May 30: San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents Chorus School Spring Concert featuring World Premiere by Composer-in-Residence Sabha Aminikia

Photos available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents its Chorus School Spring Concert

 Featuring World Premiere by SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sabha Aminikia

Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7pm
Oakland Scottish Rite Center | 1547 Lakeside Drive | Oakland, CA
Tickets & Information: www.sfgirlschorus.org/performances

San Francisco, CA –The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) concludes its 2023-2024 season, celebrating 45 years of empowering young women, when the Chorus School will showcase singers from Levels I through IV at its annual Chorus School Spring Concert at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center (1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland) on Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7pm, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments this year individually and as a school.

A culmination of their studies, students will perform the repertoire they have worked on this season. On the program are works by Gabriel Fauré, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Earlene Rentz, Alberto Favero, Felix Mendelssohn, and more. The chorus school led by Level III Director Terry Alvord closes the concert with the world premiere of SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia’s newest work, Woman, Life, Freedom, written for SFGC.

Aminikia describes Woman, Life, Freedom as a protest song and an homage to Iranian women, which sets text by 14th century Persian poet Hafez›. Aminikia explains, “‘Woman, Life, Freedom’” is a slogan that originated within the women-led Kurdish movements. However, after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran under suspicious circumstances, this slogan became the name of the Iranian women's movement after September 2022. Prior to her death, Mahsa was detained by Tehran’s morality police for failing to properly cover her hair. Through the protests since then, 551 protestors were killed by security forces, including 502 men, 49 women, and 68 children in 26 provinces out of 31 provinces in Iran. The women’s rights movement in Iran originally initiated in the mid-19th century. However, the first official social movement emerged in 1910 after the Iranian constitutional revolution, leading to the establishment of societies and magazines shortly after, which continues until today.”

The San Francisco Girls Chorus School Composer-in-Residence program gives singers a chance to learn more about the process of creating new music, and to interact with a living composer over an extended period of time. During the year-long residency, the composer visits rehearsals, meets with Level Directors, and creates a new work expressly for the Chorus School, engaging each group at their own musical level, reaching out to musical minds spanning a broad age range. This program also encourages composers to consider the vast artistic potential of young girls' voices, finding new and colorful ways to bring this unique instrument into the broader musical life of the San Francisco Bay Area.

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 Artistic Director 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. 

Up next, on June 22 SFGC will perform at the Kronos Quartet’s 2024 Kronos Festival at SF Jazz. From June 8-22, Level IV Choristers will travel to Caen, France for a two-week intensive rehearsal and performance process culminating in the world premiere multi-disciplinary opera O Future by composer Thierry Pécou.  Later this summer, the SFGC Premier Ensemble embarks on a tour of South Africa from July 10-21, 2024.

More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about

More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe

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.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Raises $220,000 for Music Education Programs and Scholarship Fund at 45th Anniversary Gala

Photos by Rachel Ziegler Photography available in high resolution here.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Celebrates 45th Anniversary Season with Annual Gala and Auction

Featuring Remarks by San Francisco Mayor London Breed

 Guest Speaker Diane Jones Lowrey

Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Common Sense Media 

And Guest Artist Silvie Jensen, Mezzo-Soprano & SFGC Alumna

More information about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) celebrated 45 years of empowering young women with its Annual Gala and Auction on Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6pm at the Julia Morgan Ballroom. The event raised over $220,000 in support of SFGC’s Music Education Programs and the Elizabeth Avakian Need-Based Scholarship Fund.

Among the 160 guests enjoying the festivities were San Francisco Mayor London Breed, renowned San Francisco attorneys Paul and Louise Renne, philanthropist Navid Armstrong, co-founder and board president of Clinic by the Bay Janet Reilly, real estate philanthropist Clint Reilly, and Head of DEI at Common Sense Media and the San Francisco Commissioner for the Commission on the Status of Women Diane Jones Lowrey, who was also the featured guest speaker. At the gala, Mayor Breed presented SFGC Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe with a Proclamation, declaring April 26, 2024 as San Francisco Girls Chorus Day and highlighting the role of SFGC in the cultural life of the city.

