SFCV Latest News

The Four Seasons of Vivaldi
Haydn Seek: An Aha! Concert

C.GETCHES — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:04:54 -0400

“We’re having a lot of fun down here,” says David Gordon, dramaturge of the Carmel Bach Festival. For 71 years audiences have agreed, journeying to one of California’s most picturesque seaside towns for a summer idyll of Bach and his contemporaries, among other musical offerings.

La Traviata Reborn

C.GETCHES — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:25:56 -0400

What a difference a change of principals can make. Instead of the overhyped Anna Netrebko, who, as Violetta in the first five performances of San Francisco Opera’s production of Verdi’s La traviata, simplified her coloratura, shunned the much-anticipated E-flat at the end of a hardly free “Sempre libera” (Forever free), and mostly scratched the surface of her role, we now have the alive-in-the-moment soprano of Elizabeth Futral.

Music News; June 30, 2009

C.GETCHES — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:04:56 -0400

Adès Premiere in San Francisco

Just as John Adams has "distilled" his 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, into the new Doctor Atomic Symphony, now Thomas Adès is providing a similar treatment for the piano of his Powder Her Faceread more

An Interview With Jonathan Khuner

C.GETCHES — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:26:27 -0400

Jonathan Khuner is a Bay Area classical music fixture. He is artistic and musical director for the Berkeley Opera. He also divides his time between the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera as assistant conductor and a prompter for both companies.

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Festival Honors Composer Victims of the Holocaust

C.GETCHES — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:25:28 -0400
How would classical music have evolved in the last century had not the Holocaust robbed us of some of our greatest composers? That is but one of the questions that preoccupied Susan Waterfall, cofounder of the Mendocino Music Festival, as she prepared for the festival’s July 16 evening program, They Left a Light: Masterpieces From Nazi Prison Camps.
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Donald Berman Shakes Off Some Roman Dust

C.GETCHES — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:19:46 -0400
In 1997, the American pianist Donald Berman forced open three old file cabinets in a musty attic above the Janiculum, the highest hill within walled Rome, and found enough years of work for each of his 10 fingers. Music-history buffs acquainted with the trials and tribulations of composers such as Berlioz and Ravel and their experiences with the French Prix de Rome may not be aware that a similar American institution was established in Rome in 1894 and began awarding music stipends for study in 1921.
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Heaven Only for Engineers

C.GETCHES — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:00:11 -0400
Channel has released another in its series of Mahler symphonies under Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Symphony No. 4 in G Major. The engineering is by far the most impressive thing about it: This SACD sounded terrific, even on my non-SACD player, displaying impressive depth and clarity of tone.
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San Francisco Symphony Puts Pop Into July

C.GETCHES — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:35:32 -0400

In Boston, during the mid-1960s, it was commonly accepted that there were three people in town who would never in their lives need to pay for a drink at one of that city’s taverns: Carl Yastrzemski, the slugging left fielder for the Red Sox; Bill Russell, the center for the Celtics’ perennial championship teams; and Arthur Fiedler, the indefatigable conductor of the Boston Pops.

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Peninsula Symphony Pops

C.GETCHES — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:25:07 -0400

Nothing says summer like an outdoor pops concert, especially if its free. The Peninsula Symphony scores big on all three counts, as they present a free concert on the steps of the Redwood City Courthouse Square. Besides great music from three Bs (Berlioz, Bizet, and Bernstein), the fun includes a raffle. Let the kids stay up late, bring a picnic, and enjoy.

Music News: June 23, 2009

sfcvsiteadmin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:15:14 -0400

Ali Akbar Khan
Yehudi Menuhin called him "the greatest musician in the world." He brought "Indian music" (Hindustani, in fact, but close enough) to the West, along with Ravi Shankar, fellow student of h
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Passamezzo Moderno

C.GETCHES — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:12:03 -0400

Early music buffs get an unexpected bit of luck this week, as Passamezzo Moderno, a baroque instrumental group shows up at Berkeley’s Trinity Chapel Concerts. The group will be playing their “Ostinato” program, consisting of music with repeating basslines, one of the largest repertories of instrumental music from the 17th century. The music is sprightly and gay, sure to ut a spring in your step.

