crows on Christmas Day
29 December 2023
25 December 2023
Museum Monday 2023/52
detail of Madonna and Child with Angels by Giovanni dal Ponte, now at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco
22 December 2023
18 December 2023
Another Opening, Another Show: January 2024
Here are some ways to get out of the house in the new year. . .
Theatrical
Berkeley Rep presents Just for Us, a one-person show written & performed by Alex Edelman, directed by Adam Brace, about what happens when a Jewish stand-up comedian (Edelman himself) receives anti-Semitic attacks & "decides to go straight to the source; specifically, Queens, where he covertly attends a meeting of White Nationalists and comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards", & that's 9 - 21 January.
Shotgun Players give us the world premiere of Deneen Reynolds-Knott's Babes in Ho-lland, directed by Leigh Rondon-Davis, about two young Black women in a predominantly white college who fall in love & difficulties, & that begins 13 January & runs through 4 February.
BroadwaySF presents the Broadway-bound revival of 1975 Tony Award winner for Best Musical The Wiz at the Golden Gate Theater from 16 January to 11 February.
SF Sketchfest will take place at the Great Star Theater from 19 January to 4 February; check the schedule of performances here.
San Francisco Playhouse presents My Home on the Moon by Minna Lee, a "comedy/sci fi" exploration of a young Vietnamese-American woman's attempt to save her family's noodle shop in a gentrifying neighborhood, & that starts 25 January & runs through 24 February.
Berkeley Rep presents Leslye Headland's Cult of Love, directed by Trip Cullman, about a fundamentalist Christian family whose adult children gather together to celebrate Christmas, & that's 26 January to 3 March.
Vocalists
Nicolas Bearde sings Burt Bacharach at the SF Jazz Center on 20 - 21 January.
Cal Performances presents the divine Cécile McLorin Salvant in Zellerbach Hall on 25 January, with a show highlighting her latest album, Mélusine.
San Francisco Performances presents mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis at Herbst Theater on 27 January, performing music by Amy Beach, Wagner, Melissa Dunphy, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, Maria Thompson Corley, & Peter Ashbourne.
Orchestral
Here's what the San Francisco Symphony is up to this month: 11 - 13 January, Jaap van Zweden conducts the Beethoven & Shostakovich Fifth Symphonies; on 18 January, former Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3 with soloist Seong-Jin Cho & the Tchaikovsky 4; & on 25 - 27 January Tilson Thomas conducts Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra & the Mahler 5. UPDATE on 20 December 2023: Unfortunately, Michael Tilson Thomas's serious health problems have led to his withdrawal from the Beethoven / Tchaikovsky program on 18 January; instead, on 18 - 20 January, Dalia Stasevska will lead the Dvorák 9, From the New World instead of the Tchaikovsky (the Beethoven concerto with soloist Seong-Jin Cho remains on the schedule). Tilson Thomas is still scheduled to conduct on 25 - 27 January but the Schoenberg piece has been dropped & the Mahler 5 will be the sole item on the program.
The San Francisco Symphony, with Master of Ceremonies Wendy Tokuda, will host the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival on 14 January at Davies Hall; the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra, the California Youth Symphony, the Golden State Youth Orchestra, the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, & the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra will play music by Leonard Bernstein, Valerie Coleman, Manuel de Falla, Arturo Marquez, Tchaikovsky, & Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Guest Leader & Concertmaster Alexi Kenney (violinist) joins the New Century Chamber Orchestra & musicians from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in Sonic Ecosystems, a multimedia program that includes Angélica Negrón's Marejada, Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in D Major, RV 228, Aaron Jay Kernis's Musica Celestis, selections from Gabriella Smith's Desert Ecology, & Enescu's Octet for Strings, & you can experience it 19 - 20 January at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
On 26 January at the Paramount Theater, Kalena Bovell leads the Oakland Symphony in Texu Kim's Līlā, Doreen Carwithen's Concerto for Piano and Strings with soloist Samantha Ege, & the Dvořák 9, From the New World.
Artistic & Music Director Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in Barber's Symphony #1, in One Movement, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (featuring a "modern take" from jazz pianist Marcus Roberts & his Trio – Jason Marsalis & Marty Jaffe), & William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, & you can hear that 27 - 28 January at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.
Chamber Music
Players from the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (violinists Debra Fong & Kayo Miki, violists Ezra Costanza & Ben Simon, cellist Chris Costanza, & special guest Kate Dennis on French horn) will celebrate Mozart's 268th birthday on 8 January at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley with a concert that will include his quintet for horn and strings & his String Quintet in G minor.
