New blog posts on our new blog...

Check them out:

We've been Fall Arts Previewed!

September Program Notes

Videos: Levin on Mozart

What I did on my summer vacation, pt. 1

Thank you for following this blog. Please keep up with us on facebook and our new website.

New website coming next week!

It is only fitting for our 100th blog entry that we announce a new, redesigned website. Starting Monday, our homepage will look a bit more like this:

Loyal blog readers: Please be aware that our blog will also be shifting to this new site. Updates to this blog will cease at the end of August.

Meet Courtney

This past July, we were lucky to be joined by Courtney Stredder, who interned for us through Career Explorations. Soon to be a senior at Nampa High School in Idaho, Courtney helped us prepare for the upcoming 30th Anniversary Season. While with us, she wrote press releases, dove into the archives to research our history, helped with the season ticket mailing, and attended the Association of California Symphony Orchestra's Conference. Last year's #1 state finalist in the Keyboard Percussion category for marimba and also an alto saxophone player, Courtney is looking forward to her last year in high school and excited about pursuing music in college. Good luck Courtney and thank you for all of your hard work!

In 66 days...

... we'll get to see our Nic conduct Mozart here in the Bay Area. For now, we'll just have to read about him conducting Mozart elsewhere.

For you impatient fans out there, subscribers will begin to receive their tickets this week(!) and single tickets go on sale in 15 days on August 5.

Kick off the year with Intrada

We are pleased to announce “Intrada,” the our 30th Anniversary Opening Night Celebration, which takes place on Friday, September 24, 2010, in the Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans Building (401 Van Ness Avenue), across from City Hall. The Opening Night Celebration begins at 6:00 p.m. with a delicious strolling supper and concludes with the first concert of our 2010/11 Season, an evening of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart featuring fortepianist and Mozart scholar Robert Levin.

Wines are provided by board member Randall Grahm, founder and owner of Bonny Doon Vineyard.

Tickets are $85 per person (event only) or $110 per person (includes balcony seating for the concert performance in Herbst Hall). Purchase tickets now using PalPal:

Intrada

Intrada Event $85.00 Intrada Event + Concert Balcony Seat $110.00

Or contact Jeff Thomas, Associate Director of Development, (415) 252-1288 x312.

If you're wondering what an "intrada" is, we'll quote our Grove for you: "an instrumental piece used to accompany an entrance, to inaugurate some festive event or to begin a suite [of dance music]" that was very popular in the Baroque era. What a great name for our 30th Season kick off party!

Meet Scott!

Scott broke the news last week and now it's our turn: We have engaged Scott Foglesong to write all of our program notes for our 30th Anniversary Season, as well as give three of the eight sets of pre-concert lectures. Chair of the Department of Musicianship and Music Theory at the San Francisco Conservatory and one of the San Francisco Symphony's program annotators and pre-concert lecturers, Scott will also serve as our Scholar in Residence, assisting in our artistic planning.

Why is this so exciting for us? Well, not only is Scott a respected musicologist and a great writer whose name many of our staff members look for in the concert hall and on the web, but his roots are entangled deeply with the orchestra's – Scott was a student of Laurette Goldberg, the founder of our orchestra!

Congratulations Hanneke!

We are pleased to announce a recent appointment to the membership of Philharmonia Baroque. Effective next season, Hanneke van Proosdij has been named First-Call Member of the Laurette Goldberg Keyboard Chair, endowed by Anne and David Oliver. Our long time fans will surely recognize Hanneke, who has often played harpsichord, organ, and recorder in the orchestra for the last 13 years.

Hanneke performs regularly as soloist and continuo specialist with Philharmonia Baroque, FestspielOrchester Göttingen, Voices of Music, Concerto Palatino, Magnificat and American Bach Soloists. She has appeared as a guest artist with Hesperion XX, Concerto Köln, Chanticleer, Orchestre dAmbronnay, Gewandhaus Orchester and the Arcadian Academy. She received her solo and teaching diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she studied recorder, harpsichord and composition.

Together with her husband David Tayler, Hanneke cofounded and codirects Voices of Music. Hanneke is a cofounder of the Junior Recorder Society in the East Bay and was the director of the SFEMS Medieval Renaissance Workshop for seven years and now directs, together with Rotem Gilbert, the SFEMS Recorder Workshop. She has recorded over forty discs for Magnatune, BIS, Koch, Musica Omnia, Carus, AVIE and Delos.

Please join us in congratulating Hanneke on her appointment!

An inspiring model?

Annalisa Pappano, a viol player in town for BFX10 from Cincinnati, wrote on her group's blog today:

What I find especially intriguing [in San Francisco] is the culture for early music here. This city boasts the [San Francisco Early Music Society] series, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, an astonishing number of professional viol players (last count was 16!), a full-time professional baroque orchestra (Philharmonia Baroque) with the superstar conductor Nicolas [sic] McGegan, and a whopping 43 early music organizations. This city is an inspiring model... What does it take for a city to become such an exciting center for early music?

So, we ask you the same question Annalisa asked: "What do you think?" Why and how did the Bay Area become a hub for early music? We'll be answering that all summer ourselves as we explore our own history as we approach our 30th Anniversary Season concerts.

Frederica von Stade interview from Houston PBS

Tired of reading some pretty gloomy posts on "Orchestra R/Evolution," we decided to cheer ourselves up. And Flicka can certainly do that! Here's a clip from Ernie Manouse's interview with her for Houston PBS's InnerVIEWS from this past December:

Musicianship, sensitivity, dramatic flair... grace, elegance, personal warmth

Joining us in March of 2011, Flicka has begun touring the country to say farewell to her adoring audiences before retirement. In case you missed it, here is the article about her Carnegie Hall farewell.

