Sunday, January 29th, 2023- 4pm
$15 youth, $20 Senior/Student, $25 general admission
Tickets available through Eventbrite
with Nanette McGuinness, soprano; Margaret Halbig, piano; Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello
Celebrating its 15th anniversary season, award-winning chamber group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) performs the next installment of its annual chamber series with "Mosaic: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers”, featuring world premieres by CA composers Dawn Norfleet and Mary Bianco, a West Coast premiere of works by Jennifer Higdon and Niloufar Nourbakhsh, works by 20th and 21st century composers Dawn Norfleet and Mary Bianco, as well as works by 20th and 21st century composers Elena Ruehr, Yaz Lancaster, Jennifer Jolley, Errolyn Wallen, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jessica Meyer, Chrysanthe Tan and Margaret Bonds. The concert will conclude with a talk by composers Dawn Norfleet and Mary Bianco.
Winner of The American Prize for Chamber Music Performance in 2021 contemporary chamber music group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) consists of award-winning soprano, Artistic Executive Director and co-founder Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, pianist Margaret Halbig, and composer, co-founder, and Senior Artistic Advisor David Garner, plus regular guest artists that include Ilana Blumberg, violin, Laura Reynolds, English horn, and Chelsea Hollow, coloratura soprano and other fine guest artists each season.
Your safe enjoyment of this wonderful music is our first priority! All artists, guests, and staff must be fully vaccinated and boosted for Covid 19 in order to attend. We will ask for proof of vaccination at the door. At this time, we are also requiring an N95, KN95, or double mask be worn, properly covering nose and mouth, throughout the performance.
Join us in person OR by live-stream!
WE GUARANTEE ALL OF OUR PERFORMERS A MINIMUM FAIR WAGE - thanks to people like you.
Artist Profiles:
Pianist MARGARET HALBIG is in high demand as a collaborative artist in both the instrumental and vocal fields. Halbig has been on staff at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2011 where she performs regularly at recitals, masterclasses, and lessons. She has collaborated with many of San Francisco’s esteemed musicians including mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade as well as SF Symphony’s principal trombonist Timothy Higgins, and SF Symphony’s principal tubist Jeffrey Anderson. An advocate of new and contemporary music, Halbig is the pianist for Ninth Planet, a San Francisco-based new music collective and a member of Frequency 49, a wind and piano sextet, which performs all over the Bay Area. In 2017 and 2018, Halbig was the Collaborative Teaching fellow at Interlochen Arts where she taught both solo and collaborative piano as well as accompanied students in competitions, masterclasses, and lessons. Halbig has been the pianist for Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco since 2014, performing, recording, and touring with them. Halbig earned her DMA from the University of California Santa Barbara under the tutelage of Robert Koenig and also holds performance degrees from the University of Missouri, Kansas City Conservatory and University of Evansville, Indiana.
Lyric soprano Nanette McGuinness has performed in over 25 roles in operas, concerts, and oratorios in twelve languages and on two continents, Hailed in the press for her “creamy golden tone, “glorious soprano,” and “magnetic stage presence, McGuinness performs a repertory that ranges from 1600 to music just written yesterday, in Europe and North America in the roles of Mimì, Freia, Desdemona, Countess Almaviva, Micaela, Foreign Woman (Consul), First Lady (Magic Flute), Musetta, Lauretta, and Nella, among others. SF Bay Area audiences have heard her with opera companies that include Mission City, Trinity Lyric, Opera San Jose (Opera-in-the-Schools), West Bay, Verismo, North Bay, Capital Opera Sacramento/ Davis, Berkeley, Livermore Valley, Open, and Pocket Operas.
Solo concert engagements include the world premiere of William Ludtke’s Christmas Suite with Joann Falletta and the San Jose Symphony, Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the Palo Alto Philharmonic, Duparc Mélodies, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Vesperae solenne, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Vivaldi Gloria, Fauré Requiem, Handel’s Solomon, Samson, and Messiah, highlights from Ravel’s Shéhérézade, Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été, and Purcell’s Ode to St. Cecilia, and cantatas by Caldara, C.P.E. Bach, and Handel. McGuinness earned an MM in Vocal Performance from Holy Names, a PhD in Music (specializing in musicology) from U.C. Berkeley, and a B.A. in Music from Cornell University.
Cellist ABIGAIL MONROE hails from New Mexico and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in cello performance under the instruction of Jennifer Culp. She has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and large ensemble musician in venues across the United States. As a San Francisco resident, Abigail performs frequently throughout the Bay Area as both a classical cellist. She has served as both Principal cellist of the SFCM Orchestra, as well as the Miami Summer Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. As the winner of the Jackie McGehee Young Artists Competition in 2019, Abigail was also featured as cello soloist performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the New Mexico Philharmonic.
Violinist ILANA BLUMBERG has appeared across the United States and internationally, in solo appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Albany Symphony (NY), Symphony Napa Valley, and the Merced Symphony, as well as performances at the prestigious Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, the La Jolla Summerfest as a 'Rising Star', the Aspen Music Festival, and many others. She appears frequently throughout the Bay Area with the Marin, Silicon Valley, West Edge Opera, Berkeley, and California Symphonies, as well as with the Golden Gate String Quartet, eco ensemble, and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.