Anyone likely to read this already knows that the San Francisco Symphony's performances of the Verdi Requiem were cancelled at the last minute, & is further aware of the larger issues surrounding the organization (basically, the efforts by the Symphony Board to fan the flames of the dumpster fire they created), so I would suggest extreme caution, & a willingness to put up with uncertainty & last-minute cancellations, if you're interested in buying SF Symphony tickets this month. Plenty of people have had plenty to say about this situation (check out the Song of the Lark blog entry here), so I don't feel much need to weigh in, as I am just a guy who sits in the dark listening, except to say how sad it all is, & how predictable. It's not just an arts organization thing; anyone who's spent time in a corporation has seen this situation play out many times: new management comes in, doesn't care about the star performer, no matter how brilliant, because he's not their guy, makes clucking noises about "fiscal responsibility" blah blah blah, meanwhile destroying everything that made the organization distinctive & worthwhile. The Board clearly doesn't care about art, or understand how it happens; they like, I assume, the social prestige that comes from an association with an established artistic organization, & they make the mistake of thinking that because they have money they also have a "vision" (because that's what executive are supposed to have ). Their egos are as bloated as their vision is occluded, & it's all, as I said, very sad & very predictable. Anyway, the actual artists associated with the Symphony are trying to continue doing good work, & good luck to them, but caveat emptor.
SF Music Day
I'll lead off the entries with this, since it doesn't really fit into any categories: InterMusic SF's annual SF Music Day will be 20 October at the War Memorial Complex in Civic Center; for this year's celebration of local music-making, guest curator Sid Chen has pulled together a line-up of over 80 artists & 19 groups; the event begins at noon & runs through 7:00 PM & is free; read all about it here.
Theatrical
On 4 - 6 October in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents SLAM! an exploration of pro wrestling directed by Robert Lepage with his troupe Ex Machina & Cirque FLIP Fabrique.
Ray of Light Theater presents The Rocky Horror Show, music, lyrics, & book by Richard O'Brien, in an immersive performance at the Oasis Nightclub, from 4 October to 2 November. (See under Cinematic for a special screening of the movie.)
Golden Thread Productions presents 11Reflections: San Francisco, "part of a new national series of performance works, Eleven Reflections on the Nation, devised by Andrea Assaf", which examines the complexities of being Arabic/Muslim in a post 9/11 world; the performances are directed by Andrea Assaf & feature Syrian opera singer Lubana al Quntar & Turkish composer & violinist Eylem Basaldi, & that's 4 - 5 October at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco.
New Conservatory Theater Center has a Sunday matinee series of My Brother's Gift, adapted by Claudia Inglis Haas from the writings & memories of Eva Geiringer Schloss & the poetry & paintings of Heinz Geiringer, who was a neighbor & friend of Anne Frank; directed by Andrew Jordan Nance, the performances are on 6, 13, 20, & 27 October.
Theater of Yugen presents its Yuge no Kai Fall Season 2024 on 11 - 13 October at NOHSpace, featuring performances in English of the classic kyōgen plays Kazumo (Wrestling with a Mosquito) & Fukuro Yamabushi (The Owl Mountain Priest).
New Conservatory Theater Center offers The Gulf – An Elegy by Audrey Cefaly, directed by Tracy Ward, about two women, lovers out for an evening of fishing, who find their commitment to each other in crisis; the show runs 18 October to 24 November.
Aurora Theater in Berkeley presents Noël Coward's Fallen Angels, directed by Tom Ross, from 19 October through 17 November.
The San Leandro Players present Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, adapted by Maurice Valency & directed by Daniel Dickinson, from 26 October through 24 November.
Talking
On 7 October at the Henry J Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, the Great American Music Hall presents An Intimate Evening with Lynn Goldsmith and Patti Smith in Conversation; they will be discussing the years between 1976 & 1979, when Goldsmith took the photos in her forthcoming book, Before Easter After, & when Smith recorded Easter, one of her most popular albums.
