New Century Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director Daniel Hope’s plans for the San Francisco string ensemble’s 2025-26 season included focusing on works by composers who illuminate their time in different ways.
“I wanted a program that moves between intimacy and brilliance, between the personal and the theatrical,” he says of “Luminaries,” NCCO’s concert taking place this weekend in Berkeley, San Francisco and Belvedere. He adds, “It celebrates bold voices: some rooted here in the Bay Area, others resonating across centuries. Together, they form a constellation, rather than a single narrative.”
The program includes the premieres of works by San Francisco composers Jake Heggie and Nathaniel Stookey, Joseph Bologne’s Violin Concerto in A major and a new arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence.”
Hope says those composers share a theatrical instinct — each understands drama, color and the human voice. At the same time, they possess individual qualities that makes each stand out.
“Jake Heggie writes with emotional immediacy and a great gift for storytelling; his music sings from the first bar,” he says. ”Joseph Bologne combines elegance with fire — a virtuoso’s flair and a radical life story. Nathaniel Stookey has an infectious rhythmic energy and a wonderfully open-hearted lyricism. And Tchaikovsky brings sweep, passion and that unmistakable Slavic intensity.”
“Luminaries” opens with “Overture” by Heggie, the celebrated local composer of “Dead Man Walking” as well as nine more full-length operas, song cycles and other music composed for NCCO’s 30th anniversary. The piece appears on the 2023 Deutsche Grammophon recording “Music for New Century.”
Calling “Overture” a “celebratory gesture of warmth and brilliance,” Hope adds that the delay of its public premiere proved to have a silver lining.
“This gave us time to let the piece breathe onstage, to refine it,” he explains.
Bologne (1745-1799), a contemporary of Mozart, was born on the Caribbean island of Guadalupe, the son of an enslaved woman of Senegalese origin and a French plantation owner. Though he became a superstar in France with his virtuosic violin playing, skilled composing and conducting and swashbuckling swordsmanship, his talent and achievements went largely unrecognized until the 2022 film “Chevalier.”
Hope adds, “The film helped introduce Bologne to a wider audience, but awareness must be followed by action. Performing arts organizations have a responsibility to bring extraordinary figures like him fully into the repertoire, not as novelties but as essential voices. His music stands out on its own — vibrant, sophisticated and utterly compelling.”
NCCO commissioned Stookey for a piece called “Bubble Chamber” in honor of longtime arts patron Gordon Getty, to whom the 2025-26 was dedicated.
“Nathaniel is deeply connected to the Bay Area musical community, as is NCCO, and that shared home ground creates a special energy,” Hope says. “His new commission celebrates Gordon Getty with warmth, wit and that ‘bubbly homecoming’ spirit he speaks of — music that feels celebratory, generous and unmistakably personal. And quite simply, without Mr. Getty’s extraordinary support of our organization from the very beginning, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Luminaries” concludes with “Souvenir de Florence,” orchestrated in 1890 as a string sextet, but arranged for full orchestra for this concert. Hope says the endeavor didn’t come without difficulty: “The challenge is persevering the chamber intimacy while expanding the sonic palette; you don’t want to lose the muscular dialogue of the sextet, you want to magnify it. In orchestral form, the work gains sweep and glow, almost symphonic breath, while retaining its fiery core. For audiences, it’s like hearing a beloved masterpiece suddenly in widescreen.”
With half of the works by San Francisco composers, Hope feels that “Luminaires” helps amplify the orchestra’s mission.
“NCCO has always been rooted in the Bay Area while thinking globally,” he says. “Programming local composers alongside internationally celebrated voices reflects who we are: a chamber orchestra with a strong sense of place and wide artistic horizon. It makes the conversation immediate and deeply relatable for our audience.”
New Century Chamber Orchestra’s “Luminaries” is at 7:30 p.m. March 13 at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley; 2 p.m. March 14 at Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco Presidio, and 3 p.m. March 15 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 3 Bayview Ave., Belvedere. Tickets are $35-$80 at ncco.org.
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