Torn by Love at the Berkeley Opera

C.GETCHES — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:27:49 -0400

Since 1979, the Berkeley Opera has presented accessible, affordable productions in the East Bay. The second opera for its 2009 season, Douglas Moore’s Ballad of Baby Doe, will open on July 11. As always, the performances will be given in Berkeley’s beautiful Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Originally a church, the building was designed in 1908 by the famous architect, and later turned into a theater.

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Soprano Kate Royal's Sweet Midsummer Night

C.GETCHES — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:38:37 -0400
For her much-anticipated second EMI recital disc, the elegant British soprano Kate Royal (b. 1979) graces us with a collection of gorgeously sung arias from the last century. Inspired by the role of the Governess in Benjamin Britten’s gothic psychodrama The Turn of the Screw, which she sang with Glyndebourne on Tour in 2006, Royal hones in on 20th-century operatic females who, in her own words, share the Governess’ combination of “intensity and abandon.”
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Venturing Onto Kronos' Floodplain

C.GETCHES — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:30:37 -0400

There’s so much music, and more, in Kronos’ latest CD that I felt compelled to question the quartet’s founder and violinist David Harrington at his Sunset District base of operations, seeking details and explanations beyond the liner notes. Much of that conversation will be the source of a future artist profile. But in examining this album, it’s worth considering its inception as Harrington’s reaction to the undeclared war in Iraq.

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Music for a Fantasy Video Game

C.GETCHES — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:11:12 -0400

Anyone who has ever played a video game likely knows that, just as the contours of its control pad can become imprinted on the hand, so too can the game’s musical themes leave lasting impressions on the memory.

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Bay Area Music Camps Offer Something to Everyone

C.GETCHES — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:10:56 -0400

School’s out, and kids are looking for fun. Some are hoping to build their musical skills, as well. Fortunately, families in the Bay Area have many wonderful summer music camps to choose from, with a wide range of activities. Finding the camp that is most suited to your child’s age and musical level, your expectations, and of course your budget is the key to having a successful camp experience.

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Festival Opera: Turandot

C.GETCHES — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:55:26 -0400

When an opera company’s mission is to give young singers, conductors and directors opportunities to explore the repertoire, Puccini is always a good place to start. Throughout its 18 seasons, Festival Opera has scored numerous hits with productions of the composer’s La Bohéme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Suor Angelica.

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An Interview With Inon Barnatan

C.GETCHES — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:17:19 -0400

At 30, Inon Barnatan has established an international reputation as a pianist of uncommon depth and maturity. The Tel Aviv-born, New York-based artist, who studied with Leon Fleisher and the late Maria Curcio, has earned acclaim in a variety of repertoire from Beethoven to Messiaen to Schubert.

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Nothingset Ensemble Keeps It New at Old First

C.GETCHES — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:39:18 -0400

Nothingset Ensemble, a grassroots collective of Bay Area musicians, composers, and conductors dedicated to performing new music, has just three prerequisites for selecting repertoire: The music must be less than 100 years old, should be performed infrequently, and must be great, according to Ted Hine and Darren Jones, the ensemble’s founders and creative directors.

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Festival Opera's Turandot

C.GETCHES — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:02:24 -0400

“It is somewhat unexpected when a small company like Festival Opera takes on a very grand opera like Turandot. The size of the piece and the enormous role of the chorus make it a challenge,” says Artistic Director Michael Morgan.

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Esterházy Plays Haydn's Big Hits

C.GETCHES — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:52:20 -0400
The principal delight of the New Esterházy Quartet’s two-year trek through the complete Haydn string quartets has been hearing the works that never get played. The NEQ’s first CD of recordings from the series stuck to the earliest clutch of quartets, the ones eventually called Opp. 1 and 2.
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Bay Area Rainbow Symphony

C.GETCHES — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:30:12 -0400

The Bay Area is gearing up for S.F. Pride, the annual GLBT celebration, and the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony is handling the classical contribution. Their concert, on June 20 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, will feature Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Copland’s suite from his opera The Tender Land, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Gershwin’s An American in Paris. If you want a touch of the fabulousness, but are not looking forward to the crowds lining the parade route, this is your event.