City Arts & Lectures has some interesting speakers lined up this month at the Sydney Goldstein Theater: on 10 October, you can spend An Evening with Yotam Ottolenghi, hosted by Samin Nosrat; on 23 October, Ta-Nehisi Coates will appear in conversation with Daniel Sokatch; on 25 October, poet/essayist Ross Gay will appear in conversation with Aracelis Girmay, & on 30 October Richard Powers will appear in conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson.
On 29 October in Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy & Cal Performances host The Future of American Democracy: The 2024 Election and Beyond, with panelists Janet Napolitano, Robert Reich, Maria Echaveste, & Angela Glover Blackwell.
Operatic
San Francisco Opera continues its fall season with that majestic milestone of musical history, Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, conducted by Eun Sun Kim, directed by Paul Curran, with Simon O’Neill as Tristan, Anja Kampe as Isolde, Wolfgang Koch as Kurwenal, Annika Schlicht as Brangäne, Kwangchul Youn as King Marke, & Christopher Oglesby as a Sailor & a Shepherd; performances are 19, 23, 27 October & 1 & 5 November.
On 14 October, the Wagner Society of Northern California will present director Paul Curran on his current SFO production of Tristan und Isolde; the event will take place in the Green Room of the War Memorial Veteran’s Building & a reception will follow; then, on 28 October, the Society will present director Francesca Zambello on directing Wagner and her upcoming Tannhäuser at Houston Grand Opera; again, the event will take place in the Green Room of the War Memorial Veteran’s Building & a reception will follow.
Berkeley Rep presents The Matchbox Magic Flute, adapted & directed by Mary Zimmerman & based on Mozart's opera, using 10 singers & 5 musicians, & it runs from 18 October through 8 December.
Vocalists
On 6 October at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley, Lieder Alive! presents mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich & pianist Jeffrey LaDeur performing Fauré's La Bonne Chanson & his Mélodies, along with solo piano selections.
San Francisco Performances presents a "modern musical traversal of the Silk Road ranging from the Middle Ages to the present" performed by tenor Karim Sulayman & guitarist Sean Shibe; the program, titled Broken Branches, includes music by Purcell, Dowland, Caccini, Monteverdi, traditional Sephardic music, Darwish, Rodrigo, Harvey, Takemitsu, Britten, & Mendez; this is part of SF Performance's new series at the Presidio Theater, & you can hear it on 12 October.
On 13 October in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents baritone Lester Lynch, with pianist Kevin Korth, performing selections from Schubert's Schwanengesang, Brahms' Vier ernste Gesänge, Opus 121, Mussorgsky's Songs & Dances of Death, & songs by Charles Ives & Gordon Getty.
On 13 October, the SF Jazz Center presents Paula West Breathing Democracy, an exploration of American political music by Simon & Garfunkel, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, & Woody Guthrie.
Vocalist/trumpeter Benny Benack III, vocalist Stella Cole, & dancer Jabu Graybeal present Some Enchanted Evening, an exploration of the golden age of Broadway & the resulting "American Songbook", on 20 October at SF Jazz.
On 21 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Susanne Mentzer will give a recital along with members of the Guitar faculty, featuring Dominick Argento's Letters from Composers (David Tanenbaum, guitar), Fernando Sor's L’Encouragement, Opus 34 (Meng Su & Marc Teicholz, guitars), Joaquin Rodrigo's Aranjuez, ma pensée (Meng Su, guitar), &Mátyás Seiber's Four French Folk Songs (Marc Teicholz, guitar).
Festival Opera presents Nothing to Fear, a spooky season recital with contralto Sara Couden & pianist
Derek Tam performing works by Schubert, Strauss, Wieck, Weill, Jordan Rutter-Covatto, Erika Oba, Chris Castro, & others; & that's 27 October at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.
Taste of Talent & Red Curtain Addict give us their annual spooky-season Death by Aria on 31 October in the Green Room of the War Memorial Complex in San Francisco; the repertory is not listed, though the mood is described ("step into our haunted house of music, where spellbinding arias and spine-chilling melodies weave through the shadows. Journey with us through the world of villains and vengeful spirits, dark magic, and mesmerizing performances. . . ") & there's an impressive line-up of performers: sopranos Olivia Smith & Arianna Rodriguez, tenor Sid Chand, mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, baritone Edward Nelson, oboist & vocalist Jesse Rex Barrett, & pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg. There are also specialty cocktails.
