Saturday, June 20, 2015, 8:00 pm concert
Palace of Fine Arts
3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
Featuring Bay Area Rainbow Symphony along with the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and other guests
Tickets and more info: annualprideconcert.org
ORCHESTRAL MUSICIANS INTERESTED IN THE BAY AREA RAINBOW SYMPHONY Strong French horn and trumpet players are particularly needed at this time and we invite players interested in trying out for those sections to fill in our New Player Form and we will contact you about possible date and times for auditions, which will be held at the end of March or beginning of April. Our musicians and audiences recognize the high artistic quality and social atmosphere of the ensemble at our sold-out concerts. You’re sure to enjoy our weekly rehearsals at SF State University on Wednesday evenings from 7:30PM to 10PM. We welcome LGBTQ and straight musicians (approximately 20-25% of our members and 40% of our audience identify as straight). We have musicians from all over the Bay Area and provide carpools. Advanced and intermediate players are welcome. Or next regular rehearsal will be Wed January 21st. Please RSVP in advance and fill in our New Player Form. Email recruitment at bars-sf dot org for questions or more information.
ORCHESTRAL MUSICIANS INTERESTED IN THE BAY AREA RAINBOW SYMPHONY BARS invites orchestral musicians to inquire about joining the symphony. Our next rehearsal is Wed., January 21st but new, interested players should sign up on our New Player Form before coming. French horn and trumpet players are particularly needed at this time and we invite players interested in trying out for those sections to fill in our New Player Form and we will contact you about possible date and times for auditions, which will be held at the end of March or beginning of April. Our musicians and audiences recognize the high artistic quality and social atmosphere of the ensemble at our sold-out concerts. You’re sure to enjoy our weekly rehearsals at SF State University on Wednesday evenings from 7:30PM to 10PM. We welcome LGBTQ and straight musicians (approximately 20-25% of our members and 40% of our audience identify as straight). We have musicians from all over the Bay Area and provide carpools. Advanced and intermediate players are welcome. Or next regular rehearsal will be Wed January 21st. Please RSVP in advance and fill in our New Player Form. Email recruitment at bars-sf dot org for questions or more information.
Musicians, especially violinists and other strings, are invited to join the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) for an open reading rehearsal on Wednesday January 29 at SF State at our regular 7:30 – 10:00 p.m. time and place 1600 Holloway Ave, Creative Arts Building Room 153, San Francisco State University. BARS members, and any interested string players, will play through Beethoven's Fidelio Overture and Hanson's Symphony No. 2 ("Romantic"). Double bass, violin and percussion players are especially encouraged to join us (though the wind sections are generally full, please email if you're interested in joining). You will have the opportunity to practice sight reading, to reconnect with old friends, to make new friends, and to find out more about playing with BARS. Please RSVP if you plan to come by emailing ed@bars-sf.org.
Our conductor for that evening will be our Music Director, Dawn Harms. BARS has a recording that hit the top 10 in iTunes classical albums, had a resoundingly successful gala opener featuring Frederica Von Stade this season, and consistently sells out performances at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
This rehearsal will be a fun session to read through some great orchestral literature … and to help recruit new players. The Hanson will be distributed at the rehearsal, but please bring the Beethoven with you by downloading and printing using the link below.
The Beethoven link for parts is http://imslp.org/wiki/Fidelio,_Op.72_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van)#Overture_2. This link should take you to the Sheet Music section of that page and show the parts (16) tab; then print out the parts for your instrument.
Purchase all four productions at the same price tier and automatically receive a 20% discount and waiver of all fees!
Season highlights include Frederica von Stade, 
Melody Moore, Beth Clayton, a Benjamin Britten Birthday Bash led by guest conductor Cyrus Ginwala, works by Jake Heggie and Howard Hanson, plus much more. Please join us for this exciting season with our new Music Director Dawn Harms by securing your seats with subscribing.
New this season we are offering both Saturday evening and Sunday matinee performances for November and March. You can mix matinee and evening shows, just make sure all four productions have the same price level indicated by color. Purchase your tickets here.
It is with great excitement and pleasure that Bay Area Rainbow Symphony announces its new Music Director is Dawn Harms. Dawn brings passion, expertise and wonderful musicianship to guide BARS's artistic course and the orchestra is thrilled to be working with her. Dawn's dynamism and energy will continue the upward trajectory of BARS as it enters its sixth season.
About Dawn Harms
Dawn Harms's very diverse career ranges from being a chamber musician, violin soloist, concertmaster, and conductor. Dawn is a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster for the New Century Chamber Orchestra and Co-Concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She also records regularly at Skywalker Ranch Studios on sound tracks for movies and video games.
Dawn Harms's very diverse career ranges from being a chamber musician, violin soloist, concertmaster, and conductor. Dawn is a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster for the New Century Chamber Orchestra and Co-Concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She also records regularly at Skywalker Ranch Studios on sound tracks for movies and video games.
