BluePrint 2007-2008: MIND THE GAP
Bridging Senses, Time, and Cultures

Nicole Paiement, Artistic Director

	Synesthesia: Bridging the Senses October 13, 2007, 8:00 p.m., Concert Hall 7:15 p.m. pre-concert talk with composers Jay Lyon and Jean-Michel Fonteneau Composers Talk Shop (Friday, October 12, 2007, 3:00 p.m., Recital Hall) Jay Lyon and Dan Becker
Nicole Paiement, conductor Philip Glass, Facades with digital video projection sets by Elliot Anderson Kaija Saariaho, Sept Papillons with Jean-Michel Fonteneau, cello Jay Lyon, Voyelles with rapper, narrator Mary Ellen Poole, and sopranos Brittany Hicks and Lauren Groff Benjamin Britten, Les illuminations for high voice, soprano and string orchestra Robert Helps, Nocturne for string quartet

This October, BluePrint joins the Bay Area in celebrating the premiere of Philip Glass' Appomattox by San Francisco Opera. Join us for a special performance of Glass' classic work Facades with digital projections by local video artist Elliot Anderson. We'll continue bridging the senses with an evocative Nocturne for string quartet by Robert Helps and Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's Sept Papillons, featuring SFCM cello faculty member Jean-Michel Fonteneau. The Symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, itself rich in synesthesia, will also be presented in two very different contexts: from the imaginative string sonorities of Benjamin Britten's Les illuminations to Voyelles-a funky, hip-hop-influenced piece by local composer Jay Lyon for chamber ensemble, singers, narrator and MC.

	Bridging Time November 17, 8:00 p.m., Concert Hall In collaboration with the Conservatory Baroque Ensemble, Corey Jamason, director Pre-Concert Talk at 7:15pm with Dan Becker and Ryan Brown
Nicole Paiement, conductor Astor Piazzolla, Cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) with Cynthia Mei, violin solo Vivaldi, Four Seasons (Winter and Spring) Dan Becker, Tamper Resistant for Baroque instruments based on the music of Telemann David Jones, Fugue State with Edwin Huizinga, Baroque violin

BluePrint bridges time in a unique collaboration with the SFCM Baroque Ensemble and musical director Corey Jamason. Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons, one of the most beloved and well-known pieces of Baroque music, is presented alongside Astor Piazzolla's own Cuatro estaciones porteñas (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) featuring SFCM violin faculty member Cynthia Mei. Piazzolla's unique style effortlessly blends the expressive, sensual power of tango with the structural and harmonic inventiveness of modern music. The music of Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann gets "twisted, stretched, and shaped into a minimalist image of itself" by SFCM faculty composer Dan Becker in his Tamper Resistant, while David Jones' Fugue State takes Baroque techniques and timbres as a departing point for a "state of flight" into a world of subtly suggested styles and moods.


Special event: NME participates in SFCM John Adams Residency
December 5, 2007, 8:00 p.m., Concert Hall
John Adams: Scratchband

The SFCM New Music Ensemble presents Scratchband as part of John Adams in Residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. With its unique, hybrid instrumentation, Scratchband draws on the power and virtuosity of traditional "rock" instruments to create a volatile, hyperactive work full of dizzying counterpoint and groovy rhythms.

Bridging Cultures March 8, 2008, 8:00 p.m., Concert Hall Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute Pre-Concert Talk at 7:15pm with Alden Jenks and Luciano Chessa Composers Talk Shop (Friday, March 7, 2008, 3:00 p.m., Recital Hall) Alden Jenks and Luciano Chessa

Nicole Paiement, conductor Alden Jenks, The Soup performance art piece for voice and ensemble Henry Cowell, Atlantis with Patrice Maginnis, soprano, Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo-soprano, Leroy Kromm, baritone Luciano Chessa, Recitativo, aria e coro della Vergine from Urlo impietrato with Sarah Eyerly, soprano, Laurel Duncan-Anderson, gospel singer, and the UC Davis Gospel Choir, Calvin Lymos, director Calvin Lymos, Psalms 1 Kui Dong, Blue Melody

We end the season with a dramatic program of modern oratorios. The Soup, by SFCM faculty composer Alden Jenks, is a darkly humorous meditation on human history in the form of a macabre recipe. Soprano Patrice Maginnis, mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse, and baritone Leroy Kromm come together for Henry Cowell's Atlantis—an outrageous oratorio whose text consists of moans, wails, sighs, grunts, and squeals of ecstasy. We will also present a powerful scene from Luciano Chessa's Urlo di Pietra featuring the UC Davis Gospel Choir in a work that bridges cultures and genres in a profoundly personal way. Likewise, Kui Dong's Blue Melody recaptures the composer's experience collecting folk songs in her Chinese homeland where the "unplanned naturalness" of the music reached her in the form of blue-clad women singing funeral songs. The UC Davis Gospel Choir will also premiere Psalms 1—a new work by choir director Calvin Lymos featuring alto soloist Melinda Watts.