SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY TO OFFER LIVE WEBCAST OF THE WORLD PREMIERE OF AUDITORIUM BY MASON BATES VIA “FACEBOOK LIVE”, WEDNESDAY APRIL 27
SFS becomes first major orchestra to live-stream a world premiere in real time using the “Facebook Live” feature to audiences around the globe
(High resolution images of Mason Bates and the SFS are available for download from the San Francisco Symphony’s Online Photo Library)
April 12, 2016 – The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), led by guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, will be the first major symphony orchestra to use Facebook’s live video streaming feature “Facebook Live” to webcast a world premiere to audiences around the globe, for free. Commissioned by the SFS, composer Mason Bates’s latest work Auditorium, with Bates performing on electronica, will be streamed from Davies Symphony Hall on Wednesday April 27 at approximately 8:15 pm on the Symphony’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/sfsymphony. The world premiere webcast will also be archived and available for on-demand streaming following the performance. To experience Auditorium, viewers should be followers of the SFS Facebook page, and will receive an automatic notification when the stream begins.
In Auditorium, the electro-acoustic composer Mason Bates explores the soundscape of the acoustic orchestra combined with digital sounds. Baroque instruments are used in the sampled sound material, providing the piece’s digital vocabulary, which is juxtaposed with a modern orchestra playing in real time. The dialogue this generates underscores the composer’s fascination with evolutionary processes and the “ghosts” of previous technology.
This will be the SFS’s most extensive use of “Facebook Live”, a new tool which has enabled users to generate and stream video directly through the Facebook platform since December 2015. The technology currently is designed for capture on a mobile device and is being developed to incorporate professional quality audio and video. Previously in March of 2011, Michael Tilson Thomas led the YouTube Symphony in the live video premiere of Bates’s Mothership in a performance from the Sydney Opera House that was viewed by nearly two million people.
Mason Bates: Works for Orchestra is the San Francisco Symphony’s latest CD release on its in-house recording label SFS Media—the first recordings of the SFS-commissioned The B-Sides and Liquid Interface, in addition to Alternative Energy. These three works illustrate Bates’s exuberantly inventive music that expands the symphonic palette with sounds of the digital age: techno, drum ‘n’ bass, field recordings and more, with the composer performing on electronica. MTT and the SFS have championed Bates’s works for over a decade, evolving a partnership built on multi-year commissioning, performing, recording, and touring projects.
Mason Bates writes music that fuses innovative orchestral writing, imaginative narrative forms, jazz harmonies and the rhythms of electronic dance music. Frequently performed by orchestras large and small, Bates has become a visible advocate for bringing new music to new spaces, whether through partnerships with Orchestras or through his Mercury Soul project which has transformed commercial spaces, clubs and concert halls into exciting, hybrid musical events. Bates was the recipient of the 2012 Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities. In presenting him with the award, Teresa Heinz remarked that “his music has moved the orchestra into the digital age and dissolved the boundaries of classical music.” In the 2015-16 season, he joined the Kennedy Center as its first composer-in-residence and is currently writing an opera about the late tech giant Steve Jobs, to debut at the Santa Fe Opera in 2017. The SF Symphony has commissioned and premiered many works by Bates, including The B-Sides, Mass Transmission, composed for the Orchestra’s Centennial, Attack Sustain Decay Release, and his newest work, Auditorium.
For more information on Mason Bates and his concerts and recording with the SFS, please visit our Press Room.
Live concerts:
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, PABLO HERAS-CASADO CONDUCTING
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 8 pm – LIVE STREAM OF AUDITORIUM ONLY, ON THIS PERFORMANCE DATE
Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 8 pm
Friday, April 29, 2016 at 8 pm
Pablo Heras-Casado conductor
San Francisco Symphony
BARTÓK Dance Suite
Mason BATES Auditorium [SFS commission; world premiere]
RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Opus 70
Tickets: $15-$158.
Tickets are available at sfsymphony.org, by phone at 415-864-6000, and at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco.
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The San Francisco Symphony receives support from over 10,000 individual donors and 150 partner institutions.
Auditorium is commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony with support from Michèle Corash to celebrate Larry Corash’s birthday.
Pablo Heras-Casado’s appearance is supported by the Louise M. Davies Guest Conductor Fund.
These concerts are generously supported by Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston.
Emirates is the Official Airline of the San Francisco Symphony.
San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com is the Official Media Partner of the San Francisco Symphony.
– SFS –
