Blues in the City

Artist: Marcus Shelby
Years: 2020-2022

Resident Artist Marcus Shelby is researching and developing a new musical suite inspired by how the city of San Francisco has experienced and responded in the year 2020 to the homeless crisis, COVID-19, and civil unrest, which has had a drastic effect on the homeless, the poor, and BIPOC communities. The premiere will take place in 2022.

The Fountain Heads

Artist: Joowan Kim, Ensemble Miknawooj
Years: 2020-2021

JooWan Kim created a new hip hop orchestral piece based on iconic classical works composed Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. The three-movements are (I) Mozart on Joy, (II) Beethoven on Struggle, and (III) Bach on Transcendence. Each piece samples selected repertoires from the composers in the title of each movement. Each movement is a meditation on finding peace in conflict, joy in sadness, and freedom in confinement.
“As the writing began, I was at once deeply inspired by the generosity of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival but also moved by people’s pain from the pandemic. My hope is that these pieces alleviate the sufferings of whoever listens, as they have helped cope with mine.” This commission was a celebration of innovative music and radically inclusive programming as the two Bay Area performing arts institutions celebrate anniversaries (EMN’s 10th and YBGF’s 20th) in the summer of COVID, Black Lives Matter and the coming election. The work premieres at the SF Asian Art Museum in march 25, 2021 as part of Ensemble Mik Nawooj’s virtual album release party. More info at Asian Art Museum’s website.

Follow the latest releases from www.ensemblemiknawooj.com

Music Videos:
Beethoven on Struggle

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest

Artist: Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith and Katerina Wong, curators
Year: 2019

ChoreoFest highlights the spectacular strength, diversity, and vibrancy of the Bay Area contemporary dance scene through a two-day mini festival of site specific work. Curated by RAWdance’s Artistic Directors, the third annual ChoreoFest will feature nine local companies in two truly special performances throughout the Gardens’ lawns and architecture.

1pm Saturday, June 13, 2019:

punkkiCo The Wanderer (premiere)
Liv Schaffer Lume (premiere)
Fog Beast A little bit of the Big Reveal (2019, excerpt)
David Herrera Performance Company The Weight of Grass (2019)
RAWdance Circuit (premiere)

1pm Sunday, June 14, 2019:

Chris Black Dance waveparticlewaveparticlewave (premiere)
Lenora Lee Dance In the Skin of Her Hands (work-in-progress excerpt)
Natasha Adorlee’s Concept o4 13 Details About My Father (work-in-progress)
Margaret Jenkins Dance Company Shadow and Embers/ChoreoFest (2019)
RAWdance Circuit (premiere)

RAWdance

Ryan T. Smith, Wendy Rein, and Katerina Wong

RAWdance, an award-winning, contemporary dance company, is known for transforming theaters and public spaces with intellectually and emotionally-layered performance. Under the direction of Co-Founders Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, and Associate Artistic Director Katerina Wong, the company’s dances pose questions ranging from the broadly social to the intimately personal. RAWdance has performed through commissions and festivals in Asia and across the U.S. and has screened short dance films at festivals in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. In addition to theatrical performances, the company prioritizes increasing access to the art by bringing dance directly into the public sphere. This has inspired performances in SF’s art galleries, UN Plaza, Yerba Buena Gardens, various restaurants, City Hall, SF’s Westfield mall, a boat house, and many more.

Liv Schaffer

Liv Schaffer received her Bachelor’s degree from Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California in 2013, and has spent subsequent seasons performing with AXIS Dance Company, DanceWorks Chicago, and Robert Moses’ Kin. Liv is an Artist and Educator with The Dance Exchange, Jacob’s Pillow, and LINES Dance Center. Liv teaches contemporary dance and directs the University of San Francisco’s intergenerational dance company; the Dance Generators. Liv is a Shawl Anderson Dance Center 2019 Artist in Residence, and her choreography has been presented by DanceWorks Chicago’s DanceMoves Choreographic Competition, Jacob’s Pillow Lab In Process Series, the JUNTOS Collective, The Big Muddy Dance Company, LINES BFA & Summer Programs, Western Michigan University, and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival ChoreoFest.

Chris Black Dance

Chris Black (Choreographer) has been choreographing and performing in San Francisco for over 25 years. She has won an Izzie and two BATCC awards for her choreography and been in residence at ODC Theater, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the California Academy of Sciences. She has been making and performing in site work in various spaces across San Francisco since 2005. She is currently developing Baroness/Mutt, a multi-tentacled project about art, femaleness, and who gets the credit.

Lenora Lee Dance

For the last 12 years, Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) has been pushing the envelope of large-scale multimedia, and immersive dance performance that connects various styles of movement and music to culture, history and human rights issues. The company creates works that are both set in public and private spaces, intimate and at the same time large-scale, inspired by individual stories as well as community strength. It integrates contemporary dance, film, music, and research and has gained increasing attention for its sustained pursuit of issues related to immigration and global conflict. LLD’s work has grown to encompass the creation, presentation and screening of films, museum and gallery installations, civic engagement and educational programming.

punkkiCo

Collaboration by Raisa Punkki and Alice Malia

Raisa Punkki is a San Francisco-based dance artist who was born and raised in Finland. After moving to San Francisco in 2003, she founded her dance company punkkiCo in 2005. Raisa Punkki’s artistic exploration happens through different forms of movement and dance, theatrical work and through collaboration with artists from different disciplines. She has gotten awards and grants both in Europe and USA and has toured internationally. “The purpose of my creative work is to shake the unconscious mind and tap in to empathy and connections between people for deeper understanding.”

Alice Malia is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in theatre and performance. Her designs for the stage have been shown in across San Francisco, London, the UK and internationally. Alice is also an accomplished artist and illustrator, with an extensive portfolio of illustration and mural work for both commercial and private clients.“I believe in the power of stories to provoke change and in the community created around a shared vision, embracing the fruitfulness that collaboration brings.”

Aaron M. Gold creates visceral music that moves. Born in California and grown in the Czech Republic, he received his BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies from the University of Michigan. The resident composer for Kristin Damrow and Company, he’s also been commissioned by punkkiCo, Dance Brigade with Sara Shelton Mann, Sonoma State University and Jennifer Meek, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Nol Simonse and Christy Funsch, Twisted Oak Dance Theater, Fall Fast Dance, Human Creature Dance Theater, and Coventry and Kaluza.

David Herrera Performance Co.

David Herrera Performance Company prides itself in providing visibility, agency, & exposure of a diverse Latinx American experience via modern dance. Rich in theatricality and immersed in visceral physical movement, the company makes its statement by weaving dance, story telling, music, and media into a textured conversation between Latino cultures and a multicultural audience.  The company is centered on equity practice for POC peoples as performers, choreographers, audience, curators, scholars, policy makers, teachers, and students.

Fog Beast

Fog Beast is a Bay Area live art organization. Lead by Melecio Estrella and Andrew Ward, Fog Beast uses live music and dance theater tactics to illuminate the modern trappings of the human animal. Since 2010, they have been making performance works and educational events in a variety of settings, amplifying playful physicality, humor, song and story. Their work has been commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Dancers’ Group and various Universities.

Margaret Jenkins Dance Company

Margaret Jenkins (Margaret Jenkins Dance Company) is a choreographer, educator, and dance community leader designing unique programs supporting mentorship and community engagement within the dance field. Jenkins began her early training in San Francisco before moving to New York to dance with Gus Solomons Jr, Twyla Tharp, Viola Farber, and Merce Cunningham, for whom she assisted in restaging his works in this country and around the world. Since its founding in 1973, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company has been a rich part of the cultural fabric of San Francisco—dedicated to the making and touring of new work and international exchange and collaboration. Jenkins has created over 85 works which have been seen throughout the United States, Europe, Russia, Middle East, and Asia. She has been acknowledged with numerous commissions and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bernard Osher Cultural Award, setting work for the San Francisco Ballet’s 75th anniversary, and a residency in Bellagio, Italy at the Rockefeller Foundation. The Company, having recently returned from tour in Sweden, looks forward to performances this Fall in San Francisco and to their 45th anniversary season in 2020.

Natasha Adorlee’s Concept o4

Natasha Adorlee Johnson is from Overland Park, Kansas and graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in English. She has trained with American Ballet Theatre and was an inaugural member of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet training program. She performs with ODC/Dance, the San Francisco Symphony, is a former member of Robert Moses’ KIN, and is a guest artist with Kate Weare Company (New York). In 2018, Natasha received an Emmy for her work in the TV special Baseballet 2: Into the Game, as a composer and performer. In 2014 she was the recipient of an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for her performance in Two if by Sea, choreographed by Kimi Okada. Natasha is the Founder and Artistic Director of Concept o4. Through Co4, she directed, choreographed, and danced in the film Take Your Time (2017), which became an official selection of the Mill Valley Film Festival and the recipient of six awards including “Best Short” by the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Red Rock Film Festival, and Valley Film Festival.

2019 ChoreoFest
Yerba Buena Gardens
July 13, 2019, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
July 14, 2019, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Roots of Salsa: Unsung Heroes

Artist: John Santos
Years: 2018

Lecture Series in Partnership with

Wednesdays, Aug 8 – Sept 12, 2018, 7-9pm (6-class series)
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), 685 Mission Street, S.F. map

A six-week lecture series by John Santos.

For every Celia, Mongo and Tito, there are scores of musicians, composers and arrangers whose names fall between the cracks – warriors who dedicated their lives to the art, lifting the bar, lifting their communities and leaving a treasure of memories, lessons and documentation. Their contributions to the legacy of Afro-Caribbean culture as a living history and philosophy are as priceless as they are un-recognized. They are the unsung heroes. Video and audio examples, slides, and live demonstration in the last lecture will provide the basis of the discussions.

Aug 8, 2018: Raices Afro-Cubanas
Aug 15, 2018: Cuba Clásica
Aug 22, 2018: NY of the ’40s & ’50s: Época de Oro
Aug 29, 2018: Puerto Rico del Alma
Sep 5, 2018: NY: Cuna de la Salsa
Sep 12, 2018: Contemporary Pillars

Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues

Artist: Marcus Shelby
Years: 2017–2018

Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues is a 2-year residency project culminating in a musical suite inspired by the history of the Negro Leagues that made a significant contribution to American life during reconstruction and segregation. Many Negro League players were heroes, not only for baseball, but also for contributions to the community. Outside of the entertainment value of baseball during segregation, the Negro Leagues encouraged entrepreneurship, community bonding, intellectual curiosity, dreams, and participation in a sport that was considered the very essence of democracy. There is a unique relationship and shared values between baseball and the Blues—both indigenous U.S. inventions–that is powerful and compelling. The birth of modern day Blues coincides with the birth of the Negro Leagues and follows a similar life span. Both were necessary outlets of expression and helped African Americans endure and creatively deal with the horrific forces of segregation, lynchings, Jim Crow, and domestic terrorism. Through music Shelby shares stories of character, love, courage, brilliance, failure, humor, tragedy, and heartbreak to expose the legacies of African American lives.

Black Ball is supported by
The MAP Fund is primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funds come from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Black Ball lecture & demonstration
August 23, 2018, 6:30pm
Museum of the African Diaspora

Black Ball premiere performance
September 8, 2018, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest

Artist: Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith, curators
Year: 2018

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest highlights the spectacular strength, diversity and vibrancy of the Bay Area contemporary dance scene through a weekend of site specific performances. Curated by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, Co-Artistic Directors of RAWdance, the second annual ChoreoFest features nine local companies, and leads audiences on an exciting journey throughout the Gardens’ lawns and architecture.

1pm Saturday, June 2, 2018:

• detour dance (Eric Garcia & Kat Cole)
• Alma Esperanza Cunningham
• Post:Ballet (Robert Dekkers)
• Lauren Simpson & Jenny Stulberg

1pm Sunday, June 3, 2018:

• Chris Black Dance
• Bianca Cabrera/Blind Tiger Society
• The Movemessenger(s) (Angela Dice Nguyen)
• KAMBARA + DANCERS (Yayoi Kambara)

2017 ChoreoFest
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 2, 2018, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 3, 2018, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest

Artist: Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith, curators
Year: 2017

The Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest is a brand-new 3-day series showcasing 9 Bay Area choreographers / companies, guest curated by Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith, co-artistic directors of RAWdance and two of the most creative, talented and hard-working artists in the Bay Area. Smith and Rein are highly regarded for their daring athletic dances on compelling themes and their collaborations with local and national choreographers. We are tremendously excited by the promise of an annual showcase for local dance right here in Yerba Buena Gardens.

6pm Friday, June 9, 2017:

• Nina Haft and Company
• Embodiment Project
• RAWdance

1pm Saturday, June 10, 2017:

• The MoveMessenger(s)
• Greg Dawson
• Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations
• RAWdance

1pm Sunday, June 11:

• Maurya Kerr / tinypistol
• Post:Ballet
• KAMBARA + DANCERS
• RAWdance

2017 ChoreoFest
June 9, 2017, 6pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 10, 2017, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 11, 2017, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Lear!

Artist: Playwright/Director John Fisher, for Theatre Rhinoceros
Year: 2017

Lear! is Shakespeare’s King Lear with the various locales in the park serving as the playing area. Shakespeare’s play is reduced to ninety minutes and traverses the plains of Yerba Buena Gardens as it tells the exciting and heart-breaking story of one man’s attempt to divide his kingdom and his family’s gut-wrenching struggle for power and love. This is not a musical, it is not farce, it is Lear! – with Shakespeare’s original text – performed like you’ve never seen it before.

Lear!
July 7, 2017, 7pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
July 8, 2017, 7pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
July 9, 2017, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Resident Youth Ensemble

Artist: Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble
Year: 2001-2019

The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble is the resident youth company of the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. Under the leadership of Dr. John Calloway, the LJYE is an invaluable proving ground for stellar young musicians. Living up to vaunted expectations, these high school players have collaborated with legends like Armando Peraza, Jerry Gonzalez, and John Santos, and write and arrange their own material, tunes documented on highly regarded recordings (most recently Con Mis Manos).

While LJYE graduate Daniel Riera fronts San Francisco’s exciting Soltron, others are tearing up the New York music scene, e.g. trombonist Natalie Cressman, flutist Elena Pinderhughes and drummer Charlie Ferguson. 

Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble
Aug 19, 2017, 1pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Sounds of Resistance: Afro-Latin Liberation Music and Movement

Artist: John Santos
Year: 2017

Lecture Series in Partnership with

Wednesdays, Aug 9 – Sept 13, 2017, 7-9pm (6-class series)
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), 685 Mission Street, S.F. map

Sounds of Resistance is a six-week lecture/dem series hosted by John Santos, featuring live musical examples in addition to selections from his legendary collection of audio and video recordings.

The privileged concept that art should not be political is not a reality for artists from marginalized communities. The art is born from the historical violence and every day struggles to survive. As such, the arts become weapons of mass construction, giving hope, courage, clarity and love to countless distressed communities.

Music and dance are no exception. Despite the onslaught of over-commercialization and industry pressure, music and dance remain foundational tools in the identity and documentation of the Afro/Latino/Indigenous peoples of the colonized Americas. Music and dance are incarnate and psychic elements of liberation, spirituality, unity and connection to the earth and the ancestors. Music and arts give voice to cultural expression and documentation.

Many musicians have followed the traditional path of forsaking the stardom that is attached to music in the Western world in order to preserve musical traditions that must evolve, but must not perish. Among those traditions is to provoke critical thinking that benefits the working class and poor and is crucial to progressive movements of social change. This series will uncover some of Latin America’s long history of such music and musicians. 

John Santos’ acclaimed yearly series of lectures on the roots of Latin jazz and salsa is the longest ongoing series of its kind in existence. He has presented rotating and evolving versions of the series consistently since 1977 in the San Francisco Bay Area at the Precita Valley Community Center, the Mission Cultural Center, the Mission Neighborhood Center, La Raza Graphics Center, La Peña Cultural Center, and now for the last several years at the Museum of the African Diaspora under the auspices of co-presenters Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, SFJAZZ and MoAD.

Beyond the Blues

Artist: Marcus Shelby
Year: 2014-2017

The Prison Industrial Complex is the overlapping interest of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems (Critical Resistance). Too often those that are caught in this evil and cynical web are men, women, and children of color. They are victims through a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished and pushed out.

“Zero-tolerance” policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while cops in school lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline. The “school-to-prison pipeline” refers to the policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education (ACLU).

As an artist, I am committed to using my work to illuminate history, social progress, and social justice. I have always been concerned about the expansion of the Prison Industrial Complex because of its devastating effect on my community. I would like to explore the possibilities of finding more humane and progressive policies when dealing with crime and punishment. I would like to research, site visit, interview, and gather resources in an effort to create a musical presentation about ending the Prison Industrial Complex.

~ Marcus Shelby

Composer/educator Marcus Shelby’s 2014-2015 project culminates in a premiere performance on September 27, 2015. Commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Shelby composed an oratory for big band orchestra, vocal ensemble and narrator, written for the Marcus Shelby Orchestra. The commission encompasses academic and field research, and project-related lecture/performances at San Francisco’s Youth Guidance Center and other community settings. Each presentation at Youth Guidance Center featured a performance by the Marcus Shelby Quartet featuring a vocalist, interactive discussion, recordings, video and audio clips, and multimedia visuals, as appropriate.

In 2016 Marcus brings his complete oratorio to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, free to the public.

In 2016 Marcus Shelby’s project on the Prison Industrial Complex and blues music continues its lecture/performances at San Francisco’s Youth Guidance Center and other community settings.

Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio presented with support from
  San Francisco’s Youth Guidance Center

Give support to Beyond the Blues

Oratorio Premiere
Sept. 27, 2015
1–2:30pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Pipeline to Prison Oratorio
Marcus Shelby’s mid-process blog article

Out of Line!

Artist: Circus Bella
Year: 2016

Circus Bella, San Francisco’s favorite one-ring circus, returns with an entirely new show conceived and directed by Abigail Munn and David Hunt and commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Set to original music by composer/accordionist Rob Reich, who leads the stellar Circus Bella All-Star Band, the 60-minute celebration features static trapeze, rope walking, juggling, contortion, unicycle, original clowning, and acrobatics, showcasing a delightful array of local and guest artists. Circus Bella partners with Prescott Circus Theatre, a youth development and performing arts program based in West Oakland, to perform pre-show and as an opening act.

This summer Circus Bella performs once on Friday, June 24, Noon, and twice on Saturday, June 25.

Out of Line!
June 24, 2016, Noon
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 25, 2016, Noon
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 25, 2016, 2:15pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

The Ola Project

Artist: Patrick Makuakane
Year: 2015-2016

The Ola Project at Yerba Buena Gardens is a unique, interdisciplinary cultural project with culminating activities taking place July 16, 2016. The project partners are Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu. Patrick Makuakane is artistic director and choreographer of the project. There will be a talk-story, chants, music, dance, and sculpture. Lucia Tarallo Jensen, a respected elder, author, and one of Hawai’i’s pre-eminent cultural scholars, will present a talk-story on the spiritual and cultural philosophy of the kuahu.

At sunrise on Saturday, July 16, 2016 Patrick Makuakane and his company will greet the day with ceremonial chants in the center of the Esplanade at Yerba Buena Gardens. Later that morning, a traditional kuahu will be constructed on the Esplanade, and Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu will perform traditional and contemporary dances. At the conclusion of the day, the kuahu will be disassembled.

Although kuahu were at one time ubiquitous throughout Hawai’i, kauhu-building is a lost art today. No one in the Bay Area has ever done it. Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne knows of only a few halau hula in Hawai’i that still engage in the creation of kuahu. “So much of our interpretation of Native Hawaiian culture is through chants and dance,” he says, “but rarely now is the community engaged to erect something that used to be so important and so ubiquitous in our environment.”

Yerba Buena Gardens is the perfect site to host this life-giving ritual. A verdant oasis in the heart of the City, this is the only performing arts space in the Bay Area where this can take place integrating all the natural, artistic and traditional elements, and where so many people can participate in the traditional way – in the open air, under blue skies, in community.

We are grateful to the for support of The Ola Project at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Hula Performance
July 16, 2016
1–2:30pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Talk-Story With Lucia Jensen
July 15, 2016
7–8pm
Downtown High School

Jazz For Dancing: From New Orleans to Swing & the Birth of Rhythm & Blues

Artist: Lavay Smith and Chris Siebert
Year: 2016

Conceived and directed by Lavay Smith and Chris Siebert, Jazz for Dancing: From New Orleans to Swing & the Birth of Rhythm & Blues is a 90-minute program of classic swing and early R&B compositions arranged by David Berger for the Red Hot Skillet Lickers.

The program features classic American jazz songs from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday, as well as early R&B songs from Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, and Buddy Johnson. This program will trace the evolution of jazz and popular dance from the early New Orleans era up to the innovations of Rhythm and Blues, highlighting important artists along the journey. Professional dancers will also demonstrate the styles popular at the time.

Jazz For Dancing
Sept. 3, 2016
1–2:30pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

The Brass Convergence

Artist: Adam Theis
Year: 2016

The latest epic project from the fecund musical imagination of Jazz Mafia godfather Adam Theis, The Brass Convergence fulfills a long-time dream of the Bay Area’s essential bandleader, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Looking to enhance the sense of community amongst the region’s various brass aggregations, he’s engineered The Brass Convergence, a one-day festival featuring numerous surprise ensembles rooted in far-flung brass traditions that all heavily utilize horns and percussion (including top members of the funk and hip-hop inflected Jazz Mafia).

The program includes Jazz Mafia, Mission Delirium, and Brass Convergence.

The program culminates in a finale composed and led by Theis.

The Brass Convergence
June 18, 2016
1–2:30pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Lunar Conquest Suite

Artist: Teddy Raven for Alligator Spacewalk
Year: 2016

Culminating with the lunar landing in 1969, the “Space Race” between the Soviet Union and the United States was one of the greatest competitions of the twentieth century. Teddy Raven’s newest compositional piece “The Lunar Conquest Suite” interprets the trials and tribulations of the individuals involved in the events leading to the moon landing, and utilizes recently released audio samples from the NASA archive.

Alligator Spacewalk + Cosa Nostra Strings
July 23, 2016
1–3pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

The Latin Roots of Jazz

Artist: John Santos
Year: 2016

Lecture Series in Partnership with

John Santos, Instructor
Wednesdays, Aug 10 – Sept 14, 2016, 7-9pm (6-class series)
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), 685 Mission Street, S.F. map

Latin American music and musicians have played fundamental and innovative roles in the history and evolution of jazz. Jelly Roll, Louie, Duke and Diz are among the legions of jazz pioneers who acknowledged these facts. The Latin Roots of Jazz is the continuation of John Santos’ ongoing yearly series presented by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and SFJAZZ featuring live musical examples (in weeks one and six) in addition to selections from his legendary collection of audio and video recordings. May be enjoyed individually or as a series.

Multi-Grammy nominee John Santos is an internationally-recognized educator, bandleader and percussionist. He was a Latin Jazz Advisor to the Smithsonian, SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director (2013 & 2014), and is current faculty at the California Jazz Conservatory (Berkeley) and the College of San Mateo.

La Casa Embrujada/The Haunted House

Artist: Venezuelan Music Project
Year: 2015

La Casa Embrujada/The Haunted House is a 2016 commissioned recording of bilingual Halloween music by Jackeline Rago and her group the Venezuelan Music Project. The project was inspired by Venezuelan Music Project’s performance at YBGF’s annual family event, the Halloween Hoopla. After the world premiere of these songs at the Hoopla in 2015, composer, vocalist, educator and multi-instrumentalist Jackeline Rago was commissioned by YBGF to record the irresistibly catchy collection of songs for kids and families. The 13-song album effortlessly switches between the diverse musical styles in VMP’s repertoire and creates new kids classics with Spanish and English lyrics. Favorites include “Gatos Miau Miau/Cats Meow Meow” (Mambo), “Nine Lives/Nueve Vidas” (Samba-Reggea), and “The Skeleton Walks/ Camina El Esqueleto” (Reggae). Featured on the record are musicians Jackeline Rago, Anna Maria Violich Olivier, Donna Viscuso, Bil Hager and Michaelle Goerlitz, with special guests Thaís Bezerra, Omar Ledezma, and Jeremy Goody.

Venezuelan Music Project
July 31, 2015
11–11:30am & 12:15–12:45pm

Mighty!

Artist: Circus Bella
Year: 2015

Circus Bella, San Francisco’s favorite one-ring circus, returns with Mighty!, an entirely new show conceived and directed by Abigail Munn and David Hunt and commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. Set to original music by composer/accordionist Rob Reich, who leads the stellar Circus Bella All-Star Band, the 60-minute celebration features static trapeze, rope walking, juggling, contortion, unicycle, original clowning, and acrobatics, showcasing a delightful array of local and guest artists. Circus Bella partners with Prescott Circus Theatre, a youth development and performing arts program based in West Oakland, to perform pre-show and as an opening act. This summer Circus Bella performs once on Friday, June 26, Noon, and twice on Saturday, June 27.

Mighty!
June 26, 2015, Noon
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 27, 2015, Noon
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 27, 2015, 2:15pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Through my fingers to the deep

Artist: RAWdance
Year: 2015

July 2015, RAWdance returns to the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival with Through my fingers to the deep, an immersive, site-specific dance installation. Commissioned by the Festival, RAWdance Artistic Directors Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein explore the feeling of instability that arises when the ground beneath us is less stable than it appears. What happens when we realize the earth upon which we root ourselves is an illusion? The Gardens itself – a seemingly bucolic strip in the heart of San Francisco, but which is in actuality constructed of sod laid atop layers of rubber, Styrofoam, cement, and the whole North Wing of the Moscone Center – offers both imagery and metaphor for the work. Borrowing its title from a line in Edgar Allen Poe’s mysterious poem of illusion and impermanence, “A Dream Within a Dream,” Through my fingers to the deep runs Friday through Sunday, July 17–19, 2015.

Through my fingers to the deep is comprised of three distinct dance works, performed by 8 dancers, and coordinated to run concurrently in three locations in the Gardens. The works each loop three times, allowing the audience, guided by a map, to catch all three in any order they desire. Additional dancers activate the pathways between main locations when the audience transitions from one to the next. RAWdance is joined by two of its favorite collaborators for the project. Scenic designer Sean Riley, known for his unexpected interactive designs, brings the strange amalgam of the Gardens’ physical underpinnings into the open as an active, visible partner in the work. Composer Joel St. Julien offers three emotionally distinct, but interwoven scores, synchronized to start and end at the same time in each location.

Underlying the development of the piece is an acute awareness that San Francisco is again in a time of flux, with space being renegotiated and repurposed at an incredible rate, in a manner historically linked to the development of the Yerba Buena district. The intense competition between arts spaces, corporations, residents, and open spaces is palpably changing the fabric of where we live. With the ground beneath us quite literally shifting, this project holds special resonance, considering stability and construction, the impermanence of our foundations, and complicated layering of new growth.

The cast for Through my fingers to the deep includes Tristan Ching Hartmann, Kelly Del Rosario, Kerry Demme, Amy Foley, Maggie Stacks, and Katerina Wong, along with Smith and Rein.

Through my fingers to the deep

July 17, 2015, 7–8pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
July 18, 2015, 7–8pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
July 19, 2015, 1–2pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

The Gardens through RAWdance’s eyes
RAWdance’s mid-process blog article

Jazz Latino: Multi-dimensional Artistic Expression in the Americas

Artist: John Santos
Year: 2015

Lecture Series in Partnership with

Wednesdays, Aug 5 – Sept 9, 2015, 7-9pm (6-class series)

Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) map
Aug 19 session – California Historical Society map
John Santos, Instructor

100 years have passed since the word jazz arose to crown what would become our country’s national art form. Jazz has come a long way in that time, and Latin American elements have played a major role in its formation, development, and current state, and will certainly affect its future. The music generally referred to as Latin jazz today (or “jazz latino”) is a complex sub-genre based on rich traditions and constant evolution, and is as profound and vibrant as any on the planet. It has run the gamut, overlapping significantly with jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, rock, soul, funk and other American musical styles. In this series, we will examine a wide range of national and regional musical elements throughout the Americas that have informed and enriched the contemporary jazz mix over the last century. Audio and video recordings from the instructor’s collection will be the points of departure for analysis and discussion, with Q&A throughout. May be enjoyed individually or as a series.

Multi-Grammy nominee John Santos is an internationally-recognized educator, bandleader and percussionist. He was a Latin Jazz Advisor to the Smithsonian, SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director (2013 & 2014), and is current faculty at the California Jazz Conservatory (Berkeley) and the College of San Mateo.

• August 5, 2015
  The Early Years: 19th Century into the 1920s. Danzón, Ragtime, Orquestas Tipicas.
• August 12, 2015
  Swing y Son: 1920s & 1930s Sextetos, Carnaval, Florecita & Louie.
• August 19, 2015 @California Historical Society
  Afro-Cuban Jazz: 1940s & 1950s, The Palladium, Descarga, Mambo.
• August 26, 2015
  New York, Cuba, & Brazil: 1960s & 1970s
• September 2, 2015
  Broadening Horizons: 1980s & 1990s
• September 9, 2015
  New Millennium: Multi-dimensional and Uncontainable

The Art of the Descarga

Artist: John Santos
Year: 2014

The John Santos Sextet’s The Art of the Descarga featuring Orestes Vilató celebrates the Cuban jam session popularized among jazz musicians during the bebop heyday of the late ’40s and early ’50s, when Cuban pioneers created exciting descargas out of simple melodies, folk tunes and children’s songs. Percussionists, in particular, were set free from their typical roles as accompanists, and percussion solos increased exponentially, giving birth to a new movement of rhythmic virtuosos. John Santos is a major figure in Latin Jazz, and Orestes Vilató is regarded as one of the greatest timbaleros in the history of Cuban music. The program features classics and new work commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Presented with support from and

The Art of the Descarga
June 14, 2014, 1–2:30pm
Yerba Buena Gardens

Evolving Descarga
John Santos’ mid-process blog article

Evolving Descarga, Part 2
John Santos’ 2nd blog article

Here We Go!

Artist: Circus Bella
Year: 2014

Here We Go! was a 2014 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival commission for Circus Bella. Circus Bella premiered a completely new 60-minute, one-ring circus showcasing professional acts set to an original score by composer Rob Reich, performed live by the awesome Bella All Stars. Created and directed by Abigail Munn and David Hunt, Circus Bella features aerial acrobatics, madcap clowning, balancing feats on slack rope, rola bola, and more. The performance was joined by the Prescott Circus Theatre, a youth development/performing arts program based in West Oakland.

Founded in 2008 by Abigail Munn and David Hunt, Circus Bella brings the magic of the single ring to audiences of all ages. In 2009, Circus Bella initiated its Circus In the Parks series and debuted its acclaimed first full production, DOINK! This show reached an audience of 3,500 in nine performances and two youth workshops, all free to the public, in Oakland and San Francisco. Now in its 7th year, Circus Bella continues to expand its geographic profile, roster of community partners, and number of performances thereby widening the company’s recognition throughout the Bay Area. Circus Bella is proud to once again be receiving an Artists commission from the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. In the past six years, Circus Bella’s Circus in the Parks project has given over 60 free performances in 16 locations, reaching an audience of over 25,000. Throughout the year, Circus Bella remains very active, and is sought after for many events and special productions.

Here We Go!

June 27, 2014, Noon
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 28, 2014, Noon
Yerba Buena Gardens
June 28, 2014, 2:15
Yerba Buena Gardens

Behind the Ring – THE CIRCUS IS COMING!
Circus Bella’s mid-process blog article

My Music is Who I Am: Identity and Resistance in Cuban and Puerto Rican Music

Artist: John Santos
Year: 2014

Lecture Series in Partnership with

John Santos, Instructor
Wednesdays, Aug 6 – Sept 10, 2014, 7-9pm (6-class series)
W Hotel, 181 3rd Street, S.F. map
Aug 27 session – California Historical Society map

In working-class Afro-Latin communities, nothing surpasses music in terms of cultural expression and documentation. Self-identity, education, resistance, escapism, and the concept of our history in our own voices are all imbedded in the text and sub-text of the traditional and popular music of Afro-Latin America. In this six-week course, multi-Grammy nominee and SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director John Santos focuses on how a wide range of Cuban and Puerto Rican music addresses these issues. Recorded music, slides and videos form the foundation for the lectures with ample Q&A.

Session 1. Raices Afro-Cubanas: Kongo, Yoruba, Abakuá
Session 2. La Bomba y La Plena Puertorriqueña
Session 3. La Música Campesina
Session 4. Carnaval y La Rumba Cubana
Session 5. El Son y el Bolero

Noches de Parrandas

Artist: Yosvanny Terry
Year: 2013

Acclaimed Cuban-born composer and saxophonist Yosvany Terry, syncretizes jazz and symphonic music to create a contemporary orchestral representation of the voices, characters, sounds, and sights of Las Noches de Parrandas (The Nights of Festivities), one of Cuba’s oldest, grandest, and most enduring cultural celebrations.

Parrandas is a remarkable, locale-specific cultural tradition that has survived the passage of time and the vast gulf of racial and social differences. “Las Noches de Parrandas” represents the marriage of two very different cultures that united to create a unique, important and enduring tradition. In the Parrandas, Spaniards and Africans gathered together to contribute their cultural and artistic energies and create an extraordinary synthesis transcending differences of race, social status, economics, religion and language.

Terry explores the traditions and history of this unique cultural festival, and his own families deep ties to its festivities.

