Previews

Michael Zwiebach - November 24, 2009

Sacred and Profane is another Bay Area chorus that flies, or sings, underneath the radar. But in its 32-year existence, this Berkeley-based group (which still sports one original member) has been led by several well-regarded music directors, who have kept this community chamber chorus vital. For the last five years, their leader has been Rebecca Seeman, a director who approaches programming like a watchmaker.

Brian Gleeson - November 24, 2009
Few classical guitarists are more famous for introducing audiences to the richness and beauty of the instrument than Pepe Romero.
Michelle Dulak Thomson - November 24, 2009
Most schools of music host concert series, not only by their own students and faculty but also by local (or even visiting) artists: What better way to keep the students inside in touch with the professional music community outside?
Joseph Sargent - November 23, 2009
Although George Frideric Handel was a German-born composer who spent much of his career in England, holiday performances of his oratorio Messiah have become as American as apple pie.
Lisa Petrie - November 23, 2009
The next San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra performance, like others before it, offers a chance to hear an incredibly talented, select group of students “on their game,” expressing their repertoire with the fresh energy of youth, a willingness to take chances, and the musical chops to carry it off. Yet it is also the embodiment of one individual’s musical journey.
Kaneez Munjee - November 23, 2009
The glorious sounds of choral music for the Christmas season come in many forms, and the California Bach Society’s “Advent in Dresden 1620” concerts, presented Dec.
Janos Gereben - November 23, 2009

Marino Formenti may be an amazing virtuoso pianist, an "eccentric titan of the keyboard," and "a Glenn Gould for the 21st century," but he doesn't particularly care to be called a pianist. He considers himself a musician, who mainly plays the piano. 

Michael Zwiebach - November 17, 2009
A new Anonymous 4 program is always a bright occasion — and not only for those for whom the group’s music represents meditative release. (My wife had Miracles of Sant’Iago on endless loop during her labor with our second child.
Jeff Kaliss - November 17, 2009
Two things in common among the three acts to be featured at San Francisco’s Café du Nord at the end of November are telegraphed in the hyphen-heavy of the Classical Revolution event: “A Triple-Bill of Post-Classical Composer Ensembles.” But there’s a third, perhaps more revealing element. All three composers — Matt McBane, George Hurd, and Jack Curtis Dubowsky — have written for film.
Jeff Dunn - November 11, 2009
Donato Cabrera

For some young musicians just learning to play together, the “infernal machine” can be the orchestra itself.