Orchestral
Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the San Francisco Symphony in two programs this month: on 4 - 6 October, Shostakovich's Violin Concerto #1 (with soloist Sayaka Shoji) & the Brahms 4; & on 18 - 20 October, the first SF Symphony performances of his own Cello Concerto (with soloist Rainer Eudeikis), along with the Beethoven 6, the Pastoral, & Debussy's La Mer.
Robert Mollicone leads the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony at the SF Conservatory of Music on 5 October in Bernstein's Candide Overture, Puccini's Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut, Augusta Holmès' Andromède, & the Mozart 41, Jupiter.
On 8 October, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music & Pentatone Music will celebrate Michael Tilson Thomas's 80th year with a reception & performance commemorating the release of GRACE, a collection of works composed by MTT over more than 50 years; the performance will feature MTT, Edwin Outwater, John Wilson, Demarre McGill, & others, including SFCM students; each ticket includes a copy of the 4-disc set & all proceeds will support brain cancer research at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
Kedrick Armstrong launches his time as the new Music Director of the Oakland Symphony on 18 October at the Paramount with Julia Perry's A Short Piece for Orchestra, a celebration of Living Jazz's 40 Year Anniversary with three jazz-rooted compositions by Allison Miller, John Santos, & Meklit, & the Nielsen 4, the Inextinguishable.
Jory Fankuchen leads the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of Shawn Okpebholo's Fractured Water (an SFCO commission), as well as Handel's Concerto Grosso Opus 6, #12, & the Beethoven 1, & you can hear it (for free! just RSVP on their site) on 18 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 19 October at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 20 October at First Presbyterian in Berkeley.
Grete Pedersen leads Philharmonia Baroque in Dreams and Passions, a program including Saint Hildegard von Bingen's O Frondens Virga (arranged by Nikolai Matthews), Caroline Shaw's Entr’acte, the Haydn 49, La Passione, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major (featuring Thomas Carroll on basset clarinet), & Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, & that's 17 October at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, 18 October at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 19 October at First Congregational in Berkeley.
On 25 - 26 October, Thomas Wilkins leads the San Francisco Symphony in the Suite from Candide by Bernstein, Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin (with pianist Michelle Cann), Wood Notes by William Grant Still, & Porgy and Bess, A Symphonic Picture by Gershwin.
On 25 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the SFCM Wind Ensemble, led by Brad Hogarth, will perform the world premiere of a new arrangement by Ursula Kwong-Brown of her Cover the Walls (an SFCM commission), “inspired by Chinese poems that were carved into the walls of the detention center of Angel Island"; the concert also features Francis Johnson's Suite (arranged by Hogarth), Henri Tomasi's Concerto pour Trombone (arranged by Donald Patterson & featuring trombonist Austin Talbot), & David Maslanka's Symphony #4.
The San Francisco Opera will perform the Beethoven 9 on 26 October, conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, with soprano Jennifer Holloway, mezzo-soprano Annika Schlicht, tenor Russell Thomas, & bass Kwangchul Youn as soloists.
Chamber Music
Here's what's happening at Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's this month: on 1 October, flutist William Underwood III & pianist Carl Blake perform Poulenc's Sonate pour Flûte et Piano, Bach's Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034, Enescu's Cantabile et Presto, & Charles-Marie Widor's Suite for flute and piano, Opus 34; on 8 October, the Broderick Quartet (Karen Shinozaki Sor & Kayo Miki, violins; Elizabeth Prior, viola; Tyler DeVigal, cello) will perform the Villa Lobos Quartet #1, Webern's Langsamer Satz, the Florence Price String Quartet #2 in A Minor, & Philip Glass's String Quartet #3, Mishima; on 15 October, the Aries Duo (flutist Rhonda Bradetich & pianist Katherine Lee) will perform Sonatas and Fantasies by František Benda, Poulenc, Eldin Burton, Johan Kvandal, & Alfredo Casella; on 22 October, pianist Pallavi Mahidhara will perform Couperin's Les baricades mistérieuses, Debussy's Suite Bergamasque, Reena Esmail's Rang de Basant, & Liszt's Grand Etudes after Paganini; & on 29 October, violinist Iris Stone & pianist Soojin Kim will perform selected preludes by Lera Auerbach/Dimitri Shostakovich, Debussy's Sonata for Violin and Piano, & Poulenc's Sonata for Violin and Piano.
