SASHA COOKE: HOW DO I FIND YOU
January 30, 2022
Overview
Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to Davies Symphony Hall for a program made up entirely of world premieres written by composers during the pandemic and dedicated specifically to Cooke. Together with pianist Kirill Kuzmin, Cooke shines a light on the hopes, fears, and observations of living through an unprecedented time, featuring the brightest compositional talents in music today.Immediately following the performance, join us for a roundtable discussion onstage featuring Sasha Cooke and composers Matthew Boehler, John Glover, Jimmy López Bellido, Nico Muhly, and Frances Pollock.
Program
Caroline
Shaw
“how do I find you”
Kamala Sankaram
and Mark Campbell
“Listen”
Matt Boehler
and Todd Boss
“Risk Not One”
Missy
Mazzoli
“Self-Portrait with Dishevelled Hair”
John Glover
and Kelley Rourke
“Spider”
Rene Orth
and Colleen Murphy
“Dear Colleagues”
Christopher Cerrone
and John K. Samson
“Everything Will Be Okay”
Gabriel
Kahane
“The Hazelnut Tree”
Andrew Marshall
and Todd Boss
“(A Bad Case of) Kids”
Huang Ruo
and David Henry Hwang
“The Work of Angels”
Timo Andres
and Lola Ridge
“Altitude”
Nico Muhly
and Thomas Traherne
“Inward Things”
Hilary Purrington
and Mark Campbell
“That Night”
Lembit Beecher
and Liza Balkan
“After the Fires”
Frances Pollock
and Emily Roller
“#MasksUsedToBeFun”
Joel Thompson
and Gene Scheer
“Still Waiting”
Jimmy
López
“Where Once We Sang”
PRESENTING SPONSOR OF
THE GREAT PERFORMERS SERIES
SUPPORTING SPONSOR OF
THE GREAT PERFORMERS SERIES
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ALL SEVENTEEN WORLD PREMIERES IN
SASHA COOKE’S RECITAL ARE MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF LAURENCE CORASH AS A SURPRISE 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY GIFT TO HIS WIFE, MICHÈLE.
Sasha Cooke
Mezzo-soprano
Two-time Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with more than 80 symphony orchestras worldwide.
This season, Cooke debuts at La Monnaie as Emilie Ekdahl in the world premiere of Fanny and Alexander, sings Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust at the Bard Music Festival, appears as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Gstaad Festival, and returns to Houston Grand Opera as Venus in Tannhäuser. On the concert stage, she joins the Vienna Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, Oslo Philharmonic, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Cooke first appeared under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas as a Shenson Young Artist in January 2010, following her SF Symphony debut the previous year. She also toured Europe with MTT and the Symphony singing Mahler’s Third Symphony.
Cooke premiered MTT’s Meditations on Rilke, captured on a Grammy-winning SFS Media release, and recorded two of MTT’s songs on Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas.
This season, Cooke debuts at La Monnaie as Emilie Ekdahl in the world premiere of Fanny and Alexander, sings Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust at the Bard Music Festival, appears as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Gstaad Festival, and returns to Houston Grand Opera as Venus in Tannhäuser. On the concert stage, she joins the Vienna Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, Oslo Philharmonic, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Cooke first appeared under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas as a Shenson Young Artist in January 2010, following her SF Symphony debut the previous year. She also toured Europe with MTT and the Symphony singing Mahler’s Third Symphony.
Cooke premiered MTT’s Meditations on Rilke, captured on a Grammy-winning SFS Media release, and recorded two of MTT’s songs on Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Kirill Kuzmin
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Piano
KIRILL KUZMIN is a principal coach at Houston Grand Opera. In the 2021–22 season, he works on productions of Dialogues des Carmélites and Turandot. In previous seasons, he worked on Eugene Onegin (also as diction coach), Le nozze di Figaro, Faust, Giulio Cesare (also as continuo accompanist), West Side Story, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Also a staff member at the Glimmerglass Festival, he has served as principal coach for the productions of Silent Night and La traviata.
Recital appearances have included a Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco with baritone Sol Jin, and in 2021, he was the pianist for video-streamed recitals with Arturo Chacun-Cruz, Sasha Cooke, and Nicholas Phan. This performance marks his debut under San Francisco Symphony auspices.
A Russian native, Mr. Kuzmin spent three years with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, first as a young artist and then as a member of the music staff. During his time with the company, he served as an opera coach and accompanist on a number of Russian operas, including The Love for Three Oranges and The Tsar’s Bride, as well as works from the standard operatic repertoire, such as Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier, La traviata, and La sonnambula. While in Moscow, he also served as pianist and coach for opera performances by the Moscow Philharmonic.
Mr. Kuzmin holds degrees in piano performance from the Moscow Conservatory and in collaborative piano from the Moscow Conservatory and the University of Michigan.
Recital appearances have included a Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco with baritone Sol Jin, and in 2021, he was the pianist for video-streamed recitals with Arturo Chacun-Cruz, Sasha Cooke, and Nicholas Phan. This performance marks his debut under San Francisco Symphony auspices.
A Russian native, Mr. Kuzmin spent three years with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, first as a young artist and then as a member of the music staff. During his time with the company, he served as an opera coach and accompanist on a number of Russian operas, including The Love for Three Oranges and The Tsar’s Bride, as well as works from the standard operatic repertoire, such as Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier, La traviata, and La sonnambula. While in Moscow, he also served as pianist and coach for opera performances by the Moscow Philharmonic.
Mr. Kuzmin holds degrees in piano performance from the Moscow Conservatory and in collaborative piano from the Moscow Conservatory and the University of Michigan.
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