FORMERLY KNOWN AS CLASSICAL — a Bay Area New Music Ensemble made up entirely of and run solely by teenagers will be putting on their fifth annual concert of music written in their lifetimes. FORMERLY is a group dedicated to the revival of excitement in classical music and the dispelling of the myth that classical music ended in 1940. The performance will take place at Lick Wilmerding High School (755 Ocean Ave, San Francisco) at 7:30 PM on April 17th, though it is by no means a high school performance. FORMERLY is comprised of the highest quality young musicians from around the bay. Admission is free!
FORMERLY is an entirely teen-run group whose accomplished musicians are drawn from the ranks of prestigious and high-level Bay Area institutions, such as the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, the Young Peoples’ Symphony Orchestra, the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the School of the Arts in San Francisco.
FORMERLY was founded in 2006 by guitarist and composer Matthew Cmiel, who now studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. It is now headed by Preben Antonsen and Dylan Mattingly, both 17 years old, established and prolific composers as well as musicians.
The program will include music by Ben Johnston, Henryk Gorecki, Lou Harrison, Kaija Saariaho, Arvo Pärt, Nico Muhly, Gyorgi Ligeti, and world premieres of Antonsen, Mattingly, and Gabriella Smith.
Preben Antonsen, as well as being a virtuoso pianist, studies composition with renowned composer John Adams, and has received numerous national awards from such organizations as ASCAP and BMI. His piece Thresh of Gear, was recently premiered by the San Francisco Youth Orchestra. Antonsen’s music has been a staple of FORMERLY since it was founded in 2006.
Dylan Mattingly studies with local composer and professor Yiorgos Vassilandonakis, and is a prolific composer, as well as cellist, pianist, guitarist, bassist, and singer in the funk/blues band Funky Bus and the U-Turns. He has had many works performed, including a piece by the Berkeley Symphony in the 2004 Under Construction concert, a short work performed in the Vox Novus program in cities all around the world including Berlin, Sydney, and New York City, and a recent piece for piano and orchestra, performed by the Young People's Symphony Orchestra.
Gabriella Smith is also an acclaimed Bay Area composer, whose orchestral works have been performed by the Berkeley Symphony in the Under Construction series, and whose chamber music has been played around the Bay Area. She currently studies with Yiorgos Vassilandonakis.
For more information, please contact Dylan Mattingly at dylan@mattinglyfamily.net
or by phone at (510) 526-1905.
Cost: FREE