Shanghai Celebration Concert
Monday, February 8, 2010, 8 p.m.


Join us as we celebrate the formation of a sister-school relationship with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music!

On Feb. 8, 2010 at 8 p.m., the San Francisco and Shanghai Conservatories of Music will celebrate the creation of their sister-school relationship—in addition to the 30th anniversary of the signing of the first sister city agreement between the U.S. and China—with the historic Shanghai Celebration Concert in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall.

Though the two Conservatories have long had an informal connection—mostly represented by Shanghai Conservatory graduates coming to study in San Francisco—the sister school agreement, which will be signed the week of Feb. 8, is a milestone for both institutions. With it, the Conservatories open the door for faculty exchanges, increased artistic collaboration and the recruitment of Shanghai students to San Francisco. The agreement will increase San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s visibility both in China and around the world, and ensure that years of official visits between the schools will continue.

Part of San Francisco’s yearlong “Shanghai Celebration,” which is spearheaded by the Asian Art Museum, the Feb. 8 concert will feature San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty, current students, alumni and friends—including world-renowned mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao—performing new works composed by faculty, students, alumni and colleagues of both schools. This concert is the first of its kind, and follows six years of annual visits by San Francisco Conservatory of Music officials and faculty to Shanghai, each serving to bolster ties and pave the way for the Sister Conservatory relationship. The public is invited to join a visiting delegation from the Shanghai Conservatory to experience this historic concert!

Tickets are $20/$15 for students, seniors and Friends of the Conservatory.

Buy Tickets here or call the box office at 415.503.6275.

PROGRAM
Vocal Works
David Garner "Phenomenal Woman" and "The Gamut" from his song cycle Phenomenal Woman
Gordon Getty "Hostess Aria" from his opera Plumpjack
Joseph Gregorio "As Adam, Early in the Morning," from his song cycle Five Whitman Songs
Jake Heggie What Lips My Lips Have Kissed

Instrumental Works
Chen Qiangbin Hxak for string sextet
Jia Daqun Intonation for 14 instruments
Liang Xiaoyue Xi for string quartet
Xu Shuya San for 11 instruments
Yang Liqing Trio-The Tune Far Away for violin, clarinet and piano

FEATURED PERFORMERS

Nicole Paiement, conductor
Nicole Paiement is the artistic director of BluePrint––a thriving new music project sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Since 1993, Ms. Paiement has also been the artistic director of the California Ensemble Parallèle, a professional ensemble dedicated to the performance and recording of new music. Recently the ensemble presented the world premiere performance of Lou Harrison’s opera Young Caesar. Ms. Paiement has been the artistic director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble since 1999. In addition, Ms. Paiement is the director of ensembles at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Paiement has commissioned many works and has recorded various CDs including music by Schütz, Stradella, Tailleferre, Cope, Harrison, Milhaud, Imbrie and Messiaen. An active guest conductor, Ms. Paiement's recent engagements include the conducting of a world premieres in Melbourne, Sydney and Seoul. She recently conducted the Hollywood Bowl orchestra, the Ensemble Kochi of Japan, the Seoul Contemporary Opera Company Orchestra and the Sewon Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Paiement holds a doctorate degree in conducting from the Eastman School of Music and has been recognized by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with the Sarlo Award for excellence in teaching.

Clarinetist Jeff Anderle is enjoying an extremely diverse musical life. An exponent of contemporary music, he is currently the clarinetist of the ADORNO Ensemble, as well as the bi-coastal ensemble Redshift. He has performed with the Del Sol String Quartet and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Mr. Anderle is a member of Edmund Welles, a bass clarinet quartet performing "heavy chamber music" and Sqwonk, a bass clarinet duo that draws on a wide range of influences to create a boisterous, ferocious sound. He is also a co-director of the Switchboard Music Festival, an eight-hour annual marathon concert featuring composers, ensembles, and bands that fuse different genres and styles of music. Mr. Anderle received his M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he was a student of Luis Baez, and his B.A. from University of California at Los Angeles where he studied with Gary Gray. When not making music, Jeff makes clarinet equipment and is a Reiki Master.

