Childrens' Garden is based on the collection of poems, "Childrens' Garden of Verses", by Robert Louis Stevenson, a resident of Oakland when they were written. It was originally composed as a soprano/viola duo as part of a program Lisa and Katie performed at the Shrine of St. Francis. With the formation of the Serafina Trio, it gained a piano part. The movements are: Foreign Lands; Time to Rise; The Wind Unseen Playmate; Whole Duty of Children

Wedding Scene: from the opera Belfagor is made Possible by a grant from the ARGOSY Contemporary Music Fund. Machiavelli's Belfagor, a comic novella about the evils of women and marriage, describes the story of 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. This movement describes the lavish wedding reception that is required bylaw, to promote the new couples social standing in town, all at the grooms (Belfagor) expense. Discovering that he is laden with cash, and dressed as richly as a Sultan, they hurry the priest in to perform the ceremony. But Belfagor is willing to be bankrupted by his new family, for he is hopelessly in love, and sings Le Tue Mani, to his new bride. This Opera Buffa is all about Commedia Dell'Arte gestures and characters, and will premiere at Thick House Theater in San Francisco on June 1,2,and 3, featuring the videography of Jakub Kalousek.

Dancing on the Brink of the World: San Francisco - 1600 to The Present is a blend of historical times and places and my own experiences from growing up in San Francisco. Parts 1 through 4 were performed by the SFCCO last year:
5. The Barbary Coast March - 1860’s
My uncle once owned an antique organ grinder that he said came from a place called the Barbary Coast Saloon. It had a maple box with wooden spoke wheels, and inside there were over a dozen musical instruments and a piano roll that was cranked by hand and produced incredible music. The Goldrush brought thousands of vessels to Yerba Buena Cove, later called the Barbary Coast, extending from the Bay Bridge to Nob Hill. There’s a graveyard of Goldrush ships buried beneath that part of the city. I listened to dozens of Civil War era tunes and finally came up with this march, which is more reflective of those lucky ones who didn’t get kidnapped or murdered in the wild coastal boomtown of early San Francisco.
6. Midwinter Exposition - 1894
The California Midwinter International Exposition, held in Golden Gate Park, was the first World’s Fair West of the Mississippi River. The Fair celebrated a town that in less than 50 years had gone from a village of fewer than 250 people, to a city that had become the commercial, financial and social capital of the West. It took place in the area of the park that the De Young Museum and Aquarium now occupy. The Japanese Tea Garden was one of the original exhibits from the Midwinter Exposition.
7. The Outside Lands - 1900
West of the new city was a desolate, windswept world of sand dunes called the Outside Lands. In 1870, William Hammond Hall began a project that most people thought was impossible, turning this vast wasteland into a park. In 1887, a landscape gardener from Scotland named John McLaren began his fifty-six year career as the Superintendent of Golden Gate Park. His father told him, "Me boy, if yea have nothing to do, go plant a tree and it’ll grow while yea sleep." In his lifetime he personally planted of over two million trees, many of them in Golden Gate Park. Today the park covers over a thousand acres. At three miles long and a half a mile wide, Golden Gate Park has over one million trees, numerous lakes, streams, waterfalls, and a small mountain, and is the one of the largest man-made urban parks in the world.

Marimba Concerto Movement II is the second movement of a three-movement piece; a slow movement sandwiched between two fast movements. The concerto was conceived as a dance piece. Movement II is in 6/8 time, a languorous, rolling meter. The beginning is a meditation on the note C. Low C, the instrument’s lowest and most beautiful note, is heard near the middle and end of the movement. This low note is the piece's metaphorical “high point.” The first musical figure starts with five repeated notes, then leaps an octave to a long rolled note. This is answered by other instruments in overlapping fashion, using suspended notes in close harmony to create layers like a carpet of wet leaves. Underneath is an undulating ostinato of 16th notes a step apart. The harmony includes half-diminished and 9th chords, resolved in various ways, which have a distinctive nostalgic mood. After this section the marimba breaks out with flourishes which lead to memories of a marimba band in Baja California, including dance rhythms, a trumpet solo and intentionally out-of-tune moments. The marimba plays challenging four-mallet music including rolls, runs and hand-crossings. The two main ideas are alternated and combined in the rest of the piece, concluding with an outburst and a quiet, shadowy finish.

“Baron Ochs" by Erling Wold