UPCOMING CONCERTS:
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Saturday, October 14, 2023 // 7:30 pm
Noe Valley Ministry 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 We’re excited to announce our season opener, “Snapshots,” featuring the music of 2023 Ettelson Award Winner Pascal Le Boeuf. Coming to San Francisco on Saturday, October 14 at 7:30 PM, the program also showcases Danny Clay’s “Turntable Drawing No. 16,” originally for solo electric guitar and now reimagined for larger ensemble with Giacomo Fiore as soloist. The program takes inspiration from retro audio tropes: from turntables in Shiva Feshareki’s “Zohra” and Danny Clay’s music to the 80s synth quality of Alex Temple’s genre-bending “This Changes Everything!” The delicately rhythmic groove of Gabriella Smith’s “Anthozoa” rounds out the evening for an edgy and upbeat show you will not want to miss!
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PAST CONCERTS:
EXPEDITION #8: Prospero's Island
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Beyond Shakespeare. At the bottom of the world. At the limits of love. The world premiere of Prospero's Island, a major new chamber opera by acclaimed creators Allen Shearer and Claudia Stevens, is set for March 25, 2023 at San Francisco's Herbst Theater. A production of Ninth Planet and InTandem, the opera, based on The Tempest, is about power, deception, terrible secrets and new beginnings. With stunning imagery and richly orchestrated music, Prospero's Island brings Shakespeare's great play to new life, its story transported to the Falkland Islands in the 1950's and action that takes place from dawn to dusk on one momentous day. Audiences will meet the all-powerful Prospero, reimagined as a war criminal with a dark past; paratrooper Andy and lovely Mandy as they fall in love (but is it magic or true?); teenage Caliban, as he tussles with the island's cheeky penguins; the comedy team of paratroopers Steffi and Trish; and the faithful Ariel, half bird and half woman, whose devotion to Prospero is put to the ultimate test. What will these newly imagined beings do when they learn the truth?
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EXPEDITION #7: Home
Program
Nico Muhly, How About Now Allison Loggins-Hull, Homeland Gabriel José Bolaños Chamorro, nosotros hemos puesto los muertos (Ettelson Award 2022) Jessie Montgomery, Duo for violin and cello Missy Mazzoli, Magic With Everyday Objects |
Ninth Planet’s fourth season opens with a program examining our relationships to home and comfort, featuring the winning composition of the 2022 Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award nosotros hemos puesto los muertos by Gabriel José Bolaños, the composer’s anguished response to political violence in his home country Nicaragua. Paired with this is Allison Loggins-Hull’s Homeland, which asks what home means during domestic tragedy or violence, when the very concept of home has disintegrated. On the lighter side is friendship and the comfort of the everyday: Jessie Montgomery’s Duo for violin and cello is an ode to friendship, while Nico Muhly describes his piece How About Now as “a sort of thrown-together meal with close friends.” Missy Mazzoli’s Magic With Everyday Objects is about finding beauty and rapture in the midst of chaos, and about acknowledging the chaos that lies just beneath the surface of beauty.
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InterMusic SF - SF Music Day
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Sunday, October 9, 20222 // 3:45pm
War Memorial Veterans Building 401 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 Celebrate Bay Area music in all its diversity at SF Music Day, with the return of the live, in-person version of the Bay Area’s free annual music festival in downtown San Francisco, presented by InterMusic SF. From chamber music to jazz, contemporary works to global sounds—SF Music Day showcases extraordinary musicians from across the Bay, with music that spans continents and centuries. Come for the artists you know and love, and stay to discover new talents, enjoy fresh takes on familiar repertoire, and bask in the wealth of creativity from the world-class composers and ensembles of our region.
