Event Title:

Organization:

  Concert

  San Francisco

Start Date:

  11/21/2026

End Date:

  11/22/2026

Start Time:

  7:00 PM

End Time:

  6:00 PM

Event Info: 

  Nov 21, 7-9pm and Nov 22, 4-6pm

The San Francisco Choral Society concludes its 2026 season with a program that showcases Arvo Part's Berliner Messe and Louis Vierne's Messe solennelle, both featuring organist Zach Ullery, alongside a selection of solo and choral works by Lili and Nadia Boulanger. SF Choral Executive Director Jessica House Steward appears as soloist for Nadia Boulanger's Cantique for solo soprano, and in Lili Boulanger's Les Sirenes for treble chorus and soprano. Rounding out the program is Lili Boulanger's Prelude en Re? for solo piano featuring Keisuke Nakagoshi.

Spanning nearly a century, the program pairs two contrasting mass settings with a selection of vocal, choral and piano works by the Boulanger sisters. Written in 1990 for a Catholic gathering in Berlin following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Arvo Part's Berliner Messe employs the composer's distinctive "tintinnabuli" style, contrasting with the rich harmonies and dynamic range of Louis Vierne's late-Romantic Messe solennelle of 1899, originally scored for mixed chorus and two organs. Vierne also provides a direct link to Lili and Nadia Boulanger, both of whom studied organ with him. Nadia is represented by her Cantique for solo soprano, while Lili's contributions include Les Sirenes, based on a poem about the mythical sirens, and Prelude en Re? for solo piano, both written in 1911. Two years later, Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in composition.

http://www.sfchoral.org

Location:

  Calvary Presbyterian Church San Francisco

Room:

Address:

  2515 Fillmore Street

Phone:

  415-221-5590

City:

  San Francisco

State/Province:

  CA