SFGC宣布艺术总监离职和任命

艺术总监Lisa Bielawa将在2017-2018演出季后离职；音乐总监兼首席指挥
Valérie Sainte-Agathe将在2018-2019演出季担任艺术总监。

艺术总监Lisa Bielawa和音乐总监兼首席指挥Valérie Sainte-Agathe。

San Francisco, CA – Thursday, August 17, 2017 – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) and Board President, Rhonda L. Nelson, today announced that Artistic Director, Lisa Bielawa, will step down from her role at the conclusion of the 2017-2018 season and Music Director & Principal Conductor, Valérie Sainte-Agathe, will assume a singular artistic leadership position, Artistic Director, which will encompass the primary responsibilities of both current positions, effective July 1, 2018. Bielawa’s departure and Sainte-Agathe’s appointment will come after a highly successful five-year tenure for both in what is one of the truly innovative artistic leadership models in the choral music world.

“Over the last five years, the Board has watched with awe as Valérie and Lisa have overseen an extraordinary period of growth, evolution, and achievement for the organization,” said Nelson. “When Lisa initially accepted this position with SFGC, the Board of Directors understood that given her multi-faceted career as a composer and vocalist, her tenure would likely be around four or five years. While we were sad to learn that Lisa would be departing at the end of this season, we had also anticipated this eventuality." 

“The consolidation of both positions into a more traditional Artistic Director role represents a natural evolution for the organization, one that ideally positions SFGC for a bright future under Valérie’s dynamic artistic leadership,” Nelson added.

Under this joint-leadership model, Bielawa and Sainte-Agathe have, together, elevated and redefined the San Francisco Girls Chorus’ artistic direction, sound, and standing as an in-demand artistic partner, both locally and nationally. In recent seasons, SFGC has forged and strengthened partnerships with numerous leading arts and cultural organizations, including the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Film Festival, Kronos Quartet, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Opera Parallèle, Voices of Music, Chanticleer, and many others. SFGC’s performance activities outside of the Bay Area have increased substantially, as well, with performances for the Britt Music Festival (OR), Oregon Bach Festival, NY PHIL Biennial at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. And on February 16, 2018, SFGC will make its Carnegie Hall debut performing Philip Glass' seminal work, Music with Changing Parts, with Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble, part of Carnegie Hall's highly anticipated citywide festival The ’60s: The Years that Changed America and the composer's 80th birthday celebratory year.

SFGC has also reaffirmed its commitment to championing music of our time, launching a Composer-in-Residence Program specifically for its Chorus School, now in its third year; commissioning or premiering new works from leading composers, including Aaron Jay Kernis, Matthew Welch, Sahba Aminikia, Theo Bleckman, Amy X Neuburg; and recently recording music in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet for a forthcoming album that will include ten works by nine living composers (eight of whom are American).

“When Valérie and I started in our joint leadership in 2013, I set out a number of goals and dreams for the artistic direction of the organization,” says Bielawa. “It has been incredibly gratifying to see so many of these fulfilled - and so richly! The various collaborators I have brought to SFGC now belong to all of us, and all of my various colleagues in the greater music field now also cherish Valérie and our young women themselves as colleagues in their own right.”

“The collaborative relationship Lisa and I have enjoyed over the last five years has been one of the most gratifying, fruitful, and rewarding experiences in each of our careers,” noted Sainte-Agathe. “We look forward to spending this upcoming season celebrating all that has been accomplished.”

“I am deeply honored that the Board of Directors has appointed me Artistic Director. When I become Artistic Director next July, I will do so knowing that SFGC is destined to build on its current standing as one of the preeminent youth choruses in the world because of the work Lisa and I have done together.”

SFGC’s 2017-2018 season includes a three-concert subscription series with performances on October 25, December 18, and April 22; a June 2018 co-production with Voices of Music and the San Francisco Early Music Society for the 2018 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition; and collaborations with leading organizations and institutions, including the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera Parallèle, Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass Ensemble, San Francisco Performances, and Carnegie Hall.

For more information, please visit sfgirlschorus.org.