Zheng Cao, mezzo-soprano
China native Zheng Cao is a favorite of opera companies around the world. A personal favorite of Seiji Ozawa, she has appeared with him as Marguerite in a concert presentation of La Damnation de Faust at the Saito Kinen Festival, mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the recent Winter Olympic Games in Japan, and as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly for her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Zheng holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and a Master’s Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She began her professional career with the San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow and was a 1992 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist.
(More information at http://www.pinnaclearts.com/artist.php?id=405.)

The Bridge Chamber Virtuosi
The Bridge Chamber Virtuosi is a dynamic new chamber music ensemble dedicated to the performance of both traditional western masterpieces and new Asian music. The BCV seeks to create a unique concert experience through the commissioning and performance of new works while maintaining a solid core of classic repertoire. In its inaugural season, the group will give US premiers of chamber works by various composers from China. They will also serve as the foundation of a multi-media project by Joan Huang commissioned for World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The BCV will be representing the city of San Francisco in performances in Shanghai as part of the 2010 sister-city celebration.

The Bridge Chamber Virtuosi are active as soloists, with performances at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, the Aspen Festival, Wigmore Hall and in Asia. As individual artists, they have trained at the Juilliard School, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the USC Thornton School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the San Francisco Conservatory. Awards include top prizes at the William Primrose, Pierre Fournier, American String Teacher’s Association, Carmel Chamber Music and Yellow Spring Chamber Music Competitions.

With a desire to enrich their communities, they teach in order to pass on their passion and knowledge of their art. They are on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and consider working with students a vital part of their musical endeavors. Past students now attend the Curtis Institute and the Eastman and Juilliard Schools of Music.

Founding and core members are Wei He, Professor of Violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and San Francisco Symphony members Yun Jie Liu, Associate Principal Viola, and Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cello.

Until his recent retirement, Don Ehrlich was assistant principal viola in the San Francisco Symphony. He received a B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory, a M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, and a D.M.A from the University of Michigan. He has been a member of the Aurora and Stanford String Quartets and is principal viola of the Mendocino Music Festival. Mr. Ehrlich plays an ergonomically corrected Pellegrina model viola designed and made by David Rivinus of Portland, Oregon. His recording of the six suites by Bach, originally for cello, was recently released and is available at the Symphony Store or online at shopsfsymphony.org.

Violinist and violist Jory Fankuchen is quickly building a reputation as both a performer and teacher in the Bay Area. Mr. Frankuchen earned a Bachelor of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Ian Swensen, and a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Lucy Chapman. An avid chamber musician, Jory has performed in concert with artists such as Robert Mann, Joseph Silverstein, Joel Krosnick, Bonnie Hampton, Mark Sokol, Ian Swensen, and Paul Hersh. As first violinist of the Kailas String Quartet, Mr. Fankuchen performed throughout North America, winning first prize in the Chamber Music International Competition, and a silver medal at the National Fischoff Competition. Founded in 2005, the Kailas held a two-year residency at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Since returning to the Bay Area in 2007, Jory has performed with many chamber ensembles and orchestras, including the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Del Sol Quartet, Berkeley Symphony, Festival Opera, and many others. As a member of the Magik Magik Orchestra, Jory has had the opportunity to perform with artists such as Sting, Mary Wilson and Bob Weir.

Jean-Michel Fonteneau is a founding member of the Ravel String Quartet, winner of two prizes at the Evian String Quartet Competition, and of the first French Grammy Award "Les Victoires de la Musique Classique". They toured extensively around the world and single-handedly created the first ever string quartet residency program in France. Highly sought after, Mr. Fonteneau performs frequently with such renowned artists as Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Kim Kashkashian, members of the Amadeus, Juilliard, Pro Arte, and Fine Arts Quartets. A passionate and devoted teacher, Jean-Michel Fonteneau served on the faculty of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France, until 1999, when he moved to the United States to join the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His students have won national and international competitions, appeared on "From the Top", and been honored as a Presidential Scholar. He appears regularly at summer festivals including the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Domaine Forget, Oberlin at Casalmaggiore, MYA, and ARIA. Mr. Fonteneau's recordings can be found with Musidisc-France and Albany Records.

