2023-24 Highlights

2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | COVID TIME | 2019–20 | 2018–19

December 24 / Midnight Mass
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco

December 24 / Christmas Eve Eucharist 
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

December 17, 18 / Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and Chorus: Sing-It-Yourself Messiah 
Benicia Clock Tower, Benicia
Herbst Theater, San Francisco

December 13-15 / American Bach: Handel’s Messiah
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

December 8, 9 / UC Berkeley University Chorus:
Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem
Hertz Hall, Berkeley 

December 6 / Choirs of St. Mark’s Lutheran and St. Mary’s Cathedral: Lessons and Carols
St. Mark’s Lutheran, San Francisco

December 3 / Schola Adventus: Lessons and Carols
Church of the Advent, San Francisco

December 2 / Lisa Mezzacappa & Beth Lisick:
The Electronic Lover

Serial podcast opera, release of Episodes 7 and 8

December 1 / San Francisco Girls Chorus and
Amateur Music Network: Family Sing
Kanbar Performing Arts Center, San Francisco

November 30 / Recording session: Volti
San Francisco State University, San Francisco

Works composed for MUS 441, Benjamin Sabey’s Composition Studio 

November 11, 12, 18 / Clerestory: A Many Splendored Thing
David Brower Center, Berkeley
St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco
Community School of Music and Arts, Mountain View

November 3-5 / Volti: Book of Colors
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Oakland
Noe Valley Ministry, SF
The 222, Healdsburg

September 15-25 / High Holidays 5784
Sherith Israel, San Francisco

August 18 / San Francisco Choral Society:
Shchetynsky, Requiem
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco 

Bass soloist

July 24-29 / Bobby McFerrin CIRCLESONGSchool
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

July 18 / Festival Napa Valley: Seasons of Hope
Charles Krug Winery, Saint Helena

July 15 / Recording Session: Mark Growden
Guerrilla Studios, Oakland

July 8 / San Francisco Choral Society
Mozart Requiem Sing-Along
Trinity Episcopal Church, San Francisco

Bass soloist 

 2022-23 Highlights

2023-24 | 2022_23 | 2021-22 | COVID TIME | 2019–20 | 2018–19

June 21 / Garden of Memory
Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland

Annual walk-through concert at Chapel of the Chimes on the summer solstice, featuring simultaneous performances in different parts of the building by Bay Area composers, musicians, and sound artists.

June 4 / Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra:
Songs of Truth: Holocaust Awareness Concert
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Multi-media tribute to the exceptional talent and resilience of Jewish composers who continued to create music while imprisoned during the Holocaust, providing a unique window into learning about the Holocaust through music.

June 2 / Volti: Chorus America Conference — Closing Concert
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

May 19 / Oakland Symphony:
Bodies on the Line: The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike
Paramount Theater, Oakland

World premiere of oratorio by Martin Rokeach and Rebecca Engle about the famed 1936–37 strike by auto workers against General Motors. Created role of Bob Travis, chief union strategist.

May 13, 14 / Volti: Sounds and Shadows
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Walnut Creek
Kanbar Performing Arts Center, San Francisco

May 5–7 / California Bach Society: Biber Requiem & Steffani Stabat Mater
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco
All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley

April 29, 30 / San Francisco Choral Society: Terra Nostra
Calvary Presbyterian, San Francisco

March 4, 5, 12 / Clerestory: Phoenix Rising
Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco
Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland
Chamber Music at Rancho Flaubert, Vacaville

February 10–12 / ODC Dance & Volti: Path of Miracles
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

January 22 / St. Paul’s, Burlingame: Marcia McCowin Concert
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Burlingame

Annual chamber music concert highlighting women composers and poets

January 3–9 / West Edge Opera: Dolores
Odd Fellows Lodge, Berkeley

Workshop for new opera by composer Nicolas Lell Benavides and librettist Marcella Martin Koch

December 14–18 / American Bach Soloists: Handel’s Messiah
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco
Mondavi Center, Davis
Green Music Center, Sonoma

December 4 & 6 / Clerestory: Sweet Was the Song
Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco
Berkeley Chamber Performances, Berkeley