San Francisco Performances opens its season on 4 October at Herbst Theater with a gala performance featuring composer Jake Heggie as pianist & tenor Nicholas Phan; I don't usually list gala or fund-raising performances, as I find the ratio of art to commerce is unfavorable, & the program hasn't been announced yet, which is also usually a no-go for me, but I trust San Francisco Performances & I trust these artists, & tickets are available at a reasonable price for the concert only.
The Friction Quartet (Otis Harriel & Kevin Rogers, violin; Mitso Floor, viola; & Doug Machiz, cello) presents Song and Dance, featuring Canção Verdes Anos by Carlos Paredes (arranged by Osvaldo Golijov), Dvořák's Cypresses, Weezer's Say It Ain't So (arranged by Doug Machiz), Queen's Killer Queen (arranged by Mitso Floor), Kenji Bunch's Apocryphal Dances, Piazzolla's Four for Tango, & Franghiz Ali-Zadeh's Rəqs, & that's 10 October at the Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco & 11 October at the Berkeley Piano Club.
Chamber Music Sundaes, a long-running chamber-music ensemble (which, honestly, I've just heard about, & I have no idea if actual sundaes are involved) made up of varying configurations of musicians from the San Francisco Symphony, is now taking place at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, & their season opens on 13 October with violinist Florin Parvulescu, violist Jay Liu, cellist David Goldblatt, & pianist Gwendolyn Mok performing Florent Schmitt's Sonatine en Trio, D Major, Opus 85, Ervin Schulhoff's Duo for Violin and Cello, & Fauré's Piano Quartet #2, G minor, Opus 45.
The Ives Collective (Hrabba Atladottir, violin; Susan Freier, viola/violin; Stephen Harrison, cello; Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano) perform Bohuslav Martinů Piano Quartet #1, Fauré's Cello Sonata #2, Opus 117, & Dvořák's Piano Quartet in Eb-flat major, Opus 87 at Old First Concerts on 13 October.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music continues its Chamber Music Tuesday series, this time on 15 October with pianist Shai Wosner joining the Conservatory ensemble to perform Eleanor Alberga's No-Man’s-Land Lullaby, the Beethoven Piano Trio #6 in E-flat Major, & the Brahms Piano Quartet #3 in C Minor.
On 20 October in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents violinist Tessa Lark, cellist Joshua Roman, & double bassist Edgar Meyer performing Bach's Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major, BWV 1027 & Meyer's Trio 1986, Trio 1988, & the Bay Area premiere of an unnamed new work.
San Francisco Performances continues its Saturday morning lecture series, featuring musicologist Robert Greenberg & the Alexander String Quartet (which is disbanding after this season): the theme this season is The String Quartets of Papa Joe & Wolfgang, & the first concert, at Herbst Theater on 26 October, will feature Mozart's String Quartet #1 in G Major, K 80 & Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Opus 17, #6 & his String Quartet in F Minor, Opus 20, #5.
San Francisco Performances presents the Esmé Quartet (Wonhee Bae & Yuna Ha, violins; Dimitri Murrath, viola; Ye-Eun Heo, cello) at Herbst Theater on 26 October, where they will play Mozart's String Quartet in D Major, K. 575, Ligeti's String Quartet #1, & Schubert's String Quartet in G Major, D 887.
Members of the San Francisco Symphony will play a chamber recital at the Legion of Honor's Gunn Theater on 27 October; the program includes Bach's Sonata in A major for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1015, his Sonata #3 in G minor for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, BWV 1029, & Schubert's Piano Trio #2 in E-flat major, D929.
Instrumental
On 6 October, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Brass Department presents Octubafest (program to be announced, & usually I don't list items when the program is TBA, but I can't resist the name).
