New Century Chamber Orchestra
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Ticket Information Regular Price: $30 - $70 35 and Under: $15 Reserved Seating ![]() |

We're excited to present New Century Chamber Orchestra's 2023-2024 Season, "Music On All Levels," exploring the different ways music reaches us, whether it be emotionally, spiritually, or structurally. Our season features a diverse lineup of concerts and performers, all designed to transport you to a world of musical appreciation, no matter how you choose to appreciate it! So join us on this journey as we delve deeper into the many layers of music and discover new ways to experience its beauty and power.
For more information, visit www.ncco.org
For more information, visit www.ncco.org
VISITATIONS
Thursday, November 2, 2023: 7:30pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, November 3, 2023: 7:30pm
Saturday, November 4, 2023: 7:30pm
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco
Sunday, November 5, 2023: 3:00pm
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Tiburon
Thursday, November 2, 2023: 7:30pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, November 3, 2023: 7:30pm
Saturday, November 4, 2023: 7:30pm
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco
Sunday, November 5, 2023: 3:00pm
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Tiburon
Daniel Hope
Music Director and Concertmaster
Kelley O’Connor
mezzo-soprano

Journey into the beyond with Daniel Hope and New Century as they offer music for communing with spirits, whether connecting with those we’ve lost or outwitting death for another night! Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and a haunting chorus of eight voices join our musicians in a candlelit, otherworldly setting to examine connections with the afterlife from many cultural angles, such as Paul Dukas’s playful tone poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez’s resplendent Misa Criolla. Composer Nicolás Lell Benavides premieres a new work commissioned by New Century, a piece for violin and strings that summons the spirit of Doña Sebastiana, Lady Death of the American Southwest.
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CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS
Friday, Dec 15, 2023: 7:30pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, Dec 16, 2023: 3:00pm
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Tiburon
Sunday, Dec 17, 2023: 3:30pm
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Daniel Hope
Music Director and Concertmaster
Lucienne Renaudin Vary
trumpet
Jesse Barrett
English horn

Usher in the holiday season with the glittering opulence of the Baroque era, as Daniel Hope and New Century are joined by French trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary for a vibrant Christmas program whose charms are more than ornamental. Festive favorites like Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and J.S. Bach’s third Brandenburg Concerto mingle with rare gems like Neruda’s Trumpet Concerto, creating a blizzard of music that delivers audiences to the hushed, wintry soundscape of Copland’s Quiet City. Hope and Vary close out the program with a medley of popular holiday tunes certain to bring glad tidings and good cheer.
_______________________________________________
SONIC ECOSYSTEMS
Friday, January 19, 2024: 7:30pm
Saturday, January 20, 2024: 7:30pm
Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
Alexi Kenney
Guest Leader and Concertmaster
with
Musicians from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Context is crucial in New Century’s first collaboration with the students of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, featuring music that harnesses the sights and sounds of nature. American violinist Alexi Kenney leads the combined forces of New Century and SFCM in this unique multimedia program that immerses the audience on a journey from the Puerto Rican beaches of Angélica Negrón’s Marejada to the stark beauty of Joshua Tree National Park in Gabriella Smith’s Desert Ecology. A lush garden of sound blooms during the second half as our combined string ensemble performs Georges Enescu’s romantic masterwork, the Octet for Strings.
_______________________________________________
PLAYING WITH STRUCTURE
Friday, March 8, 2024: 7:30pm
Saturday, March 9*, 2024: 3:00pm
Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Daniel Hope
Music Director and concertmaster
Sterling Elliott
cello

Embrace the elegant structure and exquisite restraint of Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, one of music’s most prominent “architects” during the Classical period. American cellist Sterling Elliott joins Daniel Hope and New Century for Haydn’s beloved first cello concerto, a virtuoso showpiece for the instrument. In the second half of the program, Igor Stravinsky’s playful ballet suite from Pulcinella offers a contrasting 20th century response to Haydn, using the amorous hijinks of the famous Italian clown to tinker unpredictably (and to the delight of modern audiences) with the shapes and patterns of centuries-old Classical melodies.
_______________________________________________
LOVE AND WAR
Thursday, May 2, 2024: 7:30pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, May 4, 2024: 3:00pm
Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Daniel Hope
Music Director and Concertmaster
Awadagin Pratt
piano