The evening began with a cocktail reception with music provided by guitarist Karl McHugh followed by performances by the GRAMMY® Award-winning SFGC Premier Ensemble led by Valérie Sainte-Agathe, the Level IV Ensemble conducted by Monica Baruch, and soloists Samsara Dluzak, Adea Hansen-Whistler and Vibuhti Singh. Guests enjoyed a fine dining experience with artisan wine provided by Whistler Vineyards, as Ann Gray Miller, the President of SFGC’s Board of Directors, welcomed guests to the celebration, recognizing the 45th anniversary year and the Board, staff and faculty in the room. Mezzo-soprano and SFGC Alum Silvie Jensen, a highly sought-after oratorio soloist described by The New York Times as “marvelous,” “elegant,” and “beautiful,” performed throughout the evening.

The 2024 SFGC Gala Committee included chairperson Sarah Hollenbeck, Laura Lane, Ann Gray Miller, Kim Nakahara, John Sanborn, Leah Fitschen Schloss, Sheila Schwartzburg, Alma Sorensen, and Stephanie Wei.

SFGC Gala Table Sponsors included Ryan and Johanna Aipperspach, Shoshana Berger, Jen Bilik, Ellen and Joffa Dale, Charles Ferguson and Kay Dryden, Leah Fitschen Schloss '85 and Randall Schloss, Carol and Richard Harris, Sarah Hollenbeck and David Serrano Sewell, Alison Huang and Jonathan Howe, Ann Gray Miller, Erin Pettigrew and Matthew Fong, Sheila and Thomas Schwartzburg, Julia Trujillo and Richard Bourgon.

The 2024 SFGC Gala was sponsored by The Julia Morgan Ballroom, Image Orthodontics, and Whistler Vineyards.

Fundraising included a live auction and a fund-a-need paddle raise. Led by San Francisco auctioneer Greg Quiroga, guests snapped up a 3-night retreat to the coastal haven of Sea Ranch, California; a day trip to Oliver Ranch in the heart of Sonoma County; a 4-night Parisian getaway; a complete orthodontic treatment courtesy of Image Orthodontics; and an opportunity to conduct SFGC at Davies Hall. All proceeds supported SFGC’s music education program and the Elizabeth Avakian Scholarship Fund, ensuring that every young singer is able to access SFGC’s transformative music education programs.

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 choristers 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 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.

More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about

More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe

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.

May 19: San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents Premier Ensemble with Leading Percussionist and Composer Haruka Fujii

Photo of Haruka Fujii by DNPhollyhock ERIKO WATANABE. Press photos at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room

The San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents its
Premier Ensemble with Percussionist & Composer Haruka Fujii

Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC Artistic Director

Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music | 50 Oak 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 performance by the SFGC Premier Ensemble joined by percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii and conducted by SFGC Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (50 Oak Street).

The concert will take listeners around the world, listening to messages of hope for future generations. It features the world premiere of Fujii’s new work titled Dareno Chikyu, commissioned by and written for SFGC; Belong Not by Aviya Kopelmann, originally written for SFGC’s 2019 fully staged choral music and dance co-production with Berkeley Ballet Theater, Rightfully Ours; Bring Me Little Water, Silvy by Huddie Ledbetter arranged by Moira Smiley; Letters to God by Akira Miyoshi based on the 2008 Japanese book compiling children’s letters to God; the South African prayer song Ndikhokhele Bawo arranged by Michael Barrett; and the world premiere of Toro Ya Alkebulan by Mokale Copeng, commissioned for SFGC's upcoming South Africa tour by Classical Movements as part of the Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program, featuring words adapted from the poem “He Had a Dream, an African Dream” by Njeri Wangari.

“I am thrilled to welcome Haruka Fujii as our guest artist. Since our first meeting in June 2023 during our opera production Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary by Matthew Welch, our collaboration has been effortless and an obvious match,” says SFGC Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe. “Haruka's experience as a professional performer, her precision, musicianship, and creativity set a high standard for young professionals. I am also proud that we have commissioned her first work for choral singers, contributing to our mission to develop the repertoire of choral music for young singers. Together, with chorus and percussion, we are forging new paths in the world of new music.”

Haruka Fujii’s new piece sets survey responses she received from members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus answering two questions: What are the words that come to your mind when you think about the state of the world we live in today? And, what do you want the adults in your world to do to make your future brighter?

Fujii says, “Their words, expressing their views, frustrations, anger, and hopes, were painfully raw and pure, and so inspiring that it did not require much time to come up with the music to accompany their beautiful emotions. These young artists’ perspectives, and the process of creating this work have given me hope to share with my ten-year-old daughter for her future.”

