A flyer arrived in the mail from a San Francisco performing arts organization, listing upcoming shows featuring work by Darius Milhaud, Osvaldo Golijov, Laurie Anderson, Michael Nyman and David Lang, among others. And it wasn’t a new season of the San Francisco Symphony. As it turns out, those are just some of the composers whose music will be heard as part of the Downtown 2008 series of performances by the SF dance ensemble ODC/Dance.
Now, ODC/Dance, led by artistic director Brenda Way and co-artistic director KT Nelson, has always had an adventurous streak when it comes to music, and not just because its theater hosts concerts by the sfSoundSeries (sfsound.org). But this upcoming season, which runs throughout March, may be ODC/Dance’s strongest yet in that regard. The recently announced programs running throughout March include music by the above composers, as well as by Meredith Monk, Brian Eno and David Byrne, not to mention JS Bach, Heinrich Biber, Arcangelo Corelli and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.
More details, including the complete schedule, at odcdance.org. Downtown 2008 will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (ybca.org). Technically, compared to the ODC’s own theater, the Yerba Buena is “downtown” San Francisco, but culturally speaking the temporary move is more “uptown.”