SFGC anuncia la partida y el nombramiento del Director Artístico
La Directora Artística Lisa Bielawa partirá después de la temporada 2017-2018; la Directora Musical y Directora Principal
Valérie Sainte-Agathe se convertirá en Directora Artística para la temporada 2018-2019
Lisa Bielawa, Directora Artística, y Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Directora Musical y Directora Principal
San Francisco, CA – Thursday, August 17, 2017 – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) and Board President, Rhonda L. Nelson, today announced that Artistic Director, Lisa Bielawa, will step down from her role at the conclusion of the 2017-2018 season and Music Director & Principal Conductor, Valérie Sainte-Agathe, will assume a singular artistic leadership position, Artistic Director, which will encompass the primary responsibilities of both current positions, effective July 1, 2018. Bielawa’s departure and Sainte-Agathe’s appointment will come after a highly successful five-year tenure for both in what is one of the truly innovative artistic leadership models in the choral music world.
“Over the last five years, the Board has watched with awe as Valérie and Lisa have overseen an extraordinary period of growth, evolution, and achievement for the organization,” said Nelson. “When Lisa initially accepted this position with SFGC, the Board of Directors understood that given her multi-faceted career as a composer and vocalist, her tenure would likely be around four or five years. While we were sad to learn that Lisa would be departing at the end of this season, we had also anticipated this eventuality."
“The consolidation of both positions into a more traditional Artistic Director role represents a natural evolution for the organization, one that ideally positions SFGC for a bright future under Valérie’s dynamic artistic leadership,” Nelson added.
Under this joint-leadership model, Bielawa and Sainte-Agathe have, together, elevated and redefined the San Francisco Girls Chorus’ artistic direction, sound, and standing as an in-demand artistic partner, both locally and nationally. In recent seasons, SFGC has forged and strengthened partnerships with numerous leading arts and cultural organizations, including the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Film Festival, Kronos Quartet, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Opera Parallèle, Voices of Music, Chanticleer, and many others. SFGC’s performance activities outside of the Bay Area have increased substantially, as well, with performances for the Britt Music Festival (OR), Oregon Bach Festival, NY PHIL Biennial at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. And on February 16, 2018, SFGC will make its Carnegie Hall debut performing Philip Glass' seminal work, Music with Changing Parts, with Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble, part of Carnegie Hall's highly anticipated citywide festival The ’60s: The Years that Changed America and the composer's 80th birthday celebratory year.
SFGC has also reaffirmed its commitment to championing music of our time, launching a Composer-in-Residence Program specifically for its Chorus School, now in its third year; commissioning or premiering new works from leading composers, including Aaron Jay Kernis, Matthew Welch, Sahba Aminikia, Theo Bleckman, Amy X Neuburg; and recently recording music in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet for a forthcoming album that will include ten works by nine living composers (eight of whom are American).
“When Valérie and I started in our joint leadership in 2013, I set out a number of goals and dreams for the artistic direction of the organization,” says Bielawa. “It has been incredibly gratifying to see so many of these fulfilled - and so richly! The various collaborators I have brought to SFGC now belong to all of us, and all of my various colleagues in the greater music field now also cherish Valérie and our young women themselves as colleagues in their own right.”
“The collaborative relationship Lisa and I have enjoyed over the last five years has been one of the most gratifying, fruitful, and rewarding experiences in each of our careers,” noted Sainte-Agathe. “We look forward to spending this upcoming season celebrating all that has been accomplished.”
“I am deeply honored that the Board of Directors has appointed me Artistic Director. When I become Artistic Director next July, I will do so knowing that SFGC is destined to build on its current standing as one of the preeminent youth choruses in the world because of the work Lisa and I have done together.”
SFGC’s 2017-2018 season includes a three-concert subscription series with performances on October 25, December 18, and April 22; a June 2018 co-production with Voices of Music and the San Francisco Early Music Society for the 2018 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition; and collaborations with leading organizations and institutions, including the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera Parallèle, Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass Ensemble, San Francisco Performances, and Carnegie Hall.
For more information, please visit sfgirlschorus.org.