Tiburon Music Festival

C.GETCHES — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:19:08 -0400

Not that you need another reason to visit Tiburon this summer, but pianist Paul Smith has organized a second iteration of his Tiburon Music Festival there, and this year it has a few tantalizing morsels, beyond the venue — lovely St. Hilary’s Church — the natural scenery, and the cool restaurants. The Tiburon Chamber Players is a group of San Francisco Symphony musicians, which will be giving a concert of Mozart and Schubert on June 23. Yes, Anton von Webern is also on the program, but don’t wince — the Six Bagatelles are short.

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Music News: June 16, 2009

C.GETCHES — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:40:02 -0400

Zheng Cao: Life Is Singing, Singing Is Life
When Dr. Larson told her that he would do special calculations to avoid her vocal cords when doing the Gamma Knife, and that he had to get the insurance company's approval to do so, she asked him, "You mean you think I can sing again? And go on with my career?"
She says now that that was the moment she realized that her doctor believed she would survive and go on with her life ...
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Embracing Abandon at the S.F. Opera

C.GETCHES — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:32:28 -0400

The San Francisco Opera’s new Traviata is a dazzling affair.

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Astonishing S.F. Symphony Premiere

C.GETCHES — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:47:30 -0400

The San Francisco Symphony’s “Dawn to Twilight” festival ended last week with a devastating double bill. Pairing Schubert and Berg might look like the sort of juxtaposition apt to work better on paper than in the event. In Wednesday’s first concert of the festival’s final program, though, two late masterpieces (one for each composer) came together in odd synergy.

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Hearing Haydn

C.GETCHES — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:39:03 -0400
Over the last couple of decades, René Jacobs has assembled a catalog of recordings as a conductor, a major change from his earlier career as a famed countertenor. The bicentennial of Franz Josef Haydn’s death brings a happy pairing of composer and conductor, on a Harmonia Mundi disc featuring the symphonies No. 91 in E-flat Major and No. 92 in G Major, as well as a bravura performance of the dramatic “Scena di Berenice” by mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink.
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An Interview With Anthony Martin

C.GETCHES — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:16:16 -0400

Violinist/ violist Anthony Martin is one of the Bay Area’s core of string players who have specialized in early music, or “historically informed performance.”

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On the Way to Heaven

C.GETCHES — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:36:03 -0400

It's a long way from Catfish Row to Walhalla, but my money is on Eric Owens traversing the distance.

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Garden of Memory

C.GETCHES — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:55:55 -0400

The Bay Area has its own annual musical event to mark the summer solstice, the real beginning of the season of plenty. It’s the Garden of Memory concert hosted each year at the Chapel of the Chimes and presented by New Music Bay Area. The building was designed by Julia Morgan in 1926 in Mission style with Gothic interiors.

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Wyrick-Oh Duo:
Russian Masters of the 20th Century

C.GETCHES — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:36:27 -0400

Yes, symphony musicians play music outside of their orchestral obbligations. It keeps them creative and engaged. So if you’ve only heard Peter Wyrick, associate principal cellist of the San Francisco Opera, play from the stage of Davies Symphony Hall, you might be delighted to encounter this superb musician in a chamber setting with his long-time recital partner, pianist June Choi Oh.

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Re-cycle, Re-view, Sing New

C.GETCHES — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:28:54 -0400

Artists, along with dung beetles and leafcutter ants, are among the most efficient recyclers in the world. They’re always creating new works out of old, so much so that we have literally dozens of words to describe the process — remix, cover, troping, parody, and so on.

