SF Symphony takes a multicultural turn with new virtual programming series
Joshua Kosman September 2, 2020Updated: September 3, 2020, 11:32 am
AIMA the DRMR (left) and Kev Choice (right) with members of the San Francisco Symphony in Episode 3 of "Currents." Photo: Kim Huynh
During a pandemic, when normal activities are off-limits, many of us have been using the time to get our houses in order. The San Francisco Symphony is just like you and me.
Specifically, the organization has devoted the past month or two to looking at the troublesome issue of community engagement. How enmeshed in the cultural life of its region can an institution like the Symphony really claim to be when its musical offerings — centered so exclusively on the work of European, white, male creative voices — don't interact with the worlds of many of the Bay Area's inhabitants?
Out of that existential question emerges "Currents," a sleek and nimble virtual programming series that is now unfolding online at www.sfsymphony.org/currents. Each of its four episodes highlights a distinctive strain in the Bay Area's musical landscape — Chinese music, jazz, hip-hop and Mexican music — and considers in concrete terms how those traditions might interact with classical music.
It's a project that would feel long overdue in any case, but the recent surge of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the sharp and pitiless spotlight it has thrown on questions of racial diversity in all corners of American society, has only made it feel more urgent.
Is a series of short videos and podcasts an adequate corrective for decades or centuries of racial and cultural imbalance? Of course not. But, as Oakland Symphony Music Director Michael Morgan, who has curated the series, points out, that may not be the most relevant metric.
"I tell people who are undertaking projects like this that they shouldn't worry about trying to change the world," he said. "The simple fact of going from absolute zero to something means that this effort can have a disproportionate impact."
And, according to Symphony CEO Mark C. Hanson, "Currents" is just one piece of a larger ongoing effort to broaden the orchestra's artistic vistas, one that will continue with the arrival this fall of Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director.
"We've been asking this question, how the San Francisco Symphony can become a deeper part of the Bay Area community, for a long time," he said. "This is not a question that just popped into our heads as a result of the coronavirus.
"We are pivoting now to digital episodes like 'Currents' and soon a digital version of SoundBox (the orchestra's alternative programming series) out of necessity. But they are setting the stage for these new partnerships and collaborations to be expressed in different ways over time."
Composer, pianist and rapper Kev Choice performs "Movements" as part of the S.F. Symphony's "Currents" series. Photo: Jeanette Yu
For an example of how dynamic and excitingly unpredictable these projects can be, look no further than the hip-hop episode, deftly titled "From Scratch." For this installment, which goes live on Thursday, Sept. 3, Morgan tapped the multifaceted Oakland composer, pianist and rapper Kev Choice to create a new track as one of the programming centerpieces.
He knew what he was doing. As both a hip-hop notable and a classically trained musician, Choice stands with feet solidly in both artistic camps, and the combination was firmly on his mind when he went to work.
"My intention was to do something that people from both worlds could relate to and identify with," he said. "You can see how this marriage is a beautiful one, even though it doesn't happen very often."
Choice's track is titled "Movements," a simultaneous nod to the structural components of a symphony or sonata and to the drive for social and racial justice. It's a virtuoso exercise in combining multiple musical and verbal strains into a tight artistic weave.
The music features six Symphony musicians along with Choice and members of his band, in a sequence that moves assuredly from grandly scaled lyricism to taut rhythmic passages and back again. Lyricist AIMA the DRMR, who also collaborated with composer Jack Perla on the episode's other track, steps in for a turn in the spotlight.
Choice's rap also offers a rapid-fire blend of musical and political commentary, invoking recent protests while name-checking Chopin, Stravinsky, the Symphony's now-retired Michael Tilson Thomas and Morgan himself. It's evidence of how fresh and up-to-the-minute the project is, which is very much to the point.
AIMA the DRMR and Kev Choice in Davies Symphony Hall during the filming of Episode 3 of the San Francisco Symphony's "Currents." Photo: Kim Huynh
"I could easily have gone in and orchestrated a song I already had," Choice said. "But I wanted something that had the feeling and the energy that were true to the times, that would speak to what we're all really feeling."
That timeliness is one of the benefits of a virtual project's quick turnaround, Hanson said.
"Normally we have to plan a concert months or years in advance. But the material for something like this can be assembled in a matter of weeks. It lends a feeling of urgency to the result."
Widening the orchestra's musical lens to encompass more than just the classical tradition makes sense to musicians like 25-year-old Symphony trumpeter Aaron Schuman, who participated in the creation of "From Scratch."
"As one of the younger members of the orchestra, I grew up with hip-hop, so I immediately volunteered to be part of this," he said. "I'm always advocating for more overlap and for highlighting the similarities between classical music and other music."
Ideally, Morgan — who has pioneered something similar in Oakland with the orchestra's "Notes From …" series — said the process of integrating classical and other music has benefits that flow in both directions, bringing orchestras and new listeners together.
"The guest artists we bring to these episodes have followings that by and large don't pay attention to what goes on at the San Francisco Symphony," Morgan said. "There's an awareness of how much more inclusive they could be for people who are not hard-core orchestra fans."
As an example, Morgan points to Choice's "Soul Restoration Suite," an ambitious orchestral survey of the history of hip-hop that had its premiere in 2018 with the Oakland Symphony.
"It was on a concert program with Schubert's Fifth," he says, "and nobody who was there to hear one piece was there to hear the other. But I think everyone went away that night having experienced something that was new and interesting for them."
Joshua Kosman Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle's music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman
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