San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents Modern Take on Baroque Masterpiece Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space
Photo of the San Francisco Girls Chorus by Rachel Z Photography. Photos available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.
The San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents Vivaldi’s
Juditha Triumphans at Z Space on March 9 and 10, 2024
Music Direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC Artistic Director
Stage Direction by Céline Ricci
Saturday, March 9 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 10 at 2pm
Z Space | 450 Florida Street | San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information: www.sfgirlschorus.org/performances
San Francisco, CA –The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) continues its 2023-2024 season, celebrating 45 years of empowering young women, with a production of Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans on Saturday, March 9 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 10 at 2pm at Z Space (450 Florida Street, San Francisco). The performances feature SFGC’s Premier Ensemble, with music direction by SFGC Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, stage direction by Céline Ricci, and projection design by Peter Crompton and Frédéric Boulay.
This remarkable oratorio from 1716 was written for an all-female ensemble, with all characters both male and female interpreted by women of the Ospedale della Pietà, a girl’s orphanage in Venice where Vivaldi was music director. It is the only oratorio by Vivaldi to have survived.
Sainte-Agathe and Ricci take a modern approach to this beautiful Baroque-period work. For these performances, SFGC commissioned a new arrangement and edition of Juditha, created by Adam Cockerham. This arrangement, trimmed to a shorter runtime and for nine instrumentalists instead of the original large orchestra, makes the work accessible for more performers and audiences.
Sainte-Agathe says, “I am excited to bring into the world a version of Juditha that will be possible for more young singers and smaller organizations to present. Vivaldi wrote this music for young women, and I hope this production will encourage our young people to have a better understanding of his work, piquing their curiosity about the Baroque era. It's been a very rewarding journey to work with Céline and the design team to bring modern technology and Baroque repertoire together.”
Stage director Céline Ricci is a frequent collaborator with SFGC, and is also the Founder and Executive/Artistic Director of San Francisco's Ars Minerva, whose mission is to engage new audiences for classical music through innovative productions of Baroque operas. Ars Minerva brings forgotten music back to life, in collaboration with artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Florence to Italian and French parents, Ricci studied in Paris and continued her post-graduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Selected by renowned conductor William Christie for his academy, Le Jardin des Voix, she was named one of opera's promising new talents in 2005 by Opernwelt. Her recent performances include Dido and Aeneas with Akademie für Alte Musik, with performances in Berlin, Buenos Aires and Rome, concerts with Philharmonia Baroque at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood, with Ars Lyrica at the Berkeley Early Music Festival and in Houston, and with Romabarocca at Palazzo Braschi in Rome, among many others.
Since 1978, SFGC has provided girls and young women the unique opportunity not only to perform at the highest artistic caliber, but also to develop self-confidence, leadership skills, and an awareness of the role of the arts in civic engagement. A leader in the Bay Area and national music scenes, SFGC produces award-winning concerts, recordings and tours; empowers young women in music and other fields; and sets the international standard for the highest level of performance and education. SFGC has been recognized through numerous honors including five GRAMMY Awards, four ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming, and in 2002, becoming the first youth chorus to receive Chorus America's prestigious Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. Each year, hundreds of singers of diverse backgrounds from 45 Bay Area cities ranging in age from age four to eighteen participate in SFGC’s programs. The organization consists of a six-level Chorus School training program and the Premier Ensemble, a professional-level chorus of treble voices.
Under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC has achieved an incomparable sound that underscores the unique clarity and force of impeccably trained treble voices fused with expressiveness and drama. As a result, the SFGC vibrantly performs 1,000 years of choral masterworks from plainchant to the most challenging and nuanced contemporary works, many created expressly for them, in programs that are as intelligently designed as they are enjoyable and revelatory to experience. The SFGC 2023-2024 season is no exception.
SFGC's season continues with a concert featuring the Premier Ensemble in a collaboration with renowned percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii on May 19, 2024 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. On May 30, 2024, the Chorus School will showcase singers from Levels 1 through IV at its annual Chorus School Spring Concert at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments from the year individually and as a school. The performance will feature the world premiere of a new work by SFGC Chorus School composer-in-residence Sahba Aminikia. In addition, SFGC ensembles will perform throughout the Bay Area in collaboration this season with other organizations and artists including the East Bay Philharmonic, Sunset Music & Arts, Lisa Mezzacappa, and the Amateur Music Network.
More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about
More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe
San Francisco Girls Chorus - Upcoming Highlights
SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans
Music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & stage direction by Céline Ricci
March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm & March 10, 2024 at 2pm
Z Space, 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA
SFGC Premier Ensemble with Percussionist & Composer Haruka Fujii
May 19, 2024 at 3pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St, San Francisco, CA
Chorus School Spring Concert
Featuring a World Premiere by SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia
May 30, 2024
Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr, Oakland, CA 94612
Tickets & information: www.sfgirlschorus.org
The San Francisco Girls Chorus receives support from Grants for the Arts, The Kimball Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Sequoia Trust, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Sam Mazza Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, and the Joseph and Vera Long Foundation.