Conductor

Artistic Director

Originally conceived as a grand multimedia extravaganza—more theatrical spectacle than solely an opera—Handel’s Alceste is as lavish musically as it was meant to be visually. Sensual, alluring, and dramatic, it’s a hedonistic delight from start to finish and is accompanied here by one of the composer’s most popular orchestral works.

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Handel's Alceste

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

War Memorial and Performing Arts Center

Stanford University

Under the direction of Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, the San Francisco Girls Chorus (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 Chorus vibrantly performs 1,000 years of choral masterworks from plainchant to the most challenging and nuanced contemporary works created expressly for them in programs that are as intelligently designed as they are enjoyable and revelatory to experience.

San Francisco Girls Chorus

Mercy Center Burlingame

The rich harmonies and musical invention of Bach are just perfect for the holiday season, and in this concert you’ll hear two of his Advent cantatas, including the famous Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and mouth and deed and life). You’ll certainly recognize its beautiful and gentle melodies. Alongside the music of Bach are two works by his contemporary Graupner, music of great grace and elegance.

A Bach Christmas

The San Francisco Girls Chorus’ (SFGC) Premier Ensemble presents its season finale concert with a program of all new music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The concert features a collaboration with renowned percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii, one of the most prominent solo percussionists and marimbists of her generation, including a commissioned work by Fujii. In this program, SFGC and Fujii reunite after their previous collaboration on the world premiere of the choral opera Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary by Matthew Welch. 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 Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens. Described as a chorus “capable of handling any vocal challenge set before them” (Gramophone), SFGC’s Premier Ensemble is a GRAMMY Award-winning chorus with a focus on empowering young women through music.

San Francisco Girls Chorus with Percussionist & Composer Haruka Fujii

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Mendelssohn’s ever-popular violin concerto, full of drama and exquisite melody, here accompanies a real rarity—Schumann’s hauntingly beautiful Requiem. Written after he had committed himself to an asylum, it’s a fantastic showcase for the rich, resonant sound of the Philharmonia Chorale. A feast for lovers of the romantic era of music and a suitably dramatic way to finish our season.

Romantic Radiance

First Congregational Church

Be inspired, transported and uplifted in this, a journey through no less than 600 years of music celebrating Christmas. From Pachelbel’s beloved Canon, heard afresh on our period instruments, through to the rich, melting harmonies of Tchaikovsky and John Taverner’s spare, haunting, The Lamb, plus a brand new piece by Roderick Williams, written especially for the occasion. Music that will resonate with you for long after the concert, and a perfect start to the Holiday season.

Six Centuries Of Christmas

Music of vivid detail, color and emotional resonance—Salomone Rossi’s Ha-shirim asher li-Shlomo, The Songs of Solomon, gets a celebratory 400th anniversary performance in a concert that features select members of our amazing Chorale. A composer whose music bridged the musical worlds of late Renaissance and early Baroque, Rossi’s The Songs of Solomon (the name of which is probably a pun on the composer’s name) is unique in marrying Hebrew text with early baroque musical style.

Songs Of Solomon

San Francisco War Memorial

Mark Twain famously said “If I had more time
I would have written a shorter letter.” Henry Purcell’s mini-masterpiece Dido and Aeneas distills all the drama and power usually found in a standard-length opera into a taut, fast moving and ultimately devastatingly powerful 60 minutes, along the way taking in a love story, pirates, sorcery and drunken sailors, all painted in vivid musical detail.

Dido & Aeneas

Reinvention has always been a theme within classical music—
be it Handel blatantly reusing his own tunes, Mendelssohn giving us his own take on Bach, or Stravinsky ‘remixing’ the classical form. Bringing that tradition right up to date is Dido’s Ghost, effectively providing a sequel to Purcell’s masterpiece Dido and Aeneas, which is performed in its entirety, as if a flashback, in Wallen’s work. Dido’s Ghost bridges worlds and eras, and past blurs into present in an acclaimed new opera that’s direct from premiere performances in London and Edinburgh.

Dido's Ghost

Ring in our 30th Anniversary with an evening of music that celebrates the friendship, excitement and discovery that have made New Century the orchestra you love. The San Francisco Girls Chorus returns for a special trio of songs beckoning you out of hibernation and towards the pleasures of life. Also featured on the program is Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Major, K. 207, featuring Music Director Daniel Hope as soloist, and Haydn’s theatrical “La Passione” Symphony—two masterworks that showcase the stunning virtuosity and passion that have captivated our audiences time and again. We invite you to raise your glass and toast three decades of exceptional music-making!

Sparkling Connections

Sonoma State University

SFGC PRESENTS: TOMORROW'S MEMORIES

Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture

The San Francisco Girls Chorus concludes the season with a remarkable concert featuring choristers from Levels I-IV of the Chorus School.

Valérie Sainte-Agathe

Conductor, Artistic Director

Events

Past events

5 - 8 Mar, 2025

Handel's Alceste · Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale

Dec 15, 2024

San Francisco Girls Chorus · Music At Kohl Mansion

About

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