The usual caveats apply about checking current masking/vaccination requirements & then checking those against your own comfort level. This past month there was a concert postponement due not to illness but water damage from our recent storms; it's almost refreshing to have a different type of disaster strike.
Theatrical
The Oakland Theater Project presents the world premiere of Exodus to Eden, written & directed by Michael Socrates Moran, a surrealist music-studded epic about travelers on "a journey eastward, confronting environmental devastation, lost hopes, and terrifying dreamscapes that eventually collide with their waking life" & that runs 3 - 26 February.
TheatreFIRST presents Tom Swift's A Marriage, directed by Richard A Mosqueda, examining a 40-year relationship between two men, & that runs from 3 to 19 February.
Theater Rhinoceros presents a free staged reading of Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson) by Rachel Lynett, directed by Kimberly Ridgeway, on 7 February; the play is a about a future all-black state that realizes it needs to define "blackness".
ACT presents The Headlands by Christopher Chen, directed by Pam MacKinnon, about a true crime fan who ends up investigating the mysteries of his own life, & that runs 9 February to 5 March at the Toni Rembe Theater (& at some point I'll stop noting that it's the Theater formerly known as The Geary).
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Little Women: The Musical (book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, music by Jason Howland) on 16 - 17 February.
On 16 - 18 February, Cutting Ball Theater along with the Poltergeist Theatre Project present Gaslit by Chris Steele & Sean Owens, a "Trans Drag Parody" one-person version of the old stage & cinema chestnut.
Cambodian Rock Band, written by Lauren Yee & directed by Chay Yew, is a rock musical (featuring songs by Dengue Fever) about a survivor of the Khmer Rouge returning to Cambodia after 30 years, where his daughter is preparing to prosecute a war criminal; & that comes to Berkeley Rep from 25 February through 2 April.
The shipboard antics of Cole Porter's Anything Goes (with a revised book by Timothy Crouse & John Weidman, directed by Nick Ishimaru) come to 42nd Street Moon's Gateway Theater from 23 February to 12 March.
Theater Rhinoceros presents Ken Urban's A Guide for the Homesick, directed by Alan S Quismorio, about a young aid worker in Amsterdam returning from a year in East Africa & meeting up with a fellow American, & that runs 23 February to 19 March.
Berkeley Playhouse presents the 2015 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Fun Home (book & lyrics by Lisa Kron, music by Jeanine Tesori, based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel), directed by William Thomas Hodgson (assistant directed by Sam Jackson, music directed by Michael Patrick Wiles), from 24 February to 2 April.
Talking
Cal Performances presents This American Life's Ira Glass at Zellerbach Hall on 11 February.
Cal Performances presents A Conversation with Rita Moreno on 26 February at Zellerbach Hall.
Operatic
Opera Parallèle presents Everest at Z Space on 3 - 5 & 8 - 12 February; the opera, with text by Gene Scheer & music by Joby Talbot, uses graphic-novel-style illustrations & video to create an immersive experience of a disastrous 1996 expedition to the famous mountain; Nicole Paiement conducts & the cast includes Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), Nathan Granner (tenor), Kevin Burdette (bass), Hadleigh Adams (baritone), Matt Boehler (bass), Charlotte Fanvu (treble), Shawnette Sulker (soprano), Whitney Steele (mezzo-soprano), & Kevin Gino (tenor) – though please note that the singers are all pre-recorded & will not be singing the performances live – & the design team includes Brian Staufenbiel (director & creator), Mark Simmons (Illustrator), David Murakami (Projection Designer & Director of Photography), Jacquelyn Scott (Scenic Designer), & Miles Lassi (Sound Engineer).
Vocalists
Soprano Sarah Cambidge & tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, accompanied by pianist Peter Grünberg, will perform a selection of love songs & duets for Lieder Alive! at the Noe Valley Ministry on 12 February.
Orchestral
Edwin Outwater conducts the San Francisco Symphony in Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (with soloist Conrad Tao) & Gabriel Kahane's emergency shelter intake form (with mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran & other vocalists, including Kahane himself), & that's on 2 - 3 February.
Conductor Earl Lee, joined by soprano Sumi Jo, helps the San Francisco Symphony celebrate the lunar Year of the Rabbit on 5 February, with works by An-lun Huang, Huang Tzu, Geung-Su Lim, Huang Ruo, Tyzen Hsiao, Du-nam Cho, Hong-ryeol Lee, & Zhou Tian.
Philharmonia Baroque, led by Richard Egarr, will perform both of the Saint-Saëns cello concertos (with Steven Isserlis as soloist) along with the Brahms 2 on 9 February at Herbst Theater, 10 February at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 11 - 12 February at First Church in Berkeley. Isserlis will also be conducting a Master Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 8 February.
Music Director
David Milnes will lead the
UC-Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Strauss's
Don Juan & Bartók's
Concerto for Orchestra on
10 - 11 February in Hertz Hall.
Edwin Outwater will lead the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra in a world premiere from Sumi Tonooka, Barber's
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (with soprano soloist Taylor See), & the Bartók
Concerto for Orchestra on
11 February.
Herbert Blomstedt conducts the
San Francisco Symphony in Jan Václav Voříšek's
Symphony in D Major (an SFS premiere) & the Dvořák 8 on
9, 10, & 12 February.
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen is leading several programs at the San Francisco Symphony this month: on 17 - 19 February, there's Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, the Bartók Piano Concerto 2 (with soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard), & selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet; on 20 February, there's the Grieg Piano Concerto (with Lang Lang as soloist) & the Sibelius 5; & on 23, 25, & 26 February, there's the world premiere of SFS Commission No Such Spring by Samuel Adams & the Bruckner 6.
On 24 February at the Paramount Theater, Vinay Parameswaran leads the Oakland Symphony in Notes from California, which includes Gabriella Smith's Tumblebird Contrails, Debussy's En blanc et noir (orchestrated by Robin Holloway), Reena Esmail's History of Red (with soprano soloist Kathryn Mueller), & Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements.
Chamber Music
On 3 February, Old First Concerts presents the Greek Chamber Music Project (vocalist Katerina Clambaneva, flutist Ellie Falaris Ganelin, cellist Lewis Patzner, & pianist Elektra Schmidt) in Uproot: Music from Asia Minor, memorializing the ethnic cleansing known as the 1923 Population Exchange.
Cal Performances presents cellist David Finckel & pianist Wu Han in Hertz Hall on 5 February, when they will play works by Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Pierre Jalbert (a California premiere), & Shostakovich.
Violinist Alexander Barantschik, cellist Peter Wyrick, & pianist Anton Nel of the San Francisco Symphony will be at the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor on 5 February to perform chamber works by Beethoven, Schubert, & Saint-Saëns.
The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director & violist Ben Simon, will present a Mozart Birthday Celebration, featuring "a bassoon duo, a flute quartet, and his incredible clarinet quintet" on 6 February at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley (yes, Mozart's actual birthday is 27 January, but he's surely deserving of an extended celebration).
San Francisco Performances, in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts, presents guitarist Sean Shibe & the Van Kuijk Quartet at Herbst Theater on 10 February, where they will perform pieces by Mendelssohn, Boccherini, Thomas Adès, Manuel de Falla, Poulenc, & Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Chamber Music San Francisco presents the Aris Quartet in a program of Mozart, Mendelsson, & Grieg at Herbst Theater on 11 February.
San Francisco Performances continues its Saturday morning lecture/performance series, Music as a Mirror of Our World: Chamber Music at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, with musicologist Robert Greenberg & the Alexander String Quartet, on 18 February at Herbst Theater, this time centering on Hungary & the music of Béla Bartók & Zoltán Kodály.
San Francisco Performances presents its annual PIVOT festival at Herbst Theater from 21 to 23 February; this year the concerts all feature the excellent Catalyst Quartet (I heard them last season) in three different programs featuring works by women or composers of color that should be standard repertory but aren't yet; each concert features a string quartet by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St Georges as well as works by: (on February 21) Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Miguel Bernal-Jimenez, Rebecca Clarke, & Amy Beach; (on February 22) Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Teresa Carreño, & Ethel Smyth; (on February 23) Germaine Tailleferre, Antonio Carlos Gomes, & Fanny Mendelssohn.