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About Lisa Bielawa
Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. Her music has been described as “ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart,” by The New York Times, and “fluid and arresting … at once dramatic and probing,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the recipient of the 2017 Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Lisa Bielawa recently completed her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser with librettist Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte. Vireo was produced as part of Bielawa’s artist residency at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California and in partnership with KCETLink and Single Cel. The opera was filmed at locations across the country – Alcatraz Island, a monastery on the Hudson River, an abandoned train station in Oakland, the California Redwoods – and featured over 350 musicians in support of its core cast, including soprano Deborah Voigt, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Kronos Quartet, violinist Jennifer Koh, cellist Joshua Roman, Alarm Will Sound, and many others. All 12 episodes were broadcast on KCETLink’s Emmy® award-winning series Artbound, as well as online for free, on-demand streaming. The Los Angeles Times called Vireo an opera, “unlike any you have seen before, in content and in form,” and the San Francisco Chronicle described it as, “poetic and fantastical, visually stunning and relentlessly abstract.”

Lisa Bielawa’s music is frequently performed throughout the US and abroad. Two of her works received their world premieres at the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL: My Outstretched Hand by The Knights, San Francisco Girls Chorus, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which was recently given a second performance at The Kennedy Center; and Vireo Caprice by violinist Jennifer Koh at National Sawdust. The Seattle Chamber Music Society recently commissioned and premiered Bielawa’s Fictional Migrations, which The Seattle Times called, “sophisticated, propulsive, complex, and often beautiful.” In December 2016, the Orlando Philharmonic performed the world premiere of Bielawa’s Drama/Self Pity for orchestra and in January 2017, The Kennedy Center presented two of her works with Bielawa as soloist as part of their KC Jukebox series. Recent highlights also include performances of Start for piano and chamber orchestra by pianist Andrew Armstrong and the Orchestra of the League of Composers; 50 Measures for Aaron by SOLI Chamber Ensemble; One Atom of Faith by violinist Rebecca Fischer of the Chiara String Quartet; and The Trojan Women by the String Orchestra of New York City.

Bielawa’s music can be found outside the concert hall as well, with two major works written for performance in public spaces. Chance Encounter, a piece comprising songs and arias constructed of speech overheard in transient public spaces, was premiered by soprano Susan Narucki and The Knights in Lower Manhattan's Seward Park. Airfield Broadcasts is a 60-minute work for hundreds of musicians, which was premiered on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin in May 2013 and at Crissy Field in San Francisco in October 2013.

Born in San Francisco into a musical family, Lisa Bielawa played the violin and piano, sang, and wrote music from early childhood. She moved to New York two weeks after receiving her B.A. in Literature in 1990 from Yale University, and became an active participant in New York musical life. She began touring as the vocalist with the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1992, and has also premiered and toured works by John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, and Michael Gordon. In 1997 she co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers. Bielawa was appointed Artistic Director of the acclaimed San Francisco Girls Chorus in 2013 and recently completed her residency at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California. Her discography includes albums on the Tzadik, TROY, Innova, BMOP/sound, Orange Mountain Music and Sono Luminus labels. In 2016, Bielawa was awarded grants from New York Foundation for the Arts, the MAP Fund, and New Music USA.

关于Valérie Sainte-Agathe 自2013年起，
作为旧金山女子合唱团的音乐总监兼首席指挥，Valérie Sainte-Agathe筹备并指挥SFGC与著名艺术家如Jon Nakamatsu、Deborah Voigt、Frederica von Stade、Gustavo Dudamel、新世纪室内乐团、Kronos Quartet、Philip Glass和Aaron Jay Kernis等合作演出。2016年6月，她指挥SFGC与骑士乐团和布鲁克林青年合唱团一起参加了在林肯中心举办的纽约PHIL双年节。2017年4月，她再次与骑士团合作，参加了在华盛顿肯尼迪中心举办的SHIFT音乐节。

Sainte-Agathe女士是土生土长的马提尼克岛人，她在蒙彼利埃保罗-瓦莱里大学获得了合唱指挥的音乐学士学位，并在蒙彼利埃音乐学院获得了钢琴、室内乐和理论的音乐研究文凭。她拥有蒙彼利埃大学管理学硕士学位，并曾在科罗拉多州立大学柯林斯堡分校学习钢琴演奏。

