San Francisco Classical Voice

Standing in the middle of the unfinished theater, just five days ahead of the Opera's first public dress rehearsal before a full house, Slater speaks of the projection room's equipment "capable of projecting every known film format, with the possible exception of IMAX." Will the theater be ready on Wednesday? Sure, Slater says, no shadow of doubt audible in his voice. There will be fine- tuning, he allows, for months to come; items such as two large Wurlitzer organs and a pool for the outdoor lobby yet to arrive, but the theater will be fully functional . . . including removal of the plastic still covering 1,100 seats, missing patches of paint, exposed electric wires, a construction fence protecting the First Street entrance, etc. — all will be taken care of, he says.

Even behind the construction mess, the 1927 building looks sensational. In addition to the original painted-wood ceilings and Tiffany-lamp style mica chandeliers, everything from rich carpets to marble columns, and decorative cornices show off the very best of the West Coast "Orpheum Era" from the early 20th century. The original architects were Weeks & Day of San Francisco; the renovation is the responsibility of Berkeley's ELS Architects.

It will be an amazing change in venue for next year's San Jose film festival, the Cinequest, which had to hole up until now in tiny movie theaters. Packard's contribution is just the latest in a series of good deeds on behalf of historical cinema. He is responsible for many Vitaphone restorations, including "Jack Buchanan and His Glee Club" (1928), "The Opry House (1929), and "Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields" (1926), and he financed renovation of the 1925 Greek/Assyrian-style Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, which shows only classic films, primarily from the years 1920 through 1965.

Incidentally, when the California Theater first opened, 77 years ago, it provided the venue for the premiere of "An Affair of the Follies," starring Billie Dove (who, before her death, at age 96, was the last surviving Ziegfeld girl), and some of Hollywood's biggest stars found their way to San Jose on the occasion.

Grace Doubleheader and 'Future Voices'

Grace Cathedral has been a vital component of San Francisco's musical life for decades, but there seems to be an additional surge of activities high up on California Street. Consider the choral doubleheader on Thursday, September 16: at 5:30, the Evensong is sung by Trinity College Choir, of Cambridge, England, joining the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, under the direction of Richard Marlow; at 7:30, the Choir of Trinity College, of Melbourne, Australia, gives a concert, directed by Michael Leighton Jones.

On Sunday, October 17, the cathedral and the Ghiberti Foundation host the fourth annual Voices of America's Future, a festival of the Bay Area's finest youth choirs, a free event coinciding with the introduction of Cathedral Choir director Jeffrey Smith as Grace's new Canon Director of Music. Participants include the Crystal Children's Choir, 800 members, Jenny Chiang and Karl Chang, directors; Pacific Boychoir, 90 members, Kevin Fox, director; Piedmont Choirs, 350 members, Robert Geary, director; Ragazzi, 120 members, Joyce Keil, director; San Francisco Boys Chorus, 165 members, Ian Robertson, director; San Francisco Girls Chorus, 300 members, Elizabeth Avakian, director; and the cathedral's own choir.

Music on Public Radio . . . Everywhere

If you're relying on radio off the air, this area is pretty much out of luck: the major public radio station, KQED-FM, 88.5, has music programs very occasionally. (KALW-FM, 91.7, and KUSF-FM, 90.3, try hard, but their signal is very limited). Thank goodness for the Internet, which enables us by the Bay, a waterbound Sahara of classical-music stations, to listen in on magnificent programs around the country . . . and the world (including KALW, at www.kalw.org). If you go to www.publicradiofan.com, and enter the time zone, you'll have information at hand for sources of many music genres, from Afropop (www.afropop.org) to the NPR World of Opera (www.npr.org/programs/worldofopera), and program listing for hundreds of stations; to see the complete list, go to www.publicradiofan.com.

Some of the major sources of classy broadcasts at any time: Deutsche Welle (DW), at www.dw-world.de/english, several BBC services (www.bbc.co.uk/radio/), including BBC-3 (www.bbc.co.uk/radio3) and the BBC Asian Network (www.bbc.co.uk/radio/asiannetwork).

Child of Our Time, the Movie

The Santa Rosa Symphony will present the world premiere of a documentary about its 2002 presentation of Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time, at 7:30, on Saturday, September 18, in Santa Rosa High School. Tommie Dell Smith is the director for the film, which is about SRS's performance of Tippett's 1941 oratorio, and the community outreach that surrounded the concert, conducted by Jeffrey Kahane. Plans are being made to broadcast the film on PBS stations, at film festivals, and to distribute it to schools and orchestras around the country. See www.santarosasymphony.com.

Jupiter Quartet Wins Banff Competition

Jupiter String Quartet of Boston has won first place in last week's Banff International String Quartet Competition, the second place going to the Enso Quartet of Houston, followed by Poland's Royal String Quartet, and the Fry Quartet of Logan, Utah.

Seattle Symphony Concertmaster Controversy

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Ilkka Talvi, Seattle Symphony concertmaster for the past 20 years, will not be offered a contract for 2004'05 season (which is the equivalent of letting him go immediately). Music director Gerard Schwarz, who originally appointed Talvi to the post, said he wants "a new leader help us achieve our potential as one of the great orchestras of the world . . . I wish him the best." Symphony executive director Paul Meecham did not elaborate, except to comment that the relationship between the music director and concertmaster must be "close and harmonious." Talvi, in an e-mail to the newspaper, said the Seattle Symphony Players' Organization had filed a grievance on his behalf. After refusing "to enter into arbitration on a technicality, the matter is now going to federal court," he said. He added, "Too many musicians have been used as scapegoats." For the season opening this month, Maria Larionoff, associate concertmaster since 1998, will serve as acting concertmaster, joined by various guest concertmasters.

Temirkanov Leaving Baltimore

Yuri Temirkanov, 65, music director of the Baltimore Symphony since 1999, will leave the post after the next season, becoming music director emeritus. He will remain in his long-held positions as chief conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, principal guest conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and conductor laureate of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London.

Stern to Kansas City

Michael Stern, 44, has been named music director of the Kansas City Symphony, with a four-year contract. The Ann Arbor, MI, musician was selected after abn 18-month search for a successor to Ann Manson. Stern, a New York City native, will continue to lead the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis, which he founded in 2000. Until recently he was chief conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony in Germany, and continues as permanent guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France.