Artist Spotlights

Not Strictly Mozart: An Interview With George Cleve

Lisa Petrie - July 20, 2009
George Cleve is the conductor and founder of the Midsummer Mozart Festival. He was conductor of the San Jose Symphony for 20 years, and continues to conduct both in the U.S. and abroad.

Congratulations on the 35th season of the Midsummer Mozart Festival. What factors do you consider when programming the festival after all of these years?

An Interview With Bruno Weil

Jesse Hamlin - July 13, 2009
Over the last 18 years, Maestro Bruno Weil has transformed the Carmel Bach Festival into a major international event. The seaside festival, which celebrates the music of J.S. Bach and the composers inspired by him, is known for the rich range of its programming and the consistent high quality of its performances.

The Remarkable Accomplishments of Alondra de la Parra

Jason Victor Serinus - July 6, 2009
Not yet 29, conductor Alondra de la Parra made history as the first woman from Mexico to conduct in New York City. In her short career, she has presented more than 20 world premieres by such composers as Clarice Assad, Enrico Chapela, Paul Brantley, Paul Desenne, and Eugenio Toussaint.

In 2000, de la Parra moved to New York City where she received her B.A.

An Interview With Jonathan Khuner

Marianne Lipanovich - June 29, 2009

Jonathan Khuner is a Bay Area classical music fixture. He is artistic and musical director for the Berkeley Opera. He also divides his time between the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera as assistant conductor and a prompter for both companies.

The Berkeley Opera Company is doing The Ballad of Baby Doe this July. Why did you chose this opera?

An Interview With Inon Barnatan

Georgia Rowe - June 17, 2009
At 30, Inon Barnatan has established an international reputation as a pianist of uncommon depth and maturity. The Tel Aviv-born, New York-based artist, who studied with Leon Fleisher and the late Maria Curcio, has earned acclaim in a variety of repertoire from Beethoven to Messiaen to Schubert.

An Interview With Anthony Martin

Michael Zwiebach - June 15, 2009
Violinist/ violist Anthony Martin is one of the Bay Area’s core of string players who have specialized in early music, or “historically informed performance.” A cofounder of famous ensembles like Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Frans Brueggen's Orchestra of the 18th century, he has viewed the tremendous expansion and growing popularity of early music performance from the trenches.

An Interview With Sarah Cahill

Marianne Lipanovich - June 8, 2009
Sarah Cahill is a pianist who wears a lot of hats, which may account for her high profile among local, Bay Area pianists. She hosts the radio program Then and Now on KALW on Sunday evenings, wrote music reviews for The East Bay Express until the late 1990s, and for San Francisco Classical Voice, when it began, and has commissioned a number of new works for piano.

Robert Cole

Jesse Hamlin - May 19, 2009
When Robert Cole took over Cal Performances in 1986, West Coast arts presenters were pretty much booking whatever came through on tour from the East. He changed all that. Cole, who’s calling it quits this summer after a brilliant and fruitful 23-year run, made things happen here.

Jane Glover's Sense and Sensibility

Lisa Petrie - May 18, 2009

Jane Glover, music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque since 2002 and recently named artistic director of Opera at London’s Royal Academy of Music, is a Baroque scholar, author, and opera conductor with a penchant for modern dance.

Donald Runnicles

Jesse Hamlin - May 13, 2009

In his extraordinary 17-year run as music director of the San Francisco Opera, Donald Runnicles has enriched the cultural life of the Bay Area. As a conductor, he has shaped many memorable performances, bringing forth Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs cycle, John Adams’ Doctor Atomic, and Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise with equal passion and acuity.