On 7 October, as part of its faculty recital series, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents violinist Cordula Merks playing Tchaikovsky's Entr’acte from Sleeping Beauty, Janáček's Violin Sonata, Antonio Bazzini's La Ronde des Lutins, Opus 25, & the Brahms Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano, Opus 40 (with Kevin Rivard on horn & Britt Day on piano).
Berkeley Chamber Performances presents ZOFO (pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann & Keisuke Nakagosh) on 22 October at the Berkeley City Club, where they will play a world premiere by Putu Septa, Godowsky's In the Kraton from Java Suite, Pemungkah, Gambangan & Tabuh Telu from Balinese Ceremonial Music transcribed by Colin McPhee, Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti's Speech delay, Brian Baumbusch's Penrose Prologue, Dylan Mattingly's Magnolia, Kenji Oh's Sacred Chichibu Peaks at Spring Dawn, Debussy's Sirènes (arranged by Nakagoshi), Eleanor Alberga's 3-Day mix, & David Biedenbender's Symmetry breaking.
Cal Performances presents pianist Eric Lu at Hertz Hall on 27 October, when he will play Handel's Suite in E major, HWV 430, Schubert's Impromptus, Opus 142, & Chopin's Waltz in C-sharp minor, Opus 64, #2, his Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Opus 60, & his Piano Sonata #2 in B-flat minor, Opus 35.
The San Francisco Symphony presents pianist Emanuel Ax in a solo recital in Davies Hall on 27 October, when he will perform the Piano Sonata #13, Opus 27, #1, Quasi una Fantasia, by Beethoven, the Fantasia on an Ostinato by John Corigliano, Beethoven's Piano Sonata #14, Opus 27, #2, the Moonlight, & Schumann's Arabeske in C major, Opus 18 & his Fantasy in C major, Opus 17.
Early / Baroque Music
On 12 October in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents Jordi Savall with La Capella Reial de Catalunya & Hespèrion XXI in The Tears and the Fire of the Muses, a program including music by Samuel Scheidt, Monteverdi (including the Lamento d’Arianna & Tirsi e Clori as well as other pieces), Anthony Holborne, John Dowland, & Giacomo Gorzanis.
The San Francisco Bach Choir, led by Magen Solomon, presents Fruit from the Bach Family Tree on 20 October at Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco (the specific program has not been released, but the title is pretty clear about what we'll get).
Jeffrey Thomas leads the American Bach Soloists in Baroque Extravagance, a program featuring violinists Tatiana Chulochnikova, Wilton Huang, Tomà Iliev, & Noah Strick performing works by Schmelzer, Tartini, Biber, Telemann, & Bach; & you can hear it all 25 October at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 26 October at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 27 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 28 October at Davis Community Church in Davis.
The California Bach Society, led by interim Artistic Director Magen Solomon, will present Tesori Dorati (Golden Treasures): Diverse Voices from the Italian Baroque, a program consisting of madrigals by Monteverdi & Barbara Strozzi, psalm settings by Salamone Rossi, Vivaldi’s Magnificat & the Missa Encarnación by Domenico Zipoli (an Italian composer who lived & worked in South America), & you can hear it all 25 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 26 October at First Congregational in Palo Alto, & 27 October at First Congregational in Berkeley.
Voices of Music gives us Seicento: Italian music of the 17th century, a program featuring soprano Sherezade Panthaki along with Isabelle Seula Lee & Manami Mizumoto on baroque violins, William Skeenon on baroque cello, Hanneke van Proosdij on recorder & harpsichord, & David Tayler on archlute & baroque guitar, & they will be performing pieces by Isabelle Leonarda, Francesca & Giulio Caccini, Allesandro Scarlatti, & Barbara Strozzi on 25 October at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, 26 October at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 27 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Caroline Hume Concert Hall.
Modern / Contemporary Music
At Old First Concerts on 4 October, New Arts Collaboration presents pianist Ting Luo in a program of world premiere works accompanied by visuals; the program includes The Reef by Maria Kallionpää (visuals by Andre Veloux), Points Becoming by Mark Winges (visuals by Jody Zellen), Toy Phantasy by Vera Ivanova (visuals by Stagg), Choose by Aries Mond, Converse by Aries Mond, an improvisation by Yalan Chang with fixed media & an improvisation by Dilate Ensemble with fixed media.