One of the most prominent solo percussionists and marimbists of her generation, Haruka Fujii has won international acclaim for her interpretations of contemporary music, having performed numerous premieres of works from luminary composers, and appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and more. Since 2010, she has performed as an artist of the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble, joining a group of international musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma, and serves as one of the artistic leadership team alongside with the artistic director Rhiannon Giddens. Her interest in percussion was influenced by her mother, noted marimbist Mutsuko Fujii. She studied music at the Tokyo National University, the Juilliard School, and the Mannes College of Music. Fujii previously collaborated with SFGC on the world premiere of the choral opera Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary by Matthew Welch.

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.

SFGC's season continues on May 30, 2024, when 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. On June 22, SFGC will perform at the Kronos Quartet’s 2024 Kronos Festival at SF Jazz. This summer, Level IV Choristers will travel to Caen, France for a two-week intensive rehearsal and performance process culminating in the world premiere multi-disciplinary opera O Future by composer Thierry Pécou.

More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about
More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe
More about Haruka Fujii: www.harukafujii.com/about

San Francisco Girls Chorus - Upcoming Highlights 

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.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Celebrates 45th Anniversary Season with Annual Gala and Auction on April 26

Photos available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Celebrates 45th Anniversary Season with Annual Gala and Auction on April 26

Featuring Guest Speaker Diane Jones Lowrey
Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Common Sense Media and former SFGC Parent

And Guest Artist Silvie Jensen, Mezzo-Soprano & SFGC Alumna

Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6pm
Julia Morgan Ballroom | 465 California St | San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) continues its 2023-2024 season led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, celebrating 45 years of empowering young women, with its Annual Gala and Auction on Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6pm at the Julia Morgan Ballroom (465 California St., San Francisco). SFGC’s goal for the event is to raise $225,000 in support of SFGC’s Music Education Programs and the Elizabeth Avakian Need-Based Scholarship Fund. 

This evening of celebration and song will include performances by the GRAMMY® Award-winning SFGC Premier Ensemble and Soloist Intensive, as well as a live auction and Fund-A-Need – an initiative to ensure that every young singer is able to access SFGC’s transformative music education programs. SFGC also welcomes Guest Speaker Diane Jones Lowrey, the Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Common Sense Media, former SFGC Parent, and recently appointed Commissioner on the Commission on the Status of Women in San Francisco, as well as Guest Artist Silvie Jensen, mezzo-soprano and SFGC Alumna.

The 2024 SFGC Gala Committee includes chairperson Sarah Hollenbeck, Laura Lane, Ann Gray Miller, Kim Nakahara, John Sanborn, Leah Fitschen Schloss, Sheila Schwartzburg, Alma Sorensen, and Stephanie Wei.

SFGC Gala Table Sponsors include Ryan and Johanna Aipperspach, Shoshana Berger, Jen Bilik, Ellen and Joffa Dale, Charles Ferguson and Kay Dryden, Leah Fitschen Schloss '85 and Randall Schloss, Carol and Richard Harris, Sarah Hollenbeck and David Serrano Sewell, Alison Huang and Jonathan Howe, Ann Gray Miller, Erin Pettigrew and Matthew Fong, Sheila and Thomas Schwartzburg, Julia Trujillo and Richard Bourgon. 

The 2024 SFGC Gala is sponsored by The Julia Morgan Ballroom, Image Orthodontics, and Whistler Vineyards.

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 choristers 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 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.

Individual tickets for the San Francisco Girls Chorus 2024 Gala and Auction are available for $450, with table sponsorships starting at $3,000. For more information on the gala, tickets or table sponsorships, please visit www.sfgirlschorus.org/gala or call (415) 863-1752 x306.

About Diane Jones Lowrey:
Diane Jones Lowrey is a global brand marketing and social impact leader with extensive experience guiding the operations of global marketing organizations, building global brands, and forging meaningful partnerships to accelerate growth and impact. Diane is currently the Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. Before Common Sense, Diane held several roles at Levi Strauss & Company, leading global marketing operations for the Levi’s brand. She led diversity marketing, which included Latino marketing for the US and Latin America.

Diane’s community and volunteer service focuses on equity, education, and the arts. She has served as a Trustee of the French American International School in San Francisco, Alonzo King Lines Ballet Board Member, and Communications Chair for the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association. The mayor appointed Diane as a Commissioner for the Commission on the Status of Women in San Francisco in 2024. Diane attended Mount Holyoke College and the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration. The San Francisco League of Women Voters recognized Diane for her leadership by receiving the Women Who Could Be President Award. She also won a Cannes Lion Award for outstanding public service advertising. In honor of her community service, Diane was appointed to the board of the California First Lady’s Conference on Women by Maria Shriver. Diane lives in San Francisco with her husband and has an adult daughter who will soon finish law school. Diane enjoys exploring the city, discovering new restaurants, international travel, cooking, and engaging with different cultures. A devoted Francophile, Diane frequently travels to France while continuing to struggle through French language classes.