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Music News: June 9, 2009

C.GETCHES — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:44:52 -0400

New Principal Viola for SFS
The long-awaited appointment of the San Francisco Symphony principal violist is over. The important position has been without an occupant for more than three years since Geraldine Walther ended her 29-year tenure there by joining the Takács String Quartet.
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Renaissance Pleas for Mercy

C.GETCHES — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:26:11 -0400

To close a season embracing music mostly of the modern era, Chanticleer returned to its founding ideals on Sunday night at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, with an entirely Renaissance program, sung a cappella.

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Hell in Song

C.GETCHES — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:37:33 -0400

For most of their long and fruitful collaboration, East Bay composer Peter Josheff made the music-first move and counted on librettist Jaime Robles to follow. “I would ask for her text, and she would give me exactly what I wanted,” said Josheff, 54, in a recent conversation. He once requested the words for six male voices. Robles responded with a libretto for a poker game (Three Hands).

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Concerto Buon Viaggio

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:21:27 -0400

The Grace Cathedral Choir is going to Italy, where the singers will experience performing Italian Renaissance and early Baroque music in its original physical and cultural context. On Sunday, the choir — 18 boys on the treble parts and a dozen men singing tenor and bass — offered a dress rehearsal for a large, enthusiastic audience, gathered to wish them a buon viaggio.

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One Love in Common

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:07:18 -0400

Friday's episode of the San Francisco Symphony's Franz Schubert/Alban Berg festival showed that Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas' abundant love for the two Viennese composers' music, despite commentators' attempts to argue the contrary, was the strongest element they had in common.

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An Interview With Sarah Cahill

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:38:27 -0400

Sarah Cahill is a pianist who wears a lot of hats, which may account for her high profile among local, Bay Area pianists.

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Mass for a Troubled Time

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:32:38 -0400

Saturday night’s Symphony Silicon Valley concert at the California Theatre in San José was full of interesting resonances and connections. For one thing, it was the anniversary of D-Day. What better time, as the organization’s President Andrew Bales pointed out in his welcoming talk, to hear a Mass, a work ending with the words “Dona nobis pacem” (Grant us peace)?

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Prokofiev in Full

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:03:09 -0400
Prokofiev’s nine piano sonatas form one of the major cycles of the 20th century, and have often been recorded individually. But complete sets in one package are exceedingly rare. So Prokofiev specialist Anne-Marie McDermott’s new set of all nine, in modern sonics, fills an important gap. And her virtuosity and stylish performances are a delight. As a tasty bonus, the collection includes Prokofiev’s antsy, early Sarcasms, Op. 17.
Prokofiev was a prodigy.
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Summer Festival Preview

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:08:46 -0400

For some, summer vacation means sun, sand, and relaxation. For music lovers in the Bay Area, summer vacation means opera under the stars, symphonies by the beach, immersion in the works of a favorite composer, or listening to and trying out the latest new music and musical instruments. From the Mendocino Coast to Hearst Castle and the Ojai Valley, here’s a sampling of the music to be found locally and a little farther afield.

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Opera in the Park is Extravagantly Entertaining

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:54:30 -0400

Thousands gathered at AT&T Park last night to enjoy Puccini’s Tosca, overpriced beer, and a gorgeous twilight as San Francisco Opera continued its tradition of Opera In the Park. Birds flew past the screen as an almost full moon emerged, disappeared, and reemerged from behind billowing clouds.

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Adventures, in Spades

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:13:41 -0400

Musical repertory is full of masterpieces that rarely get programmed. Largely, it’s a matter of either instrumentation or length. On Wednesday, with a full orchestra and a handful of soloists available, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony concentrated on five of those masterpieces, as part of their “Schubert/Berg Journey.”

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Luscious Looping

C.GETCHES — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:27:00 -0400

I left the performance I attended on Thursday with the feeling that I got two concerts for the price of one. In truth, it was just that one musician, cellist Zoë Keating, opened for another, vocalist Amy X Neuburg.

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Music of All the Americas

C.GETCHES — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:34:57 -0400

Pride comes naturally when you’re a singer with the San Francisco Boys Chorus. Just ask eighth-grader Dominique Shaw about the delightfully eclectic program that he and fellow choristers will be presenting at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco on June 13.

