San Francisco Classical Voice

Carmel Bach Festival
Between July 15 and August 5, the Festival will present more than 50 concerts and hundreds of works at the recently renovated Sunset Center Theater, Carmel Mission, and other venues. Highlights include Bach's St. John Passion; music of the Mexican Baroque; numerous concertos by Vivaldi, Corelli, and Bach; plus a celebration of Mozart. Conductors Bruno Weil and William Jon Gray, violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch, keyboardist Andrew Arthur, and lutenist Richard Kolb lead the acclaimed instrumental and vocal forces. Through August 5; times and venues vary; $20-$92, (831) 624-2046, www.bachfestival.org. (S.M.)

Music@Menlo
Music@Menlo joins virtually every other musical institution in honoring the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, but, as in the past four years, it's a festival with a difference. You will not often find, as you do here, a concert of J.S. Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 904; Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time; and Mozart's Clarinet Quintet (Program VI, "Mozart and the End of Time") — or Britten's Cello Suite No. 3; Stravinsky's own arrangement of The Rite of Spring for piano, four hands; and Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452 (Program V, "Mozart and the 20th Century"). The other programs, "Mozart and Shostakovich," "Mozart and the Piano," "Mozart and the String Quartet," and "Mozart and Winds," are just as brilliantly programmed. And what other festival gives its artists the opportunity to perform whatever they'd like, on the aptly named Carte Blanche Concerts? This year, Joseph Silverstein and Derek Han perform all eight of Mozart's sonatas for violin and piano, and Claude Frank plays the last two Schubert piano sonatas. Add to this the fabulous musicians (too numerous to list here), free Prelude Performances by students from the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute (programming not yet announced), and five lectures by scholars, and you've got a near-perfect festival.

Each program is given twice. The concert venues are St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Palo Alto and Stent Family Hall at the Menlo School in Atherton. Both venues are acoustically excellent; Stent Family Hall seats fewer than 200, resulting in exceptionally intimate and intense concerts. Note that some concerts are given once at St. Mark's, once at Stent; others are given twice at St. Mark's. The lecture series (Encounters) takes place at the Menlo School's Martin Family Hall. July 24 – August 11; Prelude Performances are at 6 p.m., concerts at 8 p.m., the Carte Blanche concerts are at 10:30 a.m. at Stent Family Hall and include a lunch break; $10-$78, (650) 330-2030, www.musicatmenlo.org/index.php. (L.H.)

Sonoma State's Green Music Festival
Among all the summer events on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, the Green Music Festival's Chamber Music Series is of special interest, with a sterling record in recent years. To be headed again by series founder Jeffrey Kahane, the concerts conclude with Kahane in an all-Schumann program, including Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasy in C Major. July 25, 8 p.m., Person Theater, Sonoma State campus, Rohnert Park, $12-$35, (707) 664-2880, www.cityboxoffice.com. (J.G.)

Midsummer Mozart
Thirty-two years old and going strong, George Cleve's Midsummer Mozart Festival will present Mozart's last three symphonies (Nos. 39-41) as a three-act evening, with two intermissions. July 27, 7:30 p.m., Mission Santa Clara, SCU Campus, Santa Clara; July 28, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; July 29, 6:30 p.m., Gundlach Bundschu Winery, Sonoma; July 30, 7 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley, $30-$60, (415) 627-9145, www.midsummermozart.org. (J.G.)

Cabrillo Festival Opens
Every year since 1961, the Cabrillo Festival has presented contemporary music, with an emphasis on American works and composers of the Bay Area. This is the 15th season with Marin Alsop on the podium, and the festival opens with three performances of photographer Frans Lanting's Life: A Journey Through Time. July 29, 8 p.m.; July 30, 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m; Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, $30-$40, (831) 420-5260, www.cabrillomusic.org. (J.G.)