On 24 February at Old First Concerts, the Bardin-Niskala Duo (cellist An-Lin Bardin & pianist Naomi Niskala) perform Songs Reimagined, a program of west coast premieres of music inspired by "a childhood song or folk song from the composer’s heritage", including commissioned works by Yiheng Yvonne Wu, Juantio Becenti, Miguel del Aguila, Michael-Thomas Foumai, & Jean “Rudy” Perrault, as well as pieces by Chihchun Chi-sun Lee, William Grant Still, & Reena Esmail.
Instrumentalists
San Francisco Performances presents violinist Midori in two solo recitals, both featuring Bach & modern works: on 2 February she plays Bach's Sonata #2 for Solo Violin in A Minor, BWV 1003, his Sonata #3 for Solo Violin in C Major, BWV 1005, his Violin Partita #2 in D Minor, BWV 1004, along with Thierry Escaich's Nun Komm & Annie Gosfield's Long Waves and Random Pulses (acoustic version); then on 5 February she plays Bach's Sonata #1 for Solo Violin in G Minor, BWV 1001, his Violin Partita #1 in B Minor, BWV 1002, & his Violin Partita #3 in E Major, BWV 1006, along with Jessie Montgomery's Rhapsody #1 & John Zorn's Passagen; both concerts are at Herbst Theater.
The taiko drummers of Kodo visit Cal Performances & Zellerbach Hall on 4 - 5 February with Tsuzumi: One Earth Tour, looking back over the ensemble's 40-year history &, of course, forward with some new compositions.
On 5 February Old First Concerts presents pianist Gabriela Calderón Cornejo in a performance of neglected music by mid-twentieth century Latin American women, including Carmen Barradas, Nelly Mele Lara, Maruja Hinestroa, Aurora Román Casares, & María Mendoza de Baratta.
Cal Performances presents pianist Jeremy Denk on 12 February at Hertz Hall, playing works by Bach, Schubert, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, “Blind Tom” Wiggins, Scott Joplin & Louis Chauvin, Frederic Rzewski, & Beethoven.
Flutist Clare Chase, joined by as-yet unnamed members of the San Francisco Symphony, will perform two works by Marcos Balter, Alone & Pan, on 24 February as part of the Symphony's SoundBox series (though with a reasonable start time of 7:30, rather than the usual series absurdity of 9:00).
Chamber Music San Francisco presents pianist Olga Kern in an all-Rachmaninov program at Herbst Theater on 25 February.
Cal Performances presents violinist Alexi Kenney performing music by Bach, Reena Esmail, Paul Wiancko, Du Yun, Nicola Matteis, Matthew Burtner, Giuseppe Colombi, Samuel Adams, & California premieres from Angélica Negrón & Salina Fisher at Hertz Hall on 26 February.
Old First Concerts presents pianist Daniela Mineva in Transfigured Voices, a program featuring pieces by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Galina Ustvolskaya, & Sofia Gubaidulina, on 26 February.
Early / Baroque Music
Jeffrey Thomas leads the American Bach Soloists is a program titled Bravura Bach, featuring works not only by Bach but also Telemann & Vivaldi, on 3 February at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 4 February at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 5 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 6 February at Davis Community Church in Davis.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents the Historical Performance Concerto Winners' Concert on 12 February, featuring John Garth's Concerto for Violoncello in D Major, Opus 1, #1 (with Kyle Stachnik on baroque cello), Bach's Concerto for Harpsichord in D Minor, BWV 1052 (with Yunyi Ji on harpsichord), Boismortier's Concerto for Violoncello in D Major, Opus 26, #6 (with Octavio Mujica on baroque cello), Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor, RV 523 (with Annemarie Schubert & Eliana Estrada on baroque violin), & Vivaldi's Concerto for Violoncello in D Minor, RV 407 (with Hasan Abualhaj on baroque cello).