About Silvie Jensen:
Silvie Jensen is a highly sought-after oratorio soloist; she recently made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall, singing Handel’s Messiah with Kent Tritle and Musica Sacra. She sang as Alto Soloist with the San Francisco Symphony in Bach’s Magnificat in 2018, and also made her debuts with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players singing Berio, and with the Mendocino Music Festival, in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto. She has appeared with Symphony Parnassus at Herbst Theater, singing Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen and Symphony No. 4. She has sung St Matthew’s Passion with Ivan Fischer conducting the Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, in Sir Jonathan Miller’s St. Matthew Passion at BAM, as well as singing the Israelitish Man in Judas Maccabeus with Clarion Music Society; Handel’s Messiah with Trinity Wall Street and Monmouth Orchestra; in the B Minor Mass with the Springfield Symphony and with Voices of Ascension, with Musica Sacra at Alice Tully Hall, with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space; and with Broadway Bach Ensemble singing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Joseph Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne. 

She has commissioned and premiered works composed for her, and is a frequent recitalist, appearing in New York at Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Symphony Space, Americas Society, Liederkranz Club, The Stone, Bonhams, Nicholas Roerich Museum, The Cell Theatre, and at the Ethical Humanist Society in Philadelphia. She has made recordings for ECM, London, Koch, Helicon, MSR Classics, Sono Luminus and Soundbrush Records. Her solo album “Who is Silvie?” is available on iTunes.

More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about

More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe

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.

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.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Explores Folk Songs of the World with Latin Grammy Nominee Sam Reider at Davies Symphony Hall

Photos available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World
at Davies Symphony Hall on December 11

With Special Guest Latin Grammy Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director

Monday, December 11, 2023 at 7pm
Davies Symphony Hall | 201 Van Ness Ave. | San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information: www.sfgirlschorus.org/performances

San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org
Press Room: www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) continues its 2023-2024 season with its highly anticipated annual concert at Davies Symphony Hall, SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World, on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 7pm. The concert will feature hundreds of singers from the Premier Ensemble, the entire six-level Chorus School, SFGC alumnae, and special guest accordionist and 2023 Latin Grammy nominee, Sam Reider. Led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC is celebrating 45 years of empowering young women through music this season.

SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World is inspired by folk music traditions from around the world, combining traditional favorites (including Silent Night), new works, and hidden gems from the holiday choral repertoire. "One of my favorite moments in the year is the concert at Davies Symphony Hall, when we have 300 children on stage,” says Sainte-Agathe. “You hear and feel the power of the sound. One reason our singers remain motivated is that each time they're on stage, they have this feeling that they are performing, and doing it really well after practicing so much. They realize that their music is moving and touching to people; sometimes people are so moved that they’re crying. That's so powerful. There is really nothing else like it."

Guest artist Sam Reider, who is based in San Francisco, has performed, recorded, and collaborated with a range of artists including Jon Batiste, Jorge Glem, Sierra Hull, Laurie Lewis, and Paquito d’Rivera. From his genre-bending acoustic ensemble The Human Hands to his duo collaboration with Grammy-nominated Venezuelan artist Jorge Glem, his unique compositional voice and melodicism runs throughout his eclectic projects.

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 on March 9, 2024 when the Premier Ensemble performs Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space, with music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe and stage direction by Céline Ricci. The Premier Ensemble’s season concludes with 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 Scottish Rite Masonic Center, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments from the year individually and as a school. 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
More about Sam Reider: www.samreidermusic.com/about

San Francisco Girls Chorus - Upcoming Highlights

SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World
with Latin Grammy-Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider

December 11, 2023 at 7pm
Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans
Music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & stage direction by Celine 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
Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2850 19th Ave, San Francisco, CA

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 Morris Stulsaft Foundation.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Opens 45th Anniversary Season with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble

Photo by Rachel Ziegler available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Opens 45th Anniversary Season

Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director

November 4 & 5, 2023 – This Is What It Means
SFGC Premier Ensemble Opening Concerts Centering Music by California Women
Co-Presented with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Part of the California Festival
Music by Sarah Gibson (World Premiere), Reena Esmail, Nicolás Lell Benavides, Caroline Shaw, Gabriela Lena Frank, Lisa Bielawa, and Ursula Kwong-Brown

December 11, 2023 – SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World with Latin Grammy-Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider at Davies Symphony Hall

San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org
Press Room: www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe opens its 2023-2024 season, which celebrates 45 years of empowering young women through music, with concerts on November 4 and 5. 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.