Ms. Harms was chosen as a Fellow at the exclusive American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, where she worked with some of the top conductors of the world. Her recent guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Livermore Amador Symphony, and Symphony Parnassus. She was also invited to conduct the extra shorts on the film Ratatouille which is exclusively found on the DVDs. Her recent solo appearances include, Folsom Symphony, Paradise Symphony, Sacramento Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in concert with Frederica Von Stade, Zheng Cao, Eugenia Zukerman and has premiered and performed works by Jake Heggie. In March 2012, Dawn was fortunate enough to solo with BARS, playing the 4 Seasons of Buenos Aries, by Astor Piazzolla. Now once again she is delighted to get to work with BARS as a conductor.
A strong advocate for Music education, she was music director and conductor of the Amarillo Youth Orchestra. She designs and performs her own family show throughout the United States, New Zealand, and Japan. Dawn recently performed her one-woman family show with the Lincoln Symphony in Nebraska, the Oakland Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, and the Napa Youth Symphony. Dawn plays on her cousin Tom Waits's CDs "Alice" and "Blood Money." Dawn also has two solo CD's, "The Black Swan" and "The Hot Canary" that can be found on cdbaby.com. She is currently on the faculty at Stanford University.
Special thanks to our our audience for making this season a resounding success and also to our four Finalist Candidates for guest conducting this past season! BARS will announce its next Music Director in the 3rd week of July along with Season Ticket sales.
Cyrus Ginwala
Christian Baldini
Jessica Bejarano
Dawn Harms
About Dr. Cyrus Ginwala
Conductor Cyrus Ginwala has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boca Pops, the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, the Aspen Concert Orchestra and the Sewanee Summer Festival Orchestra. He has served as visiting faculty at the Peabody Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2005, he has conducted concerts throughout the region, including during the inaugural season of the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony.
Born and raised in Boston, his early training was as singer and pianist. While in high school, he studied at the Tanglewood Young Artist Program, after which he was appointed to the faculty for an additional three years. After completing a B. Mus. in piano at Boston University, he earned Master and Doctor of Music degrees in Orchestral Conducting at the Peabody Conservatory, where he conducted opera productions annually and was the only student in the conservatory’s modern history entrusted with a major production of the Peabody Opera Theater.
From 1989-1996, Dr. Ginwala was Music Director of the Orchestra and the Opera Workshop at Towson University in Baltimore and, from 1994-96, Music Director of the Young Victorian Opera Company.
Music Director of the Symphony of the Mountains from 1996-2005, he conducted more than 100 works in subscription and pops series, while expanding the orchestra’s concert and education programs. During the same period, Dr. Ginwala was Resident Conductor of the Sewanee Summer Music Center, one of the oldest summer orchestral training programs in America.
An outspoken advocate for social and community causes, he was founding member of Equality Tennessee, created following the 2000 March on Washington, and the Kingsport Community Foundation. He lives in Oakland with his husband Dennis and two unreasonably demanding cats..
About Dr. Christian Baldini In his early 30s, based in California, and of Argentinian and Italian descent, Christian Baldini is a dynamic and diverse young artist. Equally at home in the core repertoire as in the most daring corners of the contemporary repertoire, he is an accomplished conductor and a natural communicator, with a pure and warm sense of musicality. He has conducted orchestras and ensembles internationally, including the Munich Radio Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.) and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He has also conducted opera for the Aldeburgh Festival (England). Equally at home conducting symphonic repertoire, chamber ensembles, and opera, Baldini has been an advocate for contemporary music since early on in his career and has conducted the world premières of more than 60 new works. In this capacity he has collaborated closely with composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Steven Stucky, Philippe Hurel, Fabian Panisello and Steve Mackey. After conducting the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP, Brazil), the Folha de São Paulo gave him a rave review "this charismatic young conductor lead Brahms' Symphony No. 1 by memory, lavishing his musicality and leaving sighs all over the hall and the rows of the orchestra." In Buffalo, New York, Baldini garnered excellent reviews conducting Stravinsky's L’Histoire du soldat with members of the Buffalo Philharmonic at the Kavinoky Theater.
Baldini was privileged to learn from such conducting luminaries as Peter Eötvös, Martyn Brabbins, Leonard Slatkin and Kurt Masur. He holds degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo (Ph.D. in Composition), the Pennsylvania State University (Master’s in Conducting), and the Catholic University of Argentina (Bachelor’s Degree in Conducting and Composition).
Baldini is also a noted composer and his music has been performed in Europe, South America, North America and Asia by orchestras and ensembles including the Orchestre National de Lorraine, Southbank Sinfonia (London), New York New Music Ensemble, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Israel Contemporary Players, Daegu Chamber Orchestra (South Korea), Munich Radio Orchestra, Chronophonie Ensemble (Freiburg) and Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt). His music appears on CD on the Pretal Label, and has been broadcast on Südwestrundfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk in Germany, as well as on the National Classical Music Radio of Argentina. He has also conducted and recorded contemporary Italian music for the RAI Trade and Tactus labels. His compositions are published by Babel Scores in Paris.
