Previews

Triple Play at Café Du Nord

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.
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Youthful Infernal Machine

Jeff Dunn - November 11, 2009
Donato Cabrera

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

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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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Xuefei Yang

Scott Cmiel - November 10, 2009
Xuefei Yang

When Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang was 15, John Williams heard her play in Beijing and was so impressed that he gave her his own guitar. Yang has g

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At the Symphony: A Real Circus

Jaime Robles - November 10, 2009
Among the cornucopia of holiday events this year, the “Cirque of the Season with the San Francisco Symphony” seems likely to enthrall all members of the family and fill everyone with wonder and amazement.
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Nearing the Finish Line

Joseph Sargent - November 10, 2009
Performing the entire corpus of Joseph Haydn’s 68 (count ’em, 68) string quartets is a feat that some professional string players might equate with finding the Holy Grail, or winning Olympic gold.
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Fresh Genius on the Make

Rebecca Liao - November 10, 2009
Have you heard? Barneys is opening up an additional store in the Mission District for more cutting-edge customers.

OK, I’m kidding. But the imprint of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on the exciting Berkeley Symphony Orchestra concert coming up Dec. 3 is a lot like finding a stash of Balenciaga in an independent boutique.

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PBO's Reason for the Season

Chelsea Nicole Spangler - November 9, 2009

The holiday sales are on, airlines are offering special home-for-the-holidays rates, and pop versions of holiday tunes have already hit the radio airwaves and are playing in malls. Many bemoan the commercialization of the holiday season, and long for a return to a remembered (or perhaps only imagined) past.

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Christmas Pieces, Brand New and Wonderfully Old

Joseph Sargent - November 9, 2009
Traditional December choral concerts, with their well-worn carols and holiday themes, can be great for lifting the spirits. But for concertgoers who want more than just another sing-along, San Francisco Choral Artists’ upcoming program, “Old Chestnuts, New Fire!,” offers a tantalizing alternative.

Brentano String Quartet

Lisa Hirsch - November 3, 2009
The award-winning, Princeton-based Brentano String Quartet has a proven ability to create unusual programs.This year, the quartet brings to Cal Performances a program of two lyrical masters of the quartet form, in which Franz Schubert's Quartettsatz, D. 703, and Quartet in G Major, D.