Casa Circulo Cultural community member Fiorela Arias taking a bow with Claire Chase and composer Marcos Balter, Soundbox at the San Francisco Symphony, February 24th, 2023.
Photo: Kristen Loken.

PAN

"In Pan, Claire Chase gives a virtuosic performance—and then invites amateur musicians to join in."
- Alex Ross, The New Yorker

"The piece, with music by Marcos Balter, tells a version of the mythical story of the demigod Pan while exploring how storytelling and music can bring people together."
- Joshua Barone, The New York Times

Pan (2017-18), part v of Claire's ongoing Density 2036 project, is an evening-length musical drama for solo flute, live electronics, and an ensemble of community musicians. The all-ages, all-abilities Pan ensemble—a kind of 21st century Greek chorus that serves as the conscience of the community in this telling of the Greek myth—is assembled newly in each city to which the work travels. Recent performances of Pan have taken place at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as part of SoundState Festival, Performance Space for the 21st Century in Chatham, NY, and McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ. 2022-23 performances of the work will take place at the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox series and at the Cite de la Musique in Paris.

Marcos Balter, composer
Douglas Fitch, director
Claire Chase, Pan
Project& and Jane M Saks, commissioner, producer and collaborative partner

*In “Harmony of the Spheres,” the contrabass flute intones with voices circulating the entire space.* Photo: Kristen Loken.

Pan *with the San Francisco Symphony and community, February 24th, 2023.* Photo: Kristen Loken.

*Ritual wine glass chorus in “Pan’s Flute” with participants from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the broader community, February 24th, 2023.* Photo: Kristen Loken.

PROGRAM NOTES BY J. JUDGE

For the ancients, the gods could do no wrong. But that didn’t mean the gods were seen as virtuous. The concepts of sin and wrongdoing simply didn’t apply to divinities: the gods were seen as beyond good and evil entirely, as Nietzsche puts it. And they were beyond mortality too, of course, because the gods could not die — by definition.

But things were less clear when it came to the demigods. Take a satyr: an in-between creature, neither god, nor man, nor beast. Could satyrs do wrong? Were they mortal, or not? And if satyrs could sin, and die, would it ever be justifiable to put them to death?

Pan, whose story unfolds over the nine tableaux of Marcos Balter’s Pan, is the satyr-lord of the woodlands, and the enchanter of all that hear his music. His musical talents are certainly godlike, as are the powers that those talents bring in their train. But Pan is not really a god — or at least, he is not acknowledged as such. When Pan invites Apollo to compete with him in a musical duel, Apollo sees this not as a challenge from an equal, but as an outrage. Condemned as an upstart, Pan is seized, tortured, and put to death. In dying, Pan gives his persecutors the satisfaction of knowing they were right: if he has died, he can’t have been a true god. (read more)

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