Pre-concert talk with the featured artists will begin at 7 pm on both nights.

The Electro-Acoustic Band presents the San Francisco premiere of "They Will Have Been So Beautiful," a song cycle featuring commissioned works by Lisa Bielawa, Jay Cloidt, Conrad Cummings, Fred Frith, Guillermo Galindo, Carla Kihlstedt, Ken Ueno, and Pamela Z, plus a piece each by Paul Dresher and Amy X Neuburg.

The composers were invited to create songs inspired by Diane Arbus's Guggenheim grant application, American Rites, Manners and Customs. Arbus proposed to photograph everyday people, places, and routines, which to generations of the future "will have been so beautiful." Each composer found or created a photograph or series of images, ranging from intimate self portraits to stark landscapes, that spoke to him or her in this regard, and used the images as inspiration for the music.

"Amid swirling clouds of harmony – sometimes gently tonal, sometimes fierce and chaotic – Neuburg's vocalism served as a shimmery thread." – Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle (review of project premiere at Cal Performances, Berkeley, 2014)

Program:

17 Reasons Why– Pamela Z (Text by Pamela Z; photograph by Donald Swearingen)

Ego Sum – Lisa Bielawa (Text overheard in transient public spaces; photographs by Ourit Ben-Haim)

At the Window – Conrad Cummings (Text and photo by Conrad Cummings )

A Picture Screen Stands in Solitude – Paul Dresher (Text by Michael Nelson; Photographs by Richard Misrach and Hiroshi Sugimoto)

What Is Missing? - Jay Cloidt (Text by Melody Sumner Carnahan)

Secret Meridian – Ken Ueno (Text and photo by Ken Ueno )

If I Could – Fred Frith (Text by Leila Attatoi; photograph: “Push” by Heike Liss )

Blood Bolero - Guillermo Galindo (Based on photographs by Maya Goded; Text by Juvenal Acosta )

A Gathering Storm - Carla Kihlstedt (Text and photos by Carla Kihlstedt )

Is it Conflict-Free and Were Any Animals Harmed in the Making of It? - Amy X Neuburg (Text & images by Amy X Neuburg)