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IN Listening Ahead THIS WEEK:
BROADCASTS
CHAMBER
CHORAL
CONTEMPORARY
DANCE
EARLY MUSIC
EVENTS
OPERA
RECITAL
SYMPHONY
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to the Classical Music Scene for February 7-20, 2006
By Janos Gereben,
Met Broadcasts The 75th season of the Metropolitan Opera's live broadcasts is available in San Francisco only on tiny KUSF-FM, 90.3, but pretty much everywhere else on the Internet. (See www.operainfo.org/stationfinder.) The Saturday 10:30 a.m. (PST) broadcast on February 11 is of Verdi's Traviata, with Angela Gheorghiu in the title role and introducing Jonas Kaufman, much acclaimed in Europe, but still new to the U.S. (J.G.) Mozart Fest All of Mozart's operas are being broadcast in chronological order on Kelly Rinne's WHFR-FM program, Tuesdays 1-4 p.m. PST. Next up: Mitridate, Rè di Ponto on February 7 (concluded on February 14). For information, see www.whfropera.blogspot.com. (J.G.)
S.F. Chamber Orchestra Family Concert
Volti Volti is its usual laid-back self in its next set, leavening a program of commissioned world premieres by composers Jacob Avshalomov, Eric Lindsay, and Eric Moe with Irving Fine's rarely heard choral song cycle, The Hour-Glass. February 19, 4 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley; February 20, 8 p.m., National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, San Francisco; and February 25, First United Methodist Church, Sacramento; $8-$20, (415) 771-3352, www.voltisf.org. (M.D.T.)
20th Century Music and Beyond Cal Performances is hosting a computerized jam session, with assorted University of California faculty (Mark Dresser, Myra Melford, and Bob Ostertag) joining David Wessel of UC Berkeley's pioneering Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) in a program of digital improvisation. February 11, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, $22, (510) 942-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. The jam continues throughout the spring at CNMAT, with upcoming performances including "The Hyperstring Project: The New Dynamic of Rogue Counterpoint" (February 12, 8 p.m.) and German pianist Sebastian Berweck (February 18, 8 p.m.). CNMAT, UC Berkeley, $5-$10, (510) 643-9990, www.cnmat.berkeley.edu. (M.B.) eighth blackbird The literally peripatetic new music ensemble (they memorize much of their repertoire, and choreograph their performances) appears with one of contemporary music's most celebrated singers, soprano Lucy Shelton, in a program including (among other things) Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire. Yet another bounty from that cornucopia that is San Francisco State University's free Morrison Artists' Series. February 12, 3 p.m., McKenna Theatre, San Francisco State University, free, (415) 338-1358, www.morrisonseries.org. (M.D.T.)
Black Choreographers Festival "Dancing Into the Future" is the theme of the festival, with the rich heritage of African and African-American music and dance serving as the point of departure. Some of the featured artists: Joanna Haigood (aerial dance), Robert Moses (modern), Deborah Vaughan and the Dimensions Dance Theater (classical/modern), Kim Sims-Battiste and Culture Shock Oakland (hip-hop), and Mahea Uchiyama (Polynesian). Among the free events is a film of the Alonzo King Lines Ballet (February 11, 4 p.m., Artaud) and a dance symposium, with a performance by the Haitian Reconnect troupe (February 18, 4:30 p.m., Malonga Casquelourd Center). February 10-12, Project Artaud Theater, San Francisco; February 17-19, Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland; $15-$20, (415) 863-9834, www.bcfhereandnow.com. (J.G.)
Philharmonia's Tribute to the Violin The violin emerged from obscurity in the Baroque period to become one of the most popular solo instruments. Elizabeth Blumenstock leads PBO as concertmaster and soloist in "The Violin Triumphant," an exploration of the "the nightingale of instruments." February 10, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; February 11, 8 p.m., Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, Lafayette; $28-$62, (415) 392-4400, www.philharmonia.org. (M.B.)
Harpist from the 'Hood and the Kora Destiny, who calls herself "Harpist from the Hood," is a master of the kora. She also plays the Triplett Acoustic/Electric 38-string Neo-Celtic harp, and other instruments, and she is involved in such projects as the SONG — the Strings of a Nubian Groove string quartet. But her heart belongs to the mother of the modern harp, the kora, from West Africa. February 18, 7 p.m., Oakland Museum of California, $25, (510) 522-5552, www.harpistfromthehood.com. (J.G.)
Pocket Woman Donald Pippin's Pocket Opera opens its 2006 season with what Offenbach called Genevieve of Brabant, but Pippin Englishified as The New Woman. Uniquely, Pippin has been translating, narrating, conducting, and directing ever since his opera-in-English first appeared in the Old Spaghetti Factory ... in 1968. What's Genevieve about? "Scandal 12th-century style shakes the colorful, heretofore placid little town of Ham-on-Rye and a heroine is born. Meanwhile, the army has boarded the Orient Express for Palestine." February 10, 7:30 p.m., Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $29-$32, (415) 972-8934, www.pocketopera.org. (J.G.)
Family Cello Hour San Francisco Conservatory faculty cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau and Holy Names College faculty pianist Roy Bogas present a "family-friendly" recital including Brahms and Debussy sonatas and (presumably with some help) a four-cello arrangement of the celebrated Chaconne from Bach's D-minor solo violin Partita. Fonteneau and Bogas are two of the most interesting players in the Bay Area, and this promises to be great fun. Proceeds go to benefit the Crowden Center for Music in the Community. February 12, 4 p.m., Crowden Music Center, Berkeley, $12 (children free), (510) 559-2941, www.crowden.org. (M.D.T.) Chamber Music San Francisco Chamber Music San Francisco will present two concerts of performances by winners of the Guzik Foundation Award, given to the most talented youngsters from among hundreds of contestants in 300 music conservatories throughout Russia. Local resident Nahum Guzik, a Russian emigré, industrialist, and philanthropist, sponsors the program, which offers $1,000 awards to each of the 100 finalists and a U.S. tour for the four top winners: pianist Nareh Arghamanyan, 16, from Vanadzor, Armenia; pianist Dinara Nadzhafova, 16, from Kharkov, Ukraine; pianist Ilya Petrov, 20, from Krivoy Rog, Ukraine; and violinist Evgeni Sviridov, 16, from St. Petersburg, Russia. February 18, 8 p.m. (Arghamanyan and Sviridov), and February 19, 2 p.m. (Nazhdafova and Petrov), Florence Gould Theater, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $17-$22, (415) 248-1640, www.chambermusicsf.org. (J.G.)
Santa Rosa Symphony The conductor search to replace outgoing music director Jeffrey Kahane continues, and one candidate, Bruno Ferrandis, has put together a terrific program, including Berio's Requies and Shostakovich's First Symphony. February 11-13, 8 p.m. (3 p.m. Sunday), Luther Burbank Center, Santa Rosa, $27-$49, (707) 546-8742, www.santarosasymphony.org. (M.D.T.)
(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to SFCV; his e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com. Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times. Mickey Butts is executive director and publisher of San Francisco Classical Voice. His writing has appeared in Salon, Food & Wine, The Industry Standard, Wired, Parenting, Sunset, The Nation, and The San Francisco Chronicle.)
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