San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra
Encyclopedia
The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) is a chamber orchestra based in San Francisco, California
, United States
. It was established in 2002 and is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music
, most often works by the orchestra's members. The group has also performed music by other California
composers, including Henry Cowell
, Bernard Herrmann
, Darius Milhaud
, Terry Riley
, and Gerhard Samuel.http://sfcco.org/past_concert_6.html
The orchestra's conductor, founder, and music director is Mark Alburger
; the associate music director is Erling Wold
. Its associate conductors are John Kendall Bailey and Martha Stoddard, and general manager is Lisa Scola Prosek.
The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) is a unique orchestra in the U.S. Since its first concert in March 2002, the SFCCO has premiered more new works than any other orchestra in the San Francisco Bay Area
. The ensemble consists primarily of composer/performers, forming a unique organization dedicated to democratizing the symphony orchestra, making it available to composers of many styles and in many stages of development, from the established to the emerging. The result is an diverse offering of new music. In any one concert, an audience may hear many styles, including Neoromantic
, Serial
, Neoclassical
, Minimalist
, Noise and Improvised
.
The SFCCO takes an informal approach to its concerts, emphasizing communication with the audience in talks before, between and after pieces, drawing listeners into the music-making. The group's goal is to reverse the mainstream orchestral trend which features mostly older classical music by performing 6-8 new works a concert, rather than only a few new pieces a year.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was established in 2002 and is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, most often works by the orchestra's members. The group has also performed music by other California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
composers, including Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...
, Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
, Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, and Gerhard Samuel.http://sfcco.org/past_concert_6.html
The orchestra's conductor, founder, and music director is Mark Alburger
Mark Alburger
Mark Alburger is a San Francisco Bay Area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of the San Francisco Cabaret Opera...
; the associate music director is Erling Wold
Erling Wold
Erling Wold is a San Francisco based composer of opera and contemporary classical music. He is best known for his later chamber operas, especially A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil and his early experiments as a microtonalist...
. Its associate conductors are John Kendall Bailey and Martha Stoddard, and general manager is Lisa Scola Prosek.
The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) is a unique orchestra in the U.S. Since its first concert in March 2002, the SFCCO has premiered more new works than any other orchestra in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. The ensemble consists primarily of composer/performers, forming a unique organization dedicated to democratizing the symphony orchestra, making it available to composers of many styles and in many stages of development, from the established to the emerging. The result is an diverse offering of new music. In any one concert, an audience may hear many styles, including Neoromantic
Neoromanticism (music)
Neoromanticism in music is a return to the emotional expression associated with nineteenth-century Romanticism. Since the mid-1970s the term has come to be identified with neoconservative postmodernism, especially in Germany, Austria, and the United States, with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm and...
, Serial
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
, Neoclassical
Neoclassicism (music)
Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "classicism", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint...
, Minimalist
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, Noise and Improvised
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
.
The SFCCO takes an informal approach to its concerts, emphasizing communication with the audience in talks before, between and after pieces, drawing listeners into the music-making. The group's goal is to reverse the mainstream orchestral trend which features mostly older classical music by performing 6-8 new works a concert, rather than only a few new pieces a year.
External links
- San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra official site
- San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra page