fun stuff I may or may not get to: February 2014

Theater:

At the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts you can see Young Jean Lee's Untitled Feminist Show, 30 January to 1 February.

At Cutting Ball Theater Ubu Roi, in a new translation by Rob Melrose, continues through 23 February. And on Sunday 9 February if you'd like some dark-tinged Eastern European absurdity, you can experience The Police by Slawomir Mrozek, directed by Rem Myers, in the Hidden Classics Reading Series.

Shotgun Players presents Just Theater's production of A Maze, written by Rob Handel and directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb, 14 February to 9 March, at the Ashby Stage.

San Francisco Playhouse presents the west coast premiere of Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, directed by Bill English, 21 January to 8 March.

New Music:

On 1 February you can hear the Del Sol Quartet in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Alumni Recital Series, playing works by Ken Ueno, Lembit Beecher, Mason Bates, and Chinary Ung.

Earplay presents works by Tamar Diesendruck, George Crumb, Dan Reiter, David Schiff, and Ann Calloway on 10 February at the ODC Theater (3153 17th Street in San Francisco).

At the Center for New Music you can hear west coast premieres by Mohammed Fairouz played by the Del Sol Quartet and pianist Lara Downes on 25 February. Find more info on that here, and the Center's other concerts here.

Symphonic:

Seguing from the new music section, we have the Berkeley Symphony presenting the world premiere of Samuel Carl Adams' Violin Concerto, with soloist Anthony Marwood, as well as Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite and Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony; Joana Carneiro conducts. 6 February at Zellerbach Hall.

At the San Francisco Symphony, Osmo Vänskä leads the Sibelius 6 as well as that composer's Night Ride and Sunrise, along with Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with pianist Daniil Trifonov, 30 January to 1 February; Lionel Bringuier conducts Ravel's La Valse, Dutilleux's Métaboles, and the Brahms Piano Concerto 2 with soloist Hélène Grimaud, 5 - 7 February; and Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the Mahler 3 with the glorious Sasha Cooke as mezzo-soprano soloist, 27 February and 1-2 March; get details and this month's other SF Symphony concerts here.

Baroque Music:

Ya-Fei Chuang on fortepiano and Robert Levin on harpsichord join conductor Nicholas McGegan as Philharmonia Baroque continues its musical grand tour through eighteenth-century Europe with stops in Berlin and Vienna, as represented by works of Haydn and CPE Bach, 5 and 7 - 9 February; check here for more information, including concert locations. On 6 February at the SF Jazz Center PBO is presenting a variant of this concert, shortened and interspersed with discussions of the instruments and the music as well as projections, followed by a reception; more details on that here.

The American Bach Soloists present their titular master's Missa Brevis in G Major, Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major, and Herkules auf dem Scheidewege (Hercules at the Crossroads) with vocal soloists Kathryn Mueller, Ian Howell, Derek Chester, and Jesse Blumberg, 21 - 24 February, in different location each day; check here for details.

Operatic:

New Century Chamber Orchestra presents operatic pleasantries (by Mascagni, Verdi, Massenet, and Strausses both Richard and Johann) arranged for string orchestra, along with the main event, Donizetti's one-act comedy Rita, with vocal soloists Maria Valdes, Thomas Glenn, and Efraín Solís; 12 and 14 - 16 February; check here for concert locations and other information.

Dance:

San Francisco Ballet alternates Program 2 (From Foreign Lands, Borderlands, and a world premiere from Val Caniparoli, 18 February to 1 March) and Program 3 (Firebird, Ghosts, and the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère, 20 February to 2 March). They are also presenting the Hamburg Ballet in John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream (12 - 13 February). Neumeier was the choreographer of the brilliant Little Mermaid, set to Lera Auerbach's score.

Soloists/Chamber Music:

San Francisco Performances presents violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien playing Mozart, Cage, Webern, and Beethoven on 15 February; pianist Christian Zacharias playing Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann on 16 February; and pianist Lise de la Salle playing Brahms, Schumann, Ravel, and Debussy on 28 February.

All of the Above:

Cal Performances presents what is sure to be a highlight, Gerald Finley with Julius Drake on piano performing Schubert's Winterreise, on 2 February. The Martha Graham Dance Company performs in Zellerbach 31 January to 1 February. Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and the Venice Baroque Orchestra perform works by Veracini, Porpora, Vivaldi, and Geminiani on 7 February. The resident new-music group, the Eco Ensemble, plays works by Bedrossian, Ligeti, and Jodlowski on 22 February. And the Calder Quartet plays Schoenberg and Schubert on 23 February.