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Irving Klein String Competition

C.GETCHES — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:48:42 -0400

I meet with each of the contestants several times over the course of competition week, often driving them to and from events, to get an instrument repaired, sometimes just to get a milkshake or a burger between performances. I'm amazed at the split and multiple lives they all lead — on one hand, skateboarding, playing video games, checking out the NBA finals, and text messaging their friends, doing everything that 15-23 year olds do. Talk can range from a favorite pair of sneakers to their pick for American Idol.

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Gilbert & Sullivan

C.GETCHES — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:08:54 -0400

When Michael Tilson Thomas programmed the San Francisco Symphony's semistaged production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe for June 18-21, little did he know how au courant it would be.

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Pop Goes the YPSO

C.GETCHES — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:55:49 -0400

The pops concerts are coming! The pops concerts are coming! First up, a wide-ranging program from the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra that covers all the bases: Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, selections from John Williams’ score for Star Wars, a couple of Leroy Anderson pieces, and Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever.

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A Tepid Tosca

C.GETCHES — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:24:27 -0400

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca has a fabled past at San Francisco Opera, with some 34 highly successful productions in the company’s 86-year history, and starring such imperious Toscas as Renata Tebaldi, Dorothy Kirsten, Leontyne Price, and Montserrat Caballé.

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Tosca With Fries

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:54:53 -0400

When Tosca throws herself from the parapet of the Castel Sant' Angelo, at the end of Puccini's brilliant opera, the assembled crowd watching the San Francisco Opera production on the electronic scoreboard at AT&T Park this Friday, may be waiting to hear the splash. The ballpark's setting is every bit as spectacular as those that Puccini imagined for his opera, and admission to the opera telecast is free.

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International Orange Chorale

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:08:25 -0400

The San Francisco Bay Area is a little foretaste of chorus heaven. Choruses flourish here, and their activities are constant. So what makes a person want to found another chorus? In the case of the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, it’s as simple as wanting to choose your friends. “I wanted to conduct great music and I wanted to do it with people that I liked,” says Jeremy Faust. “It started with a bunch of friends who all wanted to sing together.

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Hale and Farewell

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:49:19 -0400

The musically merry month of May came to a close on Sunday, traditionally as ever, with concerts conjoined to graduations, two that could not have been more different. The first, in the afternoon at Stanford's Dinkelspiel Auditorium, found the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (aka PACO) both featuring and graduating 18 senior members, headed now for 15 different universities, the Eastman School of Music, and two fine colleges.

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CDs for a Sizzling Summer

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:42:22 -0400

Summer, they say, is the time to unwind and relax. Whether you choose to do so at the beach, in your garden hammock, or at the top of Yosemite’s Half Dome, you’ll certainly welcome music to carry you one step farther toward infinite bliss. Here, then, is a Critic’s Choice classical potpourri specially tailored for the summer season.

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To Heaven, By Way of Earth

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:03:15 -0400

The Sanford Dole Ensemble performed a program called "Heaven and Earth" Saturday night at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They were a month late for the celebration of Earth Day, but exactly on time for the anniversary of the premiere (on May 30, 1992) of Libby Larsen's Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth. An additional touch of serendipity for me was that I attended that debut. It was good to hear the work again.

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Jerry Kuderna

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:51:51 -0400

To hear pianist (and longtime SFCV contributor) Jerry Kuderna tell it, his upcoming concert at Trinity Chapel in Berkeley on June 6 was an extreme example of serendipity. There he was, innocently practicing music of the Catalan composer Federico Mompou, “the first Spanish composer who really got into my system,” he says.

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Music News June 2, 2009

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:59:57 -0400

Van Cliburn Finals Now Streaming
Live Web casts of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finals can now been seen at http://www.cliburn.tv/#. This is the 13th season of the competition in Fort Worth. Participating artists include James Conlon and the Takács String Quartet, and a blind 20-year-old virtuoso.
See the list of six finalists.
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Renaissance Program Expresses the Divine

C.GETCHES — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:27:23 -0400

The San Francisco Renaissance Voices, founded in 2004, is an ensemble dedicated to singing lesser-known and rarely performed early music, and this June they'll do just that. Their coming run of "The Darkness and The Dawn" (on June 13, 14, and 21) is an exploration of the Italian Renaissance, and the final installment of "The Polyphony Project," which explored the five major Renaissance schools.