1995年，她回到蒙彼利埃，担任蒙彼利埃国家管弦乐团和法国广播节的钢琴家，并在那里举办音乐会和录制当代作曲家约翰-亚当斯、M-托克和史蒂夫-莱克等人的作品。

她于1997年加入少年歌剧院，参加了蒙彼利埃国家歌剧院和少年歌剧院的众多演出，先是担任声乐教练，后是担任合唱团团长。2000年，她被任命为艺术协调员和音乐总监，培训6至25岁的年轻歌手，并为蒙彼利埃国家管弦乐团、法国电台音乐节和巴黎的音乐节筹备合唱团。

2005年，她担任第二届巴黎声乐艺术双年展的合唱团指挥，并与Armin Jordan合作制作《Die Konigskinder》，与Emmanuel Krivine和Alain Altinoglu合作制作爱乐乐团的《Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher》 。她还制作了由爱乐乐团创作的爵士歌剧《Libertad！》的世界首演。在蒙彼利埃的Opéra Comédie演出了由Didier Lockwood创作的爵士歌剧《Libertad!

2008年，她与Hervé Niquet领导的地区交响合唱团和蒙彼利埃国家管弦乐团合作，为阿兰-阿尔蒂诺格鲁指挥的马勒第三交响曲准备了少年歌剧合唱团。次年，她与让-保罗-斯卡皮塔合作，为《狄多与埃涅阿斯》的交响曲进行了演出。

2010年，她参加了法国年度颁奖典礼----Victoires de la Musique，她的团体在蒙彼利埃管弦乐团的伴奏下演奏了Fauré的《Pavane》和Amahl与夜访者。法国国家电视台播放了这些演出。

2012年，她获得了保罗-瓦莱里大学文化项目管理硕士学位，并带领大学合唱团Ecume。

Sainte-Agathe女士参加了蒙彼利埃国家管弦乐团和法国广播节的8张唱片。她是法国音乐界的Victoires de la musique（相当于格莱美奖）的获得者，并因Honneger的Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher 和d'Indy的L'Étranger两次获得Orphée d'Or奖。

照片資料
Lisa Bielawa / Carlin Ma
Valérie Sainte-Agathe / Joseph Fanvu

媒體聯絡人
J. Andrew Bradford
(415) 863-1752
abradford@sfgirlschorus.org。

旧金山女子
合唱团简介
旧金山女子合唱团成立于1978年，其创始艺术总监伊丽莎白-阿普林筹备了有史以来第一支女子合唱团与旧金山歌剧院合作演出，这在以前只有男孩才有机会。三藩市女子合唱团成立之初的愿景是成为一个具有国际水准的年轻女性合唱团，现在已经发展成为一个著名的、行业领先的表演艺术和音乐教育机构。今天，在艺术总监Lisa Bielawa和音乐总监Valerie Sainte-Agathe的领导下，SFGC每年为来自45个城市和9个湾区县的近300名5-18岁的合唱团员提供服务。三藩市合唱团由21名教学艺术家和7名行政人员组成的音乐教师团队提供服务，该组织运营着一个专业级的演出、录音和巡回演出乐团；四级合唱学校培训计划；以及一个预备合唱团。

三藩市合唱团每年都与主要的艺术和文化组织合作，包括旧金山歌剧院、旧金山交响乐团、旧金山芭蕾舞团、旧金山电影节和克罗诺斯四重奏等。合唱团曾到十几个国家巡回演出，并在主要的国家和国际场所进行表演，包括2009年奥巴马总统的就职典礼、纽约林肯中心、华盛顿肯尼迪表演艺术中心、日本京都的世界合唱研讨会、韩国的世界展望儿童合唱节和中国的音乐节。三藩市政府对艺术卓越的承诺得到了众多奖项的认可，包括五次格莱美奖和三次ASCAP/美国合唱团冒险节目奖。

三藩市政府还拥有并运营着位于旧金山市民中心区的六层楼高的康巴表演艺术中心，每年为30多个艺术机构提供服务。三藩市政府目前的年度營運預算為240萬元。