When I was an undergrad at San Francisco State University in the late 1980s, we didn’t have a new music ensemble-in-residence. Like many music majors then and now, we relied on our fellow students to perform our pieces, and didn’t have a professional-level new music group serving as role models on campus.
All that has since changed, and the SFSU School of Music and Dance has the ADORNO Ensemble to take this challenge on. The group has spent the last few years impressing local audiences and getting cordial reviews, including this one from San Jose Mercury News music critic Richard Scheinin: “A crackerjack new music band that plays with conviction and vitality and blows the dust off classical music.” In 2007 they won an ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, and launched an online composers’ workshop at www.scorexchange.org.
Clarinetist Jeffrey Anderle, violinist Graeme Jennings, cellist Gianna Abondolo, contrabassist Bill Everett, percussionist Loren Mach and Christopher Jones on piano will team up this Friday, May 8th, to realize that most un-dusty kind of classical music – student compositions. Five fortunate young artists will get what every emerging composer needs so badly: a professional performance of their work, plus a decent recording. Here’s the program:
- Gamaliel Galindo: Among the Multitude for violin, clarinet and piano
- Ryan Ike: Thermodynamica for percussion and contrabass
- Natan Rodriguez: Piano Trio for violin, cello and piano
- Allegra Mitchell: Hush, Hush Sweet Faire: A Set of Miniatures for clarinet, percussion and contrabass
- Aaron Nudelman: Unforeseen Circumstances for clarinet, violin, cello and piano
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. in Knuth Hall in the Creative Arts Building on the San Francisco State University campus at 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco. General audiences get in for $10.00, students and seniors for $5.00.