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SAN FRANCISCO CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PLAYERS

"Listen to Modern Art" is the slogan of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players annual season at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Players were formed in 1974 by oboist/conductor Jean-Louis LeRoux, composer Charles Boone, and harpist Marcella DeCray. This season will be their first with new music director Stephen "Lucky" Mosko, a member of the faculty of the California Institute of Arts. The core group of eight to ten players makes regular appearances throughout California and in 1986 made a European debut playing works by California composers at the Cheltenham Festival in England.

This season's concert schedule features works by local San Francisco composer Ross Bauer, and by Ray Shatternkirk, and an appearance by Frederic Rzewski conducting his own works. In November, tenor Paul Sperry returned for the second consecutive season, in a concert featuring Songs for the Occasion by Robert Beaser. On the same program, 95-year-old pianist/composer Leo Ornstein gave the world premiere of a new piano sonata.

The December concert features Schoenberg's classic song cycle Pierrot Luniare and several "additions" to the cycle. Milton Babbitt, Mel Powell, John Harbison and others were commissioned in 1987 by the Schoenberg Institute to continue the cycle in honor of its 75th anniversary. The Players were one of three ensembles chosen to perform the premieres of the new works.

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, 580 McAllister St. #308, San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 558-0447