The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) is a

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was established in 2002 and is dedicated to the performance of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

, most often works by the orchestra's members. The group has also performed music by other

composers, including

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely re ...

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...

, Gerhard Samuel, and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

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The orchestra's conductor, co-founder, and music director is

Mark Alburger Mark Alburger (born April 2, 1957 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is a San Francisco Bay area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of Goat ...

; co-founder and executive director is

Erling Wold Erling Wold (born January 30, 1958 in Burbank, California) is a San Francisco based composer of opera and contemporary classical music. He is best known for his later chamber operas, and his early experiments as a microtonalist. Life Wold was ...

. Its associate conductors are John Kendall Bailey and Martha Stoddard; other board members are Michael Cooke,

Lisa Scola Prosek Lisa Scola Prosek (born March 25, 1958) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based composer and librettist. Among her compositions are two oratorios and seven operas. Life and career Scola Prosek was born in New Jersey and raised in Rome. She graduated fr ...

. The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) is a unique orchestra in the U.S. Since its first concert in March 2002, the SFCCO has premiered more new works than any other orchestra in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. The ensemble consists primarily of composer/performers, forming a unique organization dedicated to democratizing the symphony orchestra, making it available to composers of many styles and in many stages of development, from the established to the emerging. The result is a diverse offering of new music. In any one concert, an audience may hear many styles, including Neoromantic, Serial, Neoclassical,

Minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

Noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

and

Improvised Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

. The SFCCO takes an informal approach to its concerts, emphasizing communication with the audience in talks before, between and after pieces, drawing listeners into the music-making. The group's goal is to reverse the mainstream orchestral trend which features mostly older classical music by performing 6-8 new works a concert, rather than only a few new pieces a year.

References

External links

San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra official siteSan Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra audio samplesSan Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra video samples
Chamber orchestras Musical groups from San Francisco Contemporary classical music ensembles Musical groups established in 2002 2002 establishments in California Orchestras based in California {{US-orchestra-stub

See also

References

External links