New Century Chamber Orchestra presents Holiday Lights featuring David Krakauer and the San Francisco Girls Chorus
2015-12-19
Herbst Theatre
401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA
8:00 PM, Saturday, December 19, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

• Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze 
• Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
• a variety of Christmas and Hanukkah holiday favorites.

[8:07 PM lights down]

1. [8:08 PM] Johann Sebastian Bach (1665-1750): Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring from Cantata 208 (arr. Clarice Assad), performed by NCCO
2. [8:12 PM] Johann Sebastian Bach (1665-1750): Sheep May Safely Graze from Cantata 147 (arr. Clarice Assad), performed by NCCO
3. [8:18 PM] Traditional/John Jacob Niles: I Wonder as I Wander, performed by the San Francisco Girls Chorus
    
   Baldassare Galuppi: Dixit Dominus, performed by NCCO and the San Francisco Girls Chorus
4. [8:22 PM] part I
5. [8:25 PM] part II
6. [8:29 PM] part III
    
   Various: Medley of Christmas Carols, performed by the San Francisco Girls Chorus
   (4 or 5 parts? Should have paid more attention!)
7. [8:33 PM] carol i
8. [8:35 PM] carol ii
9. [8:36 PM] carol iii
10. [8:40 PM] carol iv
     
11. [8:42 PM] Charles Gounod: O Divine Redeemer , performed by NCCO and the San Francisco Girls Chorus
    [set ends 9:46 PM]
     
    Encore
12. [8:50 PM] P.D.Q. Bach AKA Peter Schickele (b. 1935): Good King Kong Looked Out, performed by the San Francisco Girls Chorus
13. [8:53 PM] Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, performed by NCCO
    [set ends 8:58 PM]

[9:20 PM lights down, NCCO with DK]

1. [9:21 PM] Traditional: Hanukkah O Hankukkah (arr. Kathy Tagg)
2. [9:28 PM] Traditional: Wedding Dance (arr. David Krakauer)
3. [9:33 PM] Traditional: Der Gasn Nign (The Street Song) (arr. David Krakauer)
4. [9:40 PM] David Krakauer: Synagogue Wail for solo clarinet »
5. [9:43 PM] Traditional: Der Heyser Bulgar (The Hot Bulgar) (arr. David Krakauer)
   [set ends 9:46 PM]
    
   Encore
6. [9:48 PM] ? (Fiddler on the Roof tune)
   [show ends 9:52 PM; all off after a minute or so… dang! That was a really short set!]

New Century Chamber Orchestra

• Hrabba Atladottir: second violin;
• Susan Babini: cello;
• Robin Bonnell: cello;
• Michelle Djokic: cello;
• Jenny Douglass: viola;
• Jory Fankuchen: second violin;
• Candace Guirao: principal second violin;
• Dawn Harms: associate concertmaster, violin;
• Anna Kruger: principal viola;
• Anthony Manzo: principal contrabass;
• Robin Mayforth: first violin;
• Isaac Melamed: acting principal cello;
• Evan Price: second violin;
• Deborah Tien Price: second violin;
• Liz Prior: viola;
• Cassandra Lynne Richberg: viola;
• Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg: music director, concertmaster, violin;
• Karen Shinozaki Sor: first violin;
• Iris Stone: first violin.

• David Krakauer: clarinet.

