Kelly Savage

Kelly Savage is on the faculty at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she teaches theory and musicianship, and is a lecturer at Stanford University, where she teaches keyboard harmony and directs the Stanford Community Chorus. Ms. Savage is also the music director at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco. She performs frequently on harpsichord as a continuo player and chamber musician.

Ms. Savage is artistic director of the chamber group SIREN Baroque, and is a founding member of the New York opera company Opera Feroce. The New York Times praised Ms. Savage’s “deft accompaniment” in the pasticcio opera Amor & Psyche, and highlighted her playing in Morningside Opera’s production of The Judgment of Paris. She holds a doctorate from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Arthur Haas, and also holds graduate degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Ms. Savage is a co-creator of Partifi, an online tool for musicians.

Highlights of the 2015-16 season includes Opera Feroce’s fully costumed salon production Jewels of the Baroque, in collaboration with Vertical Player Repertory. Opera Feroce also opens the GEMS Midtown Concerts season with their program Treble in Paradise, and presents a freshly staged run of their first pasticcio Amor & Psyche at Long Island University. With SIREN Baroque, Ms. Savage is part of an Artists’ residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and in collaboration with Daniel Swenberg will present The Life of Antonia Padoani Bembo: Women in Exile, a new pastiche that tells the remarkable story of this Venetian composer.

Ms. Savage can be reached via email at ksavage@sfcm.edu. Her resume is available here.

Trio Sonata No. 2 in b Minor, Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729)
SIREN Baroque, with Antonia Nelson, Liv Heym & Anneke Schaul-Yoder




Les Goûts Réunis, François Couperin (1668-1733)
The Soul’s Delight, with Joan Plana, Graham St-Laurent, Andrew Arceci & Stephanie Corwin

Air Noblement
Air


L’Amante Segreto, Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
SIREN Baroque, with Brett Umlauf & Anneke Schaul-Yoder




Magdalene's Dilemma, Giovanni Bononcini (1670–1747)
Opera Feroce, with Beth Anne Hatton, Hayden DeWitt, Alan Dornak, Vita Wallace & Motomi Igarashi

Goderò, Piangerò
Cor Imbelle
Vio del Tartaro


Passacaglia Ungherese, György Ligeti (1923-2006)

SIREN Baroque is an all-female baroque ensemble from New York City. Presenting passionate and historically informed performances throughout the States and overseas, the women of SIREN are committed to infusing spirited historical accuracy with a tinge of modern dynamism. Critics praise SIREN Baroque’s “unusual freshness” (Seen and Heard International) and “stylish accompaniment” (New York Times). SIREN Baroque was recently featured in Chamber Music America.

Opera Feroce is a miniature Baroque opera company. We are a collaborative ensemble of singers and instrumentalists who, in addition to performing the music, act as our own costume designers, edition makers, lighting designers, librettists and administrators. Our works are lively explorations of the Baroque ethos — we make what can be perceived as an arcane and elitist art form entirely accessible and fun for audiences of all ages and backgrounds — while remaining grounded in serious music making. About an Opera Feroce production, The New York Times wrote, “a successful pastiche opera requires a creative chef to blend disparate ingredients into a satisfying whole, like Amor & Psyche.”

The Stanford Community Chorus, directed by Kelly Savage, is a choral ensemble open to the entire Bay Area community, including Stanford students, faculty and staff, and all our neighbors. The group is an opportunity to engage in communal singing in a fun and supportive environment. Chorus members explore many different types of music and singing, including folk, spirituals, popular songs, and traditional choral music.

MMT 112: First-year Music Theory
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Fall 2014, Fall 2016

MMT 112 covers diatonic harmony and elementary structural analysis; we will study triads, seventh chords and their inversions, harmonic function, part-writing, and harmonization of melodic lines. At the end of this course students will be able to harmonize melodies using triads and dominant-sevenths, identify simple motivic constructions and cadences, and analyze the form of a short composition written in simple four-measure phrases.

MMT 113: First-year Music Theory
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Spring 2015, Spring 2017

Music Theory MMT 113 continues coverage of diatonic harmony and elementary structural analysis; we move onwards into general uses of chords, diatonic modulation, melodic and rhythmic figuration, as well as phrase extensions and periods. By the end of the semester you should be comfortable with both writing and analyzing harmony including diatonic modulation, figuration, and basic chromaticism, as well as analyzing compositions with irregular phrases and periodic structures.

MMT 114: Second-year Music Theory Music Theory
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Fall 2015

In the third semester of Music Theory we finish the Aldwell-Schachter text, including modulation and chromatic harmony. In analysis we cover expansions of periods, two- and three-part song forms, and compound song forms.

MMT 115: Second-year Music Theory Music Theory
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Spring 2016

Music Theory MMT 115 helps students develop a sense of the overall architecture of a composition through the analysis of the large forms of Western music. Analysis of these forms should ultimately allow students to grasp by ear the entirety of a piece of music after having internalized their particular structures. In the fourth semester of Music Theory, we focus exclusively on the analysis of the larger homophonic forms of Western music. These forms include: First, Second and Third Rondos, Sonata Form, Concerto forms (Ritornello and Double-Exposition), Contrapuntal Forms (Fugue, Canon), Vocal Forms (Aria) and Ostinato and Variation Forms.

MMT 100 Fundamentals of Musicianship
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Fall 2016

Fundamentals of Musicianship is the preparatory course for Musicianship 102-105 and Music Theory 112-115. In the course we cover: basic notation of pitch and rhythm; basic music theory (meter, rhythmic figures, scales, keys, intervals, triads, seventh chords; aural recognition of the above; basics of sight singing and dictation; keyboard work to reinforce these skills.

MMT 102: First-year Musicianship
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Fall 2014, Fall 2016

MMT 102 is the first of a four-semester course designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of musicianship and give them the tools necessary for being an active professional musician. The first semester of Musicianship concentrates on building a strong foundation and practice techniques in the following areas: intervals (writing, recognizing and hearing diatonic intervals), chords (basic chords and harmonic functions are covered), rhythm (rhythmic competence, including the dictation of one and two-part rhythmic exercises), sightsinging (both prepared and unprepared sightsinging of melodic material), dictation (the dictation of melodies and simple harmonic progressions), and basic conducting patterns.

MMT 103: First-year Musicianship
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Spring 2015, Spring 2017

MMT 103 is the second of a four-semester course designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of musicianship and give them the tools necessary for being an active professional musician. The second semester of Musicianship concentrates on building a strong foundation and practice techniques in the following areas: intervals (writing, recognizing and hearing diatonic intervals), chords (basic chords and harmonic functions are covered), rhythm (rhythmic competence, including the dictation of one and two-part rhythmic exercises), sightsinging (both prepared and unprepared sightsinging of melodic material), dictation (the dictation of melodies and simple harmonic progressions), and basic conducting patterns.

MMT 104: Second-year Musicianship
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Fall 2015

The third semester of Musicianship concentrates on building a strong foundation and practice techniques in the following areas: Solfege incorporating new clefs, various modulations, and melodies outlining chromatic harmonies; rhythm including more advanced polyrhythms and metric changes; dictation skills with an increasing emphasis on modulation and chromaticism; Use of conducting patterns.

MMT 105: Second-year Musicianship
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Spring 2016

The fourth semester of Musicianship concentrates on building a strong foundation and practice techniques in the following areas: Solfege incorporating chromaticism, medieval music, and 20th century techniques; rhythm up through tempo modulation; Dictation skills with an increasing emphasis on modulation, chromaticism, and chorales; performing choral sections.

MUSIC 24K: Keyboard Harmony
Stanford University, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017

In this practical introduction to keyboard harmony, students learn to play, analyze and improvise chord progressions at the keyboard. Students will deepen their understanding of tonal theory as well as improve their keyboard and improvisational skills. The course covers reading figured bass, playing common chord progressions in all major and minor keys and harmonizing simple melodies at sight. Students also analyze and perform solo repertoire that progresses through the semester from simple pieces to the level of a Bach chorale.