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Leaving the Past Behind

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:49:19 -0400

La traviata, which opens June 13 in San Francisco Opera’s summer-season run, is a daunting opera for the soprano performing the role of Violetta Valery. Before the singing even begins, the overture has already foretold of a mixture of transport, anguish, and doom that the protagonist must actualize.

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On the Path to Perfection

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:38:02 -0400

It has become a cliche to refer to classical musicians as being “phenomenal” or even geniuses at their instruments. If a performer can get to the heart of the music, that’s enough for me. Still, in a profession in which it’s expected that as a teenager you have already learned and performed the summits of the keyboard, it has become increasingly difficult to grab the attention of the public as, say, Vladimir Horowitz did when he raced Sir Thomas to the finish line of the Tchaikovsky First.

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In Festival Opener, Berg Trumps Schubert

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:08:57 -0400

The San Francisco Symphony's "Dawn to Twilight" festival got off to a more than solid start with its opening run of concerts at Davies Symphony Hall beginning last Wednesday.

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Iconic Kinetic Imagery

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:39:36 -0400

When L’Allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato premiered in Brussels in 1988, it was the Mark Morris Dance Group’s first work as the resident company of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, a post previously held by Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of the XXth Century. That Morris rose to the competition by creating an enduring and winning work was proved again at Zellerbach Hall this past weekend, presented by Cal Performances.

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Fare Thee Well, Maestro

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:57:52 -0400

After 17 years as music director of the San Francisco Opera, Conductor Donald Runnicles was given a rousing farewell tribute Friday evening in the Opera House.

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Bested by a Beat-Box

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:37:39 -0400

Mercury Soul’s Thursday program at downtown San Francisco’s Mezzanine club was yet another attempt to fuse classical music with what’s happening in the “real world.” Members of the San Francisco Symphony and other local freelancers attached electric pickups to their instruments and climbed onto raised platforms to accompany a hip-hop/techno/whatever-you-wanna-call-it beat.

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Vocal Colors of the Golden State

C.GETCHES — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:25:56 -0400

The “California Fusion” program performed by the Artists’ Vocal Ensemble on Friday night brought music spanning several decades and continents to the audience at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley.

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Music News: May 26, 2009

C.GETCHES — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:21:13 -0400

UPDATE: Milnes To Leave S.F. Contemporary Players
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players Executive Director Adam Frey announced Thursday that Music Director David Milnes will step down by July 1 "by mutual agreement with the ensemble."
Milnes, who is music director of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, came to SFCMP in 2002 and has recruited seven musicians, representing one-third of the ensemble.
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Return of the Great American Opera

C.GETCHES — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:58:19 -0400

Has Porgy and Bess finally arrived? Despite its troubled history, George Gershwin’s 1935 opera may be coming into its own at last. As the San Francisco Opera prepares three full productions and a concert running May 29 – July 5 at the War Memorial Opera House, Porgy seems poised to emerge as the jewel in the summer season crown.

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Sleeper Awake, Bartoli Style

C.GETCHES — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:24:17 -0400
La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) endures as one of the greatest operas of the bel canto era. So glorious is Bellini’s melodic flow, and so touching the sentiment, that the implausibility of Romani’s libretto is cast aside as long as the leads observe the inviolable tenets of bel canto artistry: beauty of vocal production, variety of expressive nuance, and elegance of vocal ornamentation must remain paramount.
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Advancing the Field

C.GETCHES — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:07:19 -0400

Michael Tilson Thomas treated San Francisco Symphony patrons Friday to an extraordinary concert of works that advanced the field of classical music — each pushing the envelope in its own direction.