November 19 & 20 / Volti: Ochre & Ink
ODC Theater, San Francisco

November 11-13 / The Furies: A Laptopera
CCRMA, Stanford University

October 18 / foreignfire: waterpuller’s light: in principle

Album release

October 7 / Old First Concerts: Story & Song
Old First Church, San Francisco

August 25 / The Electronic Lover (Episodes 5 & 6)

Serial podcast opera created by composer Lisa Mezzacappa and writer Beth Lisick

2021-22 Highlights

2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | COVID TIME | 2019–20 | 2018–19

July 17–24 / St. Paul’s Burlingame: Wells Cathedral Residency
Wells Cathedral, Wells, Somerset, England

Weeklong residency at Wells Cathedral with the Choir of St. Paul’s Burlingame

June 21 / New Music Bay Area: Garden of Memory
Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland

Music boxes, featuring arrangements of Goldberg Variations, Music for Airports 1/1, and music by Aphex Twin, Vladimir Martynov, Erik Satie

June 18 & 19 / Volti: Shadows, Visions, and Dreams
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Walnut Creek
Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco

Works for chamber choir by Aftab Darvishi, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Tania León, Jens Ibsen, and Eric Tuan

June 4 / Marin Baroque: Regal Splendor
First Presbyterian Church, San Anselmo

10th Anniversary concert with chamber choir and period instrument orchestra. Bass soloist for Handel’s Coronation Anthems

May 14, 15 / Clerestory: Into the West
The 222, Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg

For the first time in two years, Clerestory returns to the public stage with a program exploring the identity and shared sense of place we experience in the American West

April 22–24 / SF Chamber Orchestra & Volti
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto
First Congregational Church, Berkeley

World premiere of Michael Gilbertson’s Denial

March 27 / Quadre: Terra Sacrum
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

World premiere of Jeff Scott’s Terra Sacrum for vocal quartet, French horn quartet, and piano

March 5 / Stand with Ukraine
University of California, Berkeley

Benefit concert to support Ukrainian charities

Clerestory

After a hiatus of nearly two years, the men of Clerestory came back together to share this short performance video with our friends and fans, as a small holiday-season gift.

December 15–17, 19 / American Bach Soloists: Handel’s Messiah
Grace Cathedral (SF), Green Music Center (Sonoma)

A Bay Area holiday tradition now in its 23rd year, ABS’s performances of Handel’s timeless work have become an essential part of the musical year for many music lovers and have attracted audiences of more than 50,000 from around the world.

December 1 / San Francisco University High School: Art as Practice
San Francisco University High School

"Art as Practice" is an arts and community building day intended to create a fun, interconnected environment where students, faculty, and staff of University High School can practice trying out an art form through workshops with over 20 artists from throughout the Bay Area. Ran a music box-making workshop with 25 juniors and seniors.

October 22 & 23 / Volti & Del Sol SQ: Huang Ruo’s Angel Island Oratorio
Presidio Theatre (SF), Angel Island Immigration Station

Between 1910 and 1940, as immigrants flowed through the new immigration station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, Chinese immigrants faced massive discrimination because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Being held for sometimes years in brutal conditions at the detention center, many of these immigrants looked for solace by inscribing poetry onto the walls of the center. Composer Huang Ruo’s 75-minute Angel Island Oratorio for Del Sol String Quartet and chamber choir Volti brings these poems to life in the very space they were created.

October 7–9 / ODC’s Path of Miracles with The Boston Cecilia
Global Arts Live @ First Church in Cambridge (Cambridge, MA)

Guest performer and musician liaison in touring production of ODC/Dance’s immersive Path of Miracles, a site-specific performance experience choreographed by KT Nelson to an a cappella score by Joby Talbot.

August 22 / Volti: Welcome Back to the Performing Arts
Lamplighters @ Yerba Buena Garden Esplanade, San Francisco

Free outdoor celebration of San Francisco’s musical diversity with 42nd Street Moon, Ars Minerva, Lamplighters Music Theatre, Opera Parallèle, Pocket Opera, Theatre Flamenco, Urban Jazz Dance Company, and Volti.

Performing in the Time of COVID

2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | COVID TIME | 2019–20 | 2018–19

Volti

Online series of mini-concerts, featuring the premieres of four new works for chamber chorus, designed for online rehearsal and presentation: Anne Hege's it sounds like all my dreams, Danny Clay's Singing Puzzles, Joel Chapman's Interdependence, and Pamela Z's Ink. November 2020 – July 2021.

Experimental Sound Studios: The Quarantine Concerts

Live-streamed music box performance featuring music by Aphex Twin, Erik Satie, Brian Eno, and an abridged version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Presented by The Consortionist on October 25, 2020. Archival video here.

foreignfire: waterpuller’s light

During shelter-in-place, foreignfire presents waterpuller’s light, a series of online Jewish Bible chanting rituals. Each weekly edition integrates traditional chanting with innovative translation and audiovisual work. Numbers 13:1-15:41 | Genesis 23:1-25:18

Town Hall Seattle: Widespread Orchestra

Town Hall Seattle and composer Noah Luna presented Widespread Orchestra, a composition for chorus and cello, as part of cellist Joshua Roman’s Town Music “Fermata” residency. Luna was inspired to write a piece where people could come together, despite their physical isolation, by a poem by Mighty Mike McGee that begins, “Today, I dance knowing / someone somewhere dances with me.”

Rhymes with Opera: A bas, Guillaume

A mini video opera by Ruby Fulton on the death of poet Guillaume Apollinaire in the 1918 flu epidemic. Presented at RWO CyberSalon: American Northwest on May 23, 2020.

UC Berkeley, MUS 155 Music Composition: Guest Lecturer

Exploration of approaches to contemporary music composition, analyzing how safety protocols and health concerns need to transform music practices, and, through the creation of new works, advocating for art that takes advantage of the new reality. Readings of new works for solo performer and for vocal sextet. Offered through Berkeley Arts+Design: Creative Discovery.

Academy of Art University, English for Art Purposes 4: Guest Speaker

Presentation and discussion on creativity and the creative process with undergraduate students working in illustration, fashion, graphic design, and music.

Harvard Opportunes: Change in My Life

Virtual project with Harvard’s oldest all-gender a cappella group

2019-20 Highlights

2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | COVID TIME | 2019–20 | 2018–19

June 15–18, 2020 / Betsey Biggs’ MELT: The Memory of Ice (POSTPONED)
March 24–26 / MELT: The Memory of Ice (POSTPONED)
New York City

Rehearsals and recording sessions for MELT, a meditation on the meanings and memories of ice. An evening-length multimedia performance, a feature-length experimental music-film, and an immersive four wall installation sung to life by members of The M6 vocal ensemble using ice core data, archival footage and sounds, images, and stories collected through fieldwork in Greenland. 

June 6 / SLOrk in the Bing: The Furies (CANCELED)
April 30 / SLOrktastic: The Furies (CANCELED)
March 15, 16 / Anne Hege’s The Furies (POSTPONED)
CCRMA Stage (Stanford), Bing Concert Hall (Stanford)

Premiere of The Furies: A Laptopera—an opera for laptop orchestra— by Anne Hege, performed with with SideLObe, the elite ensemble of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Voice, movement, ritual, and laptop ensemble are merged in Hege’s version of the Electra story. Cast: Shauna Fallihee, Alice Del Simone, Anne Hege, Sidney Chen.

May 3 / Candlelight Concerts: Clerestory (CANCELED)
May 1 / Clerestory sings Into the West (CANCELED)
April 18, 19 / Clerestory sings Into the West (CANCELED)
David Brower Center (Berkeley), St. Mark’s Lutheran Church (SF), Center for Spiritual Living (Santa Rosa), The Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin (SF)

Composers of all kinds have been drawn to the big sky, crashing surf, and boundless opportunity of our Pacific coast. Into the West includes works by artists who have been drawn to the energy and majesty of America’s furthest frontier. Performed by the nine men of Clerestory.

April 24, 25, 26 / Volti: Politically Charged (CANCELED)
Herbst Theatre (SF), First United Methodist Church (Palo Alto), First Congregational Church (Berkeley)

A musical collaboration between Volti and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, this program features the premiere of a major new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gilbertson. Denial, written for the SFCO, Volti, and Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, is based on current writings on climate change.

