San Francisco City Hall
07 March 2025
03 March 2025
Museum Monday 2025/9
detail of Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin by Rogier van der Weyden, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
28 February 2025
24 February 2025
21 February 2025
17 February 2025
Another Opening, Another Show: March 2025
There are some February events sprinkled in here, either because they weren't listed in time for my February preview (which is here), or, possibly, because I somehow just missed them; in either case, this is another month with a lot of possibilities. Go out & choose something that would piss off the fascists.
Theatrical
Broadway SF presents Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations at the Golden Gate Theater from 25 February to 2 March.
Theater of Yugen presents a Kyōgen adaptation of Ben Jonson's Volpone, directed by Lluis Valls, & that's at Theater of Yugen's NOHSpace in San Francisco on 28 February, 1 - 2 March, & 7 - 9 March.
Night Driver, written & performed by Pearl Ong & directed by David Ford, asks the question "What’s a Hong Kong princess doing driving a cab in San Francisco? And what does her very proper mother make of it?" & you can find out the answers at The Marsh San Francisco from 1 March to 5 April.
Broadway SF revives the musical Chicago at the Golden Gate Theater from 4 to 9 March.
UC Berkeley's Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies Department presents Lysistrata: A Woman's Translation by Drue Robinson, directed by Timmia Hearn DeRoy, from 6 - 9 March in Zellerbach Hall's Room 7; the show is a " modern-verse translation of Aristophanes' classic comedy [blending] heightened language and 21st-century sensibilities to explore the power of the sex strike. Now set in a futuristic, drag-influenced, underground bar, this production will address issues of bodily autonomy, sexual and gender agency, and what we are willing to sacrifice in the face of continuous war".
New Conservatory Theater Center presents Wild with Happy by Colman Domingo, directed by ShawnJ West, about a man trying to grieve his mother's death while dealing with the realities of funerals & families, & that runs 7 March to 6 April.
Shotgun Players presents "Art", directed by Emilie Whelan, Yasmina Reza's celebrated play (translated by Christopher Hampton) about a man who buys an expensive piece of modern art & the resulting unexpected turn in two old friendships, & that runs at the Ashby Stage from 8 March to 6 April.
The African-American Shakespeare Company presents ShaXspeare Reimagined at the Taube Atrium Theater from 15 to 30 March; the show, which will have six directors, will be a "fantastic 90-minute voyage featuring scenes from some of Shakespeare’s iconic plays, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry VI, and MacBeth [sic] mixed with movement and sound", all seen "through the lens of Black culture".
Angry Black Woman 101, written & performed by Kathryn Seabron & directed by Lynn Vidal, a look at "the microaggressions, tropes and misogynoir Black women are faced with in the workplace and in society at large", runs at The Marsh Berkeley from 15 March through 13 April.
The San Leandro Players present Count Dracula by Ted Tiller, directed by Dana Fry, from 15 March to 13 April, at the Auditorium of the San Leandro Museum, next to Casa Peralta.
San Francisco Playhouse presents Fat Ham, directed by Margo Hall, James Ijames's take on Hamlet, set at a southern Black family barbecue, & that runs from 20 March to 19 April.
The Great American Sh*t [sic] Show, written & performed by Brian Copeland & directed by David Ford, a one-man show about life under . . . don't make me write the name, but you know, inevitably, who is being referred to, that personification of the toxic worst in American life, plays at The Marsh Berkeley for one night only, & that night is 20 March.
The Afrosolo Arts Festival presents Let Freedom Ring! (Part 2), a "celebration of Black resilience through solo performances, at the Potrero Stage in San Francisco from 28 - 30 March.
Talking
On 19 March a the Sydney Goldstein Theater, City Arts & Lectures presents W. Kamau Bell, Dave Eggers, Michael Lewis, & Sarah Vowell in Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, exploring & celebrating the little-known government employees who help run the country.
Operatic
The Livermore Valley Opera presents Mozart's Don Giovanni on 1 - 2 & 8 - 9 March.
Philharmonia Baroque, led by Peter Whelan, performs Handel's Alceste, with soprano Lauren Snouffer & tenor Aaron Sheehan, as well as the Philharmonia Chorale; the program also includes Handel's Concerto Grosso in G major, Opus 6, #1, & you can hear it on 5 March at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, 7 March at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, & 8 March at First Congregational in Berkeley.
Opera Parallèle presents the world premiere of The Pigeon Keeper, a magical realist work with libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann & music by David Hanlon, & you can experience it 7 - 9 March at Cowell Theater at the Fort Mason Center for the Arts.
On 14 - 15 March, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Candide, with music by Bernstein & lyrics by a dazzling array of contributors (mostly Richard Wilbur), directed by Frederic Wake-Walker & conducted by Edwin Outwater.
On 14 - 16 March in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents a work it co-commissioned, William Kentridge’s The Great Yes, The Great No, "a chamber opera set on a 1941 sea voyage from Marseille to Martinique. Conceived in collaboration with theater maker Phala Ookeditse Phala and choral conductor and dancer Nhlanhla Mahlangu, The Great Yes, The Great No fictionalizes the historic wartime escape from Vichy France by, among others, the surrealist André Breton, the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, and the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam—and adds a distinguished and colorful cast of characters to the passenger list, like Aimé Césaire, Josephine Baker, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin."