Music as a Mirror of Our World: The String Quartet from 1905 to 1946, the Saturday morning lecture series at Herbst Theater from San Francisco Performances, featuring musicologist Robert Greenberg as host & lecturer & the Alexander String Quartet, covers Czechoslovakia in its third program, held on 27 January, featuring Janáček's String Quartet #1, "Kreutzer Sonata", & Pavel Haas's String Quartet #2, Opus 7, "From the Monkey Mountains".
The San Francisco Symphony has two chamber music performances this month, both on 28 January: at Davies Hall you can hear the SFS chamber group playing Hymn For Her by Shinji Eshima & Debussy's Sonata #2 for Flute, Viola & Harp as well as his Piano Trio in G major; at the Legion of Honor you can hear Alexander Barantschik (violin), Peter Wyrick (cello), & Anton Nel (piano) playing Haydn's Piano Trio in C major, Bach's Partita #1 in B-flat major, & Mendelssohn's Piano Trio #1 in D minor (if you go to the Legion, make sure you have time to go through the wonderful exhibit Botticelli Drawings).
On 28 January, Old First Concerts presents the Ives Collective performing Mélanie Bonis's Matin et Soir for Piano Trio, Dame Ethyl Smyth's String Trio, & Bonis's Piano Quartet #1 in B-flat major, Opus 69.
Berkeley Chamber Performances presents The Black Oak Ensemble (violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, & violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli) at the Berkeley City Club on 30 January, when they will perform works from their Silenced Voices recording, featuring Jewish composers, most of whom were murdered in the Holocaust.
Instrumentalists
On 7 January at Old First Concerts, pianist Sarah Cahill will perform works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford, Terry Riley, Ann Southam, & Evan Ziporyn (who will be there in person).
Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti plays the SF Jazz Center from 9 to 14 January.
San Francisco Performances presents pianist Jonathan Biss in the first of a three-concert series exploring Echoes of Schubert, each of which will join a contemporary work written in response to his legacy with pieces by the Viennese composer; on 18 January in Herbst Theater, Biss will perform Tyson Gholston Davis's …Expansions of Light, for piano along with Schubert's Impromptu in F Minor #1 & his Sonata in C Minor.
On 22 January at Old First Concerts, Amateur Music Network presents Sarah Cahill’s Backstage Pass, an on-going series in which Cahill interviews a guest artist about how music gets made; this time the guest is guitarist Jason Vieaux.
The San Francisco Symphony presents pianist Eric Lu at Davies Hall on 31 January, when he will play Schubert's Four Impromptus & Chopin's Piano Sonata #3.
Early / Baroque Music
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Musica Pacifica with special guest soprano Sherezade Panthaki in a recreation of an eighteenth-century French salon, with music by Rameau, Leclair, Telemann, & vocal music from Vivaldi, Handel, & Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, & you can hear that 12 January at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 13 January at First Church Berkeley, & 14 January at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
The Cantata Collective continues its exploration of the Bach cantatas at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley on 14 January with Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 & Es wartet alles auf dich, BWV 187, featuring soprano Morgan Balfour, alto Kimberly Leeds, tenor Brian Thorsett, & bass Ben Kazez.
SFBaroque, an offshoot of American Bach Soloists, will perform Mad Scenes from Baroque Opera with mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit & baritone Hadleigh Adams on 26 January in the Green Room at the War Memorial Center.
Cal Performances presents pianist Filippo Gorini playing Bach's Art of the Fugue in Hertz Hall on 28 January.
Modern / Contemporary Music
Music Director Ming Luke leads the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra in Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time & the world premiere of Sam Wu's the wind blows full of sand, which is inspired by the poetry of Li Po; the concert features soloists Brandie Sutton (soprano), Sara Couden (mezzo-soprano), Jonathan Elmore (tenor), & Kirk Eichelberger (bass) & will be held 5 - 7 January at Hertz Hall on the Berkeley campus (admission is free & seating is open).
The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players will give two concerts this month: on 5 January at Herbst Theater there will be a free open rehearsal of chamber works by Yeoul Choi, Eda Er, Craig Peaslee, Spehr Pirasteh, Cole Reyes, & Ben Rieke (finalists in the ARTZenter Institute Emerging Composer Program), & on 27 January at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music there will be a program exploring the intersection between Modernism & Prog Rock, featuring Missy Mazzoli's Tooth and Nail, two world premiere works to be announced by composers from the Conservatory of Music’s Technology & Applied Composition Program, Louis Andriessen's Life (with film by Marijke van Warmerdam), Steve Mackey's San Francisco, Boulez's Dérive 1, & Frank Zappa's The Perfect Stranger (the concert is preceded by a How Music Is Made discussion with Eric Dudley & guests).
