VARIATIONS ON THE GHOST OF SOUSA DANCING

SAN FRANCISCO, May 8, 2008 -- It’s an election year and the 4th of July is fast approaching. What better way to celebrate than with an evening of cheeky variants on the State of our Union? San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra will present "Variations on the Ghost of Sousa Dancing" on Saturday June 7th at 8pm at Old First Concerts.

Program:

Allan Crossman.............Coastal Ghost
Gary Friedman..............Theme and Variations for Erhu and Orchestra
Loren Jones...................Dancing on the Brink of the World: Haight Ashbury and The Castro

The Sousa Variations * an eight-movement collaboration consisting of:

Mark Alburger...............Variations on Americana
Michael Cooke..............Stripes and Stars
David Graves.................Sousa Variance
Loren Jones...................Stars and Stripes for Desert
Erling Wold....................On the Death of David Blakely
and variations from Alexis Alrich, John Beeman, and Harry Bernstein

* Funded in part through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program.

     The centerpiece will be an eight-composer collaboration, The Sousa Variations, based on John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever, which will be given a topsy-turvy treatment -- literally turned upside-down -- in Michael Cooke's Stripes and Stars. "I like it better inverted," notes the composer, and you may, too. Meanwhile, Loren Jones brings the march to Iraq with the addition of Middle Eastern modes and doumbek drum. Other works featured on this concert will include: Allan Crossman's Coastal Ghost, exploring northern chills and thrills on a Nova Scotian legend; Gary Friedman's timely Olympian Concerto for Erhu and Orchestra and the latest installments of Loren Jones audible history of San Francisco Dancing on the Brink of the World.