This particular group of string players has performed at SFCCO concerts for more than a year. At our last concert I was particularly impressed with how they work together cohesively and expressively. I thought it would be great if there could be a "showpiece" for them. At the same time, I had been working on a piece that, in a very short period of time, instills that "perfect moment." That is, music where the listener becomes inexorably drawn into the music with such impact that it takes the breath away in a fleeting moment and leaves the ear with an unspoken emotion, longing for more. "Subtle and Sublime" establishes its harmonic environment within eleven measures and its bittersweet message in only eight -- and then climaxes in less than four minutes.

To Prelude Peace is a collection of four works based on middle eastern melodies. Originally written in 1991, the versions you will hear tonight are the revised 1994 version, published by Cimarron Music Press that same year. The collection is based on the idea that learning about one other and focusing on our similarities are the first steps to getting along peacefully in the world. “Morning Call to Prayer” for solo trombone is based on the Muslim call to prayer. “Sudan Lovers Holding Hands” for oboe and bassoon is based on an East Sudan love song. “Celebration Dance” for violin, viola and cello is based on the Jewish dance called “the Hashual”, which means the fox. “The Harmony of Peace (The Unheard Brotherhood)” combines all three melodies and all the instruments from the previous works. This piece shows, with a little imagination, how well these different melodies can work together in harmony.

The Overture to Machiavelli's Belfagór sets the stage for the comic arch devil, who is compelled to return amongst the living to discover why women, and wives in particular, are the downfall of so many men. Hell has become overcrowded, and it up to Belfagór to discover why. Belfagór indeed falls in love on Earth, and his ruin and disillusionment at the hands of his wife and her family tells a remarkably modern tale of shopping, borrowing, and self destruction.
Lisa Scola Prosek's new opera will premiere in May 2007, at the Thick House Theater, in San Francisco,with the "soft set" videography of film artist Jakub Kalousek. The Overture is written in the form of a concerto, featuring Rachel Condry, Bass Clarinet, with a cadenza written with and expressly for Rachel Condry.

The Aria for Oboe and Orchestra is the central slow movement of a large-scale oboe concerto that the composer has been working on for the past few years. Inspired by Bach’s cantata arias which often include the oboe, it is a lyrical, philosophically probing piece with spun-out melodies. For this concert the Aria has been re-scored for chamber ensemble.

Sinfonietta Suite (“En attendant Godot”) by Mark Alburger