fun stuff I may or may not get to: March

March is coming in like a lion and going out like a lion – just a scary-busy month, if you are theatrically/musically inclined.

The Other Minds Festival has its annual three-day run of new music March 3-5 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco.

Volti combines with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir for a program of new choral music in various locales, March 4-6.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents a concert version of Handel’s great opera Alcina March 5 (evening) and 6 (matinee). It’s free but tickets are required; you can reserve them by calling 415-503-6275 or at www.sfcm.edu. And on Saturday March 12, their BluePrint New Music Ensemble presents the world premiere of Manly Romero's Doppelganger, winner of the inaugural Hoefer Prize.

ACT presents Pinter’s The Homecoming, March 3-27.

Berkeley/West Edge Opera presents Buffy Baggott in The Carmen Fixation, an adaptation of Bizet, March 5, 9, 11, and 13.

On Thursday March 10 the Berkeley Symphony offers music by Stravinsky (Symphonies of Wind Instruments), Shostakovich (Chamber Symphony, Op 110a), and MacMillan (Seven Last Words from the Cross).

Cutting Ball Theater presents Lady Grey (in ever lower light) and other plays, by Will Eno, starting March 11 and running through April 10.

Saturday, March 19, Chora Nova presents “Of Loss and Longing: Music of Rheinberger and Mendelssohn” at First Congregational in Berkeley.

March 18-20 in various locales Magnificat joins with the Dell’Arte Company to present Orazio Vecchi’s L’Amfiparnaso.

The San Francisco Symphony presents the Mass in B minor March 16, 18, 19, and 20.

March 19-27, San Francisco Ballet presents Balanchine’s Coppelia.

March 24-27 in various locales New Century Chamber Orchestra presents an evening of Schubert (lieder sung by Melody Moore), Bach, and Mendelssohn.

On Friday March 25 Old First Concerts presents Composers Inc. in a celebration of Andrew Imbrie, featuring works by Imbrie and his students and colleagues.

Cal Performances presents the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in its final tour, March 3-5; on March 13 they have Les Percussions de Strasbourg in the afternoon and Jonas Kaufmann making his local debut in the evening; the next day, they present a “composer portrait” concert in honor of Pierre Boulez; March 24-27 they have the Castleton Festival Opera in two performances each of The Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring; and March 26-27 they have the Tallis Scholars in “the Victoria project,” a two-day exploration of music by Tomas Luis de Victoria and other Spanish Renaissance composers.

San Francisco Performances also starts the month off with dance: the Stephen Petronio Company in the west coast premiere of I Drink the Air Before Me, set to music by Nico Muhly. On March 8, SFP presents the Pacifica Quartet, whom I love for their marathons of the Elliott Carter string quartets (and I love San Francisco Performances for presenting the Carter marathon twice), along with clarinetist Jorg Widmann in music by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Widmann himself, and Brahms. On March 18, they present baritone Christopher Maltman in recital; on March 20, Julie Albers on cello and Adam Neiman on piano in works by Beethoven, de Falla, and Rachmaninoff; on March 24, violinist Leila Josefowicz along with pianist John Novacek in works by Brahms, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Tuur, and Schubert; and March 30 through April 3, the Paul Taylor Dance Company in three different programs.