Projects

Documentation excerpts for On Behalf of Nature, a multidisciplinary performance piece by Meredith Monk. Performed by Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble in 2013. Premiered at UCLA CAP, January 18th, 2013.

Meredith Monk’s On Behalf of Nature

A poetic meditation on the environment for eight performers by composer, vocalist, and director/choreographer Meredith Monk. Performance history includes CAP UCLA (Los Angeles, CA); Edinburgh International Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland); BAM Harvey Theater (Brooklyn, NY); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA). Audio recording available on ECM Records.

Excerpts from February 25, 2018 performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Ryan Brown’s Mortal Lessons

A semi-staged “medical oratorio” that toes the line between the sacred and profane, the grotesque and sublime. Scored for vocal quartet (Tonia D’Amelio, Justin Montigne, Samuel Faustine, Sidney Chen), percussion quartet, two keyboards, and electronics. Performance history includes the 2017 Switchboard Festival and the 2018 Hot Air Festival.

Garden of Memory

Performances of music for unamplified solo voice at annual summer solstice event at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.

Like Rogers and Hammerstein or the Gershwin brothers, Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein formed one of the great collaborative teams of the 20th century. Thomson set Stein's Capital Capitals (1917) to music in 1927, matching her wit with the seemingly naïve, relentless, cunning diatonicism of his score, for four voices and a piano. This performance was recorded on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, at the ODC Theater in San Francisco, during Other Minds Festival 23.

Other Minds Festival 23:
Capital Capitals by Gertrude Stein & Virgil Thomson

Capital Capitals, a text work by Gertrude Stein dating from 1917, set to music by Virgil Thomson in 1927 for four male voices and piano. Performed at OM23 at ODC Theater by Kevin Baum, Randall Wong, Joel Chapman, Sidney Chen, and Sarah Cahill (piano).

Excerpts from The M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation performance on February 3, 2012 at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. The M6 is a vocal ensemble dedicated to continuing the legacy of legendary composer/singer/director Meredith Monk.

The M6

The M6, a New York-based vocal sextet, is dedicated to continuing the legacy Meredith Monk. In 2007, the group formed out of the desire to continue learning Monk’s work through direct coachings with the composer herself, as well as with past and present members of her Vocal Ensemble. Since the majority of Monk’s work has been created and taught in the oral tradition, the group is devoted to immersion in this process and believes it is vital in order to assure that her extraordinary work lives on. Appearances have included concerts at Zankel Hall, Whitney Museum, La MaMa, Symphony Space, The Stone, Roulette, and Issue Project Room, as well as performances and residencies at Trinity College in Hartford, Syracuse University, Bronx Community College, and Sarah Lawrence College. The M6 is Holly Nadal, Emily Eagen, Toby Newman, Peter Sciscioli, Sasha Bogdanowitsch, and Sidney Chen.

A musical seance for the calling of the spirit of Hank Williams, who passed away at the age of 29 on New Years Day, 1953. For four voices, string quartet, and cassette tape or turntable. Video from the premiere performance at the Women's Building in San Francisco, December 4th, 2016.

Friction Quartet + Vocal Quartet

Vocalists Amy Foote, Molly Mahoney, Michael Desnoyers, and Sidney Chen joined the Friction Quartet for a commissioned program of works by composers Nick Benavides, Danny Clay, Noah Luna, and Mark Winges for string quartet and vocal quartet. Each work draws inspiration from an artist who died young: the great Hank Williams, charismatic cellist Jacqueline du Pré, bebop legend Charlie Parker, and the American poet Joe Bolton.

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra Christian Baldini, music director and conductor Volti San Francisco, Vocal Ensemble Robert Geary, artistic director Yuhi Aizawa Combatti and Cecilia Lam, soprano Sharmila Guha Lash and Celeste Winant, alto Jeffrey Wang and Julian Kusnadi, tenor Jeffrey Bennett and Sidney Chen, bass

2015 Music & Words Festival:
Sinfonia by Luciano Berio

Eight singers from the San Francisco new-music vocal ensemble Volti (Yuhi Aizawa Combatti, Cecilia Lam, Sharmila Guha Lash, Celeste Winant, Jeffrey Wang, Julian Kusnadi, Jeffrey Bennett, Sidney Chen) joined conductor Christian Baldini and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra for a performance the monumental Sinfonia by Luciano Berio at Mondavi Center in Davis, CA.