Michael Zwiebach

The Schola Cantorum San Francisco is one of the Bay Area's finest, professional singing groups. Their Christmas concert for the San Francisco Early Music Society is based on music from Spain's Golden Age and is certain to be one of the choral highlights of the holiday season.

Linda Ronstadt narrates the annual winter concert performance of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Voci Women's Vocal Ensemble hop on the holiday bandwagon with their ninth annual Voices in Peace concert. The small choir goes for broke with an ambitious program ranging from Gregorian chant to Francis Poulenc's Litanies to the Black Virgin. Dedicated to performing music by and for women, the group is featuring Emma Lou Diemer's Hail, O Greenest Branch among their offerings.

The Tallis Scholars sing in Berkeley this week, courtesy of Cal Performances. At the First Congregational Church, they perform one of Josquin des Prez’ greatest works, the sublime Missa de Beata Vergine (Mass of the Blessed Virgin).

J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio is actually six separate cantatas that were designed to be performed in church on Christmas and the following feast-days (the annunciation to the shepherds, Dec. 26; the adoration of the shepherds, Dec. 27; Jesus' name day and circumcision, Jan. 1; the journey of the Magi (the Sunday after New Year's Day); and the feast of Epiphany).

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.