The California Festival: A Celebration of New Music is the inaugural statewide festival featuring new music from around the globe. Over 50 organizations will join the festival from all across the state. Running from November 3 to 19, performances will include everything from the SF Symphony and LA Opera to !Sing Silicon Valley and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble! Audiences will enjoy symphonies, chamber music, jazz, and choral music. Although concerts will include music from all over the world, a special focus on Californian composers will highlight the Golden State’s innovative and collaborative spirit.
Left Coast presents California Voices, two programs which highlight vocal music from California.
Left Coast teams up with the San Francisco Girls Chorus to present This Is What It Means, a program which centers the music of Californian women composers. We interweave instrumental and vocal works by Pauline Oliveros, Gabriela Lena Frank, Reena Esmail, Gabriella Smith, Lisa Bielawa, and Ursula Kwong-Brown with the music of Nicolás Lell Benavides, Caroline Shaw, and Hildegard von Bingen. The two ensembles join forces to premiere a new work written for the occasion by Sarah Gibson. (This concert is generously sponsored by Susan Shalit and Mary Logger.)
In Art Song and Keyboard Music of California, Left Coast explores the voices of women composers of California in song, both historical and contemporary, ranging from Elinor Remick Warren and Carrie Jacobs-Bond to Vivian Fung, Addie Camsuzou, and Gabriela Lena Frank. Works for piano and guitar by Gabriella Smith and Henry Cowell complement the program which spans more than a century of Californian music.
Left Coast is proud to join the California Festival in celebrating the Golden State’s legacy of experimentation and free-spirited artistry, showcasing music created in the last five years. Don’t miss your chance to witness Left Coast’s debut at the California Festival! Get your tickets at https://www.leftcoastensemble.org/season31
Concert Dates for California Voices
This Is What It Means
Saturday, November 4, 7:30 pm at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
Sunday, November 5, 4:00 pm at San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Art Song and Keyboard Music of California
Sunday, November 12, 4:00 pm at Calliope East Bay Music & Arts, Albany
Sunday, November 19, 7:30 pm at Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco