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Stenberg | Cahill Duo – Friday, October 12 at 8 pm

Stenberg | Cahill Duo
Kate Stenberg,
violin; Sarah Cahill, piano

Aaron Gervais Talking in Circles World Premiere
Gabriela Lena Frank Sueños de Chambi: Snapshots for an Andean Album
Kaija Saariaho Tocar
Linda Catlin Smith With Their Shadows Long
plus works by Henry Cowell and Grażyna Bacewicz

Newly formed in 2016, the Stenberg | Cahill Duo is dedicated to promoting the American experimental tradition and expanding it through the commissioning of new work. This program includes the World Premiere Aaron Gervais’ Talking in Circles with performances of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Sueños de Chambi: Snapshots for an Andean Album, Kaija Saariaho’s Tocar, Linda Catlin Smith’s With Their Shadows Long, and works by Henry Cowell and Grażyna Bacewicz. Recent appearances include performances at San Francisco Performances’ PIVOT Festival, the Mendocino Music Festival, BAMPFA, and the Music by the Mountain Festival.

Kate Stenberg is a leading interpreter of contemporary chamber music having premiered over a hundred works worldwide, including pieces incorporating multi-media and improvisation. Her violin playing has been described as “highly virtuosic and deeply communicative…full of character and presence” (NewMusicBox), as heard in performances in a dozen countries and on numerous CDs from New World Records, Sono Luminous, Newport Classics, Decca Records, Other Minds and New Albion labels. Hailed as a “Bay Area new-music luminary” (San Francisco Chronicle) Stenberg has commissioned, recorded and premiered new works by Tania Leon, Charles Amirkhanian, Peter Sculthorpe, Chinary Ung, Per Nørgård, Mason Bates, Kui Dong and many others. Her CD Scenes from a New Music Séance with pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann has received special notice and features groundbreaking, innovative works by Pelle Gudmundsen Holmgreen, Ruth Crawford Seegar and George Antheil. Stenberg developed and produced chamber music as co-founder of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and Real Vocal String Quartet, and from 1995-2015 she served as the first violinist of the award winning Del Sol String Quartet, where she fostered the string quartet repertoire through collaboration and the commissioning of established and emerging composers. Del Sol Quartet was a two-time top winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

Sarah Cahill, recently called “a brilliant and charismatic advocate for modern and contemporary composers” by the Chicago Tribune, has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to her include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Samuel Adams, and Ingram Marshall. Recent appearances include the Interlochen Arts Festival, the Cleveland Museum of Art, a concert with the Silk Road Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall, the Other Minds Festival, and the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. Upcoming concerts include the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Festival of New American Music, National Sawdust, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Sarah Cahill’s discography includes over twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, and Pinna labels. Cahill’s four-CD box set, Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley, was released late last year on the Irritable Hedgehog label. Her radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and curates a series of new music concerts at the new Berkeley Art Museum.

For more information about the performers, please visit their websites: www.katestenberg.com http://sarahcahill.com/

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Our concerts rely on the generosity of volunteers to assist with simple tasks like:

ushering

distributing programs

box office

set-up and clean-up

Scheduling is flexible — you choose when to work! We especially need helping hands for our Friday and Saturday night performances.

An excellent opportunity for students, seniors, or anyone who possesses a love for music!

If you’d like to consider volunteering with Old First Concerts, please contact curtishuth@oldfirstconcerts.org for more information.