Eclectic Fan

Pianist Joel Fan is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble who has begun to make waves as a soloist in several prestigous appearances and with his first solo recordings. Leon Kirchner has written a sonata for him. In his San Francisco solo debut, at Old First Concerts, Fan’s repertory will be a little less adventurous than his recent recital at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which included the Kirchner. The program is anchored by Beethoven’s A-flat Major Sonata, Op. 110, and Liszt’s Concert Paraphrase of Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. But you’ll also get to hear Samuel Barber’s magnificent Piano Sonata, and a group of South American works, including Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Alma brasiliera and Alberto Ginastera’s Piano Sonata No. 1, as well as a couple of contemporary pieces.

Aug. 15, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

Joel Fan

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Early Music

Interactive Early Music

If you still don’t “get” early music and the historically informed performance movement, maybe what you need is an interactive approach. Enter the Galileo Project, a group dedicated to lifting the early music mist. Their concert at Seventh Avenue Performances, “Sonatas, Grounds, Dances,” will introduce you to three important 17th-century genres, and will include demonstrations of the instruments and playing techniques, as well as an audience question-and-answer period.

Aug. 16, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 664-2543, www.sevenperforms.org. (M.Z.)

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Contemporary

Festival of Contemporary Music

As the Cabrillo Festival ends, the sixth annual Festival of Contemporary Music, a much more local and small-scale new music series, will open up. Run by composers Brian Bice, John Bilotta, and C. Michael Reese, under the aegis of Bice and Reese’s New Music Forum, this minifestival will take place at the Community Music Center in San Francisco. Over two days, listeners can hear works by 16 composers, some young and unknown, some with reasonably impressive resumes. As usual, the festival will be distinguished by its breadth. Koji Nakano brings Ancient Songs, based in folk material and premiered at this year’s Japanese Spring Festival sponsored by the United Nations’ International School. Bruce Bennett, a graduate of the Ph.D. composition program at UC Berkeley, contributes an older piece for piano, Schematic Nocturne (1997), which reflects the composer’s research into electroacoustics. Bilotta, having run the recent San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival, presents the premiere of his woodwind quintet, First Light, among other highlights.

Aug. 15-16, 8 p.m., San Francisco Community Music Center, $5-$10, (415) 647-6015, www.newmusicforum.com. (M.Z.)

Tape That!

The San Francisco Tape Music Center was one of the hubs of electronic music in the 1960s and played a role in establishing the improv/underground music scene that still flourishes in the city. It must have been an exhilarating place to work or hang out, in the days when Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, and a host of other creative people were experimenting there. In a retrospective concert, the folks at sfSoundSeries take us back to that history-making epoch in a concert of live music with tape, featuring Oliveros’ George Washington Slept Here, Too, Morton Subotnick’s Play! No. 1, Ramon Sender’s In the Garden, Robert Moran’s Divertissement No. 1, and other works.

Aug. 10, 8 p.m., ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco, $5, www.sfsound.org/series. (M.Z.)

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Symphony

Beethoven and Bernstein

The UC Berkeley Summer Symphony, a one-time grouping of students and local amateurs led by graduate student conductors, has been known to take on a musical challenge, dispatching arduous chops-busters as if it is all in a day’s work. This time around the musicians are conducted by Henry Shin and Hoh Chen, in a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (”Choral”) and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story.

Aug. 8, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, donations at the door, (510) 642-4864, www.events.berkeley.edu. (C.G.)

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Music Theater

The Mikado Returns

Lamplighters’ Music Theatre revives Gilbert and Sullivan’s evergreen satire of English society dressed a la Japonais, The Mikado. (See review.) The show, directed by Phil Lowery and starring the company’s stalwart G&S experts, opens in Walnut Creek, spends the next weekend in Napa, and finally turns up in San Francisco in mid-August.

Aug. 8, 8 p.m., Aug. 9, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House; Aug 15, 16, 8 p.m., Aug. 16, 17, 2 p.m., Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; $11-$46, (415) 227-4797, www.lamplighters.org. (M.Z.)

Charles Martin as The Mikado

Photo courtesy of Lamplighters Music Theatre

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Chamber Music

Six-String Shootout

The Guitar Foundation of America holds its annual conference on the San Francisco Conservatory’s campus, August 5 to 9. If you’re a fan of guitar music, you have to check out the roster of stars and young talent who will give concerts throughout the four days. They include Hopkinson Smith (on lute), Zoran Dukic, Duo Melis, Raphaella Smits, Xue Fei Yang, and others. Many of these artists will also give master classes. And of course there will be lectures, a vendor fair, and competitions.

August 5-9, recitals at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Herbst Theatre, $30-$38, www.guitarfoundation.org. (M.Z.)

Guitar Quartet

Along with the many great recitals at the Guitar Foundation of America conference, guitar lovers can take an afternoon away from the festivities to hear the local boys, the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, play Bluezillian by Clarice Assad, the new composer in residence of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Also on the program are premieres by Christopher Gainey and Darin Au, selected mazurkas by the early 20th-century composer Karol Szymanowski, and a number of other interesting pieces.

Aug. 10, 3 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Festival

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Marin Alsop has her ear to the ground for composers of contemporary orchestral music, and you could do no better than to let her Cabrillo Festival programs be your guide through this particular thicket. (See last week’s feature.) This year, the festival brought back some longtime associates, like Christopher Rouse, whose Concerto for Orchestra, a Cabrillo Festival commission, which anchored the opening night concert, on August 1. Other notables: Dame Evelyn Glennie, soloist in the the second concert. (See review.) In addition works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Adams (the Doctor Atomic Symphony), and Osvaldo Golijov, there are a number of composers represented who are in their early 30s or younger. One of them, Matthew Cmiel, is all of 19. With Mason Bates performing on electronica in his Liquid Interface, composer Michael Daugherty featured in an evening of jazz, and cellist Matt Haimovitz and Bates combining for a concert with electronic soundscapes (see review), this year’s Cabrillo Festival embraces the huge diversity of musical possibilities present at the beginning of the 21st century.

Through Aug. 10, Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, www.cabrillomusic.org. (M.Z.)

Evelyn Glennie

Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. Highlights so far have included Orli Shaham playing Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for preprofessional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet, Christopher Taylor, the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, are other highlights.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

Music@Menlo

The impressively funded Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival (see review) offers multimedia full immersion, if you want to take advantage of the lectures, “Café Conversations,” open houses, CD-based listening guides, art displays, and “Encounter” discussion centers. It is also a training program for young musicians, who merit their own series of concerts. The main concerts this year present a chronological march through the development of chamber music beginning with a survey of the Baroque period from Salamone Rossi through to J.S. Bach and ending with a program of contemporary music including a premiere of a piano trio by Kenneth Frazelle. The recital series includes the Borromeo String Quartet playing the complete Bartók string quartets (see review); Stephen Prutsman in a program that juxtaposes preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier with a kaleidoscopic variety of works, classical and not; and Gary Graffman in a program of left-hand piano music (see review).

Through Aug. 8, Atherton and Palo Alto, www.musicatmenlo.org. (M.Z.)

Borromeo String Quartet

Photo by Christian Steiner

Carmel Bach Festival

The Carmel Bach Festival packs an awful lot of music into three weeks. This year, the theme seems to be the Bach-Brahms connection (see review). The main concerts include Bach’s B-Minor Mass, the complete Brandenburg Concertos, a concert that connects the Viennese School greats, and one that pairs Brahms’ German Requiem and Bach’s Cantata No. 21. In the chamber concerts series, Sanford Sylvan sings Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise (see review), and an all-Brahms vocal evening. In addition, there are the preconcert (Twilight) concerts, and the postconcert (Candlelight) concerts. You could spend a day and hear a week’s worth of music.

Through Aug. 9, Carmel, www.bachfestival.org. (M.Z.)

Sanford Sylvan

Photo by Susan Wilson

Music in the Vineyards

The Napa Valley Chamber Music Festival actually takes place within the local wineries, and indulges two palates at once — the aural and gastronomic, as wine tastings occur at intermissions throughout the festival. Despite its seductive appeal, the festival retains its emphasis on locally based artists, with the FOG Trio, the Cypress Quartet, guitarist David Tanenbaum, and soprano Anja Strauss slated to appear, among others. Aaron Jay Kernis shows up as well, with four of his compositions.

August 6 – 24, Napa Valley, www.napavalleymusic.org. (M.Z.)

A chamber performance at Vintage 1870

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Choral

Ritual of Virtues

Rarely do you get to hear Hildegard von Bingen’s extraordinary plainsong liturgical drama, the Ordo Virtutem (The ritual of virtues). Even rarer is to hear it performed in conjunction with classical music and dance of India. But that’s what Todd Jolly’s hipper-than-thou San Francisco Renaissance Voices propose to do in their version. (See review.) In addition, Diana Rowan accompanies the piece on Celtic harp, an instrument that Hildegard once described as the instrument of heavenly blessedness.

Aug. 9, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco; Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m., Alameda Presbyterian Church; Aug. 16, 7:30 p.m., All Saint’s Episcopal, Palo Alto; Aug. 17, 4 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, $12-$15, www.sfrv.org. (M.Z.)

Diana Rowan

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Opera

Britten’s Dream

Benjamin Britten’s most lyrically effusive and delightful opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream comes to Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, with a fine young cast. Britten’s artful way with words serves Shakespeare’s text as well as it’s ever been adorned by music. Even if you’re not a fan of 20th-century opera, this is a score that may charm you.

Aug. 9, 12, 15, 8 p.m.; Aug. 17, 2 p.m.; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $36-$100, (925) 943-7469, www.festivalopera.com. (M.Z.)

Transcendent Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s poems leave a lot of open spaces for interpretation, and even in white space on the page. Though the impeccable verse structure makes them easy to set to music, their opaque quality challenges a composer to find the right expression. There are any number of songs to her poetry, but “visual artist” Lesley Dill goes further, using Dickinson as a springboard for a celebration of 19th-century American transcendentalism. The music for this interdisciplinary collaboration is by Tom Morgan and Richard Marriott. The performers include Dill, the Del Sol String Quartet, and The Choral Project.

Aug. 13, 8 p.m. to midnight, Garden Theater, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, $15-$55, (408) 961-5800, www.montalvoarts.org. (M.Z.)

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Beethoven and Bernstein

The UC Berkeley Summer Symphony, a one-time grouping of students and local amateurs led by graduate student conductors, has been known to take on a musical challenge, dispatching arduous chops-busters as if it is all in a day’s work. This time around the musicians are conducted by Henry Shin and Hoh Chen, in a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (”Choral”) and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story.

Aug. 8, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, donations at the door, (510) 642-4864, www.events.berkeley.edu. (C.G.)

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Choral

Britten War Requiem

Of the great Requiems in all of music, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is unique in its combination of dark, dramatic, gripping music (alternating with moving lyric passages), realistic depiction of the horrors of war, and eminently contemporary tone — even within its “classical” setting. Most importantly, when it’s performed well, the Britten Requiem has an emotional impact few choral works can match. Conducted by Robert Geary, the Davies Hall performances will feature the Chorus, the California Chamber Symphony, Marcelle Dronkers (soprano), Brian Thorsett (tenor), Kenneth Goodson (bass), and the Piedmont Children’s Choir.

Artistic Director Robert Geary and Assistant Conductor Bryan Baker

Aug. 1-2, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, $24-$30, (415) 221-5590, www.sfchoral.org. (J.G.)

Ritual of Virtues

Rarely do you get to hear Hildegard von Bingen’s extraordinary plainsong liturgical drama, the Ordo Virtutem (The ritual of virtues). Even rarer is to hear it performed in conjunction with classical music and dance of India. But that’s what Todd Jolly’s hipper-than-thou San Francisco Renaissance Voices propose to do in their version. In addition, Diana Rowan accompanies the piece on Celtic harp, an instrument that Hildegard once described as the instrument of heavenly blessedness.

Aug. 2, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian, San Francisco; Aug. 9, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco; Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m., Alameda Presbyterian Church; Aug. 16, 7:30 p.m., All Saint’s Episcopal, Palo Alto; Aug. 17, 4 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, $12-$15, www.sfrv.org. (M.Z.)

Diana Rowan

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Opera

Don Giovanni the Younger

San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program of 2008 is halfway through the two-month training/performing program, now getting ready for Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The predoomed antihero is sung by baritone Austin Kness (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), soprano Rena Harms (Santa Fe, New Mexico) is Donna Elvira, soprano Amanda Majeski (Gurnee, Illinois) is Donna Anna, and soprano Joélle Harvey (Richburg, New York) is Zerlina. Mexican bass-baritone Carlos Monzón (Guadalajara) sings Leporello, and his countryman tenor David Lomeli (Monterrey, Mexico) is Don Ottavio. Gary Wedow conducts and famed soprano Catherine Malfitano is the stage director.

Aug. 1, 8 p.m., Aug. 3, 2 p.m., Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, $40-$60, (415) 864-3330, www.berkeleysymphony.org/.
(J.G.)

Adam Cioffari, Ben Wager, Alan Hamilton (apprentice coach), Austin Kness, David Lomelí, Joélle Harvey, Carlos Monzón, Amanda Majeski, Rena Harms, Jimmy Smith (apprentice stage director), Dennis Doubin (apprentice coach)

Photo by Kristin Loken

Britten’s Dream

Benjamin Britten’s most lyrically effusive and delightful opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream comes to Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, with a fine young cast. Britten’s artful way with words serves Shakespeare’s text as well as it’s ever been adorned by music. Even if you’re not a fan of 20th-century opera, this is a score that may charm you.

Aug. 9, 12, 15, 8 p.m.; Aug. 17, 2 p.m.; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $36-$100, (925) 943-7469, www.festivalopera.com. (M.Z.)

Transcendent Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s poems leave a lot of open spaces for interpretation, and even in white space on the page. Though the impeccable verse structure makes them easy to set to music, their opaque quality challenges a composer to find the right expression. There are any number of songs to her poetry, but “visual artist” Lesley Dill goes further, using Dickinson as a springboard for a celebration of 19th-century American transcendentalism. The music for this interdisciplinary collaboration is by Tom Morgan and Richard Marriott. The performers include Dill, the Del Sol String Quartet, and The Choral Project.

Aug. 13, 8 p.m. to midnight, Garden Theater, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, $15-$55, (408) 961-5800, www.montalvoarts.org. (M.Z.)

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Contemporary

Festival of Contemporary Music

As the Cabrillo Festival ends, the sixth annual Festival of Contemporary Music, a much more local and small-scale new music series, will open up. Run by composers Brian Bice, John Bilotta, and C. Michael Reese, under the aegis of Bice and Reese’s New Music Forum, this minifestival will take place at the Community Music Center in San Francisco. Over two days, listeners can hear works by 16 composers, some young and unknown, some with reasonably impressive resumes. As usual, the festival will be distinguished by its breadth. Koji Nakano brings Ancient Songs, based in folk material and premiered at this year’s Japanese Spring Festival sponsored by the United Nations’ International School. Bruce Bennett, a graduate of the Ph.D. composition program at UC Berkeley, contributes an older piece for piano, Schematic Nocturne (1997), which reflects the composer’s research into electroacoustics. Bilotta, having run the recent San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival, presents the premiere of his woodwind quintet, First Light, among other highlights.

Aug. 15-16, 8 p.m., San Francisco Community Music Center, $5-$10, (415) 647-6015, www.newmusicforum.com. (M.Z.)

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Music Theater

The Mikado Returns

Lamplighters’ Music Theatre revives Gilbert and Sullivan’s evergreen satire of English society dressed a la Japonais, The Mikado. The show, directed by Phil Lowery and starring the company’s stalwart G&S experts, opens in Walnut Creek, spends the next weekend in Napa, and finally turns up in San Francisco in mid-August.

July 31 – Aug. 2, 8 p.m. (and 2 p.m. Saturday matinee), Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; Aug. 8, 8 p.m., Aug. 9, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House; Aug 15, 16, 8 p.m., Aug. 16, 17, 2 p.m., Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; $11-$46, (415) 227-4797, www.lamplighters.org. (M.Z.)

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Chamber Music

Six-String Shootout

The Guitar Foundation of America holds its annual conference on the San Francisco Conservatory’s campus, August 5 to 9. If you’re a fan of guitar music, you have to check out the roster of stars and young talent who will give concerts throughout the four days. They include Hopkinson Smith (on lute), Zoran Dukic, Duo Melis, Raphaella Smits, Xue Fei Yang, and others. Many of these artists will also give master classes. And of course there will be lectures, a vendor fair, and competitions.

August 5-9, recitals at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Herbst Theatre, $30-$38, www.guitarfoundation.org. (M.Z.)

Guitar Quartet

Along with the many great recitals at the Guitar Foundation of America conference, guitar lovers can take an afternoon away from the festivities to hear the local boys, the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, play Bluezillian by Clarice Assad, the new composer in residence of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Also on the program are premieres by Christopher Gainey and Darin Au, selected mazurkas by the early 20th-century composer Karol Szymanowski, and a number of other interesting pieces.

Aug. 10, 3 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Festival

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Marin Alsop has her ear to the ground for composers of contemporary orchestral music, and you could do no better than to let her Cabrillo Festival programs be your guide through this particular thicket. (See this week’s feature.)This year, the festival brings back some longtime associates, like Christopher Rouse, whose Concerto for Orchestra, a Cabrillo Festival commission, anchors the opening night concert, on August 1. John Corigliano’s percussion concerto, Conjurer, with its original soloist, Dame Evelyn Glennie, highlights the second concert. But in addition to these, plus works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Adams (the Doctor Atomic Symphony), and Osvaldo Golijov, there are a number of composers represented who are in their early 30s or younger. One of them, Matthew Cmiel, is all of 19. With Mason Bates performing on electronica in his Liquid Interface, composer Michael Daugherty featured in an evening of jazz, and cellist Matt Haimovitz and Bates combining for a concert with electronic soundscapes, this year’s Cabrillo Festival embraces the huge diversity of musical possibilities present at the beginning of the 21st century.

Through Aug. 10, Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, www.cabrillomusic.org. (M.Z.)

Evelyn Glennie

Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

Midsummer Mozart Festival

This movable feast of a festival doesn’t invite you to go to the mountains, it brings the mountain to you. The two main Mozart programs include Jon Nakamatsu playing the A-Major Piano Concerto, K. 488, Nikolai Demidenko (See review) working over the C-Minor Piano Concerto, K. 491, and Laura Griffiths, principal oboist of the S.F. Ballet Orchestra, performing the Oboe Concerto, K. 271k. This year’s festival is expanded to reach San José, with a semi-staged performance of The Abduction From the Seraglio, at the California Theatre, and starring some recent Opera San José stalwarts, and a concert at Le Petit Trianon on August 2.

Through Aug. 3, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sonoma, Berkeley, San Jose, www.midsummermozart.org. (M.Z)

Jon Nakamatsu

Music@Menlo

The impressively funded Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival (See review offers multimedia full immersion, if you want to take advantage of the lectures, “Café Conversations,” open houses, CD-based listening guides, art displays, and “Encounter” discussion centers. It is also a training program for young musicians, who merit their own series of concerts. The main concerts this year present a chronological march through the development of chamber music beginning with a survey of the Baroque period from Salamone Rossi through to J.S. Bach and ending with a program of contemporary music including a premiere of a piano trio by Kenneth Frazelle. The recital series includes the Borromeo String Quartet playing the complete Bartók string quartets; Stephen Prutsman in a program that juxtaposes preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier with a kaleidoscopic variety of works, classical and not; and Gary Graffman in a program of left-hand piano music.

Through Aug. 8, Atherton and Palo Alto, www.musicatmenlo.org. (M.Z.)

Borromeo String Quartet

Photo by Christian Steiner

Carmel Bach Festival

The Carmel Bach Festival packs an awful lot of music into three weeks. This year, the theme seems to be the Bach-Brahms connection. The main concerts include Bach’s B-Minor Mass, the complete Brandenburg Concertos, a concert that connects the Viennese School greats, and one that pairs Brahms’ German Requiem and Bach’s Cantata No. 21. In the chamber concerts series, Sanford Sylvan sings Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise, and an all-Brahms vocal evening. (See review.) In addition, there are the preconcert (Twilight) concerts, and the postconcert (Candlelight) concerts. You could spend a day and hear a week’s worth of music.

Through Aug. 9, Carmel, www.bachfestival.org. (M.Z.)

Sanford Sylvan

Photo by Susan Wilson

Music in the Vineyards

The Napa Valley Chamber Music Festival actually takes place within the local wineries, and indulges two palates at once — the aural and gastronomic, as wine tastings occur at intermissions throughout the festival. Despite its seductive appeal, the festival retains its emphasis on locally based artists, with the FOG Trio, the Cypress Quartet, guitarist David Tanenbaum, and soprano Anja Strauss slated to appear, among others. Aaron Jay Kernis shows up as well, with four of his compositions.

August 6 – 24, Napa Valley, www.napavalleymusic.org. (M.Z.)

A chamber performance at Vintage 1870

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Sing for Your Schola Cantorum

If you want to be the concert, rather than see a concert, Schola Cantorum in Los Altos is the spot for you. Ambitious and enthusiastic South Bay choristers are gathering all this month and next to sing through some of the most popular choral repertory of our day. Next up: Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with the Fauré Requiem followed by the Mozart C Minor Mass paired with Brahms’ Schicksalied. Students in school chorale groups get in at half price.

July 28, 7:30 p.m., Los Altos United Methodist Church, $15 ($7 for school chorale members), (650) 254–1700, www.scholacantorum.org. (M.Z.)

Ritual of Virtues

Rarely do you get to hear Hildegard von Bingen’s extraordinary plainsong liturgical drama, the Ordo Virtutem (The ritual of virtues). Even rarer is to hear it performed in conjunction with classical music and dance of India. But that’s what Todd Jolly’s hipper-than-thou San Francisco Renaissance Voices propose to do in their version. In addition, Diana Rowan accompanies the piece on Celtic harp, an instrument that Hildegard once described as the instrument of heavenly blessedness.

Aug. 2, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian, San Francisco; Aug. 9, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco; Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m., Alameda Presbyterian Church; Aug. 16, 7:30 p.m., All Saint’s Episcopal, Palo Alto; Aug. 17, 4 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, $12-$15, www.sfrv.org. (M.Z.)

Todd Jolly

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Symphony

Beethoven and Bernstein

The UC Berkeley Summer Symphony, a one-time grouping of students and local amateurs led by graduate student conductors, has been known take on a musical challenge, dispatching arduous chops-busters as if it is all in a day’s work. This time around the musicians are conducted by Henry Shin and Hoh Chen, in a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (”Choral”) and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story.

Aug. 8, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, donations at the door, (510) 642-4864, www.events.berkeley.edu. (C.G.)

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Festival

Mendocino Music Festival

Here’s a festival that sports an actual big-top tent. The 22nd festival, as always, adds a number of jazz and world music concerts into the mix. This year’s highlights include a performance of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with Brian Leerhuber (Figaro), Nicole Foland (Countess), Christine Brandes (Susanna), and Eugene Brancoveanu (Count Almaviva). Pianist Stephen Prutsman gives a concert mixing jazz and classical works, an evening is devoted to the “degenerate” musical culture of the Weimar Republic, and the festival orchestra brings the festival to a ringing close with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Through July 26, Mendocino, www.mendocinomusic.com. (M.Z.)

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Marin Alsop has her ear to the ground for composers of contemporary orchestral music, and you could do no better than to let her Cabrillo Festival programs be your guide through this particular thicket. This year, the festival brings back some longtime associates, like Christopher Rouse, whose Concerto for Orchestra, a Cabrillo Festival commission, anchors the opening night concert, on August 1. John Corigliano’s percussion concerto, Conjurer, with its original soloist, Dame Evelyn Glennie, highlights the second concert. But in addition to these, plus works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Adams (the Doctor Atomic Symphony), and Osvaldo Golijov, there are a number of composers represented who are in their early 30s or younger. One of them, Matthew Cmiel, is all of 19. With Mason Bates performing on electronica in his Liquid Interface, composer Michael Daugherty featured in an evening of jazz, and cellist Matt Haimovitz and Bates combining for a concert with electronic soundscapes, this year’s Cabrillo Festival embraces the huge diversity of musical possibilities present at the beginning of the 21st century.

July 27 – Aug. 10, Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, www.cabrillomusic.org. (M.Z.)

Evelyn Glennie

Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

Midsummer Mozart Festival

This movable feast of a festival doesn’t invite you to go to the mountains, it brings the mountain to you. The two main Mozart programs include Jon Nakamatsu playing the A-Major Piano Concerto, K. 488, Nikolai Demidenko working over the C-Minor Piano Concerto, K. 491, and Laura Griffiths, principal oboist of the S.F. Ballet Orchestra, performing the Oboe Concerto, K. 271k. This year’s festival is expanded to reach San José, with a semi-staged performance of The Abduction From the Seraglio, at the California Theatre, and starring some recent Opera San José stalwarts, and a concert at Le Petit Trianon on August 2.

Through Aug. 3, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sonoma, Berkeley, San Jose, www.midsummermozart.org. (M.Z)

Jon Nakamatsu

Music@Menlo

The impressively funded Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival offers multimedia full immersion, if you want to take advantage of the lectures, “Café Conversations,” open houses, CD-based listening guides, art displays, and “Encounter” discussion centers. It is also a training program for young musicians, who merit their own series of concerts. The main concerts this year present a chronological march through the development of chamber music beginning with a survey of the Baroque period from Salamone Rossi through to J.S. Bach and ending with a program of contemporary music including a premiere of a piano trio by Kenneth Frazelle. The recital series includes the Borromeo String Quartet playing the complete Bartók string quartets; Stephen Prutsman in a program that juxtaposes preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier with a kaleidoscopic variety of works, classical and not; and Gary Graffman in a program of left-hand piano music.

Through Aug. 8, Atherton and Palo Alto, www.musicatmenlo.org. (M.Z.)

Borromeo String Quartet

Photo by Christian Steiner

Carmel Bach Festival

The Carmel Bach Festival packs an awful lot of music into three weeks. This year, the theme seems to be the Bach-Brahms connection. The main concerts include Bach’s B-Minor Mass, the complete Brandenburg Concertos, a concert that connects the Viennese School greats, and one that pairs Brahms’ German Requiem and Bach’s Cantata No. 21. In the chamber concerts series, Sanford Sylvan sings Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise, and an all-Brahms vocal evening. In addition, there are the preconcert (Twilight) concerts, and the postconcert (Candlelight) concerts. You could spend a day and hear a week’s worth of music.

Through Aug. 9, Carmel, www.bachfestival.org. (M.Z.)

Sanford Sylvan

Photo by Susan Wilson

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Opera

Tosca

The tiny Julia Morgan Theater will play host to the big passions of Puccini’s Tosca in the new Berkeley Opera production featuring Jillian Khuner, Kevin Courtemanche, and John Minagro.

Through July 20, various times, Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley, $15-$44, (510) 841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.org (M.Z.)

La bohème

In La bohème, Puccini works his musical gifts, playing with the music, and skewing the narrative away from its darker aspects — the desperate circumstances of women up against men of privilege pretending to be starving artists. One of Puccini’s tricks is a subtle nostalgia that seems to inspire recollections of déjà-vu style memories. The score is worth it on its own, but the Pocket Opera production looks promising: Bharati Soman is Mimi, Erina Newkirk is Musetta, and Debra Lambert directs.

July 27, 2 p.m. Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $20-$34, (415) 972-78934, www.pocketopera.org. (C.G.)

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Contemporary

117 Strings

Another in the series of Pamela Z’s “Room” concerts at the Royce Gallery, this one devoted to strings, features Barbara Imhoff on harp, Donald Swearingen on laser harp, Dan Joseph playing hammer dulcimer and electronics, and Miya Masaoka playing koto and electronics. It should be as interesting as the last “Room” concert, devoted to percussion, and probably less noisy as well.

July 11, 8 p.m., Royce Gallery, San Francisco, $10, www.pamelaz.com. (M.Z.)

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Recital

Bach To Bright Sheng

Robert Howard pulls some strings as a cellist for the Philharmonia Baroque and the San Francisco Symphony. At Old First Church he’ll be going solo in Bach’s D major Suite for Cello, and Bright Sheng’s Seven Tunes Heard in China. The latter piece is fast becoming standard rep, and it makes an inventive pairing with Bach. The program is filled out with two duet pieces, performed by Howard and violinist Adam LaMotte.

July 25, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Music Installation

ARIA

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud and Italian designer/artisan Alessandro Moruzzi present their music installation ARIA, as part of a Yerba Buena Center of the Arts Galleries event. Inspired by the many permutations of air (”aria” in Italian), the artists explore the politics and poetics of this powerful, invisible element. Politics of air? That could be about polution, but until the premiere takes place on July 19, there is no way to know. Warning to unadventurous classical-music fans: ARIA on that evening is followed by Bay Area Now, a compendium of exhibits and bands, including Softhug, Bronze, Eugene International, and the like, with the promise: “We turn YBCA upside down as we open up every available space to party …”

July 26, 7 p.m., Yerba Buena Gardens; $12-$15, free to museum members; July 26 is free with museum admission, (415) 978-2787), www.ybca.org. (J.G.)

Joan Jeanrenaud

Photo by Michele Clement

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Music Theater

The Mikado Returns

Lamplighters’ Music Theatre revives Gilbert and Sullivan’s evergreen satire of English society dressed a la Japonais, The Mikado. The show, directed by Phil Lowery and starring the company’s stalwart G&S experts, opens in Walnut Creek, spends the next weekend in Napa, and finally turns up in San Francisco in mid-August.

July 31-Aug. 2, 8 p.m. (and 2 p.m. Saturday matinee), Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; Aug. 8, 8 p.m., Aug. 9, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House; Aug 15, 16, 8 p.m., Aug. 16, 17, 2 p.m., Novellus Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; $11-$46, (415) 227-4797, www.lamplighters.org. (M.Z.)

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Chamber Music

Six-String Shootout

The Guitar Foundation of America holds its annual conference on the San Francisco Conservatory’s campus, August 5 to 9. If you’re a fan of guitar music, you have to check out the roster of stars and young talent who will give concerts throughout the four days. They include Hopkinson Smith (on lute), Zoran Dukic, Duo Melis, Raphaella Smits, Xue Fei Yang, and others. Many of these artists will also give masterclasses. And of course there will be lectures, a vendor fair, and competitions. August 5-9, recitals at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Herbst Theatre, $30-$38, www.guitarfoundation.org. (M.Z.)

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Maracaibera!

The latest program from Creative Voices takes the choral group outside the classical repertoire to Venezuelan folksongs from the repertory of the Quinteto Contrapunto. The QC was a vocal quintet (with guitar and cuatro accompaniment), whose unusually complex arrangements made it a star performing/recording group on the European and Latin American folk scene between 1962 and 1971. A brief reunion in 1998 refocused attention on the group, and now the original arrangments, by Rafael Suárez have been found. Creative Voices recreates the sound and feel of the Quinteto, not omitting the cuatro player either.

July 20, 8 p.m., The Dance Palace Community Center, Point Reyes Station; Aug. 2, 8 p.m., Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco; $13-$15, (415) 238-0533, www.creativevoices.org/index.html. (M.Z.)

Sing for Your Schola Cantorum

If you want to be the concert, rather than see a concert, Schola Cantorum in Los Altos is the spot for you. Ambitious and enthusiastic South Bay choristers are gathering all this month and next to sing through some of the most popular choral repertory of our day. Next up: Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with the Fauré Requiem followed by the Mozart C Minor Mass paired with Brahms’ Schicksalied. Students in school chorale groups get in at half price.

July 21 and 28, 7:30 p.m., Los Altos United Methodist Church, $15 ($7 for school chorale members), (650) 254–1700, www.scholacantorum.org. (M.Z.)

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Symphony

Summer Pops

Sometimes the idea of a “Pops” concert can cause some less than savory experiments to pop into mind — performances involving Grammy-winning artists with “hits” in other genres like rock, that translate into collaborative “misses” in the classical music realm. (Think Styx with the Jacksonville Symphony, Seal with the Minnesota Symphony, and Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony.) Not so in the upcoming Pops concert given by the courageous community orchestra that is the Redwood Symphony. On the program: Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (”Pastoral”), and Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2, with pianist Linette Illastron-Vinluan (winner of the Notre Dame de Namur University Concerto Competition).

July 19, 8 p.m., Cañada College Main Theater, Redwood City, $10-$25, (650) 366-6872, www.redwoodsymphony.org. (C.G.)

Midsummer Mahler

If summer festival music is generally too light for you, you might want to note the date of this Dallas Symphony concert at Festival del Sole, in which mezzo-soprano Jill Grove joins Music Director Jaap van Zweden in a performance of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, followed by the Fifth Symphony.

July 20, 3 p.m., Lincoln Theater, Yountville, $45-$125, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole.com. (M.Z.)

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Festival

Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival

The Chamber Mix and Avenue Winds, along with guest artists Susanne Rublein and Josh Friedman, play Bilotta, Broughton, Froelich, Maslanka, Michelson, and more.

July 19, 8 p.m., S.F. Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, $5-$15, (415) 864-7326, www.sfcwf.org. (C.G.)

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

American Bach Soloists SummerFest ’08

The splendid American Bach Soloists bring us another edition of their new festival, full of understated elegance and intimacy, and also ultra-refined playing. The repertory of this year’s three “main events” ranges from Bach to Mendelssohn, advertising the fact that these musicians aren’t sequestered in one corner of the repertory. The “twilight serenades,” hour-long concerts in the early evening, include The Whole Noyse, playing wind and brass music from the 16th and 17th centuries; and a concert of salon music.

Through July 20, Belvedere, San Francisco, and Davis, (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (M.Z.)

Festival del Sole

This is the festival for the starstruck classical music fan. It rolls out the big names — Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Andre Watts, the Rosetti String Quartet — all performing, considerately, in the early evening, so that those patrons who have done a little winetasting and arts-and-crafts hunting can take in the concert and still find their way home to the Bay Area at a reasonable hour. This year’s concerts also feature young and up-and-coming talent in free recitals, which may tempt those who don’t want to part with the festival’s $45-$125 prices. If you’re headed up to the first weekend of Festival del Sole concerts, don’t overlook the young artists’ concerts happening at Copia Winery at midday. On the 12th, it’s 25-year-old guitarist Ryan Haverty, and a day later, Karla Donehew Perez on violin.

Through July 20, Napa Valley, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole. (M.Z.)

Joshua Bell

Mendocino Music Festival

Here’s a festival that sports an actual big-top tent. The 22nd festival, as always, adds a number of jazz and world music concerts into the mix. This year’s highlights include a performance of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with Brian Leerhuber (Figaro), Nicole Foland (Countess), Christine Brandes (Susanna), and Eugene Brancoveanu (Count Almaviva). Pianist Stephen Prutsman gives a concert mixing jazz and classical works, an evening is devoted to the “degenerate” musical culture of the Weimar Republic, and the festival orchestra brings the festival to a ringing close with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Through July 26, Mendocino, www.mendocinomusic.com. (M.Z.)

Midsummer Mozart Festival

This movable feast of a festival doesn’t invite you to go to the mountains, it brings the mountain to you. The two main Mozart programs include Jon Nakamatsu playing the A-Major Piano Concerto, K. 488, Nikolai Demidenko working over the C-Minor Piano Concerto, K. 491, and Laura Griffiths, principal oboist of the S.F. Ballet Orchestra, performing the Oboe Concerto, K. 271k. This year’s festival is expanded to reach San José, with a semi-staged performance of The Abduction From the Seraglio, at the California Theatre, and starring some recent Opera San José stalwarts, and a concert at Le Petit Trianon on August 2.

