Tiny Dorm Concerts Deliver Music and More to Your Desktop
By Janos Gereben
Don Ho had "Tiny Bubbles," National Public Radio has Tiny Desk Concerts, and now the San Francisco Conservatory of Music enters the fray with the Tiny Dorm Concert Series.
Now through April 11, a new 90-minute livestream begins Tuesdays through Saturdays at 5 p.m., featuring three 25-minute sets hosted by a rotating cast of emcees.
On Tuesday, March 31, it's Jazz Night; the following evening, Pre-College Night, with performances such as Stars Aligned Siblings — Dustin Breshears (13), violin, Valerie Breshears (10), violin, Colin Breshears (7), viola, Starla Breshears (12), cello — playing the Beethoven String Quartet No. 1 in F Major.
Tiny Dorm programs feature live performances by precollege and conservatory musicians, faculty from SF Symphony, SF Ballet Ballet, SF Opera, and SFJAZZ Collective, as well as alumni already working with major organizations around the world.
SFCM Recording Department students assist with the backend interface, acting as virtual stage managers for this whole-community effort.
The Conservatory is also offering a variety of other online concerts, listed at the SFCM website. They include an online festival of masterclasses and interactive lecture-demonstrations from the Conservatory's Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) department.
High-profile artists spanning the landscape of the creative music technology field will work with students and showcase a broad spectrum of technologically derived media utilized by modern composers. Participants include composer and orchestrator Tim Davies (Frozen, La La Land), video-game soundtrack composer Austin Wintory (Journey, Erica), experimental hip-hop group clipping with Hamilton's Daveed Diggs, artificial-intelligence composer Holly Herndon, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Executive Director Barry Threw, and electronic music duo Matmos — long-time collaborators with Björk.
On April 11, the closing night of the Tiny Dorm series will be curated by SFCM's incoming music director, whose appointment will be announced that week. Full programming will be viewable on the SFCM performance calendar.
SFCM's partner for the Tiny Dorm Concerts is the Harry Winston Company, a major provider of Conservatory scholarships.
Janos Gereben appreciates news tips, corrections, and words of encouragement at [email protected].
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