UCSF Vocalists to Perform Choral Society Concerts on Aug. 19, 20
Passers by Cole Hall on the UCSF Parnassus campus on Tuesday nights may wonder what all the singing is about. Wonder no more.
The San Francisco Choral Society, which includes faculty, staff and students from UCSF, is practicing for a summer concert featuring Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and the world premiere of "Songs for the Earth" by Emma Lou Diemer on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 19 and 20 at Davies Symphony Hall. The group practices weekly in Cole Hall in preparation for the four concerts a year.
When not at her day job at UCSF, Karen Kacirk is among the half-dozen vocalists from UCSF practicing for the two upcoming concerts.
Kacirk, assistant director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, has been a member of the San Francisco Choral Society for more than eight years as a second soprano. She has sung with the group at St. Ignatius, Davies Symphony Hall, the Masonic Auditorium, to name a few.
"The opportunity to perform has been incredible -- a way to satisfy the soul and participate in a joyful and challenging experience," Kacirk says. "We sing in many different languages, in various forms of Latin, French, German and Russian, and sing secular and non-secular music. Many of the pieces we have sung can be heard on KDFC's Sacred Music program on Sunday mornings performed by other choruses. It is a favorite program of mine because they play pieces we've performed. It makes it easy to sing along and sing the solo pieces in the privacy of my own home!"
In fact, KDFC has started to promote the concert, Kacirk notes, as the Choral Society is looking to fill all 2,500 seats o Davies Symphony Hall on both nights.
"This concert is unique because in addition to singing the 'Carmina Burana,' we will be doing a premier of an excellent commissioned piece by Emma Lou Diemer, a local composer, and a San Francisco gallery will have an art exhibit in the lobby to enjoy before the concert and during the intermission."
Kacirk says she's always been involved in music and that her parents' interest promoted her love of classical and jazz music. "I sang in Latin as a child in church choruses and played clarinet and guitar growing up. The UCSF Gospel Choir was my stepping stone to the San Francisco Choral Society because it provided an avenue to sing in front of audiences with a wonderful and caring group of people. Also, Denise Scaglione an administrator in the Pulmonary Division of the Department of Medicine is a good friend who encouraged me to audition and join the chorus. The Chancellor's concert series has also helped fuel the passion I have for music."
Other members of the UCSF community who are part of the San Francisco Choral Society are Scaglione, Laurie Jurkiewicz, Caroline Damsky, Janet Scott, Lennell Allen and Elizabeth Schultz.
About the Concert
Described as "spicy, bawdy, and irreverent," "Carmina Burana" is one of the enduring masterpieces of the 20th century. Orff's theatrically vivid, earthy setting of the medieval poetry of wandering minstrels features songs about fickle fortune and villainous fate, the wonderful return of springtime, and the pleasures of food, drink and lust. With a "driving rhythm and exultant hedonism," "Carmina Burana" is one of the most exhilarating and enjoyable pieces for performers and audiences alike and one that has remained extraordinarily popular since its premiere in 1937.
"Songs for the Earth" is the first full-length choral work commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society. Living composer Diemer has set to music the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Omar Khayyam and Mary Oliver, among others, to create six songs on themes of nature, including one in which the chorus splits into 20 different voice parts. This will be the first performance ever of this new work.
Those who have not attended a performance by a chorus with this many voices will be amazed. Recordings and TV broadcasts cannot capture how it feels to be in the audience at a live performance by a large chorus. The sound is a physical force that moves through the body.
The Choral Society will be accompanied by three superb soloists - Wendy Loder (soprano), Brian Staufenbiel (tenor) and Michael Rogers (baritone) - as well as the Piedmont Children's Choir.
Tickets are $29 for orchestra and loge, $26 for upper orchestra, rear boxes, and first tier and $23 for second tier. Students and seniors get a $2 discount per ticket in all seating areas.
To see a seat map, go here.
Source: Lisa Cisneros