Pacific Boychoir
After a marathon of concerts this season — finishing up with the American Bach Soloists (May 12-13), alone at the Oakland Museum (May 14), and with the San Francisco Symphony (May 31 – June 3 and June 22-23) — the Grammy-winning Pacific Boychoir gives a send-off concert in June before jetting to Brazil for its summer tour. June 10, 7:30 p.m., St. Augustine's Catholic Church, Oakland; (510) 452-4PBA, www.pacificboychoir.org. (M.B.)

Summer Opera
As an authentic repertoire freak looking for fresh musical experiences, the usual excites my appetites most, and this summer offers numerous temptations. San Francisco Opera's summer season presents two standards: Puccini's Madama Butterfly (May 27 and 30, June 4, 8, 11, 16, 18, 21, and 25) plus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (June 10, 13, 15, 17, 20, 24, 27, 29, and 30). But for the connoisseur, the jewel of the summer will be Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans, his Joan of Arc opera based on Schiller's play (June 3, 6, 9, 14, 18, and 28). Written after Eugene Onegin, Swan Lake, the first four symphonies, and the First Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky's Maid has only begun to creep into the international repertory, although it contains one of his most beautiful arias, Joan's "Adieu, forêts," which mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick sings in the title role. Baritone Rod Gilfry as Lionel is a plus. War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, times and ticket prices vary, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (H.T.)

A Thousand, More or Less, at the Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony also offers lots of rare experiences, beginning with the close of the regular season, when Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 8, best known to its friends as the "Symphony of a Thousand." Actually, the Eighth can be performed quite adequately with a mere 400 musicians: a giant orchestra plus eight vocal soloists and enough choral members to sink a battleship. May 31 –June 3, 8 p.m., sold out, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (H.T.)

Celebrating the Asian's 40th Birthday
As the Asian Art Museum turns 40, well-ensconced in its still-new quarters in the Civic Center, the summerlong birthday party includes a great deal of music. Just a few highlights:

• The MATCHA first-Thursday evening series, June 1 [and also July 6 and Aug. 3], 6-9 p.m. Named after the Japanese powdered green tea of robust flavors and blends, MATCHA events feature such artists as classical Indian vocalist Sukhawat Ali Khan, who represents a 500-year lineage of musicians, hailing from the Sham Chaurasi Gharana school of music in the court of Akbar the Great.
• A Philippine-American cultural celebration, June 17, noon to 4 p.m.
• Sue Li-Jue's Facing East Dance and Music Ensemble, combining modern dance, live music, and visual art, June 29, 7 p.m.
• "Asia and Western Musical Culture," featuring San Francisco Opera Center sopranos Elza Van Den Heever and Rhoslyn Jones, accompanied by John Parr, who will also speak about and play examples of Debussy's interest in Asian music, on July 13 at 7 p.m. ($10 for members of the museum or the Opera Guild; $15 otherwise.)

Berkeley Festival and Exhibition
The Berkeley Festival and Exhibition of early music returns after a four-year hiatus. Its concert schedule, running from June 4 to 11, consists of eight programs (one of which is repeated) and the semifinal and final rounds of the American Bach Soloists and Henry I. Goldberg International Young Artists Competition. Chanticleer presents a program titled "La Guerre: Triumph and Tragedy of War" (not available as part of a Berkeley Festival subscription). the King's Noyse and the Whole Noyse combine in "Ornament and Splendor," a concert of 17th century German music. Le Poème Harmonique and Le Centre National des Arts du Cirque recreate the Roman Carnival season, complete with processions, singers, banquets, and commedia dell'arte. Le Poème Harmonique separately performs a concert of music by Michel Richard de Lalande. This year's Exhibition is an opportunity to try out and purchase period instruments and meet publishers and early musicians. Festival: June 4 to 11; most concerts are at Hertz Hall or Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus or First Congregational Church in Berkeley; times and venues vary; $22-$42; Exhibition: June 8, noon to 5 p.m., and June 9-10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley, free; (510) 642-9988, http://bfx.berkeley.edu/bfx/.

