Lisa Petrie

Choosing a concert geared for the entire family can be tricky, yet local ensembles and presenters are going out of their way this fall to design the tastiest classical kid’s-menu possible. Here are a few that are sure to be of interest to both the younger and older sets, introducing music, soft serve. 

Philip Glass needs no introduction as one of today’s most influential composers. He’s a chief architect of the minimalist style, though today he reserves that term for his earlier compositions. As comfortable collaborating with conductor Dennis Russell Davies as with rock icon David Bowie, he composes works that blur the boundaries between classical music and contemporary culture. Here, he talks with SFCV about his busy touring schedule, the possibility of wedding bells, keeping a vegan diet, and how he has changed as a composer.

Music@Menlo has kicked off its eighth season, bringing a burst of chamber music to the Peninsula. Each summer, esteemed guest artists thrill audiences in the concert hall, but that’s not all. The dream of working with them in the rehearsal studio is what brings top talent to the Chamber Music Institute. Meet the Gray siblings, two such aspiring teen musicians who have journeyed from Illinois for this intensive learning experience.

It’s time for sentimental pirates, crazy cops, gleeful maidens, an incompetent Major General, and a spirited chorus to tread the boards, as Lamplighters Music Theater opens its 2010-2011 season July 29 with the comedic Gilbert and Sullivan favorite The Pirates of Penzance. Its jokes, which have tickled funny bones for over 130 years, are still funny. That is, thanks to the impeccable timing and expertise of actors/singers in a company that remains one of the foremost Gilbert and Sullivan repertory troupes in the U.S.

The career path of a professional musician is not standard, by any means. The steps are only loosely prescribed, and the journey is wildly varied. Those who make it create their own opportunities, especially a young string quartet striving to carve out a place in a field with no job description. Meet the Hausmann String Quartet — first violinist Isaac Allen, second violinist Bram Goldstein, violist Angela Choong, and cellist Yuan Zhang — a dynamic young quartet that’s on the way up, pursuing a lifetime of chamber music one day at a time.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and apparently more than one way to pick a guitar. At the San Francisco Guitar Summit, guitarists will perform works that pick, strum, bend, scrape, soothe, and electrify the senses, in almost the widest range of musical styles possible in one evening. From classical to world fusion, this concert provokes new ideas of what the guitar is all about.

Violist Kazuhide Isomura, founding member of the Tokyo String Quartet, talks about his obsession with string quartet literature, becoming more spontaneous over the years, and rehearsing in different languages.

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus champion the “new” once again. In concerts May 19-23, they tackle a monumental, relatively obscure choral work by Stravinsky, while introducing the brilliant talents of EXAUDI, guest vocal soloists from the U.K.

One Art Ensemble turns one year old this month, giving it reason to celebrate. The ensemble — soprano Ann Moss, pianist Hillary Nordwell, and violist Alexa Beattie — has everything going for it: talent, youth, musicality, and the ensemble chops it has developed in various configurations together since 2004.