• Lisa Bielawa: artistic director, choirmaster;
• Valerie Sainte-Agathe: musical director, conductor;
• Jungah Ahn: alto II vox;
• Sarah Ancheta: soprano II vox;
• Gemma Bouck: soprano II vox;
• Claudia Bruce: soprano II vox;
• Emily Cao: alto I vox;
• Isabella Carlucci: soprano II vox;
• Audrey Chandler: alto I vox;
• Madeleine Clinch: alto I vox;
• Maireid Cohen: soprano II vox;
• Isabela Colmenar: soprano II vox;
• AnaKatrina Cortado: soprano I vox;
• Bea Cortado: soprano I vox;
• Alison Dart: alto I vox;
• Mia David: alto I vox;
• Lucy Downes: soprano II vox;
• Rachel Durney: alto I vox;
• Elisabeth Easton: alto II vox;
• Carolyn Engargiola: soprano II vox;
• Charlotte Ensley: soprano II vox;
• Nina Erickson: soprano II vox;
• Barbara Fairweather: alto I vox;
• Sasha Feldman: soprano I vox;
• Samantha Fung-Lee: soprano I vox;
• Ava Gaughan: soprano II vox;
• Jasmine Goodman: soprano II vox;
• Rohini Govier: soprano I vox;
• Anna Gray: alto I vox;
• Kelsey Greenberg: alto II vox;
• Sadie Habas: alto II vox;
• Gabrielle Haddick: alto I vox;
• Charlotte Hall: soprano II vox;
• Glenna Harris: alto II vox;
• Jessica He: soprano II vox;
• Isabella Hee: soprano I vox;
• Arianna Hee: soprano II vox;
• Andrea Huang: alto I vox;
• Sophia Ignacio: soprano I vox;
• June Imler: soprano I vox;
• Kathleen Isaza: soprano I vox;
• Eva Jackson: soprano I vox;
• Audrey Johnson: alto I vox;
• Marie Johnson: alto II vox;
• Georgia Jones: soprano I vox;
• Allegra Kelly: soprano I vox;
• Olivia Kendrick: alto II vox;
• Victoria Ko: soprano II vox;
• Calla Kra-Caskey: alto II vox;
• Aiko Leong: alto II vox;
• Sarah Liu: alto II vox;
• Isabella Lopez: soprano I vox;
• Katrina Louie: soprano II vox;
• Maggie Lu: alto II vox;
• Nicole Lyons: alto I vox;
• Emma MacKenzie: soprano I vox;
• Alejandra Mart: alto II vox;
• Margaret Martin: alto I vox;
• Eva Melin-Gompper: soprano II vox;
• Lola Miller-Henline: alto II vox;
• Lydia Milstein: alto II vox;
• Sophia Mugin: soprano II vox;
• Margaret Murphy-Weise: alto I vox;
• Eleanor Murphy-Weise: alto II vox;
• Ella Nelson: soprano I vox;
• Josie Nelson: soprano I vox;
• Nina Ng-Lara: soprano I vox;
• Sarah Ng: soprano II vox;
• Angela Panich: alto I vox;
• Jennifer Park: alto II vox;
• Natalie Pierce: alto I vox;
• Emma Powell: soprano II vox;
• Annika Pyo: soprano II vox;
• Maya Rehem: alto I vox;
• Elisabeth Rothenbuhler: soprano I vox;
• Eliana Schiller: soprano II vox;
• Jennifer Shi: alto I vox;
• Caroline Sloan: soprano I vox;
• Nia Caiani Spaulding: alto I vox;
• Remi Suzuki: alto I vox;
• Miya Suzuki: alto II vox;
• Daria Terebilo: alto II vox;
• Renee Theodore: alto II vox;
• Gabriella Vulakh: alto I vox;
• Phoebe Wells: soprano II vox;
• Hanna Wheeler: soprano II vox;
• Delilah Whitaker: alto II vox;
• Isabel Yang: alto II vox;
• Viola Yasuda: alto I vox;
• Sophia Zuzga: soprano I vox.

Suffered a bit of parking trauma on my initial pass through the West Oakland BART parking lot circus, but hit the jackpot on my second try, following arrival of an eastbound train that disembarked a ton of homebound shoppers. Whew! Sometimes the trick is to be persistent! Watch an SF train pull up as I exited the car but refrained from running: past experience suggests that the harder I hustle, the more unforseen obstacles will arise! Sauntered leisurely up the stairs and arrived at the platform to note the headlights of the next train. Perfect! No waiting. My joy was short-lived when I realized that the inbound train was packed to the gills – so full, in fact, that I had to wait for non-disembarking passengers to off board and let out those who actually wanted off. So I inhaled, the squeezed into a small space by the door. Good enough!

Arrived in SF to find Civic Center deserted except for the homeless, and so put up my guard and hustled over to Beer Hall for a pre show nip: a tulip of Prairie Artisan Ales: Christmas BOMB! 2015 Imperial Stout. My first impression: Delicious caramel malty goodness! Very smooth mouth feel, but with slight carbonated tingle on the palate. Aftertaste is not particularly distinguished, but the good news is that it's not bad in any way either. Yum! So then the question comes up: another? Or maybe something completely different? Safest choice is to sit pat…so I do (but only after researching the other tap choices, and weighing my interest in more tastes against the dwindling free time)!

Enjoyed a crisp walk to Herbst, then entered to take my seat. Awful nice of the NCCO folks to reseat me in such good location: 3rd row center – can't complain about that!

The first set is fine – it fulfills my obligatory quota of Holiday Music with an overdose of cherubic caroling from the SFGC. Sometime a pinch is all you need! The tunes with NCCO are a bit less sticky sweet – not to cast any sort of aspersion against the orchestra – somehow the strings add a bit of leavening substance to balance against the choir. Must have something to do with the lower register instruments. Bass is the place!

The choir plays cute for the encore and offers a non-standard from PDQ Bach, Good King Kong. Yuckin' it up! That's my kind of holiday music!

The second set is great fun – David Krakauer is a genius! – but clocking in a barely a half hour, I feel let down. It seems odd that they didn't come up with a couple more pieces to extend the show a little.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!