The official festival isn't all there is, though. The Fringe Festival, organized by the San Francisco Early Music Society, features several dozen additional events in various Berkeley locations. These include: a (humorous) history of Western music by La Foolia on June 5; the Artists' Vocal Ensemble (AVE) concert titled "666: Music of the Apocalypse" on June 6; a Vox Populi concert devoted entirely to 15th century master Guillaume Dufay on June 7; Pedro Jesús Gómez playing Spanish and Italian Renaissance vilhuela music on June 8; a presentation by Peter Hallifax and Julie Jeffrey of the complete viol works of Antoine Forqueray each morning from June 5 to 9; a recorder play-in sponsored by the American Recorder Society on June 10; and a performance of motets from Couperin, Bernier, and others by Pacific Collegium on June 10. Fringe: June 4-11, times and venues vary, www.sfems.org/fringe2006.htm. (L.H.)

Thomas Hampson in Recital
Not to be missed: Star baritone Thomas Hampson closes the season for San Francisco Performances in June. Hampson is one of those rare artists whose artistic standards cover the full spectrum of the repertory, including opera, concerts, and solo recitals. June 5, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $27-$49, (415) 392-2545, www.performances.org. (H.T.)

Romantic Visions at the Symphony Festival
This festival features three weeks of concerts on two themes and a requiem, led by James Conlon. The concerts on June 9 and 10 perform music inspired by Oscar Wilde. The most famous piece, the "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Richard Strauss's Salomé, is no stranger to the Bay Area, but the rest of the program is a special treat: a concert version of Alexander von Zemlinsky's opera based on Wilde's play A Florentine Tragedy (with vocalists Carol Vaness, Kim Begley, and James Johnson), and dances by Zemlinsky and Franz Shreker emanating from Wilde's story "A Birthday for the Infanta." Like Strauss, contemporaries Zemlinsky and Shreker are popular among CD collectors because of their gorgeous and provocative orchestration, but their pieces, inexplicably, all too rarely grace our concert halls.

Later in the month, the Symphony explores two works derived from Dante, Tchaikovsky's Francesca de Rimini, an overture, like his Romeo and Juliet, with beautiful melodies and powerful orchestration; and Liszt's sprawling "Dante" symphony. In place of the Tchaikovsky, Conlon will lecture on Dante for a concert on June 23 in the innovative "6.5" format starting at 6:30 pm.

Bookending the Dante concerts on June 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, and 25, Conlon will direct the Symphony and Chorus in six performances of Verdi's Requiem, with soloists Christine Brewer, Stephanie Blythe, Frank Lopardo, and Vitalij Kowaljow. The stage will be set for the "Romantic Visions" concert with a symposium on Wednesday, June 7, featuring Symphony musicians exploring the theme of the Romantics' influence on classical music and the arts. In addition, Conlon will be presenting preconcert talks for all but the June 23 performance. June 7-25 (times vary), Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $20-$107, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (J.D.)

San Francisco Choral Artists
The chamber chorus features a world premiere of works from Bay Area composer Henry Mollicone and the ensemble's New Voices contest winners, as well as works celebrating nature and the natural landscape. June 11, 4 p.m., St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Oakland; June 17, 8 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; June 18, 4 p.m., St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco; $12-$25, (415) 979-5779, www.sfca.org. (M.B.)

Summer Early Music and Dance Workshops
Early music fans can immerse themselves in the music for a week at a time at these popular summer workshops. A highlight for parents is the Music Discovery Workshop at Berkeley's Crowden School, which features instruction in recorder, harpsichord, violin, cello, viola da gamba, theory, and eartraining from top Bay Area teachers and performers; at the end of the workshop, the kids will create an English masque in honor of Glorianna, Queen of England. Baroque Music and Dance Workshop, June 18-24; Medieval and Renaissance Workshop, June 25 – July 1; and Recorder Workshop, July 16-22, all three at Dominican University, San Rafael, $410 (tuition); Music Discovery Workshop, July 30 – August 4 at the Crowden School, Berkeley, $315 (tuition); www.sfems.org/workshops.htm. (M.B.)

Golden Gate International Children's Choral Festival
Piedmont Choirs hosts a weeklong festival of children's choirs, which draws young singers from around the world. This year choirs are coming from Slovenia, China, Austria, Benin, Estonia, and throughout the U.S. June 30, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.piedmontchoirs.org/festival.lasso. (M.B.)