SFGC launches the season with This Is What It Means, two concerts featuring its Premier Ensemble co-presented and performed with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) as part of the statewide California Festival on November 4, 2023 at First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley and November 5, 2023 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The concert program centers the voices of Californian women composers, interweaving instrumental and vocal works by Pauline Oliveros (Tree/Peace), Gabriela Lena Frank (Picaflor Esmeralda from Two Mountain Songs and Canto para California), Reena Esmail (Love of Thousands, SFGC commission 2019), Gabriella Smith (Carrot Revolution), Lisa Bielawa (Opening: Forest from Vireo), and Ursula Kwong-Brown (I See You, I Hear You, I Believe You) with the music of Nicolás Lell Benavides (A Bird Came Down the Walk), Caroline Shaw (Dolce Cantavi), and Hildegard von Bingen (O Virtus Sapientiae). SFGC and LCCE join forces in the world premiere performances of a new work by Los Angeles-based composer Sarah Gibson titled This is what it means, co-commissioned by the two ensembles for the occasion. Gibson's music has been described as "expansive" by the Los Angeles Times, and has been performed by the BBC and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Atlanta, Seattle, and New Jersey Symphonies, and more. Her compositions reflect her deep interest in the creative process across various artistic mediums, especially from the female perspective.

On December 11, 2023, SFGC presents its highly anticipated annual concert at Davies Symphony Hall, SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World, bringing together hundreds of singers from the Premier Ensemble, the entire Chorus School, as well as SFGC alumnae. This year’s concert is inspired by folk music traditions from around the world and features acclaimed accordionist and 2023 Latin Grammy nominee Sam Reider as guest artist, combining traditional favorites (including Silent Night), new works, and hidden gems from the holiday choral repertoire. The San Francisco-based Sam Reider has performed, recorded, and collaborated with a range of artists including Jon Batiste, Jorge Glem, Sierra Hull, Laurie Lewis, and Paquito d’Rivera. From his genre-bending acoustic ensemble The Human Hands to his duo collaboration with Grammy-nominated Venezuelan artist Jorge Glem, his unique compositional voice and melodicism runs throughout his eclectic projects.

SFGC's season continues on March 9, 2024 when the Premier Ensemble performs Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space, with music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe and stage direction by Céline Ricci. In May 2024, the Chorus School will showcase singers from Levels 1 through IV at its annual Chorus School Spring Concert at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments from the year individually and as a school. The Premier Ensemble’s season concludes with a collaboration with renowned percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii on May 19, 2024 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 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.

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.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Season Highlights

This Is What It Means
SFGC Premier Ensemble Opening Concerts Centering Music by California Women
Co-Presented with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Part of the California Festival

November 4, 2023 at 7:30pm
First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St, Berkeley, CA

November 5, 2023, at 4pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs
with Latin Grammy-Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider

December 11, 2023 at 7pm
Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans
Music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & stage direction by Celine Ricci

March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm & March 10, 2024 at 2pm
Z Space, 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA

Chorus School Spring Concert
Featuring a World Premiere by SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia

May 2024
Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2850 19th Ave, 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

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 Morris Stulsaft Foundation.

More About The San Francisco Girls Chorus And Chorus School:

Established in 1978, the mission of the San Francisco Girls Chorus is to create outstanding performances featuring the unique and compelling sound of young women’s voices through an exemplary program committed to education and visionary leadership in the development of this art form.

Commissions of new works from the leading composers of our time, collaborations with renowned guest artists, and partnerships with other Bay Area and national arts organizations provide the young women of SFGC with matchless performance experiences among powerful adult role models. In addition to its annual engagements with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony, recent and current/upcoming artistic partnerships include the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Film Festival, Opera Parallèle, Kronos Quartet, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, TEDxSanFrancisco, and Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky. SFGC has also traveled to the East Coast on a number of occasions in recent years for debut concert engagements, including for the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL FESTIVAL at Lincoln Center in collaboration with The Knights orchestra, for SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras in April 2017 with The Knights at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and at Carnegie Hall in February 2018 with the Philip Glass Ensemble, for a sold-out performance that was broadcast around the world by Medici TV.

