Violinist Alexi Kenney, creating this week’s San Francisco Symphony SoundBox concert called “Dream Awake,” centered the program around a 1987 song cycle called “Kafka’s Fragments” based on writer Franz Kafka’s quotes and diary entries.
“In one of them, the lyrics are ‘slept, woke, slept, woke,’ and then the final line is ‘miserable life,’” Kenney says of Hungarian composer Geörgy Kurtãg’s piece for violin and soprano. Kenney adds, “I was thinking, all of these other pieces that are swirling around in my brain right now exist in an in-between space— not quite real life, not quite calm as you would be totally asleep —it’s almost purgatory. I started trying to find pieces that linked with that idea.”
A portion of the 70-minute-long “Kafka Fragments” and pieces by mostly living composers comprise “Dream Awake,” a program depicting the delicate balance between dreaming and waking life that’s the theme of the first 2026 SoundBox. Established in 2014, experimental SoundBox shows for ages 21 and older (alcoholic drinks are available) take place in a club-like atmosphere backstage in Davies Symphony Hall.
Works by Berkeley native Dylan Mattingly, Kronos Quartet cellist Paul Wiancko and University of California, Berkeley graduate Peter Shin are also on the program, full details of which are purposedly kept under wraps until the performance.
“There’s definitely a lot of works by friends and acquaintances of mine who are living composers and around my age,” says Kenney, 32, who was born in Palo Alto. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, he counts music teachers Wei He, Jenny Rudin and Natasha Fong among his mentors.
Describing American singer Lucy Fitz Gibbon, who’s joining him on “Kafka Fragments,” he says, “She’s a wonderful soprano and her specialty is in new, avant-garde music.”
Fitz Gibbon, whose repertoire reaches all the way back to the Renaissance, joins a larger mixed orchestra ensemble for a work by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023). Saariaho’s opera “Innocence” made its U.S. premiere at San Francisco Opera in June 2024.
The other piece by a non-living composer on the program is by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001). Kenney says the cosmically evocative four-movement percussion opus “Pléïades” likely will impress listeners: “It only involves skin drums, six percussionists playing about 11 minutes. It’s wild, very visceral and is going to make quite a sound in that room.”
“Dream Awake’s” lighting design is by Luke Kritzeck and video design is by Adam Larsen, Kenney’s previous collaborators on “Sonic Ecosytems,” a 2024 New Century Chamber Orchestra presentation.
“I’m a huge believer in visual additions to musical events, and I think of music somewhat visually and kind of three-dimensionally,” Kenney says. “Probably for most people, 100 percent of this program will be music they have never heard before, and so having the visuals as a guide, an extra level of imagination, is important. Luke and Adam are geniuses; they can do anything with their media, and they’re quite virtuosic in that way. It’s really nice to have these multidisciplinary cross-collaborations happening.”
Kenney, who made his San Francisco Symphony Orchestral Series debut in December, first attended SoundBox a year ago.
He maintains that innovative programming under the 14-year-old initiative is a creative, necessary way to broaden the appeal of classical music.
“There’s so much more we can do in the non-SoundBox sphere, taking in ideas that SoundBox has really excelled at, like intentional lighting design, projections and the audience experience of bringing drinks in more of a comfortable, casual experience.” He adds, “There’s a lot of takeaways we can bring to classical music I would love to see incorporated more. It’s only a matter of time, but the success of SoundBox definitely tells me there’s a hunger for that sort of programming and experience.”
San Francisco Symphony’s “SoundBox: Dream Awake” is at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 6-7 in Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Tickets are $80 at sfsymphony.org.