Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Presents DOROTHEA & ARTEMSIA - Two New Chamber Operas

The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble's (LCCE) 2018-2019 season culminates with Dorothea and Artemisia, a program featuring the world premieres of two original chamber operas, each inspired by the contributions of an extraordinary woman artist. The concert includes From the Field, a micro-opera by Christopher Stark illuminating the work of Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange, and Artemisia, a dramatic operatic work by Laura Schwendinger based on the life of 17th century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. The performances will be presented at Z Space, located at 450 Florida Street, San Francisco, on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30pm, and Sunday June 2, at 2pm.

Tickets for Dorothea and Artemisia are sold for reserved seating and priced as follows: $60 for Premium seats, $45 for Standard seats, $35 for Community seats, and $18 for Under 35 (Community seats for those under age 35). Tickets can be purchased at http://www.zspace.org/dorothea-and-artemisia. For more information call 415/617-5223 or visit www.leftcoastensemble.org.

Dorothea and Artemisia opens with From the Field, a 15-minute micro-opera by Christopher Stark with libretto by Megan Stark inspired by the art and milieu of Depression Era photographer Dorothea Lange. From the Field is a solo piece performed by Left Coast's soprano Nikki Einfeld accompanied by violin and cello. Composer Christopher Stark explains that his new work "presents three brief glimpses into specific moments in American history in which our government chose to contradict environmental research it commissioned for financial and/or political gain: Dorothea Lange's Farm Security Administration photographs of rural poverty during the Great Depression; John Wesley Powell's 19th-century warning about water usage in the American West; and Nobel Laureate Steve Running's current research on climate change." The piece is illustrated by projected images of Lange's dramatic photos of the Dust Bowl migration. Projections are designed by Andrew Lucia, lighting by Allen Willner, and costumes by Jenalie Auth.

The celebration of women artists continues with Artemisia, a new opera by Laura Schwendinger with libretto by Ginger Strand about passion, betrayal, and art in 17th century Italy, based upon the life of famed Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 -c.1656). With projected images that come to life, Schwendinger's new work tackles Gentileschi's struggles and triumphs, as the artist receives great recognition whilst battling intense gender inequality. "She was one of the most famous painters of her the generation, and an important follower of the Caravaggi," said Schwendinger. "Artemisia achieved great renown in an era when women painters were not generally accepted, and she was the first women to be a member of the Accademia delle Arte del Disegno in Florence. She specialized in depictions of strong, often anguished women from biblical stories and myth. These depictions were often autobiographical, as she relived the traumatic events of her life through her art."

The fully staged world premiere of Artemisia features a stellar cast led by mezzo-soprano Betany Coffland in the title role, hailed by Opera News as "extremely fine" and "a joy to watch," and her tone described by San Francisco Classical Voice as "plush" and "Italianate." Coffland is joined by Kyle Stegall, Marnie Breckenridge, Jonathan Smucker, Igor Vieira, and Nikki Einfeld, along with a seven-piece chamber ensemble comprised of Left Coast musicians and guest artists. Matilda Hofman conducts, with stage direction by Jenn BeVard, costumes by Maggie Whitaker, lighting design by Allen Willner, and projections by Andrew Lucia.

The world premiere of Artemisia is made possible by generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Opera Center, and the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Laura Schwendinger, composer - Artemisia
The first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin Prize, Laura Schwendinger is a Professor of Composition at UW Madison. Her music, performed by leading artists of our day, Dawn Upshaw (on tour 1997-2013; TDK/Naxos DVD), Arditti& JACK Quartets, Jennifer Koh, Janine Jansen, Miranda Cuckson, Matt Haimovitz, ICE, Eighth Blackbird, New Juilliard Ensemble, Collage, StonyBrook Premiere, Boston Musica Viva, Aspen Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Trinity Choir NOVUS, American Composers Orchestra and Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and at Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln-Center, Times Center, Symphony Space, BargeMusic, Corcoran Gallery, Institute of Advanced Study-Princeton and Tanglewood, Aspen and Ojai Music Festivals; and at the National Arts Centre Canada, Théâtre Châtelet, Wigmore Hall, and Berlin Philharmonic, and was an American League of Orchestras Composer-in-residence with the Richmond Symphony in 2016. Her honors include a Guggenheim, Koussevitzky (2), Fromm, Radcliffe Institute, Copland House, Harvard Musical Association, Chamber Music America, League of American Orchestras, New Music USA, two American Academy of Arts and Letters awards (a Goddard Leiberson Fellowship for "mid-career composer of exceptional gifts" and Ives scholarship), First-prize ALEA III, MacDowell (9), Yaddo (7), Tyrone Guthrie Center(5), Bogliasco and Rockefeller Bellagio Centers. Premieres include a Miller Theater commission, ACO UnSafe Commission, Sounding Beckett (Off-Broadway, Classic Stage Co.), and a National Opera Center Discovery award for her opera Artemisia, which will be produced in NY and SF in 2019.

Christopher Stark, composer - From the Field
Christopher Stark is a composer of contemporary classical music deeply rooted in the American West. Having spent his formative years in rural western Montana, his music is always seeking to capture the expansive energy of this quintessential American landscape. Stark, whose music The New York Times has called, "fetching and colorful," has been awarded prizes and commissions from organizations such as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Chamber Music America, the Orléans International Piano Competition, ASCAP, and the Barlow Endowment. Named a 2017 "Rising Star"by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his music has been performed by such ensembles as Alarm Will Sound, American Composers Orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Los Angeles Piano Quartet, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Momenta Quartet, New Morse Code, FLUX Quartet, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. In 2012, he was a resident composer at Civitella Ranieri, a fifteenth-century castle in Umbria, Italy, and in June of 2016 he was awarded a residency at Copland House. Recent highlights included performances at the 2016 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the 2016 NY Phil Biennial. Stark recently completed a three-month residency in Bergen, Norway where he worked with members of the BIT20 Ensemble from the Bergen Philharmonic on a new string quartet, and in 2019 he will write a new work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, to be conducted by John Adams at Walt Disney Concert Hall. His score for the feature-length film, "Novitiate," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2017 and was theatrically released in October by Sony Pictures Classics. Stark is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis.

About Left Coast Chamber Ensemble:
Left Coast is a versatile group of musicians that performs in different combinations, presenting chamber music new and old. It is the mission of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble to forge connections through stirring presentations of chamber music across the Bay Area. The Ensemble strives to make connections between composer and performer, performer and audience, audience and music, and between music of all eras by staging a spectrum of imaginative programs that enchant and delight the listener, and give diverse audiences multiple entry points for engaging with the music.

TICKETS: Z Space ticketing: http://www.zspace.org/dorothea-and-artemisia

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