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About Lisa Bielawa
Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. Her music has been described as “ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart,” by The New York Times, and “fluid and arresting … at once dramatic and probing,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the recipient of the 2017 Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Lisa Bielawa recently completed her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser with librettist Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte. Vireo was produced as part of Bielawa’s artist residency at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California and in partnership with KCETLink and Single Cel. The opera was filmed at locations across the country – Alcatraz Island, a monastery on the Hudson River, an abandoned train station in Oakland, the California Redwoods – and featured over 350 musicians in support of its core cast, including soprano Deborah Voigt, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Kronos Quartet, violinist Jennifer Koh, cellist Joshua Roman, Alarm Will Sound, and many others. All 12 episodes were broadcast on KCETLink’s Emmy® award-winning series Artbound, as well as online for free, on-demand streaming. The Los Angeles Times called Vireo an opera, “unlike any you have seen before, in content and in form,” and the San Francisco Chronicle described it as, “poetic and fantastical, visually stunning and relentlessly abstract.”
Lisa Bielawa’s music is frequently performed throughout the US and abroad. Two of her works received their world premieres at the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL: My Outstretched Hand by The Knights, San Francisco Girls Chorus, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which was recently given a second performance at The Kennedy Center; and Vireo Caprice by violinist Jennifer Koh at National Sawdust. The Seattle Chamber Music Society recently commissioned and premiered Bielawa’s Fictional Migrations, which The Seattle Times called, “sophisticated, propulsive, complex, and often beautiful.” In December 2016, the Orlando Philharmonic performed the world premiere of Bielawa’s Drama/Self Pity for orchestra and in January 2017, The Kennedy Center presented two of her works with Bielawa as soloist as part of their KC Jukebox series. Recent highlights also include performances of Start for piano and chamber orchestra by pianist Andrew Armstrong and the Orchestra of the League of Composers; 50 Measures for Aaron by SOLI Chamber Ensemble; One Atom of Faith by violinist Rebecca Fischer of the Chiara String Quartet; and The Trojan Women by the String Orchestra of New York City.
Bielawa’s music can be found outside the concert hall as well, with two major works written for performance in public spaces. Chance Encounter, a piece comprising songs and arias constructed of speech overheard in transient public spaces, was premiered by soprano Susan Narucki and The Knights in Lower Manhattan's Seward Park. Airfield Broadcasts is a 60-minute work for hundreds of musicians, which was premiered on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin in May 2013 and at Crissy Field in San Francisco in October 2013.
Born in San Francisco into a musical family, Lisa Bielawa played the violin and piano, sang, and wrote music from early childhood. She moved to New York two weeks after receiving her B.A. in Literature in 1990 from Yale University, and became an active participant in New York musical life. She began touring as the vocalist with the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1992, and has also premiered and toured works by John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, and Michael Gordon. In 1997 she co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers. Bielawa was appointed Artistic Director of the acclaimed San Francisco Girls Chorus in 2013 and recently completed her residency at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California. Her discography includes albums on the Tzadik, TROY, Innova, BMOP/sound, Orange Mountain Music and Sono Luminus labels. In 2016, Bielawa was awarded grants from New York Foundation for the Arts, the MAP Fund, and New Music USA.
Acerca de Valérie Sainte-Agathe
Como Directora Musical y Directora Principal del Coro de Niñas de San Francisco desde 2013, Valérie Sainte-Agathe ha preparado y dirigido el SFGC para actuaciones con artistas de renombre como Jon Nakamatsu, Deborah Voigt, Frederica von Stade, Gustavo Dudamel, The New Century Chamber Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass y Aaron Jay Kernis. En junio de 2016, dirigió el SFGC junto con la Orquesta de los Caballeros y el Coro Juvenil de Brooklyn para el Festival Bienal de NY PHIL en el Lincoln Center. Colaboró de nuevo con los Caballeros para el Festival SHIFT en el Centro Kennedy de Washington, DC en abril de 2017.
Natural de Martinica, la Sra. Sainte-Agathe obtuvo su licenciatura en dirección coral en la Universidad Paul Valery de Montpellier y su diploma de estudios musicales en piano, música de cámara y teoría en el Conservatorio de Montpellier. Tiene una Maestría en Administración de Empresas de la Universidad de Montpellier, y también ha estudiado Interpretación Pianística en la Universidad Estatal de Colorado en Fort Collins.
En 1995, regresó a Montpellier y fue pianista de la Orquesta Nacional de Montpellier y del Festival de Radio Francia, donde actuó en conciertos y grabaciones de obras de compositores contemporáneos como John Adams, M. Torke y Steve Reich.
