Sarah Grace Graves presents THREE NAMES
Sunday, April 7 at 4pm
St. Luke's Episcopal Church (1755 Clay St., SF)
Program:
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988), Three Latin Prayers (1970)
Alvin Curran (b. 1938), “Three Ligurian Chants” from Music for Every Occasion (1972)
Sarah Grace Graves (b. 1995), Three Names (2024)
Old Roman Chant (Anonymous 7th c. adapted from Marcel Peres), "Vidi Aquam"
George Papajohn (b. 1998), Response (2022)
Thüring Bräm (b. 1944), Alleluja (1979)
After nearly a year with this much beloved music, I bring my Michiko Hirayama program home to the Bay Area! I am thrilled to share Three Names with you all this Sunday afternoon at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
Last year, the Scelsi Foundation in Rome invited me to conduct research and perform a solo program in honor of Michiko Hirayama, a soprano and longtime collaborator of Italian experimental composer Giacinto Scelsi. Hirayama had an astounding life story, moving to Rome after World War II with just fifty dollars and a forged letter of invitation, taking on housecleaning jobs to save up to attend Conservatorio Santa Cecilia. She had an incredible vocal and stylistic range, singing dozens of leading opera roles alongside the premieres of hundreds of new works. Her interests transcended the bounds of classical music; among many other things she was fascinated by Gregorian chant, attending conferences on liturgical music throughout her life.
The culminating performance of my residency, Vespro (now Three Names), was inspired by Michiko Hirayama’s longstanding interest in chant and my own intersecting histories with spirituality and experimental music. For me, nothing comes closer to conveying the intensity of the spiritual experience than experimental music, particularly extended vocal technique. Moments of ecstasy and revelation call for a new way of sounding that reveal what was once hidden. Circular breathing suggests the infinite, the prism of sound that opens in a multiphonic the worlds contained within every one of us.