The 15th SF Music Day features more than 25 ensembles performing short sets over eight hours on four stages in the ornate War Memorial Veterans Building. SF Music Day is presented annually by InterMusic SF, supporting the Bay Area music community since 1998. For up-to-date event COVID safety protocols, visit sfmusicday.com. |
EXPEDITION #6: Discovery
Program:
Allen Shearer, Eastbound Traveler (world premiere) Ursula Kwong-Brown, In Transit Darian Donovan Thomas, We only want to fly because we're tethered to the earth (world premiere) João Pedro Oliveira, Dark Energy Eve Beglarian, From the Same Melancholy Fate |
Friday, June 10, 2022 // 7:30pm
First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco 1187 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94109 Ninth Planet closes its third season with a program of recent works by Ursula-Kwong Brown, João Pedro Oliveira, Allen Shearer, and Eve Beglarian, as well as a new commission by Darian Donovan Thomas. Each work on the program is about discovery: from voyage into the unknown, to the exploration of the dark energy that fills the universe, to the journeys of the thousands of people riding BART trains every day, to the universal tug of war that exists in each of us, simultaneously propelling us to fly and keeping us tethered to the earth.
IMAGE CREDIT: Graphic from score for "We only want to fly because we're tethered to the earth" |
EXPEDITION #5: Spirals & Echoes
Program:
Selim Goncu, Widerklang (Ettelson Award 2020) Jee Seo, Four Pieces Daijana Wallace, Shades Jack Frerer, Spiral Sequences (Ettelson Award 2019) |
Saturday, March 19, 2022 // 7:30pm
Center for New Music 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 Ninth Planet journeys through sonic shape and texture in a program featuring 2019 and 2020 winning compositions of the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Award. Selim Göncü’s “Widerklang” for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello (Ettelson 2020), presents a distorted, noisy, and quasi-improvisational sound world, exploring the connection between noise and pitch. Written for violin and viola, Jee Seo’s “Four Pieces” presents four self-portraits, each centered around one of four words: Sigh, Fever, Groove, and Song. Daijana Wallace’s “Shades,” for solo cello, is centered around a single note as the vehicle to explore a whole range of textures, from mystery, aggression, and heaviness to melodic, soft, and sultry. Ending the program is Jack Frerer’s “Spiral Sequences” for string quartet (Ettelson 2019). The first movement, fast and driven by spiraling fragments and sequences, presents an ever-tightening inward spiral that the slower second movement unravels.
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EXPEDITION #4: Everyone Became A Trail
Friday, October 1, 2021 // 8pm
Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Ninth Planet returns for its third season with a program exploring themes of realism and surrealism, featuring the world premiere of a commissioned work by Bay Area resident Assaf Shatil entitled "Everyone Became a Trail." A song cycle for the full Ninth Planet ensemble, "Everyone Became a Trail" is based on poems that Shatil wrote in response to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work reflects on the bewilderment, anxiety, and bittersweet beauty experienced during uncertain times of isolation and quarantine. The concert will also feature chamber works by inti figgis-vizueta, Yaz Lancaster, and Amy Beth Kirsten. Please join us for this evening of reflective and innovative artistry as we process together, through music, our experience of the last 18 months.
Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Ninth Planet returns for its third season with a program exploring themes of realism and surrealism, featuring the world premiere of a commissioned work by Bay Area resident Assaf Shatil entitled "Everyone Became a Trail." A song cycle for the full Ninth Planet ensemble, "Everyone Became a Trail" is based on poems that Shatil wrote in response to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work reflects on the bewilderment, anxiety, and bittersweet beauty experienced during uncertain times of isolation and quarantine. The concert will also feature chamber works by inti figgis-vizueta, Yaz Lancaster, and Amy Beth Kirsten. Please join us for this evening of reflective and innovative artistry as we process together, through music, our experience of the last 18 months.
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Program:
Yaz Lancaster, Intangible Landscapes inti figgis-vizueta, a bridge between starshine and clay Amy Beth Kirsten, World Under Glass #2 Assaf Shatil, Everyone Became a Trail (world premiere) This concert is supported in part by a grant from the InterMusic SF Musical Grant Program. This concert is also made possible by the generous support of all our donors. Give to Ninth Planet today. |
EXPEDITION #3: Tides
Saturday, June 26, 2021 // 7pm
YouTube Live Link
Here on the edge of North America, we are tuned to the cycles of the ocean. We are bound together by ebb and flow as they carve out the contours of our daily lives. So, at this time of flux and transition, we look to music to pull us back towards equilibrium. Tides is a livestream concert featuring six works performed by members of the Ninth Planet ensemble. Curated by new co-artistic director Jessie Nucho and composer Ursula Kwong-Brown, each piece explores the need for connection at a time when our lives are being shaped by forces beyond our control. Featuring a world premiere collaboration with Japanese video artist and live painter Akiko Nakayama.
