Features

Michael Zwiebach - January 13, 2009
It's rare that an interesting new opera simply appears, without the fanfare of commissions and publicity surrounding the premiere. Yet composer Allen Shearer's second opera, The Dawn Makers, is poised to do just that, when it debuts at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre on Feb. 4, conducted by J. Karla Lemon, directed by Brian Staufenbiel, and produced by Composers, Inc.
Janos Gereben - January 6, 2009

What better way to start the new year than by looking back at half a century in the life of one of our most distinguished musicians?

Michael Zwiebach - December 24, 2008

The Bay Area music community and the world lost an important voice and a respected, beloved teacher on Sunday, when composer Jorge Liderman died in an apparent suicide after being hit by a BART train at the El Cerrito Plaza station. He had recently taken a leave of absence from the music department at UC Berkeley in order to treat his depression.

Janos Gereben - December 24, 2008

The Seven Percent ‘Solution’

UPDATE: According to reports from San Francisco City Hall Tuesday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors tabled Aaron Peskin’s budget-cutting proposals, including the 50 percent reduction in support to the Opera, Symphony, Ballet, and other organizations.

Robert P. Commanday - December 16, 2008

Good news does happen, even now. It took a short trip north, a week ago, to find it — but there it was, the Green Music Center, in Rohnert Park.

Georgia Rowe - December 16, 2008
What makes live music so moving? Audiences might have wondered last month, as three Bay Area organizations presented extraordinary performances within the space of little more than a week. First came Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, performed by the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall; also that weekend, the San Francisco Opera revived Puccini’s La Bohème.
December 3, 2008

Classical guitarist David Tanenbaum presented an excellent recital of classical guitar, featured in a variety of chamber music settings, along with one spellbinding solo work on Saturday at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall.

Jerry Kuderna - December 2, 2008
Composer Elliott Carter has been around for 100 years, literally. For 60 of them he has been at the forefront of serious American composition. But, like so many 20th-century composers, his music has had more limited exposure to audiences than his genius warrants. But that may be changing now.
Janos Gereben - November 25, 2008
Religious holidays occur in the context of philosophies favoring the small over the big, the poor over the rich. Accordingly, this report will relegate the usual large and often costly events to an end-of-file roundup. Up front, there will be smaller, less familiar, and less costly events.
Jaime Robles - November 18, 2008
When experience comes to us in fragments, we often set about building them into a pattern that can be easily and neatly understood. That’s part of our human effort to understand the world: the need to find an interpretive key to a confusing set of experiences, but what if?