Biography
Established in San Francisco during 1992, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble draws on a flexible roster of 13 to 15 musicians who can be configured into smaller groups suited to an unusually wide range of repertoire. The ensemble maintains a subscription series at multiple Bay Area sites, among them the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Berkeley Hillside Club, and occasionally presents concerts outdoors. Appearances further afield have taken the group to the American Academy in Rome and placed it in residence at the Red Note New Music Festival at Illinois State University, the Wunsch New Music Festival at the University of Kansas, and the Ernest Bloch Music Festival in Oregon.
While the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble has given more than 150 premieres, its programs regularly set new works beside older ones in ways that, as the members themselves phrase it, reveal “the expressive intent of composers from every age.” The ensemble’s first recording, issued on its own label in 2006 under the title San Francisco Premieres, included music by Kurt Rohde, a composer-member whose pieces the group has frequently performed. In 2021 the ensemble returned with a release on the Avie label that coupled Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with Rohde’s one wing.
Educational outreach forms a central part of the ensemble’s activities; each year it sponsors a composition contest and works in collaboration with artists, scholars, and thinkers from varied disciplines.
While the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble has given more than 150 premieres, its programs regularly set new works beside older ones in ways that, as the members themselves phrase it, reveal “the expressive intent of composers from every age.” The ensemble’s first recording, issued on its own label in 2006 under the title San Francisco Premieres, included music by Kurt Rohde, a composer-member whose pieces the group has frequently performed. In 2021 the ensemble returned with a release on the Avie label that coupled Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with Rohde’s one wing.
Educational outreach forms a central part of the ensemble’s activities; each year it sponsors a composition contest and works in collaboration with artists, scholars, and thinkers from varied disciplines.
Albums