March 2 / Volti: Recording Session
25th Street Recording (Oakland)

February 28, 29 / Volti: Almost Speechless
Noe Valley Ministry (SF), Hillside Club (Berkeley)

Volti explores the voice as an instrument, premiering Mark Winges’s worlds “Tomorrow’s Dream Not the Same” and Tonia Ko’s “Starting Places,” which uses fragments of text generated by members of Volti about places we’ve called home. Program includes Zibuokle Martinaityte’s “Chant des Voyelles” and Danny Clay’s improvisatory “Playbook Choruses.”

February 16 / Compline with Endersnight
The Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist (SF)

Compline, or Night Prayer, is sung by the voices of Endersnight, an a cappella ensemble specializing in choral repertoire of the 14th–16th centuries. The free candlelit event is held on the third Sunday of each month at 8:30 p.m. All are welcome regardless of religious affiliation.

February 1, 2 / Clerestory sings Suffragist
David Brower Center (Berkeley), St. Mark’s Lutheran (SF)

Clerestory begins 2020 by celebrating the centennial year of the 19th Amendment. Suffragist is all about trailblazing women, from innovative female perspectives in modern composition, to suffrage songs that women sang beginning in the late 1800s as they fought for the right to vote. Featuring music by Ethel Smyth, Clara Schumann, Minna Choi, Volary, Stacy Garrop, Teodora Ginés, Ann Callaway, Diana Saez, Anne Hege, Amy Beach, Edie Hill, Katherine Saxon, Kitty Brazelton, Florence Price, Alma Mahler, Fanny Hensel.

January 29 / #we: a talk and performance series of queer perspectives
Pro Arts Gallery and Commons (Oakland)

A bi-monthly talk and reading series of queer perspectives hosted by Richard Loranger, featuring writers and performers from various segments of the queer spectrum, who each give a half-hour presentation on their perspective on or experience of queerness, including a reading or performance of their creative work. Presenting Mother Tongues: Reclaiming a Discarded Self, a talk on language attrition and queerness, interwoven with performances on a DIY music box.

January 25 / San Francisco Boys Chorus: Recording Session
San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SF)

Recording Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips

December 16, 2019 / Clerestory: A Ceremony of Carols with SF Girls Chorus
Davies Symphony Hall (SF)

The nine men of Clerestory join SF Girls Chorus in their holiday concert, performing Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece A Ceremony of Carols and The Fayrfax Carol by Thomas Adès.

October 14 / Jónsi & Alex Somers: Riceboy Sleeps
Golden Gate Theater (SF)

In celebration of the album’s 10th anniversary, Sigur Rós vocalist Jónsi and his partner, musician Alex Somers perform Riceboy Sleeps live with Wordless Orchestra and a 12-voice choir.

September 21–22 / Clerestory sings War and Peace
St. Mark’s Lutheran (SF), Chapel of the Chimes (Oakland)

Marking the 150th anniversary of Tolstoy’s epic and also 80 years since the start of WWII, the eight men of Clerestory present works on the theme of war and peace.

August 30 / Kronos Quartet: Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (CD Release)

Volti joins the Kronos Quartet on the first full recording of Sun Rings, Kronos’ 2002 collaboration with composer Terry Riley for string quartet, chorus, and pre-recorded space sounds, released on Nonesuch Records.

2018-19 Highlights

2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | COVID TIME | 2019–20 | 2018–19

June 15, 2019 / Brian Baumbusch’s The Pressure
Other Minds Festival 24 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater (SF)

The premiere of a tale of gothic horror told in music by composer and instrument builder Brian Baumbusch, featuring more than 24 performers including The Lightbulb Ensemble and Friction String Quartet, 3 keyboardists, vocal quartet (Shauna Fallihee, Melinda Becker, Ryan Matos, Sidney Chen), and the composer as narrator.

June 8 / Anne Hege’s The Furies (Act III)
Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) @ Bing Concert Hall (Stanford)

The premiere of Act III of Anne Hege’s Laptopera, an opera for laptop orchestra. Voice, movement, ritual, and laptop ensemble are merged in Hege’s version of the Electra story — Electra electrified. Presented as part of SLOrk Trek 2019. Roles sung by Shauna Fallihee, Alice Del Simone, Sidney Chen.