Through Aug. 3, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sonoma, Berkeley, San Jose, www.midsummermozart.org. (M.Z)

Jon Nakamatsu

Music@Menlo

The impressively funded Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival offers multimedia full immersion, if you want to take advantage of the lectures, “Café Conversations,” open houses, CD-based listening guides, art displays, and “Encounter” discussion centers. It is also a training program for young musicians, who merit their own series of concerts. The main concerts this year present a chronological march through the development of chamber music beginning with a survey of the Baroque period from Salamone Rossi through to J.S. Bach and ending with a program of contemporary music including a premiere of a piano trio by Kenneth Frazelle. The recital series includes the Borromeo String Quartet playing the complete Bartók string quartets; Stephen Prutsman in a program that juxtaposes preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier with a kaleidoscopic variety of works, classical and not; and Gary Graffman in a program of left-hand piano music.

Through Aug. 8, Atherton and Palo Alto, www.musicatmenlo.org. (M.Z.)

Borromeo String Quartet

Photo by Christian Steiner

Carmel Bach Festival

The Carmel Bach Festival packs an awful lot of music into three weeks. This year, the theme seems to be the Bach-Brahms connection. The main concerts include Bach’s B-Minor Mass, the complete Brandenburg Concertos, a concert that connects the Viennese School greats, and one that pairs Brahms’ German Requiem and Bach’s Cantata No. 21. In the chamber concerts series, Sanford Sylvan sings Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise, and an all-Brahms vocal evening. In addition, there are the preconcert (Twilight) concerts, and the postconcert (Candlelight) concerts. You could spend a day and hear a week’s worth of music.

Through Aug. 9, Carmel, www.bachfestival.org. (M.Z.)

Sanford Sylvan

Photo by Susan Wilson

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Marin Alsop has her ear to the ground for composers of contemporary orchestral music, and you could do no better than to let her Cabrillo Festival programs be your guide through this particular thicket. This year, the festival brings back some longtime associates, like Christopher Rouse, whose Concerto for Orchestra, a Cabrillo Festival commission, anchors the opening night concert, on August 1. John Corigliano’s percussion concerto, Conjurer, with its original soloist, Dame Evelyn Glennie, highlights the second concert. But in addition to these, plus works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Adams (the Doctor Atomic Symphony), and Osvaldo Golijov, there are a number of composers represented who are in their early 30s or younger. One of them, Matthew Cmiel, is all of 19. With Mason Bates performing on electronica in his Liquid Interface, composer Michael Daugherty featured in an evening of jazz, and cellist Matt Haimovitz and Bates combining for a concert with electronic soundscapes, this year’s Cabrillo Festival embraces the huge diversity of musical possibilities present at the beginning of the 21st century.

July 27 – Aug. 10, Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, www.cabrillomusic.org. (M.Z.)

Evelyn Glennie

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Opera

Opera for Young Singers

The Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute is a pre-professional training program that puts on a series of shows with their enrollees in July. Many of the singers are from the San Francisco Conservatory. Coming up this weekend are performances of a pair of one-acts (Dido and Aeneas and Gianni Schicchi, and, at a different venue, The Marriage of Figaro).

Double bill: July 17, 20, 7 p.m., St. Monica School Auditorium, San Francisco, $17-$25; Figaro: July 18, 19, 8 p.m., Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley; July 24-27, various times, Spreckles Theater, Center for the Performing Arts, Rohnert Park, $20-$30; (415) 255-3333, www.basoti.org. (M.Z.)

Casting coup in Il trovatore

Il trovatore’s star has secured a place in the hearts of Verdians, despite a fairly ridiculous plot. The central character, the gypsy Azucena, has seen her mother burned at the stake as a witch. Like Rigoletto, both parents are bent on revenge and both involve their children in that revenge. Rigoletto does so unintentionally, but the act is more complicated in Azucena’s case. Is she crazy? And does she care at all for the troubadour Manrico, the child she has raised? Festival Opera’s production, directed by Giulio Cesare Perrone, brings together a powerhouse cast to conquer each successive scene, each with a new aria or dilemma to be conquered. The strong vocals of Hope Briggs (Lenora), Noah Stewart (Manrico), Scott Bearden (Count di Luna), Patrice Houston (Azucena), Kirk Eichelberger (Ferrando), and Jessica Mariko Deardoff (Inez) promise to convey this compelling melodrama of unceasing rage and revenge, in which each character is permanently entrapped. Michael Morgan conducts.

July 15, 18, 8 p.m.; July 20, 2 p.m.; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $46-$100, (925) 943-7469, www.festival.com. (C.G.)

Tosca

The tiny Julia Morgan Theater will play host to the big passions of Puccini’s Tosca in the new Berkeley Opera production featuring Jillian Khuner, Kevin Courtemanche, and John Minagro.

Through July 20, various times, Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley, $15-$44, (510) 841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.org (M.Z.)

La bohème

In La bohème, Puccini works his musical gifts, playing with the music, and skewing the narrative away from its darker aspects — the desperate circumstances of women up against men of privilege pretending to be starving artists. One of Puccini’s tricks is a subtle nostalgia that seems to inspire recollections of déjà-vu style memories. The score is worth it on its own, but the Pocket Opera production looks promising: Bharati Soman is Mimi, Erina Newkirk is Musetta, and Debra Lambert directs.

July 19, 20, 27, 2 p.m. Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $20-$34, (415) 972-78934, www.pocketopera.org. (C.G.)

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Recital

Suddenly Simone

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is suddenly a hot commodity on the classical music scene, at the unusually advanced age of 34. The story of the recording that made her famous — a Goldberg Variations that was financed by friends, recorded while the pianist was pregnant, and released a full two years after being recorded — has been told in The New York Times among other places. At the Festival del Sole she plays the Mozart Concerto K.488 (No. 23) in A Major with the UBS Verbier Symphony Orchestra, while her beloved Goldberg Variations are subjected to the dubious honor of arrangements by violinist/conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky.

July 17, 6:30 p.m., Castello del Amoroso, Calistoga, $75-$125, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole. (M.Z.)

Trailblazing Sarah Cahill

In her concert at Old First Church, pianist Sarah Cahill presents two works written for her, Evan Ziporyn’s Pondok and Kyle Gann’s Private Dances. Also on the program are two rarities by Mark Blitzstein, which the pianist is slated to record on the Other Minds label.

July 18, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

Sarah Cahill

Trumpeter Jason Tinsley

Trumpet recitals are rare occurences, so Jason Tinsley’s concert at Old First Church might be Sunday’s destination spot for lovers of well-played brass. Along with a few transcriptions (Bartók’s Rumanian Folk Dances and Ravel’s Piece en forme de Habanera), Tinsley, joined by pianist Miles Graber, is scheduled to play several short concerto works, as well as Paul Hindemith’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano. He and Graber will also play a few jazz selections.

July 20, 4 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Music Installation

ARIA

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud and Italian designer/artisan Alessandro Moruzzi present their music installation ARIA, as part of a Yerba Buena Center of the Arts Galleries event. Inspired by the many permutations of air (”aria” in Italian), the artists explore the politics and poetics of this powerful, invisible element. Politics of air? That could be about polution, but until the premiere takes place on July 19, there is no way to know. Warning to unadventurous classical-music fans: ARIA on that evening is followed by Bay Area Now, a compendium of exhibits and bands, including Softhug, Bronze, Eugene International, and the like, with the promise: “We turn YBCA upside down as we open up every available space to party …”

July 19, 8 p.m., July 26, 7 p.m., Yerba Buena Gardens; $12-$15, free to museum members; July 26 is free with museum admission, (415) 978-2787), www.ybca.org. (J.G.)

Joan Jeanrenaud

Photo by Michele Clement

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Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

‘Summer in the City’

Once known as the Symphony Pops Concerts, this festival has a judicious mix of symphonic works, jazz, tango, swing, and musicals — allowing visits to Davies Hall at significantly lower prices than during the season. Of special interest: On July 9 and 10, young violinist star Stefan Jackiw plays the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, and 28-year-old maestro James Gaffigan conducts the Bach-Stokowsky Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, as well as the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition. (Gaffigan and S.F. Symphony will also perform at two free concerts: at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez, noon on July 15; and at Dolores Park, 2 p.m. on July 20.)

July 9-10, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, $10-$68, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org/. (J.G.)

Stefan Jackiw

American Bach Soloists SummerFest ’08

The splendid American Bach Soloists bring us another edition of their new festival, full of understated elegance and intimacy, and also ultra-refined playing. The repertory of this year’s three “main events” ranges from Bach to Mendelssohn, advertising the fact that these musicians aren’t sequestered in one corner of the repertory. The “twilight serenades,” hour-long concerts in the early evening, include The Whole Noyse, playing wind and brass music from the 16th and 17th centuries; and a concert of salon music.

