Morrison Artists Series announces 2011–12 season of free chamber music concerts

The concerts

The Grammy-nominated Borealis Wind Quintet kicks off the season at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. The highest musical integrity, irresistible energy and five-fold charisma distinguish Borealis in the chamber music field. The quintet is known for exquisite programming that includes the finest of the classics, engaging commissioned works, opera arias and works for piano and winds. The Washington Post has praised the quintet’s “sensitive collaborations with a sophisticated and cosmopolitan air.”

At the Morrison Artists Series, the Borealis Wind Quintet will perform Lefebvre: Suite, Op. 57; Barber: “Summer Music,” Op. 21; Turrin: “Summer Dances”; Moravec: “Indialantic Impromptu”; Manny Mendelson: Quintet; Muczynski: Quintet for Winds, Op. 45; Villa-Lobos: Quinteto em forma de choros; and Giulio Briccialdi: “Potpourri Fantastico sul Barbiere di Siviglio del Rossini.”

The Lincoln Trio performs at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4. It will play Laura Schwendinger : “C’e la luna questa sera?”; Haydn: Trio in G minor, Hob. XV:1; Augusta Read Thomas: “Moon Jig”; and Beethoven: Trio in D major, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost.”

Chicago’s most celebrated chamber ensemble, the Lincoln Trio displays “joy of sheer technical ability, unanimity of phrasing and beautiful blended tone,” Classical Voice of New England writes. The Strad has described the trio as “sensational” and “bewitching.” Formed in 2003, it has performed throughout the U.S., including appearances at the Ravinia Music Festival, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Chamber Music Series, Oakmont Chamber Music Series, University of Vermont, Central Texas Orchestral Society, Columbus Chamber Music series and a tour celebrating the Lincoln Bicentennial, which included a kickoff celebration with President Obama. Collaborators have included guest violists Roberto Diaz, Michael Strauss and Roger Chase. The Lincoln Trio is ensemble-in-residence at the Music Institute of Chicago.

The Alexander String Quartet, SF State’s longstanding quartet-in-residence, performs at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4. The program will include Haydn: Quartet in C major, Op. 54, No. 2; Bartók: Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 7/Sz. 40; and Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 “American.” The Alexander performs regularly at major concert halls throughout the world. Collaborators include Manahem Pressler, Richard Stolzman, David Krakauer, Andrew Speight and Branford Marsalis. Recent recordings include a three-CD set of the Mozart quartets, a six-CD set of the complete Shostakovich quartets, and the complete quartets of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and SF State Professor Emeritus Wayne Peterson. The Los Angeles Times writes: “This is a group deep in its element, firm in its stride.”

Chanticleer, the Grammy-winning and San Francisco-based chorus performs at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19. Called “the world’s reigning male chorus” by the New Yorker and named 2008 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, Chanticleer makes appearances at legendary concert halls worldwide on a regular basis. The ensemble is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its 12 male voices ranging from countertenor to bass and its original interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto.

Chanticleer will perform its “love story” program of classical and contemporary works at the Morrison Artists Series. Before closing with a selection of popular songs, the ensemble will perform a world premiere of selections from Stephen Paulus’ “The Lotus Lover.” The full program is: de Vivanco: “Veni, dilecte mi” and “Sicut lilium inter spinas”; de Victoria: “Nigra sum sed formosa”; Duruflé: “Ubi caritas”; Daniel-Lesur: “Épithalame,” from “Le Cantique des cantiques”; de Sermisy: “Tant que vivray”; Janequin: “Toutes les nuits”; Le Jeune: “Revoici venir du printemps”; Strauss: “Drei Männerchöre”; Sametz: “Not an End of Loving”; Whitacre: “This Marriage”; Tavener: “A Village Wedding”; Paulus: “A Rich Brocade”; “Late Spring”; “All Night”; “Illusions”; and a selection of popular songs to be announced.

The Grammy-winning Parker Quartet will perform Sunday, March 4, at 3 p.m. It will play Debussy: String Quartet in G. Op. 10; Dutilleux: “Ainsi la nuit”; and Schumann: Quartet in A Major, Op. 41, No. 3. Hailed by The New York Times as “something extraordinary,” the quartet has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the pre-eminent ensembles of its generation. The quartet began its professional touring career in 2002 and garnered international acclaim in 2005, winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition as well as the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France. In 2009, Chamber Music America awarded the Parker the biennial Cleveland Quartet Award.

Trio Valtorna, featuring violin, horn and piano, closes the season on Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m. Bringing together the gifts of three internationally recognized artists, Trio Valtorna embarks upon its first concert season in 2011–12. After performing together at the “Music from Angel Fire” Chamber Music Festival, renowned violinist Ida Kavafian and French horn player extraordinaire David Jolley continue in collaboration, adding young pianist Gilles Vonsattel. Fred Kirshnit, writing in the New York Sun, called Kavafian’s artistry “meaningful and affecting,” while the New Yorker has praised Jolley’s “richly melancholy horn solos” and David Weininger of the Boston Globe observed the “clarity and light touch” of Vonsattel.

At the Morrison Artists Series, the trio will perform Harbison: “Twilight Music” for Violin, Horn and Piano; Brahms: Horn Trio in Eb major, Op. 40; and Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78.

Festinger and guest artists will give a free lecture one hour before each concert. The guest artists will also present master classes the day before (or day of) the concerts, open to the public.

New artistic director

Festinger, an SF State faculty member since 1990, will continue to incorporate contemporary music into all Morrison Artists Series concerts.

“We present a broad range of music,” he said. “But we always ask our guest performers to include very recent compositions.”

Festinger replaces fellow composer Ronald Caltabiano, who is now dean of the College of Fine Arts at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Festinger brings to the role of artistic director a long career as a composer. He is a co-founder of Earplay, a San Francisco-based chamber music ensemble that has performed hundreds of 20th and 21st century works since 1985. His compositions have received awards and honors from the Aaron Copland Fund, American Academy of Arts and Letters and MetLife Creative Connections. The Alexander String Quartet, Boston Chamber Ensemble and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra have performed Festinger’s work.

Festinger was recently awarded a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to record one of his compositions. The Works and Process Series at the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York commissioned the composition for soprano and chamber ensemble, titled “The Coming of Age.” The lyrics are from poems by the celebrated, German-born fiction writer and playwright Denis Johnson.

The son of a classical pianist, Festinger said he has been at the piano since he was able to sit and reach the keys. A Boston native who grew up in Palo Alto, Festinger also studied cello, trumpet and jazz guitar. Before earning a bachelor’s degree in music composition from SF State, he played guitar on the 1969 Joan Baez tour of the U.S. and Canada, which included the legendary stop near Woodstock, N.Y.

Hours, Location and Parking

McKenna Theatre is located in the Creative Arts Building on the SF State campus, 1600 Holloway Ave. (at 19th Ave.), San Francisco. Public parking is available in Lot 20, accessed from Lake Merced Boulevard between Winston Drive and Font Boulevard. On weekends and evenings only, public parking is available in Lots 1 and 2, on Holloway Ave. (at 19th Ave.). Parking is $3 per hour with a $6 daily maximum. Nearby street parking is readily available on weekends. For details, visit www.sfsu.edu/~parking.