Jason Victor Serinus

Jason Victor Serinus regularly reviews music and audio for Stereophile, SFCV, Classical Voice North America, AudioStream, American Record Guide, and other publications. The whistling voice of Woodstock in She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, the longtime Oakland resident now resides in Port Townsend, Washington.

Articles By This Author

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Preview

Nuccia Focile and David Lomelí in Recital

Jason Victor Serinus - November 11, 2009
Nuccia Focile

She’s a veteran Sicilian soprano who has sung at the Met, Covent Garden, and La Scala.

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Review

Passion and Fireworks From Joyce DiDonato

Jason Victor Serinus - November 10, 2009

By the time she completes the first astounding 50-second musical statement of “D’Amor al dolce impero” (To the sweet rule of love), mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has delivered her calling card.

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Review

Exciting Young Singers Need Polish

Jason Victor Serinus - November 6, 2009

It’s no wonder that San Francisco Performances’ intimate Italian salon at San Francisco’s Hotel Rex sold out two weeks in advance.

An Interview With Susan Graham: The Intimate Singer

Jason Victor Serinus - November 3, 2009
Texas-born mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is no stranger to these parts. Since 1990, she has sung everything from Monteverdi to Jake Heggie in six different productions with San Francisco Opera, performed several times in concert with the San Francisco Symphony, and sung two recitals here.
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Review

Bryn Terfel Sinks the British Isles

Jason Victor Serinus - October 26, 2009

As powerful as bass-baritone Bryn Terfel’s voice is, it’s not strong enough to sink the British Isles by itself.

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Preview

Cowell, for Days

Jason Victor Serinus - October 26, 2009
Not since winter 1997, when pianist Sarah Cahill organized a three-day piano marathon of works by Henry Cowell (1897-1965) and those he influenced, have Bay Area music lovers had an opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the oeuvre of one of America’s most brilliant musical mavericks. Now, thanks to Charles Amirkhanian’s Other Minds, we can enjoy two different concerts on Nov.
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Review

Lieder Highs

Jason Victor Serinus - October 22, 2009
It was a night of opposites. For the first half of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s semi-annual Lieder Alive concert series in SFCM’s Concert Hall, we had tenor Eleazar Rodriguez, a 2009 Merola Opera participant who is compact of voice and frame.
Feature

In Memoriam: J. Karla Lemon

Jason Victor Serinus - October 20, 2009
Berkeley-raised conductor J. Karla Lemon, who conducted a host of local and national new music ensembles and orchestras between teaching gigs at Stanford University and other institutions, died peacefully at her Oakland home on October 15.
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Preview

S.F. Symphony Day of the Dead Family Fest

Jason Victor Serinus - October 20, 2009
Mexico’s Día de los Muertos is hardly a day for mourning. A celebration of those who have died, it centers on offerings of food, flowers, and fanciful ceremonial altars for the departed.

“We make our offering to the dead at either the cemetery or home,” explains conductor Alondra de la Parra, who makes her much-anticipated San Francisco Symphony debut with a Nov.

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Review

Pan-Cultural Beauty and Longing for Kim Kashkashian

Jason Victor Serinus - October 19, 2009

Award-winning producer Manfred Eicher’s transcendent vision for his ECM New Series recordings defies simple categorization. A case in point is violist Kim Kashkashian's Neharót, a collection of unusual, oft-rarefied pieces that transcend national and genre boundaries, the recording touches the heart with its universal expressions of longing and prayer.