July 11-20, Belvedere, San Francisco, and Davis, (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (M.Z.)

Festival del Sole

This is the festival for the starstruck classical music fan. It rolls out the big names — Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Andre Watts, the Rosetti String Quartet — all performing, considerately, in the early evening, so that those patrons who have done a little winetasting and arts-and-crafts hunting can take in the concert and still find their way home to the Bay Area at a reasonable hour. This year’s concerts also feature young and up-and-coming talent in free recitals, which may tempt those who don’t want to part with the festival’s $45-$125 prices. If you’re headed up to the first weekend of Festival del Sole concerts, don’t overlook the young artists’ concerts happening at Copia Winery at midday. On the 12th, it’s 25-year-old guitarist Ryan Haverty, and a day later, Karla Donehew Perez on violin.

July 12-20, Napa Valley, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole. (M.Z.)

Joshua Bell

Mendocino Music Festival

Here’s a festival that sports an actual big-top tent. The 22nd festival, as always, adds a number of jazz and world music concerts into the mix. This year’s highlights include a performance of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with Brian Leerhuber (Figaro), Nicole Foland (Countess), Christine Brandes (Susanna), and Eugene Brancoveanu (Count Almaviva). Pianist Stephen Prutsman gives a concert mixing jazz and classical works, an evening is devoted to the “degenerate” musical culture of the Weimar Republic, and the festival orchestra brings the festival to a ringing close with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

July 12-26, Mendocino, www.mendocinomusic.com. (M.Z.)

Midsummer Mozart Festival

This movable feast of a festival doesn’t invite you to go to the mountains, it brings the mountain to you. The two main Mozart programs include Jon Nakamatsu playing the A-Major Piano Concerto, K. 488, Nikolai Demidenko working over the C-Minor Piano Concerto, K. 491, and Laura Griffiths, principal oboist of the S.F. Ballet Orchestra, performing the Oboe Concerto, K. 271k. This year’s festival is expanded to reach San José, with a semi-staged performance of The Abduction From the Seraglio, at the California Theatre, and starring some recent Opera San José stalwarts, and a concert at Le Petit Trianon on August 2.

July 17 – August 3, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sonoma, Berkeley, San Jose, www.midsummermozart.org. (M.Z)

Jon Nakamatsu

Music@Menlo

The impressively funded Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival offers multimedia full immersion, if you want to take advantage of the lectures, “Café Conversations,” open houses, CD-based listening guides, art displays, and “Encounter” discussion centers. It is also a training program for young musicians, who merit their own series of concerts. The main concerts this year present a chronological march through the development of chamber music beginning with a survey of the Baroque period from Salamone Rossi through to J.S. Bach and ending with a program of contemporary music including a premiere of a piano trio by Kenneth Frazelle. The recital series includes the Borromeo String Quartet playing the complete Bartók string quartets; Stephen Prutsman in a program that juxtaposes preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier with a kaleidoscopic variety of works, classical and not; and Gary Graffman in a program of left-hand piano music.

July 18 – August 8, Atherton and Palo Alto, www.musicatmenlo.org. (M.Z.)

Borromeo String Quartet

Photo by Christian Steiner

Carmel Bach Festival

The Carmel Bach Festival packs an awful lot of music into three weeks. This year, the theme seems to be the Bach-Brahms connection. The main concerts include Bach’s B-Minor Mass, the complete Brandenburg Concertos, a concert that connects the Viennese School greats, and one that pairs Brahms’ German Requiem and Bach’s Cantata No. 21. In the chamber concerts series, Sanford Sylvan sings Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise, and an all-Brahms vocal evening. In addition, there are the preconcert (Twilight) concerts, and the postconcert (Candlelight) concerts. You could spend a day and hear a week’s worth of music.

July 19 – August 9, Carmel, www.bachfestival.org. (M.Z.)

Sanford Sylvan

Photo by Susan Wilson

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Early Music

Les Violettes

Les Violettes (Rebekah Ahrendt and Colin Shipman, violas da gamba; Violet Grgich, harpsichord) welcome guest artist Elisabeth Opsahl, cornetto and recorders, in her U.S. debut for a concert of “abracadabra” music of late 16th- and early 17th-century Italy. The program, which includes works by Frescobaldi, Bassano, Rogniono, and others repeats in Rutherford and features a winetasting.

July 12, 8 p.m., St. Joseph of Arimathea, Berkeley, suggested donation $5-$12; July 13, 2 p.m., Grigch Hills Estate, Rutherford, $25 with wine tasting; (800) 532-3057, www.lesgraces.com (C.G.)

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Choral

Maracaibera!

The latest program from Creative Voices takes the choral group outside the classical repertoire to Venezuelan folksongs from the repertory of the Quinteto Contrapunto. The QC was a vocal quintet (with guitar and cuatro accompaniment), whose unusually complex arrangements made it a star performing/recording group on the European and Latin American folk scene between 1962 and 1971. A brief reunion in 1998 refocused attention on the group, and now the original arrangments, by Rafael Suárez have been found. Creative Voices recreates the sound and feel of the Quinteto, not omitting the cuatro player either.

July 13, 7 p.m., La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley; July 20, 8 p.m., The Dance Palace Community Center, Point Reyes Station; Aug. 2, 8 p.m., Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco; $13-$15, (415) 238-0533, www.creativevoices.org/index.html. (M.Z.)

Opera

Casting coup in Il trovatore

Il trovatore’s star has secured a place in the hearts of Verdians, despite a fairly ridiculous plot. The central character, the gypsy Azucena, has seen her mother burned at the stake as a witch. Like Rigoletto, both parents are bent on revenge and both involve their children in that revenge. Rigoletto does so unintentionally, but the act is more complicated in Azucena’s case. Is she crazy? And does she care at all for the troubadour Manrico, the child she has raised? Festival Opera’s production, directed by Giulio Cesare Perrone, brings together a powerhouse cast to conquer each successive scene, each with a new aria or dilemma to be conquered. The strong vocals of Hope Briggs (Lenora), Noah Stewart (Manrico), Scott Bearden (Count di Luna), Patrice Houston (Azucena), Kirk Eichelberger (Ferrando), and Jessica Mariko Deardoff (Inez) promise to convey this compelling melodrama of unceasing rage and revenge, in which each character is permanently entrapped. Michael Morgan conducts.

July 12, 15, 18, 8 p.m.; July 20, 2 p.m.; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $46-$100, (925) 943-7469, www.festival.com. (C.G.)

Tosca

The tiny Julia Morgan Theater will play host to the big passions of Puccini’s Tosca in the new Berkeley Opera production featuring Jillian Khuner, Kevin Courtemanche, and John Minagro.

July 12-20, various times, Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley, $15-$44, (510) 841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.org (M.Z.)

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Contemporary

Percussion Batterie!

In the first of four experimental-contemporary classical-classical fusion-whatever concerts, Pamela Z brings together a group of percussion-oriented artists at the Royce Gallery, in San Francisco. Joining Pamela are Matt Davignon, who has started using drum machines to create unusual sounds; Moe Staino; “techno-diva” Amy X. Neuberg on voice and MIDI percussion; and drummer Suki O’Kane.

July 11, 8 p.m., Royce Gallery, San Francisco, $10, www.pamelaz.com. (M.Z.)

SfSoundSeries

ODC Theater and sfSound join to present sfSoundSeries, a concert series featuring contemporary and experimental music. The rich and varied program includes Steve Reich’s Four Organs (1970), Giacinto Scelsi’s Kya (1959), Salvatore Sciarrino’s Muro d’orizzonte (1997), Mauricio Kagel’s Atem for trumpet and tape (1970), Alan Hilario’s kibô (1997), and a new collaborative piece by sfSoundGroup, directed by Matt Ingalls. Performers are Heather Frasch, alto flute; Kyle Bruckmann, English horn/organ; John Ingle, soprano saxophone; Tom Dambly, trumpet; Jen Baker, trombone; Andy Strain, trombone; Christopher Jones, piano/organ/conductor; Ann Yi, organ; Loren Mach, percussion; Alexa Beattie, viola; and Leighton Fong, cello.

July 13, 8 p.m., ODC Commons, Studio B, 351 Shotwell Street, San Francisco; $5, (415) 863-9834, www.sfsound.org. (J.G.)

Matt Ingalls

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Chamber Music

The Eusebius Duo

Even if they hadn’t confessed it on their Web site, you would have to assume that the Eusebius Duo had a thing for Schumann from their adopted name alone. Consisting of violinist Monika Gruber and pianist Hilary Nordwell, both graduates of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s masters program, the duo has already garnered some awards and attention. They are sponsored by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. In their appearance at Old First Concerts, they indulge their Schu-mania by playing the composer’s two violin sonatas, the A-Minor Op. 101, and D-Minor Op. 121, along with Brahms’ gorgeous sonata in G Major, Op. 78.

July 13, 4 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Recital

Merry Merolini

The new enrollees in the Merola Opera Program show their wares in a concert of significant operatic excerpts, which you can catch for free at the Yerba Buena Gardens, or you can pay for a seat at Herbst Theatre. Be the first to hear and appreciate the fresh Merolini.

