Starting with hundreds of events at the S.F. Conservatory of Music, the Bay Area is blessed with free concerts; here are just two prominent ones this week:
The Morrison Artists Series of the San Francisco State University, free concerts since 1956, has a grand event coming up on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m. in the university's McKenna Theater: the St. Petersburg String Quartet and pianist Mack McCray perform Schumann’s Piano Quintet in Eb Major, Op. 44 (1842) and Cesar Franck’s Piano Quintet in F Minor (1864); the quartet adds Britten’s Three Divertimenti for String Quartet (1936).
Note: These concerts require reservations, easy to get online. Reserve early as this concert is sure to "sell out" completely.
Just across the Golden Gate Bridge, another organization continues its own 14-year-old program of free concerts. Laurie Cohen conducts the Mill Valley Philharmonic in Debussy's Danses sacrée et profane, with harpist Bertina Mitchell; Honegger's Pacific 231, and Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World").
Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, and 4 p.m. on Nov. 16 at Mill Valley's Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church; at 2 p.m. on Nov. 17 at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael. The JCC concert alone requires (free) pre-registration online.