SFGC's commitment to artistic excellence has been recognized through many awards and 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.

SFGC was founded in 1978 by Elizabeth Appling, who served as Artistic Director until her retirement in 1992. Other Artistic Directors during SFGC's illustrious 40-year history include Sharon J. Paul (1992 - 2000), Magen Solomon (2000-2001, interim), Susan McMane (2001-2012), Brandon Brack (2012-2013, interim), and Lisa Bielawa (2013-2018).

SFGC owns and operates the Kanbar Performing Arts Center, which has become a hub for small to mid-size arts organizations in the Bay Area. In addition to SFGC’s own rehearsal and performance programs, the Kanbar Center provides long-term leased office space to such organizations as American Bach Soloists, Opera Parallèle, Jewish LearningWorks, and the Chinese-American International School, as well as rehearsal space for groups including New Century Chamber Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Merola summer opera program, and the San Francisco Boys Chorus.

About Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC Artistic Director:

Valérie Sainte-Agathe has prepared and conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013, including performances with renowned ensembles throughout the United States and beyond. Through transformative choral music training, education, and performance, Ms. Sainte-Agathe empowers young women and champions the music of today throughout the choral world.

Prior to her time with SFGC, Ms. Sainte-Agathe served as Music Director for the Young Singers program of the Montpellier National Symphony and Opera in France from 1998-2011, and participated in eight recordings with the Montpellier National Orchestra and The Radio France Festival.

In the 2022-2023 season, Ms. Sainte-Agathe celebrated a decade of leadership with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. During her tenure, she has welcomed artistic collaborations with many celebrated guest artists including Chanticleer, Santa Fe Opera, soprano Shawnette Sulker, composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra, GRAMMY-nominated composer Ayanna Woods, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the King’s Singers, Roomful of Teeth, Bobby McFerrin. She premiered SFGC’s first self-produced and commissioned opera, Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in June 2023. Her first recording as SFGC’s Music Director, Final Answer, was released on Orange Mountain Music in February 2018, and her second recording, My Outstretched Hand, was released in July 2019. Ms. Sainte Agathe has toured with SFGC’s Premier Ensemble locally and internationally, and will travel with the ensemble to South Africa in July 2024.

Ms. Sainte-Agathe’s artistry stretches beyond the San Francisco Girls Chorus, including joining Philharmonia Baroque as its new Chorale Director in 2022, and a feature in the 2022 book Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note published by the Chicago Review Press. Ms. Sainte-Agathe joined forces with GRAMMY Award-winning Kronos Quartet during its 2021-2022 season to conduct the world premiere of At War With Ourselves - 400 Years of You by Michael Abels and continues to perform this work throughout the U.S. on tour with the ensemble.

Ms. Sainte Agathe’s performance highlights include her Carnegie Hall and Barbican Center debuts with the Philip Glass Ensemble, conducting with Michael Riesman in Glass’s Music with Changing Parts; conducting SFGC for the New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival at Lincoln Center; and collaborating with The Knights for the SHIFT Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She also served as Choirmaster with Taylor Mac, recipient of MacArthur Foundation's "Genius Grant," for the "Holiday Sauce" production at the Curran Theater in December 2018.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Announces 2023-2024 Season

Photo by Tim Hamlin available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Announces 2023-2024 Season
Celebrating 45 Years of Empowering Young Women Through Music

Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director

November 4 & 5, 2023 – This Is What It Means
SFGC Premier Ensemble Opening Concerts Centering Music by California Women
Co-Presented with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Part of the California Festival
Music by Sarah Gibson (World Premiere), Reena Esmail, Nicolás Lell Benavides, Caroline Shaw, Gabriela Lena Frank, Lisa Bielawa, and Ursula Kwong-Brown

December 11, 2023 – SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World with Latin Grammy-Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider at Davies Symphony Hall

March 9 & 10, 2024 – SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space
Music Direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & Stage Direction by Céline Ricci

May 2024 – Chorus School Spring Concert at Scottish Rite Masonic Center
Featuring World Premiere by SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia

May 19, 2024 – SFGC Premier Ensemble with Percussionist & Composer Haruka Fujii at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org
Press Room: www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, announces its 2023-2024 season, which celebrates 45 years of empowering young women through music. 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.

Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe says, “What distinguishes SFGC from other youth choirs is the creativity, the innovation, the fact that we are giving our singers the opportunity to show their best in every single situation. All of these traits are on display in this 45th Anniversary Season, as we celebrate the legacy of the San Francisco Girls Chorus by looking towards the future. Not only are we bringing overlooked masterpieces to the 21st century, we are performing cutting edge new works, including commissions written uniquely for us.”

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 launches the season with This Is What It Means, two concerts featuring its Premier Ensemble co-presented and performed with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) as part of the statewide California Festival on November 4, 2023 at First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley and November 5, 2023 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The concert program centers the voices of Californian women composers, interweaving instrumental and vocal works by Pauline Oliveros (Tree/Peace), Gabriela Lena Frank (Picaflor Esmeralda from Two Mountain Songs and Canto para California), Reena Esmail (Love of Thousands, SFGC commission 2019), Gabriella Smith (Carrot Revolution), Lisa Bielawa (Opening: Forest from Vireo), and Ursula Kwong-Brown (I See You, I Hear You, I Believe You) with the music of Nicolás Lell Benavides (A Bird Came Down the Walk), Caroline Shaw (Dolce Cantavi), and Hildegard von Bingen (O Virtus Sapientiae). SFGC and LCCE join forces in the world premiere performances of a new work by Los Angeles-based composer Sarah Gibson titled This is what it means, co-commissioned by the two ensembles for the occasion. Gibson's music has been described as "expansive" by the Los Angeles Times, and has been performed by the BBC and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Atlanta, Seattle, and New Jersey Symphonies, and more. Her compositions reflect her deep interest in the creative process across various artistic mediums, especially from the female perspective.

On December 11, 2023, SFGC presents its highly anticipated annual concert at Davies Symphony Hall, SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World, bringing together hundreds of singers from the Premier Ensemble, the entire Chorus School, as well as SFGC alumnae. This year’s concert is inspired by folk music traditions from around the world and features acclaimed accordionist and 2023 Latin Grammy nominee Sam Reider as guest artist, combining traditional favorites (including Silent Night), new works, and hidden gems from the holiday choral repertoire. The San Francisco-based Sam Reider has performed, recorded, and collaborated with a range of artists including Jon Batiste, Jorge Glem, Sierra Hull, Laurie Lewis, and Paquito d’Rivera. From his genre-bending acoustic ensemble The Human Hands to his duo collaboration with Grammy-nominated Venezuelan artist Jorge Glem, his unique compositional voice and melodicism runs throughout his eclectic projects.

On March 9 and 10, 2024, SFGC presents its Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space, with music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe and stage direction by Céline Ricci. 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.

In May 2024, the Chorus School will showcase singers from Levels 1 through IV at its annual Chorus School Spring Concert at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments from the year individually and as a school. The concert will culminate in a world premiere by 2023-2024 SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia written specifically for the occasion. Aminikia believes music to be an immersive and transcendent, yet visceral, human experience, and is highly influenced by the poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and Saadi, as well as traditional, classical and jazz music. The Iranian-born American composer trained under Iranian pianists Nikan Milani and Safa Shahidi, and his first classical teacher, Mehran Rouhani. He later relocated to Russia, where he studied at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. He received his B.M. and M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The San Francisco Chronicle has described him as, “an artist singularly equipped to provide a soundtrack to these unsettling times.”

SFGC’s Premier Ensemble’s 2023-2024 season concludes with a collaboration with renowned percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii on May 19, 2024 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The concert of new music will include a commissioned work by Fujii, one of the most prominent solo percussionists and marimbists of her generation. Fujii has won international acclaim for her interpretations of contemporary music, having performed numerous premieres of works from luminary composers, and appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and more. Since 2010, she has performed as an artist of the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble, joining a group of international musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma, and serves as one of the artistic leadership team alongside with the artistic director Rhiannon Giddens. Her interest in percussion was influenced by her mother, noted marimbist Mutsuko Fujii. She studied music at the Tokyo National University, the Juilliard School, and the Mannes College of Music. Fujii previously collaborated with SFGC on the world premiere of the choral opera Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary by Matthew Welch.

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.

Tickets for the San Francisco Girls Chorus’s 2023-2024 season will be available beginning on October 2, 2023 at www.sfgirlschorus.org.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Season Highlights

This Is What It Means
SFGC Premier Ensemble Opening Concerts Centering Music by California Women
Co-Presented with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Part of the California Festival

November 4, 2023 at 7:30pm
First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St, Berkeley, CA

November 5, 2023, at 4pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs
with Latin Grammy-Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider

December 11, 2023 at 7pm
Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans
Music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & stage direction by Celine Ricci

March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm & March 10, 2024 at 2pm
Z Space, 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA

Chorus School Spring Concert
Featuring a World Premiere by SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia

May 2024
Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2850 19th Ave, 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

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 Morris Stulsaft Foundation.