Godwaffle Noise Pancakes, featuring self-titled Noise Artists as well as actual pancakes, will be at the Center for New Music on 13 January.
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble gives us Clarinet Shadows, featuring clarinetists Jerome Simas & Jeff Anderle, in a new miniature for clarinet by Josiah Catalan, Jonathan Russell's On Sorrow (a new work inspired by & quoting from Tomas Luis de Victoria’s O Vos Omnes), & the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor, & that's 21 January at the First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley & 22 January at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Ensemble for These Times gives us Quest: Music by Women & Non-binary Composers on 20 January at the Center for New Music.
The Friction Quartet presents Sundial, a program featuring music from Samuel Adams, Michael Gilbertson, & Emma O’Halloran at the Noe Valley Ministry on 21 January.
San Francisco Performances will present its annual PIVOT festival, led this year by Gabriel Kahane, from 24 to 26 January at Herbst Theater; on 24 January, Kahane joins with the Attacca Quartet, on 25 January, with vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth; & on 26 January, with both the Attacca Quarter & Roomful of Teeth (details for the three programs have yet to be announced).
Jazz, Klezmer, Country, Folk, & Blues
Lisa Fischer joins "Gullah groovemasters" Ranky Tanky at the SF Jazz Center from 4 to 7 January.
Michael Echaniz and his ensemble, Rebiralost, will present music from his album Seven Shades of Violet at the California Jazz Conservatory on 5 January.
The Earl Scruggs 100th Birthday All-Star Bluegrass Celebration, led by Bill Evans, who will be joined by Jim Nunally, Chad Manning, Mike Witcher, Tom Bekeny & Steve Pottier, Kathy Kallick, Evie Ladin, & others to be announced, will take place at Freight & Salvage on 9 January.
On 12 January, Freight & Salvage will host A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, featuring Crying Time, Laura Benitez, Leigh Crow & Ruby Vixenn, Aireene Espiritu, Nashville Honeymoon, Cindy Emch, & others to be announced.
The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra will play at the California Jazz Conservatory on 14 January.
Freight & Salvage will host a four-day Django Reinhardt Birthday Celebration (the actual day is 23 January), & you can buy a pass for all four days or just to individual concerts; details may be found here.
The San Francisco Symphony presents violinist Itzhak Perlman & the Klezmer Conservatory Band In the Fiddler's House (in this case, the house is Davies Hall) on 21 January; the program will be announced during the performance.
Art Means Painting
The Cartoon Art Museum hosts Pinoy Power! A Celebration of Filipino Komiks from the Archipelago to the Bay starting on 23 December & continuing through 28 April 2024.
Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style opens at the de Young Museum on 20 January & runs through 11 August; expect lots of fancy gowns for rich women.
Dance
Having cracked its seasonal nuts last month, the San Francisco Ballet opens its regular season, the first under Tamara Rojo, with Mere Mortals, described as an update of the Pandora's Box myth for our tech-driven world & also as "an immersive sensory experience where music and dance converge in a singular environment of mesmerizing light and video"; the music is by Floating Points & the choreography by Aszure Barton & that runs 26 January to 1 February at the Opera House.
Cal Performances presents drag ballet act Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in Zellerbach Hall on 27 - 28 January, as part of the troupe's fiftieth anniversary year.
Cinematic
Here are the film series starting at BAM/PFA this month: Masc: Trans Men, Butch Dykes, and Gender Nonconforming Heroes in Cinema launches on 19 January; In Focus: Werner Herzog and the Documentary Form launches on 24 January; & Skip Norman Here and There, exploring his "documentary, experimental, and essay films in the late 1960s and early 1970s" launches on 25 January.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents Carl Dreyer's mostly silent Vampyr, with live accompaniment from Timothy Brock conducting the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, at the Castro Theater on 12 January; as the legendary venue is shutting down in February for renovations/ruinations by its current owners, Another Planet Entertainment, this is a possibly the last hurrah for the beloved (& transportationally convenient) venue as a movie palace. (Related to this, there will be a panel discussion on The Fight for the Castro Theatre: Lessons for Queer Preservation held at the Roxie Theater on 11 January.)
15 December 2023
11 December 2023
08 December 2023
04 December 2023
01 December 2023
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