Alonzo King

Alonzo King is a choreographer and the founder of Alonzo King LINES Ballet, appearing here as a collaborator rather than a musician. His company joins the San Francisco Symphony to set movement to a program of orchestral works, offering a staged, visual dimension to concert repertoire that ranges from a virtuosic cello showcase to two staples of the American and French orchestral tradition.

This appearance pairs Alonzo King LINES Ballet with three works that each paint a distinct sound world. Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante puts a solo cello through athletic, wide-ranging writing against a full orchestra, alternating brooding lyricism with sharp, percussive outbursts. Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune drifts in on a single unaccompanied flute line, its harmonies soft-edged and unresolved, evoking a hazy afternoon rather than telling a story. Copland's Appalachian Spring, originally written for a dance work, moves from spacious, open chords suggesting rural American landscape into a set of variations on the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts," ending in a quiet return to stillness. For a listener, the interest lies in watching how choreography responds to these very different textures, from Prokofiev's muscularity to Debussy's atmosphere to Copland's plainspoken warmth.