On 14 October at the San Franciso Conservatory of Music (co-presenting the talk along with the Oakland Symphony & the American Musicological Society), new Oakland Symphony Music Director Kedrick Armstrong will discuss (with musical examples) The Music of Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry: "Classical music has seen a recent surge of interest in performing works composed by Black women. The composers whose work has received the most attention in recent years (e.g., Margaret Bonds and Florence Price) compose music that often features Black folk and vernacular idioms: their most performed works are those that illustrate this trait. By contrast, composers Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry composed music in a more modernist and even austere style and rarely cited Black vernacular material. Conductor Kedrick Armstrong will discuss how people today make choices about what music to perform, and how those choices combine knowledge of the past with preoccupations of the present day. Why have audiences and arts organizations gravitated towards the work of Bonds and Price, but given less attention to composers like Smith and Perry? In this presentation, Maestro Armstrong will introduce sonic and stylistic features of Smith’s and Perry’s music, driving the conversation to our 21st-century values: in an era preoccupied with identity, are we overlooking important music that does not carry obvious identity markers?"
The Handel Opera Project presents The Book of the Hanging Gardens by Arnold Schoenberg with contralto Sara Couden, along with Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, featuring the Oakland Civic Orchestra conducted by Martha Stoddard, & Job by William G Ludtke, directed by Olivia Freidenreich, on 20 October at the beautiful Maybeck-designed Christian Science Church in Berkeley.
Other Minds presents the complete piano sonatas of Galina Ustvolskaya, performed by Conor Hanick & preceded by a talk from musicologist Simon Morrison, at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 28 October.
Jazz / Latin
SF Jazz presents its annual birthday festival for Thelonious Monk: on 10 - 11 October, pianist Sullivan Fortner will perform solo concerts of Monk's music (the 11 October performances are sold out, but those on 10 October are still available); on 10 October, John Beasley returns with his big band MONK’estra to perform his arrangements of Monk's music; on 12 October, keyboardist Diego Gaeta presents his re-imagined versions of Monk's music; & on 13 October, pianist Marta Sánchez, with bassist Chris Tordini & drummer Savannah Harris, perform "decidedly adventurous takes on Monk’s music".
On 12 October at the Paramount in Oakland, SF Jazz presents Lila Downs' Día de los Muertos, incorporating music, dance, & projections.
BroadwaySF presents The Buena Vista Social Orchestra, featuring some of the original members of the Buena Vista Social Club, at the Curran Theater on 13 October.
Alto saxophonist & composer Nicole McCabe & her quartet play music from her new album, Mosaic, on 20 October at the SF Jazz Center.
On 24 - 27 October at the SF Jazz Center, the SFJAZZ Collective (music director / tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Brewer, & drummer Kendrick Scott) perform new works by its members inspired by the de Young Museum's About Place exhibition.
Paying tribute to Wayne Shorter through interpretations of his music at the SF Jazz Center on 31 October - 1 November are Mark Turner (tenor & soprano saxophones), Danilo Pérez (piano), John Patitucci (bass), & Brian Blade( drums).
The Hot Club of San Francisco, which performs jazz in the tradition of Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli’s Quintette du Hot Club de France, will perform at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 27 October.
The SF Jazz Center presents a lecture series from Terrence Brewer: Continuum of Courage, Afrofuturism Then and Now (Part 1); the schedule is: Class 1, 30 October: The Genius of Wayne Shorter with Marcus Stephens; Class 2, 6 November: An Afrofuturist Legacy of Literature with Dr Adam Ahmed; Class 3, 13 November: Black Identity: Gil Scott Heron, Sly Stone & Beyond with Martin Luther McCoy; & Class 4, 20 November, Transcendence: The Music of Afrofuturism with Allegra Bandy.