American Bach Soloists' SummerFest
Jeffrey Thomas and the American Bach Soloists mark summer with three evenings of chamber music, optionally combined with informal Meet-the-Artist events, Twilight Serenades, and even Bach's Suppers. Programs include "Bach, Vivaldi, and Friends," "Haydn, Mozart, and Boccherini," and "Schubert and Beethoven." Among the artists: Elizabeth Blumenstock (violin and viola), Corey Jamason (harpsichord), Katherine Kyme (violin and viola), Steven Lehning (violone and viola da gamba), Sandra Miller (flute), Tanya Tomkins (violoncello). July 7-9, St. Stephen's Church, Belvedere; July 11-13, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; July 14-16, Mondavi Center, Davis; 6 p.m., Meet-the-Artist; 6:30 p.m., Bach's Suppers; 7:15 p.m., Twilight Serenade; 8 p.m., concert; $18-$37 for concert only, (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (J.G.)

Sonoma State's Green Music Festival
Among all the summer events on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, the Green Music Festival's Chamber Music Series is of special interest, with a sterling record in recent years. To be headed again by series founder Jeffrey Kahane, the four-concert summer series in Person Theater will have an important addition the following winter: the world premiere of the opera Every Man Jack, about Jack London, by Libby Larsen and librettist Philip Littell, November 11-19.

Before and after the concerts on campus, and in intermissions, there is a summery, open-air, free reception outside the theater, with refreshments (including Sonoma wines) and an exhibit of art works. Some musical highlights: Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano, with Desmond Hoebig and Kahane; Mozart, Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581, with Bil Jackson, Margaret Batjer, Chee-Yun, Aloysia Friedmann, and Alisa Weilerstein; Brahms, Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114, with Jackson, Hoebig, and Jon Kimura Parker; Brahms, Horn Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 40, with Batjer, Kahane, Richard Todd; Beethoven, Archduke Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 97, with Chee-Yun, Weilerstein, Kahane; Rachmaninoff, Suite No. 2, Op. 17, for Two Pianos, with Parker and Kahane. The series-closing solo concert with Kahane will be an all-Schumann program, including Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasy in C Major. July 7, 11, 25, 8 p.m.; July 9, 4 p.m., Person Theater, Sonoma State campus, Rohnert Park, $12-$35, (707) 664-2880, www.cityboxoffice.com. (J.G.)

Free at Stern Grove
For the 69th year, San Francisco's unique free music festival in Stern Grove will feature the usual mix of pop, classical, and world music. All concerts begin at 2 p.m. in the Grove, a 33-acre recreation area with meadows, picnic facilities, hiking trails, and a lake, located at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco's Sunset District. July 9, San Francisco Symphony; July 30, San Francisco Opera; Aug. 13, San Francisco Ballet; free, (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. (J.G.)

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

Napa's Festival del Sole
A new music festival with the sun in its name is bringing star performers to Napa this summer. IMG Artists owner Barrett Wissman is extending the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy, to this other famed wine-making region, under the name Festival del Sole. The inaugural festival will open July 16, with a roster including: singers Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Samuel Ramey; instrumentalists Nikolaj Znaider, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, Nina Kotova, Piotr Anderszewski, and the Emerson String Quartet; and conductors Alan Gilbert, Stéphane Denève, and Carlo Ponti Jr. with the Russian National Orchestra.

The weeklong event will also feature meals and classes by some of the region's top chefs and, of course, local wines. The festival in Italy, which runs August 5-20, was founded four years ago by Wissman and author Frances Mayes. In addition to some of the Napa participants, the Cortona festival also presents Anna Netrebko, Susan Graham, Marcelo Alvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and the Royal Opera House Orchestra of Covent Garden. In Napa, the Festival del Sole cofounder and codirector is Richard Walker, formerly a Walnut Creek attorney, who has been instrumental in the development of the 15-year-old Russian National Orchestra, which is financed mostly from outside Russia by such donors as San Francisco's Gordon Getty and Seattle's Charles Simonyi.