Randolph Fromme, ensembles: Artist Certificate, San Francisco Conservatory of Music; M.A., University of Minnesota; B.A., University of Wisconsin; studied with Mark Sokol and Clive Greensmith; collaborative performances with Frederica von Stade, Donald and Vivian Weilerstein; member, Fromme Duo with pianist Shu Li; former member, Oberon and Del Sol quartets; performances in Other Minds and Sandpoint Festivals; faculty, Nueva School.

Mack McCray received his B.M. and M.S. from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Irwin Freundlich. He won the Silver medal in the International George Enesco Competition, first prize in the Charleston Symphony and San Francisco Young Artists competitions, Juilliard’s Edward Steuermann Memorial Prize, and a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation - all in one season (1969-1970). He has been invited guest artist at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, Seville’s Great Interpreters Cycle, the UNESCO Festival of International Artists at Monte Carlo, the Bucharest Philharmonic’s Bach/Beethoven/Brahms Festival, and the Hong Kong City Hall Series. He has performed under such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Edo de Waart, Josef Krips, Leon Fleisher and Arthur Fiedler. In 1991, he performed the United States premiere of John Adams’s Eros Piano. Recently he has performed with the Japan Philharmonic in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, at the Carmel Bach Festival and on the Trinity Church Concert Series in Manhattan. Mack McCray is artistic director of Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy, and since 1971 he has been on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Cellist Emil Miland is acclaimed internationally for his performances of new and traditional repertoire as a soloist and chamber musician. The San Francisco Classical Voice recently said "Emil Miland is a unique phenomenon. There is just something about the way that he connects the qualities of style, grace, virtuosity, and real soul that remind one of no other cellist." Miland, a member of the San Francisco Opera since 1988, made his solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 16 and that same year was selected to perform in the Rostropovich Master Classes at UC Berkeley. During his student years, Miland was a recipient of the Charles P. Skene Aberdeen Award and the Henri Dutilleux Medaille d'Honneur. Following his studies, he received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for a U.S. recital tour that featured his New York debut at Merkin Hall. His private teachers have included William Pleeth, Sally Kell, Milly Rosner, Margaret Rowell, Bonnie Hampton, and Colin Hampton. While a student at the New England Conservatory, he studied with Laurence Lesser. Emil makes his home in San Francisco.

Born in Shanghai, China, Chunming Mo started to play the violin at age 11; at age 15, she took part in the first open auditions held after the Cultural Revolution, and was accepted to the Middle School division of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Ms. Mo holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the Shanghai Conservatory and a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory.

In 1979, Ms. Mo was selected to perform in master classes for Isaac Stern, as well as Berl Senofsky. Part of her master class performance is included in the Academy Award–winning documentary, From Mao to Mozart. In 1981, as part of a sister city exchange program between Shanghai and San Francisco, she was selected to study at the San Francisco Conservatory. The late Agnes Albert, San Francisco Symphony patron and friend, sponsored her stay in San Francisco.

Before becoming a member of the San Francisco Symphony in 1991, Ms. Mo was a member of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Sacramento Symphony. She has appeared as a soloist with the Shanghai Symphony and the Shanghai Philharmonic; she has also performed many recitals and chamber music concerts in both China and the US. She was formerly the second violinist of the Aurora String Quartet.