In discovering Las Parrandas, I have come closer to understanding the natural way in which culture formed in the New World. As the different cultures were forced to coexist, they began to syncretize and influence each other. Parrandas represents the dissolution of “the other” and the assimilation of a new, more inclusive concept of “self” as we human beings learn to live together and create a functional identity based on current realities. For me, this is the heart of the project.
– Yosvany Terry

Los Parranderos is comprised of noted New York and Bay Area musicians, including Alex Murzyn (tenor saxophone), Glen Schwartz and David Goldklang (french horns), Mike Rodriguez and Bill Ortiz (trumpets), Jose Davila (tuba), Mike Aaberg (keyboards), Osmany Paredes (piano), Matt Brewer (bass), Clarence Penn (drums), Sandy Perez (percussion), and Yosvany Terry (alto saxophone, chekere). Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Additional funds come from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional support provided by WESTAF

Blues and the Pursuit of Freedom

Artist: Marcus Shelby
Year: 2013

Jazz composer Marcus Shelby continues his repertoire of original work relating to U.S. history and social justice. His latest work, Blues and the Pursuit of Freedom for the 15-member Marcus Shelby Orchestra, is an all-encompassing piece about the role and history of the blues and its relationship to freedom movements in American history. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Letters to Home

Artist: Darren Johnston & The Trans-Global People’s Chorus
Year: 2013

Letters to Home is the inaugural piece for The Trans-Global People’s Chorus, an ensemble of professional and community vocalists, a horn section, and theatrical performers utilizing body percussion, vocals and choreography. Johnston wrote the libretto from letters written by eight local immigrants, each from a different country of origin. Featuring a Who’s Who of Bay Area music makers, the TGPC is led by Johnston with choreography by Erika Shuch. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Letters to Home

Artist: Darren Johnston & The Trans-Global People’s Chorus
Year: 2013

Letters to Home is the inaugural piece for The Trans-Global People’s Chorus, an ensemble of professional and community vocalists, a horn section, and theatrical performers utilizing body percussion, vocals and choreography. Johnston wrote the libretto from letters written by eight local immigrants, each from a different country of origin. Featuring a Who’s Who of Bay Area music makers, the TGPC is led by Johnston with choreography by Erika Shuch. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Letters to Home

Artist: Darren Johnston & The Trans-Global People’s Chorus
Year: 2013

Letters to Home is the inaugural piece for The Trans-Global People’s Chorus, an ensemble of professional and community vocalists, a horn section, and theatrical performers utilizing body percussion, vocals and choreography. Johnston wrote the libretto from letters written by eight local immigrants, each from a different country of origin. Featuring a Who’s Who of Bay Area music makers, the TGPC is led by Johnston with choreography by Erika Shuch. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Shine

Artist: Circus Bella
Year: 2013

Conceived and directed by Abigail Munn and David Hunt, Shine celebrates the brilliance of the human spirit through circus, set to original music by composer Rob Reich. Featuring amazing circus artists on static trapeze, rope walking, juggling, contortion, unicycle, clowning, acrobatics and more, along with the endearing youth of the Prescott Circus Theatre. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Shine

Artist: Circus Bella
Year: 2013

Conceived and directed by Abigail Munn and David Hunt, Shine celebrates the brilliance of the human spirit through circus, set to original music by composer Rob Reich. Featuring amazing circus artists on static trapeze, rope walking, juggling, contortion, unicycle, clowning, acrobatics and more, along with the endearing youth of the Prescott Circus Theatre. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

The Spirit of the Drum

Artist: John Santos
Year: 2013

Lecture Series in Partnership with

A six-week lecture series taught by five-time Grammy-nominated musician and historian John Santos that explores the importance of drums and rhythms in Latin American and Caribbean music. True to African tradition, the drum is still the heartbeat of many working class communities in the African diaspora. In this series, we enter these communities through video clips, photos and rare recordings, as well as take an up-close look at several of the rhythmic instruments used in diverse drumming traditions found in the Americas. We also discuss the commonalities, connections and differences between regional forms and how these threatened art forms are the expressive voices of resistance as they have been since colonial times. These are not hands-on, playing classes, although some demonstration of rhythms and instruments are included. Some of the drumming traditions into which we delve are Abakuá, Arará, Iyesá, Candomblé, Vodún, Batá, Bomba, Samba, Rumba, Cajon Cubano & Peruano, Conga de Comparsa, Palo, Yuka, Makuta, Plena, Bembé, Guiro, Cumbia, Merengue, Quitiplás, Tumba Francesa, and Candombe.

August 7, 2013: Abakuá, Arará, Batá
August 14, 2013: Candomblé, Vodún, Candombe
August 21, 2013: Iyesá, Palo, Makuta, Yuka
August 28, 2013: Bembé, Guiro, Cumbia, Samba
September 4, 2013: Bomba, Tumba Francesa, Plena
September 11, 2013: Rumba, Cajon Cubano & Peruano