Artist Spotlights

An Interview With Anthony Martin

Michael Zwiebach - June 15, 2009
Violinist/ violist Anthony Martin is one of the Bay Area’s core of string players who have specialized in early music, or “historically informed performance.” A cofounder of famous ensembles like Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Frans Brueggen's Orchestra of the 18th century, he has viewed the tremendous expansion and growing popularity of early music performance from the trenches.

An Interview With Sarah Cahill

Marianne Lipanovich - June 8, 2009
Sarah Cahill is a pianist who wears a lot of hats, which may account for her high profile among local, Bay Area pianists. She hosts the radio program Then and Now on KALW on Sunday evenings, wrote music reviews for The East Bay Express until the late 1990s, and for San Francisco Classical Voice, when it began, and has commissioned a number of new works for piano.

Robert Cole

Jesse Hamlin - May 19, 2009
When Robert Cole took over Cal Performances in 1986, West Coast arts presenters were pretty much booking whatever came through on tour from the East. He changed all that. Cole, who’s calling it quits this summer after a brilliant and fruitful 23-year run, made things happen here.

Jane Glover's Sense and Sensibility

Lisa Petrie - May 18, 2009

Jane Glover, music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque since 2002 and recently named artistic director of Opera at London’s Royal Academy of Music, is a Baroque scholar, author, and opera conductor with a penchant for modern dance.

Donald Runnicles

Jesse Hamlin - May 13, 2009

In his extraordinary 17-year run as music director of the San Francisco Opera, Donald Runnicles has enriched the cultural life of the Bay Area. As a conductor, he has shaped many memorable performances, bringing forth Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs cycle, John Adams’ Doctor Atomic, and Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise with equal passion and acuity.

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Artist Spotlight

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

Marianne Lipanovich - May 4, 2009
From May 14 through May 19, the New Century Chamber Orchestra will perform its final program of the season, titled "Shadows and Light." The conductorless string orchestra, led by one of the world’s most preeminent violinists, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, will be performing in Berkeley, Palo Alto, Marin, and San Francisco.

Cameron Carpenter

Michael Zwiebach - April 28, 2009

Cameron Carpenter is a rarity in the rarified world of classical organists. Flamboyant and virtuosic in performance, he has earned not only recognition among musicians, but also popularity as a soloist that overshadows all other exponents of the instrument.

Nadya Tichman

Marianne Lipanovich - April 21, 2009
This week, from April 22 through April 25, the San Francisco Symphony will be performing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4 (1935), one of the composer's best. Long-time symphony member and Associate Concertmaster Nadya Tichman is the soloist for the same composer's haunting tone poem, The Lark Ascending (1914, rev. 1920).

Sérgio Assad

Brian Gleeson - April 20, 2009
Life is full for guitarist and composer Sérgio Assad. The Brazilian performs with his brother, Odair, in arguably the best guitar duo on the planet, tours for other ensemble projects, and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jonathan Biss

Lisa Petrie - April 6, 2009

Pianist Jonathan Biss talks about what it's like to grow up in a family of musicians, finding time for tennis and Philip Roth, and what's in store for Bay Area audiences.

Both of your parents are professional musicians: Your mother is violinist Miriam Fried, and your father is violist and violinist Paul Biss. What was family life like growing up?