As a very active violinist and chamber musician, Zhao Wei has performed widely in the US, Japan and China, and has appeared as soloist with major orchestras, such as the Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Radio Philharmonic, Shanghai Opera Symphony and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, among others. A top prize winner of several national violin and chamber music competitions, Ms. Wei earned her bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China and her later education from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Camilla Wicks, Shisheng Zheng and Weimin Hu. In 1998, Wei was invited by Isaac Stern to participate in the 3rd Miyazaki International Music Festival in Miyazaki, Japan, where they played chamber music together. She has also been teaching at the Yandangshan Inernational Music Festival in China since 1998. From 1998 to 2004 Ms. Wei was a violin professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China and actively recorded for Xianheng Music Co.. Her latest recording included Mozart Violin Sonata in G major KV 301, Beethoven Violin Sonata No.5 “Spring” in F Major, Handel Violin Sonata No.3 & No.4,Tartini Violin sonata in g Minor and Violin Sonata “Devil’s Trill” . She has also recorded many of the violin teaching demo CDs for children, such as Kayser Violin Etude, Kreutzer 42 Studies for Violin, Wieniawski Violin Caprices Op.10 & Op.18 and Suzuki Violin School.

Ms. Wei has been invited to be the Judge of several violin competition in the United States, including the 2006 MTNA (U.S. Music Teacher National Association) National Competition for Strings in Nevada, the 2006 and 2008 CMTANC(Chinese Music Teachers’ Association of North California) Youth Music Competition in California. Currently Ms. Wei serves as Associate Concertmaster of the Oakland Symphony and also performs with San Francisco Symphony and Symphony Silicon Valley. She plays a 1699 Italian violin by Matteo Goffriller. Ms. Wei resides in San Jose with her husband and their son.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS

Chen Qiangbin is Professor of Composition at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Vice-Dean of the Music Engineering Department and a Shu Guang Scholar. His work Hxak won the first prize in the Chamber Music Group National Competition in 2005. Other major pieces include Si (2002) and First Page (2008). In 2006, he began to design and direct concerts as artistic director. Every time he won great success.

David Garner is a graduate of the Conservatory. He was chairman of the department of musicianship and music theory for 15 years, and received the 1997 George Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award. Mr. Garner studied piano with Virginia Danforth, Beatrice Beauregard and Nathan Schwartz, and cello with Priscilla Parsons and Roman Dukson. His music has been performed widely in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, from New York City to Tokyo. His piano music has been performed in competitions in Latvia and Russia. Mr. Garner has received commissions from numerous Bay Area soloists, from Volti, Citywinds, and QUADRE, among other ensembles. He has written vocal chamber music in Spanish, Catalan, German, Renaissance Italian, Modern Greek and Japanese. Mr. Garner is a member of American Composers Forum, NACUSA, and is represented by BMI.

Gordon Getty, born in Los Angeles in 1933 and residing in San Francisco since 1945, studied piano with Robert Vetleson and voice with Easton Kent during his formative years. As a student at the University of San Francisco he majored in English Literature. His first published piece was the a cappela chorus All Along the Valley (1959). In the early 1960s he enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying music theory with Sol Joseph, and there composed the Homework Suite (1964) for solo piano. Since the 1980s he has produced a steady stream of compositions, beginning with The White Election (1981), a much-performed cycle of 32 poems by Emily Dickinson for solo singer and piano that was recorded (on the Delos label) by the late soprano Kaaren Erickson. In 1984, he unveiled his opera Plump Jack, an operatic interpretation (to his own libretto, based on Henry IV) of Shakespeare’s outrageous but poignant Falstaff. Following premiere performances by the San Francisco Symphony, Plump Jack was revived in semi-staged concert versions by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, and, most recently, in London, by the London Philharmonia, London Voices, and an international cast of soloists. Getty has been widely applauded for his creative and philanthropic achievements and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Maryland, Pepperdine University, the University of California at San Francisco, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Mannes College of Music in New York. In 1986 he was honored as an Outstanding American Composer at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in 2003 he was awarded the Gold Baton of the American Symphony Orchestra League.