Baldini’s work has received awards in several competitions including the top prize at the Seoul International Competition for Composers (South Korea, 2005), the Tribune of Music (UNESCO, 2005), the Ossia International Competition (Rochester, NY, 2008), the Daegu Chamber Orchestra International Competition (South Korea, 2008), and the São Paulo Orchestra International Conducting Competition (OSESP - Brazil, 2006). He was also a finalist for the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award in April 2012.
In past seasons, Baldini has been an assistant conductor with the BBC Symphony and the Britten-Pears Orchestras, and a cover conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.). Since 2009, Baldini has served as the Music Director of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra (University of California), and was recently appointed as Music Director with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento. In the summer of 2012, he made his debut in South Africa conducting two concerts with the National Youth Orchestra, and returned for a second engagement conducting the Buenos Aires Philharmonic.
About Jessica Bejarano
Jessica Bejarano currently serves as Music Director of West County Winds; Artistic Director of the Chamber String Orchestra of San Francisco; Associate Conductor of the Community Women’s Orchestra; Instrumental and Vocal Director of the Jewish Community High School; and Artist-In-Residence with LEAP...Imagination in Learning in San Francisco.
Jessica received her Master of Arts in Conducting from the University of California, Davis; Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Wyoming; and Associate of Fine Arts in Music Education from Casper College.
During the summer of 2007, Jessica attended the International Academy of Advanced Conducting in Saint Petersburg, Russia where she received “Honorable Mention” for her performance with the Classical Symphony Orchestra of Saint Petersburg. Jessica was invited back by the Academy (IAAC) in 2008 to continue her studies with Maestro Leonid Korchmar and to conduct a performance with the Chamber String Orchestra of Urbino in Urbino, Italy. During the same summer, she also attended the International Institute for Conductors in Bac?u, Romania where she conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra “Mihail Jora” of Bacau in two separate performances. In September, 2010, Jessica was one of ?fteen conductors selected from around the world to study with Maestro Jorma Panula and conduct the Ruse National Philharmonic in Ruse, Bulgaria.
Recently, in June, 2012, Jessica was invited to the Conductors’ Guild Conducting Mastercourse with Maestra Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In July, Jessica was selected to participate in the International Conductors Masterclass in San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain. During her time in Spain she worked closely with Maestro Jorma Panula and conducted the Camerata Antonio Soler Orchestra in performance. In August, after Spain, Jessica was accepted into the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music as a conductor with Maestra Marin Alsop and Maestro Gustav Meier in Santa Cruz, California.
About Dawn Harms
Dawn Harms’ diverse career ranges from playing Take Me Out to the Ballgame at a Giants game with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, to playing on her cousin Tom Waits' CD's, Alice, Blood Money, and Bad as Me. A member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and associate concertmaster of the critically acclaimed New Century Chamber Orchestra, Dawn also performs as co-concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony.
Dawn was chosen to be one of the fellows at the exclusive American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, where she worked with some of the top conductors of the world. She is co-founder and Music Director of the Music at Kirkwood chamber music festival and currently serves on the music faculty at Stanford University.
As a strong advocate for children's music education, Dawn was conductor and music director of the Amarillo Youth Orchestra and continues to design and perform educational concerts throughout the United States. She recently performed her one-woman family show with the Lincoln Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, Berkeley Symphony and the Napa Youth Symphony.
Dawn was featured in a concert at the Guggenheim Museum, premiering works by Jake Heggie and Gordon Getty, where she collaborated with Frederica von Stade, Zheng Cao, Eugenia Zukerman, and Matt Haimowitz.
Another highlight of her career was a performance at the GLAAD awards in San Francisco, with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, in which Suze Orman had the honor of introducing them for the first time to a very diverse audience.
After returning from a highly successful two and a half week east coast tour with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Dawn had an even busier schedule this Spring. She was invited to conduct the Tennessee honors youth orchestra, in Chattanooga Tennessee, in February. She then conducted the Livermore-Amador Symphony in April, and played the first movement of the Barber Violin Concerto as well as a world premiere by Peter B. Allen with the Folsom Symphony in May.
To get the year started by making great music together, please join the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) for an open reading rehearsal on Wednesday January 9 at SF State at our regular 7:30 – 10:00 p.m. time and place 1600 Holloway Ave, Creative Arts Building Room 153, San Francisco State University. BARS members, and any interested string players, will play through Verdi’s Nabucco Overture and Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony. Double bass, violin and percussion players are especially encouraged to join us (though the wind sections are generally full, please email if you're interested in joining). You will have the opportunity to practice sight reading, to reconnect with old friends, to make new friends, and to find out more about playing with BARS. Please RSVP if you plan to come by emailing ed@bars-sf.org.Our conductor for that evening will be Bryan Nies, who is the Principal Conductor of Festival Opera and Assistant Conductor of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. His bio and information can be found at www.bryannies.com
This rehearsal will be a fun session to read through some great orchestral literature … and to help recruit new players. Please download and print your music using the links below.
We will be reading Verdi’s Nabucco Overture and also Mendelssohn’s 5th Symphony (the “Reformation Symphony”).
Please print out your parts from IMSLP and bring them to the reading rehearsal.
The Verdi link for parts is http://imslp.org/wiki/Nabucco_