July 16, 6:30 p.m., opening orchestral concert (von Otter, Bell), Lincoln Theater, $45-$125; July 17, 7 p.m., piano recital by Christopher Taylor, Napa Valley Opera House, $50; July 19, 8 p.m., orchestral concert (von Stade, Ramey), 8 p.m., Lincoln Theater, $45-$125; July 20, 7 p.m., Emerson String Quartet, NV Opera House, $50; July 21, 7 p.m., orchestral concert (Znaider, Anderszewski), Lincoln Theater, $45-$125; July 22, 7 p.m., orchestral concert (Chang, Anderszewski), Lincoln Theater, $45-$125; July 23, 6:30 p.m., orchestral closing concert (Fleming, Kotova), Lincoln Theater, $45-$150; (707) 944-1300, www.festivaldelsole.com. (J.G.)

Midsummer Mozart
Thirty-two years old and going strong, George Cleve's Midsummer Mozart Festival will present eight concerts of two programs in four venues around the Bay in July. Program I includes the Posthorn Serenade, and Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat Major, with André Watts as soloist. Program II is highly unusual, although not for Cleve, who has done it before: Mozart's last three symphonies (Nos. 39-41) presented as a three-act evening, with two intermissions. July 20 and 27, 7:30 p.m., Mission Santa Clara, SCU Campus, Santa Clara; July 21 and 28, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; July 22 and 29, 6:30 p.m., Gundlach Bundschu Winery, Sonoma; July 23 and 30, 7 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; $30-$60, (415) 627-9145, www.midsummermozart.org. (J.G.)

Early Music Choral Workshop
California Bach Society is hosting an all-day workshop for singers led by Suzanne Elder Wallace. On the docket: Mouton's Missa Alleluia and Josquin motets. July 22, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Palo Alto, $45, (415) 262-0272, www.calbach.org/workshop.html. (M.B.)

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

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

Cabrillo Music Festival
Count them: Not one or two, but 10 composers are expected to be in residence over two weeks starting at the end of July this year in laid-back Santa Cruz, the 44th iteration of one of California's best-kept secrets. Under the leadership of Marin Alsop, the first woman to be appointed music director of a major U.S. orchestra (Baltimore Symphony), the festival does a better job than any other in giving new music a better rep. Compositions include three world and five West Coast premieres. Not to miss — is it just a slide show, or is it a multimedia transformational experience? — the world premiere of Life: A Journey Through Time, with concept and images by Frans Lanting, National Geographic photographer; music by Philip Glass; and visual design by Alexander Nichols. July 29, 8 p.m.; July 30, 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

Then there's the West Coast premieres of Nicolas Maw's suite from his opera Sophie's Choice and Aaron Jay Kernis' Newly Drawn Sky, along with the fine work of Esa-Pekka Salonen, L.A. Variations. Aug. 13, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., San Juan Bautista Mission. Finally, there's the solo concert of percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Aug. 4, 8 p.m., Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

Participating composers include Glass, Kernis, Maw (attendance not confirmed at press time), Michael Daugherty, Kevin Puts, Greg Smith, Laura Karpman, Mark Grey, Daniel Brewbaker, and Michael Gatonska. Music by Thomas Adès and Askell Masson will also be performed. Soloists, in addition to Glennie, include violinist Leila Josefowicz and mezzo-soprano Gale Fuller. July 29 – Aug. 13; times and venues vary; ticket prices will be published in brochures available May 15; (831) 426-6966, www.cabrillomusic.org. (J.D.)

(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com. Mickey Butts is executive director, editor, and and publisher of San Francisco Classical Voice. His writing has appeared in Salon, Food & Wine, The Industry Standard, Wired, Parenting, Sunset, The Nation, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Lisa Hirsch, a technical writer, studied music at Brandeis and SUNY/Stony Brook. Heuwell Tircuit is a composer, performer, and writer who was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years a music reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote previously for Chicago's American and the Asahi Evening News. Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA and president of Composers Inc. Scott MacClelland has written music criticism and journalism for all the major newspapers on the Monterey Peninsula, and for the Metro papers in Santa Cruz and San Jose. During the same period, he has taught music history for Monterey Peninsula College.)