San Francisco Contemporary Music Players Presents
Myths and Muses
November 24, 2024
Sunday, 4pm
Brava Main Stage
Call it faith or myth, love or admiration – inspiration that flows from the spiritual, the mystical, the unknown or the well-known. Our opening concert of the season brings together works by four women composers, all celebrating the power and influence of feminine forces in human history, lore, religion and art. A newly commissioned song cycle by San Francisco-based Emma Logan weaves a tapestry for ensemble and mezzo-soprano soloist (Kindra Scharich) through poetic meditations on the biblical figure of Eve. Laura Elise Schwendinger’s The Artist’s Muse paints a musical canvas upon seven iconic female portraits across centuries of visual art. San Francisco native Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Moerae (The Fates) renders depictions in sound of Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, the Greek mythological trio whose spinning, measuring and cutting at the cloth of time determines the destiny of mortals on Earth. And Augusta Read Thomas’s Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams creates a balletic fantasy inspired by the ancient Greek Muse and goddess of dancing, engaging the group in a virtuoso display of musical athleticism. These entrancing sonic narratives about women, and by women, unfold onstage at the beautiful Art-Deco treasure that is the Brava Theater for Women in the Arts, in the Mission District of San Francisco.
Schedule
3:00 PM - "Under the Hood" pre-concert talk with Artistic Director Eric Dudley and composers Emma Logan and Laura Schwendinger.
4:00 PM - Concert
Guest Artist: Kindra Schirach, mezzo-soprano
Laura Schwendinger - The Artist’s Muse (2017) - Bay Area premiere
Emma Logan - Mother Eve (2024) - world premiere (SFCMP commission, supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission)
Mary Kouyoumdjian - Moerae (The Fates) (2010) - Bay Area premiere
Augusta Read Thomas - Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams, for 13 Virtuosi (2023) - West Coast premiere
TICKETs
$45 General/$15 student
ABOUT the artist
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players is the West Coast's most longstanding and largest new music ensemble, comprised of 22 highly skilled musicians. For more than 50 years, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players have created innovative and artistically excellent music and are one of the most active ensembles in the United States dedicated to contemporary music. Holding an important role in the regional and national cultural landscape, the Contemporary Music Players are a 2018 awardee of the esteemed Fromm Foundation Ensemble Prize, and a ten-time winner of the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
