One of my favorite music organizations and venues, 405 Shrader — San Francisco's intimate concert hall (40 or so seats) — opens another one of its always free seasons on April 4, with ZOFO, the one-piano-four-hand team of Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi. The Steinway Artists, with two Grammy nominations, will play Gustav Holst’s Jupiter, Urmas Sisask’s The Milky Way, and Francesco Di Fiore’s The West Coast Point of View.
405 Shrader founders/directors Ellen and Michael Milensky say "many of the concerts are by young Bay Area artists who have come together into chamber groups to explore both new and old, even standard repertory." The next event, on April 18, is by One Art Ensemble — soprano Ann Moss, pianist Hillary Nordwell, and violist Alexa Beattie — who explore the rather limited repertory forthat combination.
The center of their program are songs by William Bolcom, composed for soprano Benita Valente and mezzo Tatiana Troyanos — before they were finished, Troyanos had died of cancer thus Bolcom replaced her voice with viola.
The Trinity Alps Chamber Players arrive on May 9 in the configuration of clarinet, violin, cello and piano for a program of Brahms, Bartok and Mason Bates’ Red River. The Phonochrome ensemble, flute, cello and piano, follows on May 16 to perform George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale, and the Eusebius Duo come on May 30 to play the Strauss and Schumann violin sonatas (Eusebius was Schumann’s name for the lyric side of his musical personality).
Performers on other of the Friday evening concerts: on May 9, mezzo-soprano Betany Coffland sings a concert of mostly Spanish songs with her friend, Aaron Caplan-Larget, a guitarist from Boston, and on May 23, viola da gambist Amy Brodo and harpsichordist Katherine Heater perform works from the French and German Baroques.
405 Shrader's Grotrian concert grand piano will serve pianist Jason Chiu when he performs the four Chopin Ballads on April 23, and 405 Shrader proprietor Ellen Milenski who completes her late Beethoven cycle with Op. 111 on June 6.
Concerts are on Friday evenings at 7 p.m.. There is no formal charge but the musicians appreciate appreciation of their work, and when the hat is passed around, a $10 donation is encouraged. A glass of wine is offered following the concerts to encourage conviviality, an integral part of an evening at 405 Shrader.
And one more thing: "reservations are absolutely essential and are made only by e-mail" — [email protected] — and they must be confirmed. With "40 or so seats" order must prevail even in the midst of conviviality.