Dance
ODC has some dance events coming up this month: on 4 - 5 October, there's Game Time from the dance / circus world of Bay Area twins Aviva & Molly Rose-Williams; on 11 - 13 October, AXIS Dance, which centers "disabled, non-disabled and neurodiverse performers", presents Ecos, with special guest artists Post:ballet, in three world premieres: Nadia Adame's Piel de Luna, Dazaun Soleyn's Harmony of Souls, & Jorge Crecis' Blueprints of Being; on 11 October, as part of their Unplugged series ("a recurring platform offering a rare and candid look into the creative process of ODC's choreographers") Guest Choreographer Sidra Bell will present an "early behind-the-scenes look into her upcoming world premiere" for next April's Dance Downtown; on 24 - 27 October, RAWdance presents four world premieres as part of its 20th anniversary season: Co-Artistic Directors Ryan T Smith & Wendy Rein give us Escape (set "in a world of vintage beachwear"), & Social Circle (set in Victorian ballrooms), along with a quartet by Stacey Yuen & Nick Wagner & a duet by Kelly Del Rosario & Erin Yen.
BroadwaySF gives us World Ballet in Swan Lake at the Curran Theater on 6 October.
On 19 October at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Epiphany Dance Theater presents Dancing with Muni & Extravaganza Performance Dance Party, showcasing a feature-length film about 20 years of San Francisco Trolley Dances along with live performances, giveaways, & dancing to live music; the event is free if you RSVP.
Cal Performances presents the inventive Mummenschanz troupe at Zellerbach Hall on 26 - 27 October.
Art Means Painting
MOAD has several new exhibits opening on 2 October: What We Carry to Set Ourselves Free is "a solo project by interdisciplinary artist Helina Metaferia . . . which foregrounds the often-overlooked labor of BIPOC women and gender-marginalized people within activist histories, and their continued contributions within today's social justice movements. The exhibition includes a hand made collage replicated as a large scale vinyl mural, a text based installation, a wearable sculpture, a video performance, and an interactive live performance at the museum on October 12" & that runs through 2 March 2025; Jessica Monette's Unveiling Histories: A Fabricated Archive is "a fabricated archive that documents a colonial and ancestral past reshaped by historical turbulence", including the Middle Passagee & Hurricane Katrina, & that runs through 15 December; & Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy "features designs, artworks, and environments dedicated to the global necessity for Black people to cultivate domestic interiors not only as spaces of revolutionary action, but also of radical joy and revolutionary rest", & that runs through 2 March 2025.
Some powerhouse exhibits are opening this month at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: at the Legion of Honor, Mary Cassatt at Work opens 5 October & runs through 26 January 2025; at the de Young, Tamara de Lempicka, the painter's first major museum retrospective in the United States, opens 12 October & runs through 9 February, & Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries, the American debut for this suite of seven large tapestries, opens on 19 October & runs through 12 January 2025.
Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture opens at SFMOMA on 19 October & runs through 18 February 2025.
Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection, which focuses on work by women artists, will open on 27 October at BAM/PFA & run through 20 April 2025.
Cinematic
The Walt Disney Family Museum opens a new exhibit on 17 October, Directing at Disney, highlighting directors going back to the 1930s; the show will run through March 2025.
The Mill Valley Film Festival runs 3 - 13 October, & BAM/PFA will be one of their venues; for a list of the Berkeley showings, click here.
BroadwaySF presents the "49th Anniversary Spectacular Tour" of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, hosted by Patricia Quinn (better known to aficionados as Magenta); the evening includes a screening of the original film "with a live shadow cast and audience participation! Plus a costume contest, and more!", & that's at the Curran Theater on 9 October. (If you want to see the original stage musical, check Ray of Light's listing above, under Theatrical).
On 14 October, the Balboa Theater in San Francisco is showing Shakes the Clown, famously described by Betsy Sherman of the Boston Globe as "the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies".
If you want an early start on Halloween, on 19 October the Balboa is showing the Supernatural Film Fest (all-day passes available).
BAM/PFA launches two more film series this month: Hong Kong Cinema with Paul Fonoroff runs from 17 to 27 October, & Cuban Cinema without Borders runs from 23 October through 16 November.
Psycho will be shown at Davies Hall on 31 October, with Scott Terrell leading the San Francisco Symphony in a live performance of Bernard Herrmann's famous score.
And on 31 October, SF Jazz will present its annual seasonally appropriate silent film at Grace Cathedral, with Dorothy Papadakos on the organ; the movie this time is Hitchcock's' The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.
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