YouTube Live Link
Here on the edge of North America, we are tuned to the cycles of the ocean. We are bound together by ebb and flow as they carve out the contours of our daily lives. So, at this time of flux and transition, we look to music to pull us back towards equilibrium. Tides is a livestream concert featuring six works performed by members of the Ninth Planet ensemble. Curated by new co-artistic director Jessie Nucho and composer Ursula Kwong-Brown, each piece explores the need for connection at a time when our lives are being shaped by forces beyond our control. Featuring a world premiere collaboration with Japanese video artist and live painter Akiko Nakayama.
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Program:
Ursula Kwong-Brown, Finding Bliss (world premiere) Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Inchokkillissa Shiva Feshareki, Zohra Lila Meretzky, All mute things speak today Yaz Lancaster, little song (world premiere) Danny Erdberg/Ursula Kwong-Brown, Here Come the Warm Clouds (world premiere) Admission: FREE FOR ALL. This concert is made possible by the generous support of all our donors. Give to Ninth Planet today. |
EXPEDITION #2: On Being
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020 // 7pm
YouTube Live Link
Ninth Planet returns digitally in a virtual program curated by ensemble flutist and artistic committee member Jessie Nucho. On Being is an exploration of the nature of our existence, from the intersection of the physical and spiritual to existence in the present moment. Featuring the music of Angelica Negrón, Jessie Cox, inti figgis-vizueta, and Darian Donovan Thomas.
YouTube Live Link
Ninth Planet returns digitally in a virtual program curated by ensemble flutist and artistic committee member Jessie Nucho. On Being is an exploration of the nature of our existence, from the intersection of the physical and spiritual to existence in the present moment. Featuring the music of Angelica Negrón, Jessie Cox, inti figgis-vizueta, and Darian Donovan Thomas.
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Program:
Angelica Negrón, La Isla Mágica Jessie Cox, Spiritus inti figgis-vizueta, Form the Fabric Darian Donovan Thomas, Fluid, "I. Fluid" Admission: FREE FOR ALL. This concert is made possible by the generous support of all our donors. Give to Ninth Planet today. |
(CANCELLED) EXPEDITION #2: Spiral Sequences
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This concert was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friday, Mar. 27, 2020 // 8pm Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento Street, SF, CA 94109 Ninth Planet performs the 2019 Ettelson Award-winning composition Spiral Sequences, and more! Program: Jack Frerer, Spiral Sequences Viet Cuong, Naica Daniel Godsil, Aeropittura Andrew Norman, Mine, Mime, Meme Nicole Lizée, Music for Body-Without Organs |
EXPEDITION #1: Reflect, Respond
Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019 // 8pm
Osher Salon @ San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Join Ninth Planet for our debut performance at the Osher Salon. Featuring works by Jenny Olivia Johnson, Eve Beglarian, Kaija Saariaho, Dan VanHassel, and Ursula Kwong-Brown.
Admission: $20 General, $10 Students/Seniors/Persons with disabilities. Tickets available online or at the door.
Program:
Dan VanHassel, Balance of Power
Kaija Saariaho, Cendres
Ursula Kwong-Brown, Unwinding III
Eve Beglarian, Play Like a Girl
Eve Beglarian, Until it Blazes
Jenny Olivia Johnson, Reflect Reflect Respond Respond
Osher Salon @ San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Join Ninth Planet for our debut performance at the Osher Salon. Featuring works by Jenny Olivia Johnson, Eve Beglarian, Kaija Saariaho, Dan VanHassel, and Ursula Kwong-Brown.
Admission: $20 General, $10 Students/Seniors/Persons with disabilities. Tickets available online or at the door.
Program:
Dan VanHassel, Balance of Power
Kaija Saariaho, Cendres
Ursula Kwong-Brown, Unwinding III
Eve Beglarian, Play Like a Girl
Eve Beglarian, Until it Blazes
Jenny Olivia Johnson, Reflect Reflect Respond Respond