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Nimbly Nuanced

C.GETCHES — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:44:50 -0400

Sheer inventiveness and originality were at the forefront of Earplay’s final concert of the season on Wednesday. This adventurous and enterprising group, which presents some of the best and most interesting contemporary music heard in the Bay Area, ended its 24th season with a fascinating, unusual program that looked both backward and forward from 1949 to the present.

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Orff Gone Gaga

C.GETCHES — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:34:33 -0400

Chora Nova certainly doesn’t shy away from challenges. Since its artistic director, the conductor and countertenor Paul Flight, came on board to direct the auditioned community chorus in July 2006, it has tackled the challenging works of Kodály, a number of greater and lesser Baroque masterworks, Brahms’ “German” Requiem and Neue Liebeslieder, and the music of Michael Haydn.

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Another Triumph From the Peninsula

C.GETCHES — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:26:09 -0400

There is something in Kenneithia Mitchell's voice that goes straight to the heart. Her debut this weekend in the title role of a sensational West Bay Opera Madama Butterfly impressed with a singularly mellow voice, effortless, brilliant phrasing. She disappears in the role, serves the music and drama, no ego showing or heard in the voice — a true artist, not a star-wannabe.

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SFCV Latest News

The Four Seasons of VivaldiHaydn Seek: An Aha! Concert

La Traviata Reborn

Music News; June 30, 2009

Adès Premiere in San Francisco

An Interview With Jonathan Khuner

Festival Honors Composer Victims of the Holocaust

Donald Berman Shakes Off Some Roman Dust

Heaven Only for Engineers

San Francisco Symphony Puts Pop Into July

Peninsula Symphony Pops

Music News: June 23, 2009

Ali Akbar Khan

Passamezzo Moderno

Torn by Love at the Berkeley Opera

Soprano Kate Royal's Sweet Midsummer Night

Venturing Onto Kronos' Floodplain

Music for a Fantasy Video Game

Bay Area Music Camps Offer Something to Everyone

Festival Opera: Turandot

An Interview With Inon Barnatan

Nothingset Ensemble Keeps It New at Old First

Festival Opera's Turandot

Esterházy Plays Haydn's Big Hits

Bay Area Rainbow Symphony

Tiburon Music Festival

Music News: June 16, 2009

Zheng Cao: Life Is Singing, Singing Is Life

Embracing Abandon at the S.F. Opera

Astonishing S.F. Symphony Premiere

Hearing Haydn

An Interview With Anthony Martin

On the Way to Heaven

Garden of Memory

Wyrick-Oh Duo:Russian Masters of the 20th Century

Re-cycle, Re-view, Sing New

Music News: June 9, 2009

New Principal Viola for SFS

Renaissance Pleas for Mercy

Hell in Song

Concerto Buon Viaggio

One Love in Common

An Interview With Sarah Cahill

Mass for a Troubled Time

Prokofiev in Full

Summer Festival Preview

Opera in the Park is Extravagantly Entertaining

Adventures, in Spades

Luscious Looping

Music of All the Americas

Irving Klein String Competition

Gilbert & Sullivan

Pop Goes the YPSO

A Tepid Tosca

Tosca With Fries

International Orange Chorale

Hale and Farewell

CDs for a Sizzling Summer

To Heaven, By Way of Earth

Jerry Kuderna

Music News June 2, 2009

Van Cliburn Finals Now Streaming

Renaissance Program Expresses the Divine

Leaving the Past Behind

On the Path to Perfection

In Festival Opener, Berg Trumps Schubert

Iconic Kinetic Imagery

Fare Thee Well, Maestro

Bested by a Beat-Box

Vocal Colors of the Golden State

Music News: May 26, 2009

UPDATE: Milnes To Leave S.F. Contemporary Players

Return of the Great American Opera

Sleeper Awake, Bartoli Style

Advancing the Field

Nimbly Nuanced

Orff Gone Gaga

Another Triumph From the Peninsula

The Four Seasons of Vivaldi
Haydn Seek: An Aha! Concert

Wyrick-Oh Duo:
Russian Masters of the 20th Century