Features

Music News: May 5, 2009

Janos Gereben - May 5, 2009

S.F. Opera Opts For Being Safe, Not Sorry

The economic downturn, which has hit art organizations with the double whammy of declining contributions and a drop in ticket sales, is really wreaking havoc on opera companies — always troubled by production costs, which are inevitably the highest among performing organizations.

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Deep Listening: Music, Our Brains, Ourselves

Jesse Hamlin - April 28, 2009

Like a lot of us, monkeys generally prefer a Russian lullaby to German techno music. But given a choice between music and silence, the apes opt for quiet. It seems their brains simply aren’t wired to enjoy music or pay it much mind. “They don’t care about it,” said Vinod Menon, the noted Stanford neuroscientist who’s deeply engaged in research on music and the brain.

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Music News: April 28, 2009

Janos Gereben - April 28, 2009

The Merolini are Coming!

With over half a century of tradition and a $2.1 million annual operating budget, the Merola Opera Program has begun its 2009 program by selecting 29 artists from eight countries for three months of coaching, training, and performances.

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Classical Bargains: The $20 Challenge

Lisa Petrie - April 21, 2009

Economic times are tough these days, for sure.

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Music News: April 21, 2009

Janos Gereben - April 21, 2009

Cabrillo Goes Global

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Handel’s Little-Known Third Oratorio: The Juicy, Murderous Athalia

Jonathan Rhodes Lee - April 14, 2009

George Frideric Handel is, perhaps, the 18th-century composer most frequently associated with a sin

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Music News: April 14, 2009

Janos Gereben - April 14, 2009

Bates Preview at YouTube Symphony

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Comedy and Its Other

Stephanie Friedman - April 7, 2009

Being funny, it seems, is serious business. Many years ago, I prepared an audition piece for a critique by an acting coach. My tastes in selecting arias and songs ran to the lugubrious, and someone suggested Dinah’s aria from Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti. As I was singing it for my coach, I noticed she was laughing her head off.

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Music News: April 7, 2009

Janos Gereben - April 7, 2009

Carneiro's Debut Season in Berkeley

In her first season as music director of the Berkeley Symphony Joana Carneiro will not only uphold the Kent Nagano tradition of championing new music, she will go one better than the orchestra's former music director (who often featured music from Berlin and London), by providing mor