A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Joseph Gregorio (b. 1979) has studied composition with Steven Stucky and David Conte. Gregorio’s music has twice been featured on NPR's Performance Today, has garnered prizes in several competitions, and has been performed in the United States and abroad by numerous soloists and ensembles. He has twice participated in the Oregon Bach Festival’s Composers’ Symposium, and has presented his work in an art song master class with William Bolcom and Joan Morris. Gregorio was named the 2005-2006 composer-in-residence of the Sonoma County Chamber Singers. His choral music is published by E. C. Schirmer Music Company and Treble Clef Music Press, and has been recorded by the choirs of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, the Washington Men's Camerata, the Rutgers University Glee Club, and the Cornell University Glee Club. Gregorio holds a M.M. in composition with departmental honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University. He also holds a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University. Gregorio was a professor of music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2008-2009. He maintains a private studio in Redwood City, CA.

Jake Heggie is the composer of the acclaimed operas Dead Man Walking (libretto: McNally), Three Decembers (libretto: Scheer), The End of the Affair (libretto: McDonald), the lyric drama To Hell and Back (libretto: Scheer), and the musical scene At the Statue of Venus (libretto: McNally). The recipient of a 2005/06 Guggenheim Fellowship, he has also composed more than 200 songs, as well as concerti, orchestral works and chamber music. His songs, song cycles and operas are championed internationally by singers including Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham, Audra McDonald, Kiri Te Kanawa and others. Heggie is currently at work on an epic opera based on Melville’s Moby-Dick with librettist Gene Scheer, commissioned by Dallas Opera and scheduled to open on April 30, 2010. Heggie was born in West Palm Beach, FL, in 1961 and raised in Ohio and California. He studied for two years in Paris and later went to UCLA, where he studied piano with the late Johana Harris and composition with Roger Bourland, Paul DesMarais and the late David Raksin. He has made his home in San Francisco since 1993.

Jia Daqun is Dean of the Graduate Study Programs and a Senior Professor in Composition and Theory at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His works have been played in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sendai, Yokohama, Singapore, Seoul, Amsterdam, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, London, Brussels, New York, Tanglewood and Chicago by outstanding national and international ensembles. His work Flavour of Bashu, for two violins, piano and percussion' (1995) was awarded as 'The Chinese Classic Musical Composition of the Twentieth-Century' by the Chinese government.

Liang Xiaoyue is in his first year of doctoral studies in the composition department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His works have been performed at Beijing International Music Festival and Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. His work Xi for string quartet was first prize winner of the 2008 Shanghai Conservatory of Music Chamber Music Competition and was performed at the 2009 Shanghai Spring International Music Festival.

Xu Shuya is Professor of Composition and President of the Shanghai Conservatory of music. Xu entered the Shanghai Conservatory of music in 1978 and began to teach in the Composition Department of the Conservatory after his graduation in 1983. Xu’s composing areas cover opera, symphony, dance music, electronic music, and film music, and his works have been praised by publications such as The New York Times and Le Monde.

Yang Liqing is Professor of Composition and Supervisor of Doctoral Students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He has been devoted to composition and the research of contemporary composition techniques and orchestration for many years. Yang has won honors such as Second Prize in Symphonic Composition Competition, China Record, 1986; Excellent Achievement Award of First Art and Literature, Shanghai, 1992; First Prize of Tenth National Music Composition (Symphony). His works have also been selected as 20th Century Chinese Music Classics.

ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO’S “SHANGHAI CELEBRATION”

The “Shanghai Celebration” is a San Francisco Bay Area-wide collaboration of cultural institutions honoring the region’s long-standing relationship with Shanghai. The Celebration includes exhibitions, performances, film series, lectures, special events, and more presented by dozens of Bay Area organizations. The cornerstone of the Celebration is the Asian Art Museum’s presentation of Shanghai, a major exhibition examining the visual culture of one of China’s most cosmopolitan cities, scheduled for February 12 through September 5, 2010. The Celebration will be observed through 2010, when Shanghai will host the World Expo. For more information, visit www.shanghaicelebration.com.