Pianist Awadagin Pratt joins Daniel Hope and New Century for this program of potent 20th century American works for strings that speak to our collective emotions. Coping with the senselessness of war is the heartbeat of the program’s first half, with composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson confronting his concerns about the Korean War through his work Grass. In contrast, composer David Diamond wrote his exuberant work Rounds to dispel the gloomy wartime mood of the 1940s in vivid fashion. The program closes with Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), an epic work for solo violin, strings and percussion inspired by the ancient Greek debate over love in its many forms.
Music Director and Concertmaster
Kelley O’Connor
mezzo-soprano

Journey into the beyond with Daniel Hope and New Century as they offer music for communing with spirits, whether connecting with those we’ve lost or outwitting death for another night! Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and a haunting chorus of eight voices join our musicians in a candlelit, otherworldly setting to examine connections with the afterlife from many cultural angles, such as Paul Dukas’s playful tone poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez’s resplendent Misa Criolla. Composer Nicolás Lell Benavides premieres a new work commissioned by New Century, a piece for violin and strings that summons the spirit of Doña Sebastiana, Lady Death of the American Southwest.
__________________________________________________
CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS
Friday, Dec 15, 2023: 7:30pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, Dec 16, 2023: 3:00pm
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Tiburon
Sunday, Dec 17, 2023: 3:30pm
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Daniel Hope
Music Director and Concertmaster
Lucienne Renaudin Vary
trumpet
Jesse Barrett
English horn

Usher in the holiday season with the glittering opulence of the Baroque era, as Daniel Hope and New Century are joined by French trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary for a vibrant Christmas program whose charms are more than ornamental. Festive favorites like Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and J.S. Bach’s third Brandenburg Concerto mingle with rare gems like Neruda’s Trumpet Concerto, creating a blizzard of music that delivers audiences to the hushed, wintry soundscape of Copland’s Quiet City. Hope and Vary close out the program with a medley of popular holiday tunes certain to bring glad tidings and good cheer.
_______________________________________________
SONIC ECOSYSTEMS
Friday, January 19, 2024: 7:30pm
Saturday, January 20, 2024: 7:30pm
Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
Alexi Kenney
Guest Leader and Concertmaster
with
Musicians from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Context is crucial in New Century’s first collaboration with the students of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, featuring music that harnesses the sights and sounds of nature. American violinist Alexi Kenney leads the combined forces of New Century and SFCM in this unique multimedia program that immerses the audience on a journey from the Puerto Rican beaches of Angélica Negrón’s Marejada to the stark beauty of Joshua Tree National Park in Gabriella Smith’s Desert Ecology. A lush garden of sound blooms during the second half as our combined string ensemble performs Georges Enescu’s romantic masterwork, the Octet for Strings.
_______________________________________________
PLAYING WITH STRUCTURE
Friday, March 8, 2024: 7:30pm
Saturday, March 9*, 2024: 3:00pm
Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Daniel Hope
Music Director and concertmaster
Sterling Elliott
cello

Embrace the elegant structure and exquisite restraint of Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, one of music’s most prominent “architects” during the Classical period. American cellist Sterling Elliott joins Daniel Hope and New Century for Haydn’s beloved first cello concerto, a virtuoso showpiece for the instrument. In the second half of the program, Igor Stravinsky’s playful ballet suite from Pulcinella offers a contrasting 20th century response to Haydn, using the amorous hijinks of the famous Italian clown to tinker unpredictably (and to the delight of modern audiences) with the shapes and patterns of centuries-old Classical melodies.
_______________________________________________
LOVE AND WAR
Thursday, May 2, 2024: 7:30pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, May 4, 2024: 3:00pm
Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Daniel Hope
Music Director and Concertmaster
Awadagin Pratt
piano

Pianist Awadagin Pratt joins Daniel Hope and New Century for this program of potent 20th century American works for strings that speak to our collective emotions. Coping with the senselessness of war is the heartbeat of the program’s first half, with composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson confronting his concerns about the Korean War through his work Grass. In contrast, composer David Diamond wrote his exuberant work Rounds to dispel the gloomy wartime mood of the 1940s in vivid fashion. The program closes with Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), an epic work for solo violin, strings and percussion inspired by the ancient Greek debate over love in its many forms.