The Chan National Queer Arts Center is located at 170 Valencia Street - SF, CA - 94103

PROGRAM

"Where is My Mind?" by The Pixies
"J'ai Frappe" by Nadia Boulanger
"I Don't Care" by Harry O. Sutton
"Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say" by Kate Soper
"Licht in der Nacht" by Alma Mahler
"Between the Bars" by Elliott Smith
"O Superman" by Laurie Anderson

Intermission

"Pirate Jenny" by Kurt Weill
"Surabaya Johnny" by Kurt Weill
"Alabama Song" by Kurt Weill
"Johnny, Wenn du Geburtstag Hast" by Kurt Weill
Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
"Naturträne" by Nina Hagen
"If I Should Lose You" by Ralph Rainger
"My Way" by Revaux, Thibaut, and François, in the style of Nina Hagen

Nikola Printz is a versatile artist making waves in opera, recently starred as the titular role in Carmen with San Francisco Opera in their “Carmen Encounter” performance, a role Printz recently conquered to great acclaim with Festival Opera in 2023. SF Classical Voice said of the performance-“Printz has a rich, dark, and focused mezzo that carried the power of Carmen’s passion across the orchestra pit and into the heart. Their voice moves nimbly between moods — anger giving way to vulnerability, lyricism veering suddenly into mockery....Athletic and balletic, Printz brought to the role an accomplished language of strong and immediately readable dramatic gesture.” Nikola also sang and covered lead roles at San Francisco Opera during their two year tenure as an Adler Fellow. [Read More]

Q-LAB presenting sponsor

Terrence D. Chan + Edward Sell

Additional support made possible by these sponsors:

Janet Cluff

Steve Gallagher/Coldwell Banker

Nick Harper

WHAT IS Q-LAB?

Created specifically for The Chan National Queer Arts Center, these genre-fluid performances create an innovative, unforgettable experience for audiences. To learn more, click below.

An Interview with Nikola Printz about “March Madness”

Tell us about this project. What inspired it, and why is it timely?

I mean, don’t we all feel like we’re going a little crazy right now? When I imagined this recital last year, I was already at my wits' end, with the political and violent climate of our society. I wanted to make this recital a primal scream.

Which of the pieces on this program are most meaningful to you and why?

They are all super meaningful! Kate Soper's Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say is a piece I was going to perform in March of 2020 with flutist Jessie Nucho, but alas alack, we never did it, and I’ve been aching to perform that wild piece ever since. But obviously the famous "mad scene" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor is the crown jewel of the whole recital. It has been my go-to shower aria, and it's generally a piece I would never be cast in—which is all the more reason I want to sing it! I love an iconic mad scene. And having drag queen Polly Amber Ross lip sync in tandem with my live performance will be very very exciting.

Tell us about your collaborators.  Who are they and why did you want to include them in this project?

I really want to use curatorial power to hire queer people. My goal in climbing an artistic ladder is taking talented people I’ve known for a while with me. Katherine Goforth and I met performing a recital for Opera Parallele, and I love her radical politics and integrity as a performer. I’ve known Polly Amber Ross for a while, and when I was thinking of “which drag queen could lip-sync-boots-the-house-down on some very bloody Donizetti?," of course Polly was the first person I thought of. Pianist Robert Mollicone and I have also been long-time collaborators. He’s always been down to do ridiculous things with me. And like I said, I’ve been searching for an avenue to do the Soper piece with Jessie Nucho—wild that we’re doing it almost exactly 5 years after we were supposed to!

What is the message or meaning you want the audience to walk away with from this show? What do you hope they get from it?

I don't mean to go all cornball, but I hope they get that it’s okay not to be okay! I’m not okay, and I don’t know anyone who is right now, but what we can do is be loud, be angry and make art that makes people feel something!

What does it mean to you to mount a production like this in a place like the Chan National Queer Arts Center?  Does the venue add something unique to the experience?

I love that I’m part of the inaugural Q-Lab season. To be in my hometown, making a queer recital for queer audiences in my queer city!! It’s the stuff I dreamed of and hoped for when I was a conservatory student—now more than ever we need queer programming!

GUEST ARTISTS

MEDIA

Azure - Blue skies medley

losing my mind - follies - with asl

RAVE REVIEWS FOR NIKOLA PRINTZ

"…delivering a gripping performance both musically and dramatically. Printz (who uses they/them pronouns) has a rich, dark, and focused mezzo that carried the power of Carmen’s passion across the orchestra pit and into the heart. Their voice moves nimbly between moods — anger giving way to vulnerability, lyricism veering suddenly into mockery.”
- Classical Voice SF

"Bay Area singer Nikola Printz gets personal in a magnificent vocal recital"
- Datebook

San Francisco-based flutist Jessie Nucho (she/her) is passionate about sharing both traditional and contemporary music as a chamber musician, soloist, and educator. Jessie performs regularly with the new music ensemble and Ninth Planet, where she also serves as Co-Artistic Director. As a soloist, Jessie has performed at the National Flute Association Convention, SF’s Center for New Music, the Berkeley Arts Festival, the Hot Air Music Festival, and the Legion of Honor. Jessie is a member of After Everything, Stolen Time Ensemble and the band Love Can't Save You, Padmé, and she has also performed recently with the SF Contemporary Music Players, Empyrean Ensemble, Eco Ensemble, Earplay, and Opera Parallèle. Jessie was a founding member of Siroko Duo, a flute duo dedicated to commissioning and presenting new works in creative spaces. Outside of the performance space, Jessie can be found teaching students of all ages in San Francisco and on the Peninsula. When not performing or teaching, Jessie hangs out with other people’s cats, starts crafts she may or may not ever finish, and yells into the void at Ocean Beach.