More About The San Francisco Girls Chorus And Chorus School:

Established in 1978, the mission of the San Francisco Girls Chorus is to create outstanding performances featuring the unique and compelling sound of young women’s voices through an exemplary program committed to education and visionary leadership in the development of this art form.

Commissions of new works from the leading composers of our time, collaborations with renowned guest artists, and partnerships with other Bay Area and national arts organizations provide the young women of SFGC with matchless performance experiences among powerful adult role models. In addition to its annual engagements with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony, recent and current/upcoming artistic partnerships include the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Film Festival, Opera Parallèle, Kronos Quartet, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, TEDxSanFrancisco, and Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky. SFGC has also traveled to the East Coast on a number of occasions in recent years for debut concert engagements, including for the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL FESTIVAL at Lincoln Center in collaboration with The Knights orchestra, for SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras in April 2017 with The Knights at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and at Carnegie Hall in February 2018 with the Philip Glass Ensemble, for a sold-out performance that was broadcast around the world by Medici TV.

SFGC's commitment to artistic excellence has been recognized through many awards and 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.

SFGC was founded in 1978 by Elizabeth Appling, who served as Artistic Director until her retirement in 1992. Other Artistic Directors during SFGC's illustrious 40-year history include Sharon J. Paul (1992 - 2000), Magen Solomon (2000-2001, interim), Susan McMane (2001-2012), Brandon Brack (2012-2013, interim), and Lisa Bielawa (2013-2018).

SFGC owns and operates the Kanbar Performing Arts Center, which has become a hub for small to mid-size arts organizations in the Bay Area. In addition to SFGC’s own rehearsal and performance programs, the Kanbar Center provides long-term leased office space to such organizations as American Bach Soloists, Opera Parallèle, Jewish LearningWorks, and the Chinese-American International School, as well as rehearsal space for groups including New Century Chamber Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Merola summer opera program, and the San Francisco Boys Chorus.

About Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC Artistic Director:

Valérie Sainte-Agathe has prepared and conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013, including performances with renowned ensembles throughout the United States and beyond. Through transformative choral music training, education, and performance, Ms. Sainte-Agathe empowers young women and champions the music of today throughout the choral world.

Prior to her time with SFGC, Ms. Sainte-Agathe served as Music Director for the Young Singers program of the Montpellier National Symphony and Opera in France from 1998-2011, and participated in eight recordings with the Montpellier National Orchestra and The Radio France Festival.

In the 2022-2023 season, Ms. Sainte-Agathe celebrated a decade of leadership with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. During her tenure, she has welcomed artistic collaborations with many celebrated guest artists including Chanticleer, Santa Fe Opera, soprano Shawnette Sulker, composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra, GRAMMY-nominated composer Ayanna Woods, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the King’s Singers, Roomful of Teeth, Bobby McFerrin. She premiered SFGC’s first self-produced and commissioned opera, Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in June 2023. Her first recording as SFGC’s Music Director, Final Answer, was released on Orange Mountain Music in February 2018, and her second recording, My Outstretched Hand, was released in July 2019. Ms. Sainte Agathe has toured with SFGC’s Premier Ensemble locally and internationally, and will travel with the ensemble to South Africa in July 2024.

Ms. Sainte-Agathe’s artistry stretches beyond the San Francisco Girls Chorus, including joining Philharmonia Baroque as its new Chorale Director in 2022, and a feature in the 2022 book Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note published by the Chicago Review Press. Ms. Sainte-Agathe joined forces with GRAMMY Award-winning Kronos Quartet during its 2021-2022 season to conduct the world premiere of At War With Ourselves - 400 Years of You by Michael Abels and continues to perform this work throughout the U.S. on tour with the ensemble.

Ms. Sainte Agathe’s performance highlights include her Carnegie Hall and Barbican Center debuts with the Philip Glass Ensemble, conducting with Michael Riesman in Glass’s Music with Changing Parts; conducting SFGC for the New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival at Lincoln Center; and collaborating with The Knights for the SHIFT Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She also served as Choirmaster with Taylor Mac, recipient of MacArthur Foundation's "Genius Grant," for the "Holiday Sauce" production at the Curran Theater in December 2018.