Announcing 2010-11 – Our 30th Anniversary Season

Today, we announced our 30th Anniversary Season!

Current subscribers can renew their subscriptions now! General public subscriptions go on sale March 15th! Single tickets go on sale August 5th. Keep checking our website, more information will be up in the coming weeks. If you can't wait... you can always join us this weekend for Brahms (just in time for Valentine's)!

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale's

2010-11 Season

* – Philharmonia Baroque premiere

† – Philharmonia Baroque debut

September – Robert Levin plays Mozart

Friday 24 September Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 25 September First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 26 September First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 28 September Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Wednesday 29 September Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Robert Levin, fortepiano (below)

MOZART

Incidental Music from Thamos, King of Egypt *

Concerto for Fortepiano No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 *

Fragments of newly found works for Fortepiano and Orchestra (U.S. Premiere)

Symphony No. 41 in C major, KV 551 “Jupiter” (Last performed by Philharmonia Baroque on March 2001)

October – Bach’s Wedding Cantata

Friday 15 October Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 16 October First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 17 October First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 19 October Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Lars Ulrik Mortensen, conductor and harpsichord (below) †

Maria Keohane, soprano †

BACH

Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066

Concerto for Harpsichord in D minor, BWV 1052

“Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten,” Wedding Cantata, BWV 202 (February 1982 – Philharmonia Baroque’s first public concert)

Concerto for Harpsichord in D major, BWV 1054


November – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Friday 5 November Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 6 November First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 7 November First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 9 November Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Wednesday 10 November Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin (concertmaster)

VIVALDI The Four Seasons, Op. 8, Nos. 1-4 (March 1991)

CORELLI Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 11 in B-flat major

PERGOLESI Sinfonia in F major *

DURANTE Concerto No. 5 in A major *

ZAVATERI Concerto decimo a Pastorale, Op. 1 *

December – Handel’s Messiah

Friday 3 December Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 4 December First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 5 December First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 7 December Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Daniel Taylor, countertenor

John McVeigh, tenor

Tyler Duncan, bass †

Philharmonia Chorale, Bruce Lamott, director

TBA soprano

HANDEL Messiah (December 2002)


January – David Daniels

Saturday 15 January First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 16 January First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 18 January Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Friday 21 January Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

David Daniels, countertenor (below)

VIVALDI Stabat mater, RV 621 *

HANDEL Arias from Giulio Cesare

TELEMANN Suite in F major, TWV 55:F11 “Alster Overture” *

February – Hummel’s Concerto for Keyed Trumpet

Friday 11 February Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 12 February First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 13 February First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 15 February Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Gabriele Cassone, keyed trumpet (below)†

SPOHR Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 49 *

HUMMEL Concerto for Keyed Trumpet in E major *

MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11 *

March – Flicka!

Friday 4 March Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 5 March First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 6 March First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 8 March Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Wednesday 9 March Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano (below)†

REBEL Les Caractères de la danse *

Nathaniel STOOKEY Into the Bright Lights (poetry by Flicka) (U.S. Premiere)

RAMEAU Les Indes galantes suite d’orchestre

GLUCK Arias

April – Haydn’s Creation

Friday 8 April Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Saturday 9 April First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Sunday 10 April First Congregational Church, Berkeley

Tuesday 12 April Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Atherton

Wednesday 13 April Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Dominique Labelle, soprano

Thomas Cooley, tenor

Philharmonia Chorale, Bruce Lamott, director

HAYDN The Creation (April 1994)

Celebrating 30 Years of Inspired Sound

When Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of the West played the first notes of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Wedding Cantata at Herbst Theatre on February 4, 1982, no one guessed what the future would hold. At the time, just having formed the first period instrument ensemble on the West Coast was a feat in itself. By the mid-1970s, a small community of musicians and craftsmen had converged on the Bay Area, all inspired by a countercultural phenomenon: the early music movement. It was not until a fateful moment in 1977 that the true power of this rediscovered period of music was realized at a summer camp on the Russian River—a roomful of these musicians played together as an ensemble, on period instruments, for the very first time. They produced a sound so full of life, expression, exuberance, clarity and subtlety that it seemed to vibrate from the hearts and minds of the composers.

The moment was so moving, so unique, that one musician—Laurette Goldberg—became obsessed with creating an orchestra that would be able to recreate the richness, brilliance, flexibility and articulation that the composers of the Baroque and early Classical periods intended. Laurette spent five years bringing together a group of people who would support the musicians who became Philharmonia Baroque. At thetime, her ideas were radical—a chamber orchestra, Baroque and early-Classical repertoire, period instruments, but her desire was not—to create something meaningful, affecting, transcendent.

Since the very beginning, Philharmonia Baroque has been about the love of a sound—a sound, once heard, that changes once and for all the way we want to experience music, whether on stage or in the audience. This inspiration has guided Philharmonia Baroque from the start, and the organization’s ultimate goal has remained constant since its inception 30 years ago: we want our music to delight, to inspire and to educate—to increase the level of beauty, sensitivity and joy in a complex world.

We hope to see you this season and next!

Tomorrow's the day...

Keep an eye on the blog tomorrow... we'll be announcing our programming for 2010-11, our 30th Season!!!

Our staff was busy all Friday getting subscription renewals into the mail...

Want another hint? The orchestra and chorale will be performing a work that Nic is well known internationally for, but he has not conducted it in the Bay Area for 11 years... What is it?