July 6, 2 p.m., Yerba Buena Gardens, free; July 8, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $40-$60 (some student tickets at $25), (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)

Russian Fantasy, Lisztian Magic

Daniel Glover celebrates his birthday by playing a piano recital mixing Rachmaninov’s great Sonata in B-flat Minor with music by Rachmaninov’s contemporary Nikolai Medtner, and Liszt’s impressively fingerbusting Fantasy on Wagner’s “Rienzi,” as well as two of Liszt’s religious piano works, Two Franciscan Legends and Benediction of God in Solitude.

July 11, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

Trailblazing Sarah Cahill

In her concert at Old First Church, pianist Sarah Cahill presents two works written for her, Evan Ziporyn’s Pondok and Kyle Gann’s Private Dances. Also on the program are two rarities by Mark Blitzstein, which the pianist is slated to record on the Other Minds label.

July 18, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

Sarah Cahill

Suddenly Simone

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is suddenly a hot commodity on the classical music scene, at the unusually advanced age of 34. The story of the recording that made her famous — a Goldberg Variations that was financed by friends, recorded while the pianist was pregnant, and released a full two years after being recorded — has been told in The New York Times among other places. At the Festival del Sole she plays the Mozart Concerto K.488 (No. 23) in A Major with the UBS Verbier Symphony Orchestra, while her beloved Goldberg Variations are subjected to the dubious honor of arrangements by violinist/conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky.

July 17, 6:30 p.m., Castello del Amoroso, Calistoga, $75-$125, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole. (M.Z.)

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Multimedia

LIFE: A Journey Through Time

A Festival del Sole benefit event for Global Green and the Napa Land Trust will feature Philip Glass’ music and Alexander V. Nichols’ design in celebrating Frans Lanting’s photography in LIFE: A Journey Through Time. The Napa Valley Symphony is conducted by Carolyn Kuan. Starting from Santa Cruz, Lanting spent seven years photographing every continent on the planet, including Antarctica. The resulting photo collection focuses on the evolution of life on Earth, picturing prehistoric trilobites, giant tortoises, delicate jellies, spiny octopus trees, and erupting volcanoes.

July 13, 3 p.m., Lincoln Theater, Napa Valley; $45-$125, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole.com. (J.G.)

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Symphony

Midsummer Mahler

If summer festival music is generally too light for you, you might want to note the date of this Dallas Symphony concert at Festival del Sole, in which mezzo-soprano Jill Grove joins Music Director Jaap van Zweden in a performance of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, followed by the Fifth Symphony.

July 20, 3 p.m., Lincoln Theater, Yountville, $45-$125, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole.com. (M.Z.)

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Beleaguered Princess

Ariodante is not your typical Handel opera. It has choruses and ballet episodes; it has an important bass role and an important tenor role. A brief, but gorgeous, sinfonia depicts moonrise over the royal gardens. All of these changes can be traced back to the fact that Handel’s company had been supplanted at the King’s Theatre in 1734 by the Opera of the Nobility, which had also wooed away Handel’s star singers. Ariodante, first performed on January 8, 1735, was successful anyway, and it continues to be one of the more approachable Handel operas, a great introduction if you’ve never seen one. And San Francisco Opera’s production is hardly hurting for stars: Susan Graham takes the title role and Ruth Ann Swenson is the princess, Ginevra. Accomplished Handelian Sonia Prina makes her U.S. debut as the villain, Polinesso, while Veronica Cangemi makes a company debut as Dalinda, who pines for Polinesso. Longtime Metropolitan Opera tenor Richard Croft is Lurcanio. Eric Owens, the bass who participated in the premiere of John Adams’ A Flowering Tree, and sang it with the San Francisco Symphony last year, plays the King. Highly recommended.

Through July 6, various times, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)

Dessay’s Lucia

The fact that Lucia di Lammermoor, the blood-soaked Donizetti melodrama most beloved by opera fans, followed Ariodante onto the San Francisco Opera stage two days later was not a coincidence — both are set in Scotland, and both feature madwomen. (And the Opera did Macbeth in November, so they’ve covered the bases in this sub-subgenre.) Natalie Dessay has emerged as one of the leading exponents of Lucia and she’s the main attraction in this Graham Vick-directed production, imported from Florence’s Maggio Musicale. (See review.) Singer devotees will also be intrigued by the company debut of tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, as Edgardo, and the U.S. debut of Gabriele Viviani, as Enrico.

Through July 5, times vary, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)

Oren Gradus (Raimondo) and Natalie Dessay (Lucia)

Photo by Terrence McCarthy

Casting coup in Il trovatore

Il trovatore’s star has secured a place in the hearts of Verdians, despite a fairly ridiculous plot. The central character, the gypsy Azucena, has seen her mother burned at the stake as a witch. Like Rigoletto, both parents are bent on revenge and both involve their children in that revenge. Rigoletto does so unintentionally, but the act is more complicated in Azucena’s case. Is she crazy? And does she care at all for the troubadour Manrico, the child she has raised? Festival Opera’s production, directed by Giulio Cesare Perrone, brings together a powerhouse cast to conquer each successive scene, each with a new aria or dilemma to be conquered. The strong vocals of Hope Briggs (Lenora), Noah Stewart (Manrico), Scott Bearden (Count di Luna), Patrice Houston (Azucena), Kirk Eichelberger (Ferrando), and Jessica Mariko Deardoff (Inez) promise to convey this compelling melodrama of unceasing rage and revenge, in which each character is permanently entrapped. Michael Morgan conducts.

July 12, 15, 18, 8 p.m.; July 20, 2 p.m.; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, $46-$100, (925) 943-7469, www.festival.com. (C.G.)

Tosca

The tiny Julia Morgan Theater will play host to the big passions of Puccini’s Tosca in the new Berkeley Opera production featuring Jillian Khuner, Kevin Courtemanche, and John Minagro.

July 12-20, various times, Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley, $15-$44, (510) 841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.org (M.Z.)

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Contemporary

Percussion Batterie!

In the first of four experimental-contemporary classical-classical fusion-whatever concerts, Pamela Z brings together a group of percussion-oriented artists at the Royce Gallery, in San Francisco. Joining Pamela are Matt Davignon, who has started using drum machines to create unusual sounds; Moe Staino; “techno-diva” Amy X. Neuberg on voice and MIDI percussion; and drummer Suki O’Kane.

July 11, 8 p.m., Royce Gallery, San Francisco, $10, www.pamelaz.com. (M.Z.)

SfSoundSeries

ODC Theater and sfSound join to present sfSoundSeries, a concert series featuring contemporary and experimental music. The rich and varied program includes Steve Reich’s Four Organs (1970), Giacinto Scelsi’s Kya (1959), Salvatore Sciarrino’s Muro d’orizzonte (1997), Mauricio Kagel’s Atem for trumpet and tape (1970), Alan Hilario’s kibô (1997), and a new collaborative piece by sfSoundGroup, directed by Matt Ingalls. Performers are Heather Frasch, alto flute; Kyle Bruckmann, English horn/organ; John Ingle, soprano saxophone; Tom Dambly, trumpet; Jen Baker, trombone; Andy Strain, trombone; Christopher Jones, piano/organ/conductor; Ann Yi, organ; Loren Mach, percussion; Alexa Beattie, viola; and Leighton Fong, cello.

July 13, 8 p.m., ODC Commons, Studio B, 351 Shotwell Street, San Francisco; $5, (415) 863-9834, www.sfsound.org. (J.G.)

Matt Ingalls

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Chamber Music

The Eusebius Duo

Even if they hadn’t confessed it on their Web site, you would have to assume that the Eusebius Duo had a thing for Schumann from their adopted name alone. Consisting of violinist Monika Gruber and pianist Hilary Nordwell, both graduates of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s masters program, the duo has already garnered some awards and attention. They are sponsored by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. In their appearance at Old First Concerts, they indulge their Schu-mania by playing the composer’s two violin sonatas, the A-Minor Op. 101, and D-Minor Op. 121, along with Brahms’ gorgeous sonata in G Major, Op. 78.

July 13, 4 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Festival

Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

Four-Play

Among the little-known minifestivals that pepper the July calendar, the 2nd Peggy and Milton International Piano Duo Festival is one of the more intriguing. Presented under the aegis of the San Francisco International Music Festival in the concert hall of the new San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the two-day, four-hand extravaganza will bring together duetists from around the globe and will feature some fascinating programs. The opening concert/ seminar at 4 p.m. on June 5, focuses on Carl Czerny, the 19th-century virtuoso and pedagogue, who was one of Liszt’s teachers. Later that evening, all five invited piano duos play items by Czerny and everyone from Mozart (Andante and Variation K.501) to Brahms (the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 65). Liszt is represented by his Grand Galop chromatique played here by four pianists on two pianos. The 20th century is represented in two programs on July 6, which between them include Bartók’s Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion, Ravel’s La Valse, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, and a couple of rare and unusual pieces. The festival rounds off on the 7th, with performances by the junior brigade — young talent from the Salkind Junior Festival.