June 6 / Chan Family Picnic developing session

Development for a new vaudeville by Eugenie Chan, drawing on the history of her grandfather, a man caught between his studies as a Stanford medical student and his membership in a Chinatown gambling and prostitution guild in early 1900s San Francisco. Music by Byron Au Yong,

May 19 / Compline with Endersnight
March 17 / Compline with Endersnight
The Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist (SF)

May 11 & 12 / Clerestory sings Songbook II
Holy Innocents Episcopal Church (SF), David Brower Center (Berkeley)

A new chapter in Clerestory’s popular series of Americana concerts, exploring the rich body of popular American musical styles, from barbershop to folk songs, African American spirituals to vocal jazz. Clerestory is a singer-led, all-male vocal chamber ensemble.

May 7 & 9 / Byron Au Yong’s 9 Lifeboats
Studio Theater, University of San Francisco (SF)

Guest lecturer, USF MUS 180: Music and Social History, taught by Byron Au Yong.

May 5 / Innova Recordings’ Inn-fest 2019
Center for New Music (SF)

Inn-fest, the annual Innova label showcase, features a smorgasbord from its roster of visionary artists. Performance by Volti to celebrate the release of its new album, the color of there seen from here. Additional sets by Friction Quartet, Pamela Z, Areon Flutes.

May 4 / Volti’s 40th Anniversary Gala
Noe Valley Ministry (SF)

Volti — San Francisco's new-music vocal ensemble, founded and led by Robert Geary — celebrates 40 years of "singing without a net" and releases their newest CD, the color of there seen from here. 

March 28 / dangerous dreamscapes with foreignfire
Dresher Ensemble Studio (West Oakland)

Live wrestling, poetry chanted from inscrutable scrolls, and spontaneous works of voice and body featuring some of the bay area's most adventurous vocal artists, led by David Israel Katz.

March 17 & 18 / Jimmy López’s Dreamers
Cal Performances @ Zellerbach Hall (Berkeley);
Stanford Live @ Bing Concert Hall (Stanford)

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Ana Maria Martinez, Volti and the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus in the premiere of an oratorio about undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

March 9 & 10 / Alexander Nevsky with Marin Symphony
Marin Center Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium (San Rafael)

Alasdair Neale conducts Prokofiev’s cantata. Guest singer with Marin Symphony Chorus.

February 28–March 2 / ODC’s Path of Miracles with Volti
Grace Cathedral (SF)
February 1 / ODC Unplugged: Path of Miracles with Volti
ODC Theater (SF)
January 25 / ODC’s Path of Miracles (touring version)
Page Theatre @ Wesley United Methodist Church (Winona, MN)
January 13 / Volti sings Path of Miracles (concert version)
Gualala Arts @ Gualala Arts Center (Gualala, CA)

Path of Miracles, a site-specific performance experience choreographed by KT Nelson, returns to Grace Cathedral for a second sold-out run. Created by ODC/Dance in collaboration with Volti. Score by Joby Talbot.

February 17 & 23 / Clerestory sings Movement of Colors
St. Gregory of Nyssa (SF), David Brower Center (Berkeley)
February 22 / Clerestory: Creating Leonardo
Humanities West, Marines’ Memorial Theater (SF)
February 16 / Clerestory: The Bright Field
Sonoma Bach, Schroeder Hall (Rohnert Park)

A kaleidoscopic program connecting music to visual art. Works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tallis, Gesualdo, Pärt, Howells and Whitacre.

November 16, 17, 2018 / Requiem Mass: A Queer Divine Rite
Grace Cathedral (SF), presented by YBCA

Soloist for Holcombe Waller’s Requiem Mass: A Queer Divine Rite. Building on millennia of queer leadership in religious ceremony, the work intersects music, theater and ceremony to center an equitable queer magic within our sacred cultural spaces. The work invokes peace for the dead who suffered persecution for their sexual orientation or gender expression, focusing on the history of LGBTQi people from the 1980s through present day.