Joseph Sargent

For many choral ensembles, producing a full concert season is plenty enough work to keep them occupied. Not so for Chalice Consort, which supplements its performance activities with wide-ranging efforts to revive forgotten early-music repertory.

Who was Emily Dickinson? Popular portrayals cast the famed 19th-century poet as an eccentric recluse, a shadowy Woman in White. But “that image seems to be a fabrication, and when you go further into the story or into her work, an entirely different character emerges,” says Kathryn Roszak of Danse Lumière, which stages “Pensive Spring: A Portrait of Emily Dickinson” Oct. 10 and 19 as part of Berkeley Chamber Performances.

An oft-expressed frustration of the new-music scene is that world premieres generate eager support, but repeat performances of these works are far more elusive. Against these odds, Bay Area composer John Adams has managed to defy expectations with his Violin Concerto. The Berkeley Symphony will perform this modern classic with Music Director Joana Carneiro and Grammy-nominated violinist Jennifer Koh on Sept. 23.

There are musicians, there are virtuosos, and then there is that special class of transcendent musician for whom only superlative adjectives suffice. The double bass player Edgar Meyer is just such a performer, hailed as “the best bassist alive” (San Diego Magazine) and “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument” (The New Yorker). 

Chanticleer’s concerts often take on wide swaths of musical history, and the ensemble’s opening concert of its 2010/2011 season, “Out of This World!” is no exception.

Lovers of early music have it made in the shade in the Bay Area. There are more offerings every year than you can possibly get to. And all the great musicians who specialize in this music play in several groups, so that keeping them straight can make your head spin. To make things easier, here are five concerts to put on your calendar.

Too often the summer season finds music ensembles going on physical or artistic hiatus, taking an extended vacation or programming concerts heavy on lighter repertory. Not so the San Francisco Choral Society, a symphonic chorus under the musical direction of Robert Geary, which bucks the tide with substantial works by Beethoven and Britten on July 31 and Aug. 1 at San Francisco’s Calvary Presbyterian Church.

The American Bach Soloists’ first annual Academy, held July 5-18 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, offers more than just another summer festival. Sure, the Academy gathers elite faculty performers for enough concerts and lectures to satisfy even diehard fans. But by bringing a select group of emerging professional musicians alongside masters of the trade, the Academy also offers a revealing glimpse into the future of early-music performance.

It’s one of the world’s more prestigious competitions for young musicians, and it takes place right here in San Francisco. The Irving M. Klein International String Competition, held annually on the campus of San Francisco State University, attracts the crème de la crème of string players, ages 15 to 23, for two days of intensive music-making.

If any Renaissance composer can be said to have the “wow” factor, it would be Carlo Gesualdo. His brilliant Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday and Holy Saturday, performed by AVE on June 10, offers an outstanding introduction to the upcoming Berkeley Festival and Exhibition.