso, piano with special guest Ian Scarfe, piano
Alisa Rose and Amy Zanrosso are two expressive and powerful musicians intent on exploring what it means to be a piano and violin duo making music in the 21st century. Striking and dramatic in their musical choices, RossoRose seamlessly melds their classical training with the rhythms and musical freedom of a variety of traditions that include tango and American roots music, and are not shy about breaking rules in order to communicate with an audience.
Musical sisters* separated at birth, Alisa Rose and Amy Zanrosso were magically reunited in February 2015 under the auspices of one Metropolis Violin Concerto. Feeling like they still had a lot more to musically say and explore they formed the RossoRose Duo. They combine the world of their preferred classical classics with music being written in the here and now. *(for the record, we are not actually sisters….)
The Program:
Leoš Janáček Piano Sonata, “From the Street”
Sergei Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major
Alexander Scriabin selected Poèmes, including Vers la flamme, Op. 72
Mr. Waxdeck grew up in Berkeley, where he began private piano lessons at age 6. His studies continued at Princeton University, Yale University, the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he earned a Masters Degree in Performance in 1997, and won the International Bartók Piano Competition later that year. Mr. Waxdeck has performed throughout the US, in Europe, at Weill Hall in New York, and at various summer music festivals in the US and abroad, including the Adamant Music School in Vermont and IBLA festival in Italy. Locally, he has performed on the Fortnightly Music series in Palo Alto, the Dance Palace piano series in Marin County, the Noontime Concerts and the Forrest Hill Music series in San Francisco, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at Old First Concerts as part of our Scriabin Festival in 2015. Mr. Waxdeck also has a law degree from Yale Law School and is a practicing attorney.
José López, piano
Sunday, November 19
at 4 pm
Pianist José López returns to Old First Concerts with a performance of rarely heard works by 19th century Cuban-born composers José Comellas and Nicolás Ruíz Espadero, along with Charles V. Alkan’s Symphony. Comellas, who studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ignaz Moscheles and lived part of his short life in the United States, published a number of miniatures, including several nocturnes and the 1st piano sonata written by a Cuban composer. The introverted Espadero, a close friend of Gottschalk, was the most renowned Cuban composer of his day, producing a considerable body of works, including transcriptions from Verdi’s Traviata and Donizetti’s Poliuto, never before performed in the Bay Area. Charles V. Alkan’s Symphony, comprised of four etudes from his formidable Douze études dans les tons mineurs, Op. 39, rounds up the program.
Holiday Concerts at Old First Concerts
Experience the magic of choirs and traditional instruments offering songs old and new celebrating the season of miracles from many cultures. This year, we welcome newcomers Gaude and Kugelplex along with audience favorites Veretski Pass, Golden Bough, and Kitka. Three more fantastic choirs - Piedmont East Bay Childrens Chorus, Ragazzi Boys Chorus, and Lacuna Arts - round out the schedule.