Summer Sing-Ins
It's summer, and most choruses are taking a break from rehearsals. If you like to sing, a summer sing-in may be just the thing for you: You turn up, you're handed a score, and you read through the work with an impromptu chorus, led by an experienced conductor. They're great fun, whether to maintain your chops, get in some extra sight-singing practice, read through a work you've never sung (or review it if you know it well), or see if choral singing is for you. Some pieces are perennial favorites, such as the Brahms Requiem, but you can find more unusual works as well — for example, one of the Oakland Symphony Chorus' sing-ins this year includes Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem. These events can be found in various places around the Bay Area; below are listed dates, works, and other information for four sets of summer sings.

Oakland Symphony Chorus Summer Sing-Ins
The Oakland Symphony Chorus's summer sing-ins are on Tuesdays in Oakland: July 25, Brahms: Requiem, Nänie, and Schicksalslied, Larry Marietta. 7 p.m., $10, First Covenant Church, 4000 Redwood Rd., Oakland, (510) 207-4093, info@oaklandsymphonychorus.org, www.oakland-sym-chorus.org.

San Francisco City Chorus Summer Sings
San Francisco City Chorus's summer sings are on Wednesdays in San Francisco: July 26, Mendelssohn: Hear My Prayer and Hymn of Praise and Handel: Coronation Anthems Nos. 1 and 4, Simon Berry. July 26, $10, Lakeside Presbyterian Church, 201 Eucalyptus Drive at 19th Avenue, San Francisco, (415) 701-7664, info@sfcitychorus.org, www.sfcitychorus.org

Sonoma Choral Society Summer Sings
The Sonoma Choral Society's summer sings are on Wednesdays in Rohnert Park: July 26, Fauré: Requiem and Duruflé: Requiem, Sanford Dole. 7 p.m., $5-$10, Ives Hall, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, (707) 664-4234, sonomachoral@sonoma.edu, www.sonoma-choral.org. (L.H.)

Schola Cantorum Summer Sings
Schola Cantorum's summer sings are on Mondays in Los Altos: July 31, Brahms: Requiem (in German), Galen Marshall. 7:30 p.m., $10-$15, Los Altos United Methodist Church, 625 Magdalena Ave., Los Altos, (650) 254–1700, info@scholacantorum.org, www.scholacantorum.org.

San Francisco Renaissance Voices
San Francisco Renaissance Voices sings a concert in their continuing Polyphony Project, which will, each year for five years, present liturgical music by a Renaissance composer and related music by other composers from his region. This concert features Guillaume Dufay's Missa L'homme armé and other Burgundian and Franco-Flemish music. July 29, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, (415) 664-2543; July 30, 7 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, Alameda, (510) 522-1477, $12-$15, http://www.sfrv.org/index.html/. (L.H.)

Red Bean Cantonese Opera House
Red Bean Cantonese Opera House celebrates its 10th anniversary with two different performances at the end of the month. On Saturday, July 29, the company presents a full-length work, The Case of the Headless Murder, termed in its press release "a classic detective Jor Wei Ming mystery." On Sunday, July 30, a medley of excerpts from different Cantonese operas is presented. July 29, 1:30 p.m.; July 30, 12:45 p.m.; Great Star Theater, San Francisco, $15-50, (415) 781-8330, http://www.redbeancantoneseopera.com/. (L.H.)

Free at Stern Grove
For the 69th year, San Francisco's unique free music festival in Stern Grove will feature the usual mix of pop, classical, and world music. All concerts begin at 2 p.m. in the Grove, a 33-acre recreation area with meadows, picnic facilities, hiking trails, and a lake, located at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco's Sunset District. July 30, San Francisco Opera, free, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (J.G.)

Symphony's Summer in the City
The San Francisco Symphony's summer series continues on July 27 with Edwin Outwater conducting works by Beethoven, with Orli Shaham as the soloist in the Piano Concerto No. 1. July 27, 8 p.m., Davies Hall, $15-$64, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org/. (J.G.)

Other Minds on KALW-FM
Every Friday night, an Other Minds program of contemporary music is presented on KALW-FM. July 28, 11 p.m., KALW-FM, 91.7, www.kalw.org. (J.G.)