Polly Amber Ross (she/they) is a transfemme fatale, mother of the House of Ross, horror movie fanatic, and host of multiple monthly shows in San Francisco. She’s a garment designer, producer, activist, and comedienne whose work usually focuses on subverting toxic pop-culture with an intersectional feminist twist. You can find her haunting queer spaces in the Bay and beyond, and on instagram at @pollyamberross.

Her creator, Chris Steele (they/she) is a queer trans nonbinary performance artist, writer, and activist. Their work centers on highlighting queer narratives throughout history and combating bigotry and white supremacy. As a producer, Chris specializes in Marketing and Communications, and is currently the Curation Director of Cutting Ball Theatre.

Katherine Goforth shares the “thrilling tenor power” (Opera News) of her voice in vivid character portraits and heartfelt performances that “[do] not hold back” (The New York Times). Recent engagements: Where Would We Be Without Defeat (solo show of 20th century German music) for Stanford Live; The F*****s and Their Friends Between Revolutions (Venables/Huffman) at Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenzer Festspiele; the tenor solo in Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler) with 45th Parallel Orchestra; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the tenor solo in The Seasons (Haydn) with Harmonia Seattle; female character adaptations of Alfredo in La Traviata at Opera Bend and the Journalist in The Breasts of Tiresias at Hogfish, the tenor solo in Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) and Messa di Gloria (Puccini) with Vancouver Symphony (WA); the tenor solo in The Creation (Classical Concerts to End Gun Violence) and recital performances with Boston Wagner Society and Opera Parallèle. Katherine received Washington National Opera’s inaugural True Voice Award and the Career Advancement Award from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Women in Classical Music Symposium. She has an ongoing residency at classical music bar Mendelssohn’s in Portland, OR, where she develops and premieres new artistic work. Recent speaking engagements: Opera America Conference 2024 panel; Stanford Queer Student Resource; New England Conservatory; League of American Orchestras Anne Parsons Leadership Program; Boston Conservatory. Connect with Katherine: katherinegoforth.com @g0furtherr

Sought after for his ‘finely-calibrated leadership’ and ‘ebullient performance[s]’, conductor, recitalist and coach Robert Mollicone has become a familiar face in opera houses across the US and Europe. As a member of San Francisco Opera’s music staff, he has worked on 50+ productions spanning the breadth of the repertoire, including Rusalka, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Les Troyens, and Don Carlo. Equally committed to the development of the American operatic canon, he has helped bring several new operas by composers such as Jake Heggie, Tobias Picker, and John Adams to life.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, he has conducted performances with Opera San Jose (Where Angels Fear to Tread, Silent Night), San Francisco Opera (Opera in the Park 2014/2019, Christmas with Sol3 Mio), Festival Opera (Carmen, La voix humaine) and West Edge Opera (L’arbore di Diana, Elizabeth Cree), where he “presided [...] with a fine feeling for pacing and detail”. He debuted with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony at the opening of their 2024-25 season.

Other regional credits include Austin Opera (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Florentine Opera (L’enfant et les sortilèges, Songbird), where he will return in Summer 2025 to conduct Scalia/Ginsberg. Additionally, he served as cover conductor for the European premiere of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam and for La Damnation de Faust at St. Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève. He will cover Thomas Søndergård in Turandot at the Minnesota Orchestra in May 2025.

Mollicone also performs regularly in recital with collaborators including Joyce El-Khoury, Brian Jagde, Ailyn Pérez, Nicholas Phan, and Jamie Barton, with whom he was lauded for ‘miracles of sensitive expression’. He made his Carnegie Hall debut alongside soprano Melody Moore in May 2016.

As vocal coach, Mollicone enjoys working relationships across the spectrum of classical vocal arts, including with renowned artists such as Ailyn Pérez, Amina Edris, Brandon Jovanovich, Elza van den Heever, Pene Pati, Dolora Zajick, Heidi Stober, Nina Stemme, Lise Lindstrom, and Frederica von Stade. He is also regularly engaged to train emerging artists as faculty member of the Adler Fellowship and Boston Wagner Institute, and is a regular guest coach at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

He is a graduate of San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellowship, as well as of the Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera. He holds a M. Mus. from Boston University, where he studied with Shiela Kibbe.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Nikola Printz - Vocalist
Katherine Goforth - Vocalist
Polly Amber Ross - Drag performer and Vocalist
Robert Mollicone - Piano
Jessie Nucho - Flute
Devon Minson - Bass
Lane Sanders - Drums

Q-LAB PRODUCTION TEAM

Production Manager - Wil Wright
Stage Manager - Crystal Watts
Sound Design - Audio Production Group
Lighting Design - Luke Kritzeck
Production Support - Island Creative Management

FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF

House Manager: Kathi Wheater
Head Usher: Ava Reich (Friday), Dana Dawson (Saturday)
Box Office: Ian Fullmer

Special thanks to all the volunteers that have made this event possible.

Media Sponsor