World Premiere Filipino Choral-Opera from San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC)
/San Francisco, CA – June 14, 2022 – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) concludes its season, June 22-25 at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, with the world premiere of Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary, a new SFGC-commissioned choral-opera from American composer Matthew Welch. Based on Tomorrow's Memories, A Diary, 1924-1928, the diary writings of Filipina immigrant Angeles Monrayo, Tomorrow’s Memories is a semi-staged work that reflects on the importance of the Filipino diaspora’s cultural impact on America particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. The performance will be led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe and features Filipino guest artists including stage director Sean San José, guitarist Florante Aguilar, violinist Patti Kilroy and percussionist Levy Lorenzo. Four performances of Tomorrow’s Memories will be presented with $45 general admission tickets and $25 student tickets available for purchase through magictheatre.org.
Using libretto set to Angeles Monrayo’s personal diary adapted by the composer, Tomorrow’s Memories tells both a Bay Area related Filipino-American coming-of-age story and celebrates the diversity of Filipino music, culture and diaspora. Angeles’s prose, written across four and a half years following emigration from the Philippines to Hawaii, San Francisco and Stockton, explores the joys and trials of being a young immigrant woman, redefining gender-norms, supporting a family as a child, and encounters with racism and sexism.
During the pandemic, SFGC presented excerpts from Tomorrow’s Memories including the June 2020 virtual performance of Scene 1 as part of its Songs from the Archipelago concert and the December 2020 virtual performance of Scene 4 as part of its Island Holiday concert. Most recently, SFGC launched a Community Book Club that included six monthly events from December 2021 through May 2022 designed to bring awareness, education and conversation about the Angeles Monrayo’s diary writings. Each session explored a different theme from the diary and its relationship with the choral-opera and included numerous appearances by partner organizations, speakers and members of the artistic team.
Speaking about Tomorrow’s Memories, composer Matthew Welch says, “This piece really challenges certain notions as to what “opera” is, in that the chorus is the main feature of the work and has such an extended role far beyond the conventional one of providing commentary and interpretation on the solo roles and parts. It is also only one of a few operas for children that fundamentally shifts the basic building blocks of opera, yet maintains focus on storytelling and drawing inspiration from the original diary by Angeles Monrayo. I am thrilled to compose again for the diverse group of young singers in the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Their sheer virtuosity and hunger for a broader array of musical perspectives astonished me in our first collaboration and I am grateful for the hard-work and exceptional artistry that they have put into bringing this work to life.”
Praised by The New York Times as “exquisitely ethereal” and “border-busting,” Matthew Welch’s innovative opera and genre-resisting music has been performed all over the world and draws on his backgrounds in bagpipes, gamelan, experimental, classical, rock and improvisation. Tomorrow’s Memories continues his research into American-Philippine cultural interchange through his 2017 Fellowship with the Asian Cultural Council and his two-act opera And Here We Are which is based on his family’s memoirs and concentration camp internment in Manila and Baguio from 1902-45. In the spring of 2017, Matthew Welch studied traditional Philippine music for six weeks with indigenous artists in the cities where his family lived, culminating in a sold-out performance of And Here We Are in Brooklyn, May 2018. Tomorrow's Memories is the second collaboration between Matthew Welch and SFGC following the 2016 commission of Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor for chorus and bagpipes.
Stage Director Sean San José says, "Tomorrow’s Memories both explores history and opens up a way of looking at our Filipino lineage and I wanted to work with many mediums to tell the story: visual, music and text. I am excited to stage a story told from a woman’s point of view, and a story that involves women. It will be exciting to see what happens when the story of this pre-teenage girl is told by the voices of 40 energetic young singers. It is a reflection of the world we live in conveyed by young people."
In addition to serving as Artistic Director at Magic Theatre, Sean San José is co-founder of Campo Santo, the award-winning resident theater company of San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts. As Program Director of Theatre for Intersection for the Arts, San José has helped create and curate a new program called the Hybrid Project, formed to bring together artists of all genres, merging differing and emerging styles of performance in order to find a new performance language. He also conceived the theater project Pieces of the Quilt, a collection of short plays confronting the AIDS epidemic. He has also been awarded a San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commission, two residencies at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts from the Wattis Artist Residency, a Bay Area Critics’ Circle Award, the DramaLogue Award, Backstage West, the Cable Car Award, and the Bay Guardian Goldie Artistic Achievement in Theatre Award.
San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents
Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary
June 22-25, 2022
Wednesday, June 22, 7:30 p.m. at Magic Theatre, San Francisco
Thursday, June 23, 7:30 p.m. at Magic Theatre, San Francisco
Friday, June 24, 7:30 p.m. at Magic Theatre, San Francisco
Saturday, June 25, 7:30 p.m. at Magic Theatre, San Francisco
San Francisco Girls Chorus
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director & Conductor
Florante Aguilar, guitar and ukulele
Patti Kilroy, violin
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Sean San José, Stage Director
Melvign Badiola, Associate Stage Director
Joan Osato, Video Designer
James Faerron, Scenic & Props Designer
GG Torres, Lighting Designer
Kyo Yohena, Costume Designer
Patricia Barretto Ong, Movement Designer
Christopher Sauceda, Sound Designer
Zach Miley, Audio Engineer
Matthew Welch: Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary (world premiere SFGC commission)
General admission tickets are priced at $45 and student tickets are priced at $25. Tickets are available for purchase online at magictheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at (415) 441-8822.
ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS CHORUS
Praised by Gramophone Magazine as a “remarkable tapestry of teenage voices,” the five-time GRAMMY Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) is recognized as one of the world’s leading youth vocal ensembles. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC presents subscription performances throughout the Bay Area and regularly performs both nationally and internationally as a cultural ambassador for San Francisco. SFGC is a frequent collaborator with leading arts organizations such as Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera, as well as numerous world-renowned guest artists.
Over the last year, SFGC has embraced the challenges of distance learning by presenting eight virtual performances, premiering seven new works as well as five commissions, and collaborating with renowned guest artists and ensembles from across the Bay Area, United States and beyond, including Virtual Artists-in-Residence The King’s Singers (Fall 2020), Roomful of Teeth (Spring 2021), and TENET Vocal Artists, among many others. Recent highlights over the past few seasons include debut performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with The Knights and Carnegie Hall with the Philip Glass Ensemble. In September 2019, SFGC released My Outstretched Hand on Supertrain Records featuring The Knights and Trinity Youth Chorus, following the success of its February 2018 release, Final Answer, featuring Kronos Quartet on Philip Glass’ Orange Mountain Music label.
In addition to its Premier Ensemble, the San Francisco Chorus School is renowned as a regional center for choral music education and performance for girls and young women ages 4-18. Through its innovative Online Learning Program, SFGC has utilized technology to keep its hundreds of choristers engaged and advancing in their musical activities and performing live together from their own homes.
PRESS CONTACT
Brenden Guy, Marketing & PR Consultant
(415) 640-3165
brendenguy@gmail.com
marketing@sfgirlschorus.org
