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Pianists Among S.F. Performances Season's Stars

Janos Gereben on April 15, 2014
Philip Glass Photo by Fernando_Aceves
Philip Glass
Photo by Fernando_Aceves

As you will see below, there are many attractions of the next San Francisco Performances season, announced today, but the Shenson Piano Series is especially impressive for 2014-2015:

* Gilmore Award-winner and Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz on Oct. 14
* Yuja Wang returns to the city she rightly considers her second home on Dec. 1 (performing in Davies Symphony Hall, while the other recitals are held in SFJAZZ)
* Dubravka Tomsic performs a program of Chopin, Schubert, Wagner-Liszt, Scriabin, Granados, and Albeniz on April 19, 2015
* Stephen Hough plays works by Debussy and Chopin on May 12, 2015

Apart from the Shenson Series, Garrick Ohlsson performs all-Scriabin programs over two recitals, Dec. 7 and March 14, at SFJAZZ.

Among other highlights of the 35th season, German baritone Christian Gerhaher makes his debut; Wendy Whelan debuts her dance project, Restless Creature with four other choreographers; Philip Glass performs his complete etudes with Timo Andres and Maki Namekawa; Batsheva celebrates its 50th anniversary season; Lera Auerbach's chamber works are performed by the composer, violinist Daniel Hope, and cellist Joshua Roman; MacArthur Fellow Alisa Weilerstein performs in a solo cello recital.

Wendy Whelan Photo by Nisian Hughes
Wendy Whelan
Photo by Nisian Hughes

In the chamber music series, Austria's famed Hagen Quartet makes its debut in the music of Mozart, Shostakovich and Brahms, Nov. 1 in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church; the Takács Quartet returns to perform March 15 at SFJAZZ in an all-Schubert program; the young English Elias Quartet will be at St. Mark's on March 30 with an all-Beethoven program. A unique addition to this season’s chamber series is a piano quintet composed by S.F. Performances Jazz Artist-in-Residence and 2013 MacArthur Fellow Vijay Iyer for himself and the famed Brentano Quartet. The S.F. debut of the quintet is May 10 at the SFJAZZ Center.

San Francisco Performances founder/president Ruth Felt says:

In this our 35th Season we are proud to present significant San Francisco debuts, namely baritone Christian Gerhaher, the acclaimed Hagen Quartet and ballet star Wendy Whelan. And these are just a few highlights among the return of so many of our favorite artists including Philip Glass, Alisa Weilerstein, Hilary Hahn, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company.