Philharmonia Baroque has one of its informal PBO Sessions concerts on 16 February at the ODC Theater; this one will feature Nola Richardson (soprano), Davóne Tines (bass-baritone & PBO Creative Partner), David Belkovski (keyboard), Kevin Payne (theorbo), & William Skeen (cello), alternating early & contemporary works, including pieces by Purcell, Katherine Balch, Geminiani, keyboardist Belkovski, Monteverdi, Tyshawn Sorey, & an open rehearsal piece to be announced.
Voices of Music gives us Musica Transalpina: Chamber music from Italy and England, featuring works by Uccellini, Marini, Corelli, Matteis, Purcell. & Handel, on 17 February at First Congregational in Palo Alto, 18 February at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 19 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
San Francisco Renaissance Voices will perform works by Monteverdi, Byrd, Tallis, Allegri, & Palestrina at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco on 18 February.
The Handel Opera Project presents his great oratorio Jephtha on 26 February at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley. conducted by William G Ludtke & featuring Jonathan Smucker (Jephtha), Angela Jarosz (Iphis), Reuben Zellman (Hamor), Kathleen Miller (Storge), Bradley Kynard (Zebul), & Jennifer Mitchell (Angel).
Modern / Contemporary Music
Cal Performances presents the Eco Ensemble, led by David Milnes, in new works by Edmund Campion (the contemporary composer, not the Elizabethan martyr), Toshio Hosokawa (this work & the Campion are both American premieres), Cindy Cox, Amadeus Julian Regucera, & Ken Ueno, & you can hear them 4 February at Hertz Hall.
At the Center for New Music on 11 February, Bay Area members of NACUSA (National Association of Composers/USA) will present Music as Winter Fades: instrumental, vocal, & electroacoustic chamber music by Douglas Ovens, Monica Chew, Amy Stephens, Shelli Nan, Mary Fineman, Allan Crossman, John Bilotta, & Karl Schmidt.
Nicole Paiement leads the San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble on 15 February in a program including works by Nick Benavides, Sarah Wald, Yangfan Xu, & Jason Hainsworth.
The California College for the Arts Wattis Institute presents Raven Chacon’s American Ledger #1, conducted by Andy Meyerson, along with an audio visual accompaniment by Music Research Strategies titled Deep Phonology: Technique and Sound Become Visual and Transformative, at The Lab on 16th Street in San Francisco on 25 February.
Jazz & Gospel
Trumpeter & composer Ambrose Akinmusire will be a Resident Artistic Director at the SF Jazz Center this month: on 3 February, his usual quartet (Akinmusire on trumpet, Sam Harris on piano, Harish Raghavan on bass, & Timothy Angulo on drums) will be joined by tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman; on 4 February he will appear as one of the Martin Lawrence Trio, along with Mike Aaberg on keyboards & Thomas Pridgen on drums; on 5 February he will play in a duo with bassist Ron Carter; & on 9 February he will give a solo concert at Grace Cathedral.
The Blind Boys of Alabama will appear at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 8 February.
Trumpeter/vocalist/proponent of the "hot jazz" style Bria Skonberg will play the SF Jazz Center from 9 to 12 February.
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir will perform its 8th Annual Black History Month Celebration at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 12 February.
The Tord Gustavsen Trio (Gustavsen on piano, Steinar Raknes on bass, & Jarle Vepestad on drums) visits the SF Jazz Center on 22 February.
Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington will be a Resident Artistic Director at the SF Jazz Center this month: on 23 February she introduces her new band, the Art of Living Quintet (Milena Casado Fauquet on trumpet & flugelhorn, Morgan Guerin on saxophone & various instruments, Devon Gates on bass, & Kris Davis on piano); on 24 February, with a group including Michael Mayo on vocals, Etienne Charles on trumpet, Matthew Stevens on guitar, Kris Davis on piano, & Linda May Han Oh on bass, Carrington will perform from New Standards, her recent compilation of jazz tunes by women, including Carla Bley, Cassandra Wilson, Marilyn Crispell, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Eliane Elias, Jaime Branch, Luciana Souza, Hiromi, Emily Remler, Anat Cohen, & others; & on 25 - 26 February she will present Seen / Unseen, a multi-media work exploring the lives of Black women, with live video accompaniment by artist Mickalene Thomas & movement from dancer Babatunji Johnson, along with music led by composer Edmar Colon & performed by the Del Sol Quartet, Etienne Charles on trumpet. Elena Pinderhughes on flute, Simon Moullier on vibraphone, Eric Revis on bass, Orrin Evans on piano, Val Jeanty on electronics, & artists TBD from the San Francisco Conservatory Winds Ensemble.
Dance
Volti & ODC Dance revive Path of Miracles, with music by Joby Talbot & choreography by KT Nelson, from 10 to 12 February at Grace Cathedral. I saw this when it was first presented & I will confess to being less enthralled with it than most other people I spoke to. The work is a meditation, using many different texts, many of them medieval, in a variety of rare languages. rooted in the pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Compostello, Spain. I had heard a portion of it at a Volti concert, really loved the piece, & was very excited at the prospect of a full performance. But no texts were projected or provided at the Cathedral, reducing the words to a vaguely spiritual-sounding wash of voices. I was told later, by someone involved, that that was a deliberate choice – OK, that's the artists' decision, but as someone who enters things through words & their meanings, I found it disappointing. The other problem, no surprise, was the audience. Lots of chatter, as usual inane & irrelevant; for most of the performance, we could move throughout the Cathedral, but it's annoying to do that not to experience the work in a new perspective but to avoid another idiotic conversation. I remember one between a couple, clearly Roman Catholic, who could not figure out the function of one of the side chapels – it stuck in my head because it seemed so bizarre to me that a Catholic couldn't figure out the set-up of an Episcopalian Cathedral. Then at the end of the piece we're all supposed to sit in one spot, as in a regular concert, & of course I was near a woman who kept talking about the light fixtures in the church. Some of this is my usual bad luck with audiences. Sometimes I think they're a necessary evil, but most of the time I think they're not necessary. Anyway, as I said, most people were thrilled by the evening so by all means check it out yourself, & it sold out last time so get tickets early if you are so inclined.
Cal Performances presents the divine Mark Morris Dance Group in the Bay Area premiere of The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach, with musical arrangements by Ethan Iverson & Marcy Harriell as lead singer, & that's at Zellerbach Hall on 17 - 19 February.
The San Francisco Ballet presents Giselle (music mostly by Adolphe Adam, choreography mostly by Helgi Tomasson) from 24 February to 5 March.
The World Ballet Series presents Cinderella (music by Prokofiev, choreography by Marina Kessler) at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on 24 February.
Step Afrika! comes to Cal Performances & Zellerbach Hall on 25 February.
Smuin Ballet presents a Choreography Showcase, in which their dancers create their own new works, at the Smuin Center for Dance, from 22 to 26 February.
Visual Arts
Sargent & Spain, which (this is probably obvious) explores the influence of Spain on John Singer Sargent, opens at the Legion of Honor on 11 February & runs through 14 May.
Cinematic
James Baldwin Abroad, three short films about the great American writer, will screen at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on 3 - 5 February.
Here are the series starting at the Pacific Film Archive this month: Documentary Voices, "an international selection of inventive documentary and nonfiction films, past and present" opens 1 February & runs through 12 April; Tales of Cinema: Hong Sangsoo, seven films by the Korean filmmaker, opens 3 February & runs through the 18th; & filmmaker Pratibha Parmar will appear in person to present A Place of Rage (featuring conversations with Angela Davis, Alice Walker, June Jordan, & Trinh T Minh-ha) as well as two of her short films Sari Red & Khush, on 9 February, & then again on 23 February with My Name Is Andrea, her new film about writer & activist Andrea Dworkin.
The Jewish Film Institute's 10th annual Winterfest will be held at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco on 25 - 26 February.
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