Se incorporó a la Ópera Júnior en 1997 y participó en numerosas producciones de la Ópera Nacional de Montpellier y de la Ópera Júnior, primero como preparadora vocal y luego como directora de coro. En 2000 fue nombrada Coordinadora Artística y Directora Musical, donde formó a jóvenes cantantes de entre 6 y 25 años y preparó coros para la Orquesta Nacional de Montpellier, el Festival de Radio Francia y el Festival Presencia en París.
En 2005, se desempeñó como Directora de Coro de la 2ª Bienal de Artes Vocales de París, y del Festival de Radio Francia con Armin Jordan para la producción de Die Konigskinder, y Emmanuel Krivine y Alain Altinoglu para Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher con la Orquesta Filarmónica. También produjo el estreno mundial de ¡Libertad! una ópera de jazz escrita por Didier Lockwood, en la Opéra Comédie de Montpellier.
En 2008, preparó el Coro de Ópera Juvenil en colaboración con el Coro Sinfónico Regional dirigido por Hervé Niquet y la Orquesta Nacional de Montpellier para la Tercera Sinfonía de Mahler dirigida por Alain Altinoglu. Al año siguiente, colaboró con la sinfonía para Dido y Eneas, con puesta en escena de Jean-Paul Scarpita.
En 2010, participó en las Victoires de la Musique, una ceremonia anual de entrega de premios en Francia, donde su grupo interpretó Pavane de Fauré, acompañado por la Orquesta de Montpellier, y Amahl y los Visitantes Nocturnos. Las actuaciones fueron transmitidas por la televisión nacional francesa.
En 2012, obtuvo su maestría en Gestión de Proyectos Culturales en la Universidad Paul Valéry y dirigió el coro universitario Ecume.
La Sra. Sainte-Agathe participó en ocho grabaciones con la Orquesta Nacional de Montpellier y el Festival de Radio France. Ha sido galardonada con el premio Victoires de la musique (equivalente al premio Grammy en Francia) y ha recibido en dos ocasiones el premio Orphée d'Or por Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher de Honneger y L'Étranger de Indy.
CRÉDITOS FOTOGRÁFICOS
Lisa Bielawa / Carlin Ma
Valérie Sainte-Agathe / Joseph Fanvu
CONTACTO DE PRENSA
J. Andrew Bradford
(415) 863-1752
abradford@sfgirlschorus.org
SOBRE EL CORO DE MUJERES DE SAN FRANCISCO
Fundado en 1978, la Directora Artística fundadora del Coro de Mujeres de San Francisco, Elizabeth Appling, preparó el primer coro de chicas para actuar con la Ópera de San Francisco, una oportunidad previamente reservada sólo para chicos. Fundado con la visión de convertirse en un coro de calibre internacional para mujeres jóvenes, el SFGC ha crecido hasta convertirse en una organización de educación musical y de artes escénicas de renombre y líder en la industria. Hoy en día, bajo el liderazgo de la Directora Artística, Lisa Bielawa, y la Directora Musical, Valerie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC sirve a casi 300 coristas de entre 5 y 18 años de edad de 45 ciudades y los 9 condados del área de la bahía cada año. Atendida por una facultad de música de 21 artistas docentes y 7 administradores, la organización opera un conjunto de actuaciones, grabaciones y giras de nivel profesional; el programa de entrenamiento de cuatro niveles de la Escuela de Coros; y un Coro Preparatorio.
El SFGC colabora anualmente con las principales organizaciones artísticas y culturales, entre ellas la Ópera de San Francisco, la Sinfónica de San Francisco, el Ballet de San Francisco, el Festival de Cine de San Francisco y el Kronos Quartet, entre muchas otras. El Coro ha realizado giras por más de una docena de países y ha actuado en los principales lugares nacionales e internacionales, entre ellos la inauguración del Presidente Barack Obama en 2009, el Lincoln Center de Nueva York, el Centro John F. Kennedy de Artes Escénicas de Washington, D.C., el Simposio Coral Mundial de Kyoto (Japón), el Festival de Coros Infantiles World Vision de Corea y el Festival Gateway to Music de China. El compromiso del SFGC con la excelencia artística ha sido reconocido a través de numerosos premios, incluyendo cinco premios GRAMMY y tres premios ASCAP/Chorus America por Programación Aventurera.
SFGC también posee y opera el Centro de Artes Escénicas Kanbar, un centro de seis pisos para las artes en el distrito del Centro Cívico de San Francisco que anualmente sirve a más de 30 organizaciones artísticas. El actual presupuesto operativo anual de SFGC es de 2,4 millones de dólares.