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1 WITH YOU IN MIND

MILL VALLEY 142 Throckmorton Theatre • Sunday, October 25, 2015 7PM
SAN FRANCISCO SF Conservatory of Music • Monday, October 26, 2015 8PM

Eric Zivian • The Swan Takes Flight for Bass Clarinet and Piano written for Jerome Simas
Johannes Brahms • Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 written for Richard Mühlfeld
Francis Poulenc • Flute Sonata written for Jean Pierre Rampal and dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
John MacCallum • NEW WORK for Flute and Cello written for Stacey Pelinka and Leighton Fong
Kaija Saariaho • Miroirs for Flute and Cello written for Camilla Hoitenga and for Anssi Karttunen
Kaija Saariaho • Sept Papillons for Cello written for Anssi Karttunen

Sometimes a composer is inspired by the compelling voice of a particular performer. Brahms had stopped composing but was enticed out of retirement when he heard the playing of a remarkable clarinetist; Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who will be in town for our October 26 concert, has written many works for cellist Anssi Karttunen. Other composer/performer pairs include Eric Zivian/Jerome Simas, Francis Poulenc/Jean Pierre Rampal, John MacCallum/Stacey Pelinka. With You in Mind takes us to the intersection of composer and muse.

2 BROKEN CONSORTS

MILL VALLEY 142 Throckmorton Theatre • Sunday, December 6, 2015 7PM
SAN FRANCISCO Dennis Gallagher Arts Pavilion • Monday, December 7, 2015 8PM

Iannis Xenakis • Dmaathen for Oboe and Percussion
Gioachino Rossini • Duetto in D Major for Cello and Double Bass
Richard Chowenhill • NEW WORK for English Horn and Double Bass
Richard Chowenhill • Arrangements of Ancient Songs for Baritone, Oboe, Cello, and Guitar
George Crumb • The Ghosts of Alhambra for Baritone, Guitar and Percussion

In early English baroque music Broken Consorts were ensembles that combined contrasting instruments and voices; in a modern take on this idea, this Left Coast program presents unlikely combinations of instruments that let each voice be heard distinctly. We welcome guests Daniel Cilli and Loren Mach––who also performed in our recent opera production––for these concerts. Music includes Dmaathen by the revolutionary Iannis Xenakis (for oboe and percussion), George Crumb’sGhosts of Alhambra (for baritone, guitar and percussion), Rossini’s duo (for cello and double bass, unobscured by higher instruments) as well as Robert Chowenhill’s new arrangements of ancient music, and a companion work by the same composer.

3 OBOE BLISS

MILL VALLEY 142 Throckmorton Theatre • Sunday, January 31, 2016 7PM
SAN FRANCISCO SF Conservatory of Music • Monday, February 1, 2016 8PM

Kurt Rohde/Manuel De Falla • Suite Populaire Espagnole for Flute, Oboe, and String Quartet
Elinor Armer • NEW WORK for Flute, Oboe, and String Quartet
Anthony Porter • Five, Six, Heaven for String Trio
Arthur Bliss • Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet, Op.44, F.21

Left Coast’s own Tom Nugent is featured in a program that includes an Arthur Bliss quintet. Nugent describes this idiosyncratic piece, “the quintet is lush, with French impressionistic and English pastoral sonorities that combine as a counter point to 20th century outburst. It would seem that Bliss in this 1927 work is entering the 20th century kicking and screaming but always coming back to his tonal and stylistic roots.” Kurt Rohde is making a new arrangement of Manuel De Falla’s 1926 Suite Populaire Espagnole especially for this program. We revisit Anthony Porter’s Five, Six, Heaven, a work commissioned by the LCCE Intersection Workshop.

4 MENDELSSOHN AND NEW VOICES

MILL VALLEY 142 Throckmorton Theatre • Sunday, March 20, 2016 7PM
SAN FRANCISCO SF Conservatory of Music • Tuesday, March 22, 2016 8PM
BERKELEY Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, 17 Gauss Way • Thursday, March 24, 2016 5:15pm

Sean Varah • NEW WORK for Piano Trio
Craig Walsh • Neshanic Wanes
Jeremy Podgursky • Nonsense and Sorcery ?%#*!
Felix Mendelssohn • Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49

Reviewing Mendelssohn’s D Minor Piano Trio, the composer Robert Schumann praised his colleague to the skies: “He is the Mozart of the 19th century, the most brilliant of musicians, the one who most clearly perceives the contradictions of the age, and the first to reconcile them.” Hearing this piece, a work both energetic and lyrical, it is easy to understand why it delighted Schumann and has continued to enchant audiences in ensuing decades. Contemporary works by Craig Walsh, Jeremy Podgursky and Sean Varah provide brilliant 21st century perspectives on the piano trio.

5 NIKKI EINFELD + LEFT COAST

MILL VALLEY at Millicent Tompkins art studio • Sunday, June 5, 2016 7PM
SAN FRANCISCO SF Conservatory of Music • Monday, June 6, 2016 8PM

Richard Strauss • Ophelia Songs
Charles Ives • The Housatonic at Stockbridge
Paul Hindemith • Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Francis Poulenc • La dame de Monte-Carlo
Franz Schubert • Shepherd on the Rock
Franz Schubert • Lieder

Aptly described in The New York Times as “…dazzling…” and praised for her“…melting beauty and purity of tone…" soprano Nikki Einfeld will also be remembered by area audiences for her leading role in Left Coast’s recent production of Death with Interruptions and her appearances with West Edge Opera and the San Francisco Symphony and Opera. For Left Coast’s season finale Einfeld is joined by Jerome Simas and Eric Zivian in Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock and works by Strauss, Poulenc, and Ives. If you haven’t heard this flawless and expressive singer, come find out why critics and audiences both rave about her. Completing the program is Hindemith’s Clarinet Sonata.

All programs are subject to change