July 5, 6, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; July 7, 1 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music, $15-$30, (415) 705-0846, www.sfmf.org. (M.Z.)

‘Summer in the City’

Once known as the Symphony Pops Concerts, this festival has a judicious mix of symphonic works, jazz, tango, swing, and musicals — allowing visits to Davies Hall at significantly lower prices than during the season. Of special interest: On July 9 and 10, young violinist star Stefan Jackiw plays the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, and 28-year-old maestro James Gaffigan conducts the Bach-Stokowsky Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, as well as the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition. (Gaffigan and S.F. Symphony will also perform at two free concerts: at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez, noon on July 15; and at Dolores Park, 2 p.m. on July 20.)

July 9-10, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, $10-$68, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org/. (J.G.)

Stefan Jackiw

American Bach Soloists SummerFest ’08

The splendid American Bach Soloists bring us another edition of their new festival, full of understated elegance and intimacy, and also ultra-refined playing. The repertory of this year’s three “main events” ranges from Bach to Mendelssohn, advertising the fact that these musicians aren’t sequestered in one corner of the repertory. The “twilight serenades,” hour-long concerts in the early evening, include The Whole Noyse, playing wind and brass music from the 16th and 17th centuries; and a concert of salon music.

July 11-20, Belvedere, San Francisco, and Davis, (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (M.Z.)

Festival del Sole

This is the festival for the starstruck classical music fan. It rolls out the big names — Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Andre Watts, the Rosetti String Quartet — all performing, considerately, in the early evening, so that those patrons who have done a little winetasting and arts-and-crafts hunting can take in the concert and still find their way home to the Bay Area at a reasonable hour. This year’s concerts also feature young and up-and-coming talent in free recitals, which may tempt those who don’t want to part with the festival’s $45-$125 prices. If you’re headed up to the first weekend of Festival del Sole concerts, don’t overlook the young artists’ concerts happening at Copia Winery at midday. On the 12th, it’s 25-year-old guitarist Ryan Haverty, and a day later, Karla Donehew Perez on violin.

July 12-20, Napa Valley, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole. (M.Z.)

Joshua Bell

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Recital

Merry Merolini

The new enrollees in the Merola Opera Program show their wares in a concert of significant operatic excerpts, which you can catch for free at the Yerba Buena Gardens, or you can pay for a seat at Herbst Theatre. Be the first to hear and appreciate the fresh Merolini.

July 6, 2 p.m., Yerba Buena Gardens, free; July 8, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $40-$60 (some student tickets at $25), (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)

Russian Fantasy, Lisztian Magic

Daniel Glover celebrates his birthday by playing a piano recital mixing Rachmaninov’s great Sonata in B-flat Minor with music by Rachmaninov’s contemporary Nikolai Medtner, and Liszt’s impressively fingerbusting Fantasy on Wagner’s “Rienzi,” as well as two of Liszt’s religious piano works, Two Franciscan Legends and Benediction of God in Solitude.

July 11, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Multimedia

LIFE: A Journey Through Time

A Festival del Sole benefit event for Global Green and the Napa Land Trust will feature Philip Glass’ music and Alexander V. Nichols’ design in celebrating Frans Lanting’s photography in LIFE: A Journey Through Time. The Napa Valley Symphony is conducted by Carolyn Kuan. Starting from Santa Cruz, Lanting spent seven years photographing every continent on the planet, including Antarctica. The resulting photo collection focuses on the evolution of life on Earth, picturing prehistoric trilobites, giant tortoises, delicate jellies, spiny octopus trees, and erupting volcanoes.

July 13, 3 p.m., Lincoln Theater, Napa Valley; $45-$125, (707) 226-8742, www.festivaldelsole.com. (J.G.)

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Garden of Memory

The annual summer solstice extravaganza, “Garden of Memory,” at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes columbarium — the intimate neogothic labyrinth that is perfect for an evening of musical contemplation — has become one of the most successful avant-garde musical events in the area. (See review.) Multiple instruments, ensembles, choirs, and installations will be on display; artists include Charles Amirkhanian, Paul Dresher, Brenda Hutchinson, Walter Kitundu, Pamela Z, and about 30 others.

June 24, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, $5-$12, (415) 864-3330, www.gardenofmemory.com. (C.G.)

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Symphony

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto

Just because other organizations have wrapped up their seasons doesn’t mean the fare at San Francisco Symphony has petered out. A run of performances features Conductor David Robertson and violinist Alisa Weilerstein teaming up for Dvořák’s much-celebrated Cello Concerto, as well as Lutosławski’s Mi-Parti and Janáček’s Taras Bulba.

June 26, 27, 28, 8 p.m., $25-$120, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)

Alisa Weilerstein

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Festival

Stern Grove Festival

Once again we can enjoy the S.F. Symphony and Opera outdoors. On June 29, Orli Shaham plays Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, with James Gaffigan on the podium, while the orchestra gives Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The San Francisco Opera closes the festival with a celebration of American opera and musical theater, on August 17.

Orli Shaham

Photo by Christian Steiner

Through Aug. 17, Sundays at 2 p.m., Stern Grove, San Francisco, $10-$30, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (M.Z.)

Music Academy of the West Summer Festival

This festival is centered on an eight-week summer program for pre-professional musicians. Concerts involve students and faculty, along with a few guest artists. This year’s big deal is a performance of William Bolcom’s 2004 opera, A Wedding, based on the Robert Altman film. The Takács Quartet also drops in for a visit, performing with faculty on July 15, and on their own on July 17. Christopher Taylor does Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards again (July 9), and the Academy Orchestra, under the Philharmonia Baroque’s own Nicholas McGegan, performs Messiaen’s Un sourire, along with Mozart, Ibert, and Schumann.

Through August 15, Santa Barbara, (805) 969-4726, www.musicacademy.org. (M.Z.)

Takács Quartet

Photo by Peter Smith

Four-Play

Among the little-known minifestivals that pepper the July calendar, the 2nd Peggy and Milton International Piano Duo Festival is one of the more intriguing. Presented under the aegis of the San Francisco International Music Festival in the concert hall of the new San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the two-day, four-hand extravaganza will bring together duetists from around the globe and will feature some fascinating programs. The opening concert/ seminar at 4 p.m. on June 5, focuses on Carl Czerny, the 19th-century virtuoso and pedagogue, who was one of Liszt’s teachers. Later that evening, all five invited piano duos play items by Czerny and everyone from Mozart (Andante and Variation K.501) to Brahms (the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 65). Liszt is represented by his Grand Galop chromatique played here by four pianists on two pianos. The 20th century is represented in two programs on July 6, which between them include Bartók’s Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion, Ravel’s La Valse, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, and a couple of rare and unusual pieces. The festival rounds off on the 7th, with performances by the junior brigade — young talent from the Salkind Junior Festival.

July 5, 6, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; July 7, 1 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music, $15-$30, (415) 705-0846, www.sfmf.org. (M.Z.)

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Recital

Sandro Russo

The Italian pianist, who recently performed here at the American Liszt Society Festival in San Francisco, is back for a piano recital that includes not one but two versions of Rachmaninov’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36, as well as repertoire from other composers he is known for performing — Bach, Liszt, Chopin, and Taneyev.

June 27, 8 p.m., Old First Church, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)

Sandro Russo

Merry Merolini

The new enrollees in the Merola Opera Program show their wares in a concert of significant operatic excerpts, which you can catch for free at the Yerba Buena Gardens, or you can pay for a seat at Herbst Theatre. Be the first to hear and appreciate the fresh Merolini.

July 6, 2 p.m., Yerba Buena Gardens, free; July 8, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $40-$60 (some student tickets at $25), (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (M.Z.)

Russian Fantasy, Lisztian Magic

Daniel Glover celebrates his birthday by playing a piano recital mixing Rachmaninov’s great Sonata in B-flat Minor with music by Rachmaninov’s contemporary Nikolai Medtner, and Liszt’s impressively fingerbusting Fantasy on Wagner’s “Rienzi,” as well as two of Liszt’s religious piano works, Two Franciscan Legends and Benediction of God in Solitude.

July 11, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (M.Z.)

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Dance

Ethnic Dance Festival Turns 30

The 30th annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival offers a cornucopia of folk dance, folk music, world music, and “exotic art” in the Bay Area, already one of the world’s most cosmopolitan places. On four weekends starting June 7, the culture of many lands will be presented by more than 500 local artists and some 50 masters of the genre from all over the world.

The variety the festival offers is tremendous — random examples include Sindhu Ravuri of San Jose, a kuchipudi artist performing to the accompaniment of her gurus Raja and Radha Reddy, two of India’s masters, who were favorites of Indira Gandhi, to Allassane Kane; a master drummer and dancer from Senegal who will join Oakland’s West African dance collective, Ballet Lisanga; and famed Hungarian dancers László Diószegi (a recognized national treasure) and Gergö Csiszár performing with Foster City’s Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Ensemble. At