PROGRAM NOTES
Wow! What an epic night of music and art!
DJs, strings, brass, piano, taiko drums, opera, ballet and immersive visuals all in one evening….
and sometimes all at once.
Thank you for helping make Mercury Soul’s return to Saint Joseph’s Arts Society a sold-out success.
From deep electronic grooves and sweeping classical masterworks to stunning choreography and unexpected artistic encounters, we transformed the space into a vibrant tapestry of sound, movement, and visual art.
We got lots of great photos. Check out the photo gallery!
Huge thanks to our friends at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society!
What did I hear?
Jonathan Bingham (b. 1983)
Solos
The music of Jonathan Bingham has reached concert halls, galleries, and film festivals around the world. Serving on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Bingham invites listeners into a vivid soundworld where classical craft, modern technology, and storytelling meet.
SOLOS for string quartet builds the music as a kind of palindrome where ideas move forward and backward toward a central point. The result is a tense, cinematic quartet that turns four individual voices into a shifting puzzle of memory, motion, and reflection.
Performed by The Mercury Soul Strings.
Yoichi Watanabe
Bujin
Performed by Jiten Daiko Taiko Ensemble
Taiko drumming has deep roots in Japan, where drums were used for religious ceremonies, theater, and even battlefield communication. In the 1950s, jazz drummer Daihachi Oguchi transformed taiko into the powerful ensemble style known as kumi-daiko. Today, taiko combines music, movement, and physical energy in a thrilling modern performance style.
Bujin is a piece composed by Yoichi Watanabe, a longtime performing member of pioneering taiko ensemble Sukeroku Daiko, the first professionally touring taiko ensemble in Japan.
Jiten Daiko is a SF-based Japanese Taiko ensemble. With deep respect for the taiko art form, they strive for artistic excellence in creating an exhilarating musical experience for their audiences. Their name Jiten, or “self-powered”, is inspired by their core value of consistently supporting each other in order to innovate faster and grow collective energy.
Performed by Jiten Daiko
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
Isfahan
Featuring saxophonist Aaron Lington
Duke Ellington was one of the most influential bandleaders in American music history, transforming jazz into a sophisticated concert art form. Leading his legendary orchestra from Harlem’s Cotton Club to stages around the world, Ellington wrote music that blends swing, blues, classical precision, and unforgettable melodies.
“Isfahan,” from Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Far East Suite, unfolds like a dreamlike portrait of the Iranian city, carried by Johnny Hodges’s velvety alto saxophone. Elegant, mysterious, and unhurried, the piece shows Ellington’s evocative skills at their most painterly.
Performed by Mercury Soul Brass, pianist Elyse Weakley & Mercury Soul Strings.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Miroirs
Featuring Pianist Elyse Weakley
Maurice Ravel created music with shimmering colors, precise craftsmanship, and extraordinary imagination. His music often feels like a world painted in sound, blending elegance, mystery, playfulness, and rich orchestral detail. Ravel’s strong interest in the new artform of jazz – from Gershwin to Ellington – led him to incorporate jazz harmonies and textures into his music.
Miroirs reflects shifting images of night, water, birdsong, bells, and Spanish dance. Rather than simply telling a story, Ravel creates sound-worlds that flicker and change like reflections.
Performed by pianist Elyse Weakley with The Mercury Soul Strings & Brass
Astor Piazzola (1921-1992)
La Muerte del Ángel
Estaciones Portenas No. 3
While Piazzola’s life begin in Argentina, his life – and even his name – were highly informed by American culture. He spent much of his early life in New York City, and his first name – which did not exist at the time – was an homage to his father’s friend Astore Bolognini, motorcycle racer and first cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Piazzolla’s fusion of classical music and the vernacular has been considered as successful as that of Gershwin or Bernstein, and he remains a favorite of audiences in both spheres. La Muerte del Ángel and Estaciones Portenas No. 3 mark a change in style from classical tango to nuevo tango.
Performed by The Mercury Soul Strings and pianist Elyse Weakley
Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972), arr. N. Luna
Coqueteos
Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage in music. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical anthropologist.
She has traveled extensively throughout South America, and her pieces reflect her studies of Latin American folklore, poetry, mythology, and native musical styles. Coquetos bursts with flirtatious energy, mixing Latin-inspired rhythms with the colors of the string orchestra. Playful, driving, and full of sudden turns, the piece captures Frank’s gift for blending Western classical writing with the spirit of Andean folk tradition.
Performed by The Mercury Soul Strings
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Ach, ich Fühl’s from The Magic Flute
Featuring soprano Kochavia Glaubach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of history’s most extraordinary musical geniuses, composing with dazzling imagination from childhood until his early death at thirty-five. Though he lived during the Classical era, Mozart’s melodies still feel alive today because they balance exquisite clarity with a deep sense of human feeling.
Mozart’s aria “Ach, ich fühl’s,” from The Magic Flute, is Pamina’s heartbreaking moment of despair as she believes Tamino no longer loves her. With its graceful melody and quiet emotional intensity, the aria shows Mozart’s gift for turning simple musical lines into deeply human sorrow.
Performed by Soprano Kochavia Glaubach w/ Mercury Soul Strings & pianist Elyse Weakley
Duke Ellington / Flea, arr. N. Luna
In a Sentimental Mood / Maggot Brain
Choreography by Joseph Walsh
SF Ballet Principal Dancer Joseph Walsh melds the music of Duke Ellington and contemporary rocker Flea into a unique jazz soundworld with roots a century apart.
Performed by Dancers: Joseph Walsh & Jasmine Jimison
with accompaniment by the Mercury Soul Strings, Pianist Elyse Weakley, and the Mercury Soul Brass
Mason Bates
Mercury Interludes (2026)
Mercury Interludes preceded and followed each classical set.
PERFORMERS
Conductor: Daniel Stewart
The Mercury Soul Strings:
Violin I: Asuka Yanai, Alise Ewan
Violin II: Aaron Colverson, Magdalena Zaczek
Viola: Alexandra Simpson, Anju Goto
Cello: Natalie Lin, Cai Wangwilt
Bass: SoJung Kim
The Mercury Soul Brass:
Saxophone: Aaron Lington
Trumpet: Ari Micich, Vinnie Giarrusso
Trombone: Daven Tjaarda-Hernandez
Soprano: Kochavia Glaubach
Piano: Elyse Weakley
Jiten Daiko Taiko Ensemble
Special thanks to:
