The New Century Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1992, looks for fresh, exciting ways to present classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area by combining performances of extraordinary quality with innovative programming. One of only a handful of conductorless ensembles in the world, New Century is comprised of local musicians and those who travel from across the U.S. and Europe to perform in the Bay Area together. Musical decisions are made collaboratively by the 19-member string ensemble, resulting in an enhanced level of commitment on the part of the musicians to concerts of remarkable precision, passion and power. World-renowned violin soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was appointed Music Director and Concertmaster in January 2008, bringing with her “a new sense of vitality and determination, as well as an audacious swagger that is an unmistakable fingerprint of its leader” (Gramophone Magazine). In February 2011, Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg and New Century embarked on the Orchestra’s most extensive tour to-date. The highly successful eight-city tour of the Midwest and California garnered record-breaking audiences and national critical acclaim.

In addition to performing classic pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century breathes life into rarely heard jewels of the past, performs world premieres, and brings pieces from other genres such as jazz and rock into the chamber orchestra setting. The New Century Chamber Orchestra Featured Composer program commissions composers to write new works, with the goals of expanding chamber orchestra repertoire and providing audiences with a deeper understanding of today’s living composers. The orchestra provides insight into the breadth of the Featured Composer’s work by performing a variety of pieces by the composer throughout the season.  Composers to date include Clarice Assad, William Bolcom, Mark O’Connor and Ellen Zwilich.

The Orchestra has released six compact discs. The two latest albums, Together (released August 2009) and LIVE: Barber, Strauss, Mahler (released November 2010), were recorded with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg on the NSS Music label. Other recordings include a 1996 collaborative project with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra featuring the work of 20th century-Swiss composer Frank Martin, and Written With the Heart’s Blood, a 1997 Grammy Award finalist, both on the New Albion label. In 1998 the Orchestra recorded and released works of Argentine composers Alberto Williams and Alberto Ginastera on the d’Note label, and in 2004, the Orchestra recorded and released Oculus, a CD of Kurt Rohde’s compositions on the Mondovibe label. All of the recordings have been distributed both internationally and in the United States.

As part of its dedication to the future of music, New Century provides musical education to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in an intensive program at schools in Marin City and San Rafael’s Canal District. In addition to several annual classroom visits by a string quartet, selected students are offered free violin instruction twice weekly throughout the school year, with a goal of having the students on as close of an educational equivalency as possible with their suburban peers.

New Century musicians are active members of the San Francisco Bay Area community and have made quartet appearances at San Francisco’s City Hall and at the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park.

Music Directors

Stuart Canin served as New Century’s first Music Director from 1992–1999. Mr. Canin has held the title of Concertmaster at the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, and numerous Hollywood studio orchestras, performing on such films as Schindler’s List, Titanic and Forrest Gump.

A native of Menlo Park, CA, Krista Bennion Feeney succeeded Mr. Canin as New Century’s Music Director and Concertmaster from 1999–2006. She is currently Concertmaster of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center during the summer and Co-Concertmaster of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s year-round at Carnegie Hall and throughout the summer at the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, New York.

Special projects

In December 1996, mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade performed at the group’s season opening with a new piece by composer Jake Heggie, entitled On the Road to Christmas, written specifically for von Stade.

In 2000, New Century performed in a multimedia multi-ethnic collaboration with Chinese composer Gang Situ entitled Strings Calligraphy. The composition examines the parallels between string music and calligraphy, the control of the erhu bow and calligraphy paintbrush and musical renderings and the flow of calligraphy on paper. The uses of shape and line—dance, string instruments, and visual imagery—were interwoven as elements of the performance. Chinese characters were projected on downstage screens, as dancers on a platform imitated the shape of the characters.

Sir Simon Rattle conducted the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s 10th Anniversary Celebration concert in June 2002 in a co-presentation with Marin Academy. He led the orchestra in music by Elgar, Schoenberg and Mozart. This was only the second time that Rattle had conducted in the Bay Area since 1980.

In January 2008, the New Century Chamber Orchestra performed REWIND at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a sold out special event conceived of and conducted by Paul Haas. The concert traced music backwards in time from the 20th century to the Baroque and featured violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, DJ Mason Bates, and kinetic installation artist Reuben Margolin.

Last updated July 2011. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.