Explore New Century’s Vibrant Season
“The season ahead is one of our most diverse yet with a tremendous variety of classics and new works, often juxtaposed in provocative and moving ways.”
—Daniel Hope, Music Director and Concertmaster
Music lovers throughout the Bay Area are invited to rediscover centuries-old classics in a new light, hear never-before heard music, and embark on a journey through Western dance music with New Century Chamber Orchestra’s upcoming 2024-25 season. Highlights of this remarkable season of music includes the first U.S. performance of British composer David Bruce’s Lully Loops; Max Richter’s modern mega hit Vivaldi: Recomposed – The Four Seasons; internationally-renowned guest pianist Inon Barnatan and San Francisco Symphony trumpet player Aaron Schuman joining for Shostokovich’s virtuoso Piano Concerto No. 1; a new commission of work by up-and-coming San Francisco composer Jungyoon Wie; a first-time chance to experience the full sweep of Music Director Daniel Hope’s acclaimed DANCE! album live; and even a collaboration with SFJAZZ.
“All of the pieces on this program are so electric and unique! What a joy to share them together—with the musicians on stage, and with each of you in the audience.”
—Nicole Sauder, violin
Vivaldi: Recomposed, November 14-17, 2024
New Century kicks off the season with Max Richter’s Vivaldi: Recomposed – The Four Seasons. Recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in 2012 with Daniel Hope on solo violin, it is a mesmerizing reimagining of Vivaldi’s timeless masterpiece – “a personal salvage mission,” according to the composer, of a work he once loved but felt had lost its impact through overexposure. One of the most popular pieces of classical music today, the global bestseller topped the classical charts in 22 countries, has been streamed more than 500 million times, and has been used as the soundtrack for multiple TV and film projects including the hit series The Crown and Bridgerton.
Also featured is the U.S. premiere of British composer David Bruce’s Lully Loops for Violin and String Orchestra. The work uses brief sequences from the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully to create a vibrant kaleidoscope of digital and live orchestral sound, infusing the music of the Baroque with shimmering contemporary flourishes. Lully Loops was commissioned by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Hope, who performed the piece for its world premiere in August 2023. “This piece is so visceral and energetic,” says Hope. “Audiences have been riveted in Europe, and I truly think it’s a masterpiece.”
The program opens with a festive gem, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Allegro Moderato from Four Novelletten for String Orchestra.
Performances:
Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 7:30PM; First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, November 15, 2024 at 7:30PM; Empress Theatre, Vallejo (Presented by the Empress Theatre. Visit empresstheatre.org for tickets.)
Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 7:30PM; Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 3:00PM; St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Belvedere Tiburon
“As a child of post-war Germany, Bartók’s Divertimento has always been a very personal piece to me. It empathetically encompasses our emotional call and response, devastates in a painting or destruction and trauma of war, but also celebrates the resilience of human spirit in exuberant dance.”
—Iris Stone, Violin
Musical Diversions with Inon Barnatan, January 17-19, 2025
Praised by The New York Times as “one of the most admired pianists of his generation,” Inon Barnatan joins New Century and Daniel Hope, a longtime colleague on the world stage, for an electrifying collaboration.
In what will surely be a highlight of the season, they team up for Dmitri Shostokovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor. “The work is a dazzling show of virtuosity and always brings the house down,” says Hope, who counts it as one of his favorite pieces. Joining on solo trumpet will be San Francisco Symphony Associate Principal Aaron Schuman. Barnatan also joins New Century for C.P.E. Bach’s dramatic Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D minor, a work that set the gold standard for pianists for centuries.
Closing the program is Bela Bartók's Divertimento for String Orchestra, one of the great works for strings with jubilant Hungarian folk rhythms, reflecting a happier time in the composer’s life before the perils of war forced him to flee to the United States.
Performances:
Friday, January 17, 2025 at 7:30PM; First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 3:00PM; Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park (Presented by the Green Music Center. Visit gmc.sonoma.edu for tickets.)
Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 2:00PM; Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Brandee Younger
Guest Leader and Harp
SFJAZZ presents
NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA WITH BRANDEE YOUNGER, March 6-9, 2025
In a special, first time collaboration, New Century joins harpist Brandee Younger, currently in her second season as an SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director, in a program of new works for harp and strings. Honoring the life and music of the late harpist and jazz legend Alice Coltrane, Younger carries on the adventurous spirit and expands the tradition of her greatest influences, including pioneering jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, infusing her compositions with a 21st century vibrancy and fearless experimentation. A student of jazz great Jackie McLean, Younger has collaborated with artists from the worlds of jazz and hip hop, including Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Pharoah Sanders, Lauren Hill, and Common.
Performances:
Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:30PM
Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 7:30PM
Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 7:00PM
All performances are held at Miner Auditorium, SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco. These performances are presented by SFJAZZ. Tickets go on sale on July 12, 2024 at sfjazz.org.
“The joys and thrills of chamber music, the camaraderie of an orchestra, joined by wonderful friends in the most wonderful city in the world. This is New Century Chamber Orchestra.”
—Isaac Melamed, cello
Up-and-coming San Francisco-based composer Jungyoon Wie’s masterful A Prayer for Peace makes its West Coast debut in this program. A 2024 New Century co-commission with Boston’s A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, the piece makes poignant use of repetition and variation to represent the composer’s evolution in her journey as a Korean immigrant to the United States.
“There are beautiful harmonies, but also very arresting emotions throughout the piece,” says Hope. “Jungyoon has a very distinct voice, and we are excited to be working with her.” Wie echoes the sentiment. “I’m thrilled to be able to work with musicians locally,” she says. “I learn so much from attending the rehearsals in person and getting to know the group, and this really shapes the way I write music. I feel that personal connection is really important in my creative process.”
Opening the program, African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork’s joyful Sonata da Chiesa for Strings invites religious meditation as it builds an opulent cathedral of sound in the style of a grand choral mass, appealing to God for peace and absolution.
Finally, the remarkable and intimate Metamorphosen—Richard Strauss’s late-in-life string masterpiece composed in the aftermath of WWII—stands undimmed as a memorial for the victims of war and as inspiration to rebuild after tragedy. The layered work, with its 23 individual “solo” parts for each string player, has long been considered one of the most brilliantly constructed pieces ever written for string orchestra.
Performances:
Friday, April 4, 2025 at 7:30PM; First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 2:00PM; St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 3:00PM; St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Belvedere Tiburon
“Dance runs deep throughout the history of mankind, not to mention within the living traditions of ethnic music and expression.”
—Daniel Hope, Music Director and Concertmaster
DANCE! with Daniel Hope, May 1-4, 2025
Performing selections from his chart-topping double album DANCE!, Daniel Hope and New Century lead audiences through the history of 700 years of Western dance music. From Baroque opera and Russian ballet to klezmer and tango, this imaginative program illuminates the universal nature of dance rhythms that have set bodies in motion and lifted spirits for centuries. Highlights include selections from Handel’s Water Music Suite, the “Pas de Deux” from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Offenbach’s iconic “Can-Can” from Orpheus in the Underworld, Schubert’s Five German Dances, Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns, as well as works by Florence Price, Astor Piazzolla, and many more.
“I have been thinking about a dance album since 1999,” says Hope. “But after the pandemic lockdowns, it really felt like there was an urgent need to express movement and reflect on collective enjoyment. The album says as much about us as human beings as it says about dance music. I’m excited to share selections from it for the first time in the Bay Area.”
Performances:
Thursday, May 1, 2025 at 7:30PM; First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, May 2, 2025 at 7:30PM; St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Belvedere Tiburon
Saturday, May 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM; Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 2:30PM; Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University (Presented by Stanford Live. Visit live.stanford.edu for tickets.)
Subscriptions for New Century’s 2024-25 season are on sale now. Ticket buyers can choose two or more concerts in the season to create a concert package and save 25% off regular ticket prices. Single tickets are on sale beginning September 3, 2024. Learn more and subscribe.
