Performance: Allison Lovejoy with Gary Kamiya

Composer Allison Lovejoy and Librettist Gary Kamiya host a discussion about the research and composition of a new oratorio about the life of writer and abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy (1802-1837). Funded by an SF Arts Commission Grant, the talk will include musical excerpts and open discussion of the fight for freedom of the press and social justice from the 1800s to the 21st Century.

“Elijah’s Call” is an oratorio by Allison Lovejoy about the story of her ancestor Elijah Lovejoy, “Freedom’s Champion”, to be premiered on Sunday, November 3 at the Herbst Theater. It will be performed by the Golden Gate Symphony and Chorus, let by Maestro Urs Leonhardt Steiner. The music is influenced by classical and contemporary music, as well as jazz and spirituals. It is scored for 3 soloists, narrator, choir and orchestra, with lyrics by Lovejoy and libretto by author Gary Kamiya, and orchestrations by Greg Stephens.

Lovejoy is a genre-defying pianist, composer, educator and cabaret artist. Known for her technical ease, intelligence and passionate delivery, Allison performs both as concert soloist and chamber musician, specializing in Impressionist, Contemporary and late Romantic works. Her collaborations with composers, poets, choreographers, filmmakers and visual artists feature original, jazz and classical compositions. Allison has produced and released 7 recordings, including Allison Lovejoy piano, Nocturnes, New Nocturnes, Cabaret Nouveau, The Precipice and a cast recording of her cabaret rock-opera The 7 Deadly Pleasures. She has also been guest artist on recordings of Ringo Starr and Stu Hamm. She is the recipient of an SF Arts Commission Grant in support of the upcoming premiere of her oratorio about her ancestor Elijah Lovejoy at Herbst Theater on November 3rd with the Golden Gate Symphony, Chorus, and Orchestra. She currently resides in San Francisco, where she is faculty at the Community Music Center and Foothill-DeAnza College. 

San Francisco historian and journalist Kamiya is the author of the bestselling books Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco, which was awarded the 2013 Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, and Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages Through the Unknown City, with artist Paul Madonna. He was a co-founder and longtime executive editor of the pioneering web site Salon.com, and for five years the executive editor of San Francisco Magazine. His award-winning local history column, “Portals of the Past,” ran for 10 years in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. His writings have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications and have been widely anthologized. He hosted the Emmy award-winning documentary “Moving San Francisco,” about the history of transportation in San Francisco, and has appeared as an expert commentator in many other films, including the 4-hour national PBS documentary “Citizen Hearst.”