The Handel Opera Project presents Mozart's Magic Flute at Berkeley's Christian Science Church (the Maybeck building) on 23 March.
Choral
Magen Solomon leads the California Bach Society in From Tallis to Tavener: Five Centuries of British Choral Music, featuring works by Thomas Tallis, Britten, Imogen Holst, Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells, & John Tavener; & you can hear it on 28 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 1 March at All Saints' Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 2 March at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.
On 1 March in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Chanticleer presents Choodandi, a program put together by Chanticleer tenor Vineel Garisa Mahal, exploring the traditions & evolutions of music from India, featuring works " ranging from Thyagaraja to Sid Sriram", & you can hear it all 16 March at Saint John's Lutheran in Sacramento, 20 March at Mission Santa Clara, 21 March at Mount Tamalpais United Methodist in Mill Valley, 22 March at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, & 23 March at First Congregational in Berkeley.
Vocalists
The second Schwabacher Recital will take place on 19 March at the Barbro Osher Recital Hall in the SF Conservatory of Music's Bowes Center on Van Ness Avenue & will feature tenor Michael John Butler & baritone Olivier Zerouali along with pianists Julian Garvue & Ji Youn Lee performing music by Poulenc, Lee Hoiby, Hakjun Yoon, Young-shim Noh, Schumann, & Richard Strauss.
Orchestral
SF Musicians for LA: A Benefit for Fire Relief will take place on 8 March at Davies Hall; Edwin Outwater will lead the San Francisco Symphony & Chorus & the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra in Aaron Copland's The Promise of Living from his opera The Tender Land, the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 with soloist Garrick Ohlsson, & the Dvořák 9, "From the New World"; net proceeds will be divided evenly & donated to the Entertainment Community Fund & to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles: ReBUILD LA (you may also make a donation here).
On 28 February through 2 March, Robin Ticciati leads the San Francisco Symphony in Beethoven's Piano Concerto #4 (with soloist Francesco Piemontesi) & the Rachmaninoff 2.
On 1 March at Herbst Theater, Jessica Bejarano conducts the San Francisco Philharmonic in Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor (with soloist Amos Yang) & Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
On 2 March at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, Pete Nowlen, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Pride Band, leads the group in a "concert that celebrates all of the ways that music brings us together", featuring Vulnerable Joy by Jodie Blackshaw, V. O. C., Helmsman of the Sea, by Shruthi Rajasekar, Among My Souvenirs by John Philip Sousa, American Hymnsong Suite by Dwayne S Milburn, Crescent Moon Dance from Sound! Euphonium by Akito Matsuda, & Suite from Maria of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzola.
On 5 - 7 March in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Vienna Philharmonic; led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, they will perform the Mozart 41, the "Jupiter" & the Mahler 1 (5 March); the Schubert 4, the "Tragic" & the Dvořák 9, "From the New World" (6 March); & the Beethoven Piano Concerto #3 in C minor, Opus 37 (with soloist Yefim Bronfman) & Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben (7 March).
Jory Fankuchen leads the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in String Serenades, a program featuring Jessie Montgomery's Strum, Evan Price's A Game of Cat and Mike, & Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Opus 48, & you can hear it all 7 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 8 March at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 9 March at First Congregational in Berkeley (concerts are free & RSVPs are encouraged but not required, if you feel like being spontaneous).
On 9 March, Radu Paponiu leads the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in the Mozart 35, the "Haffner"; Gabriela Lena Frank's Elegía Andina; Richard Strauss's Suite from Der Rosenkavalier; & Arturo Márquez's Danzón #2.
On 13 - 15 March, Elim Chan conducts the San Francisco Symphony in music from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake as well as his Symphony 6, the "Pathetique".
On 16 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, Joseph Young leads the Berkeley Symphony in Spring's Awakening, a program exploring our relationship to the natural world through the lens of Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus - Concerto for Birds and Orchestra, Huang Ruo's Tipping Point, & the Schumann 1.
On 23 March at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (with pianist & director Mitsuko Uchida, & concertmaster & leader José Maria Blumenschein), performing Mozrt's Piano Concerto in B-flat major, K 456 & his Piano Concerto in C major, K 467 (both featuring Uchida as soloist) as well as Janáček's Mládí.
On 23 March at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents the Israel Philharmonic, led by Lahav Shani, with featured soloists Haran Meltzer on cello & Guy Eshed on flute, performing Prayer by Tzvi Avni, Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch, Halil by Leonard Bernstein, & the Tchaikovsky 5.
On 27, 29, & 30 March, Juraj Valčuha conducts the San Francisco Symphony in the Brahms Violin Concerto (with soloist Gil Shaham) & the Shostakovich 10.
On 28 March at the Paramount, Kedrick Armstrong conducts the Oakland Symphony in Gabriela Lena Frank's Three Latin-American Dances (alongside the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra), Forgiveness: Suite for Spoken Word & Orchestra, with music by Artist-in-Residence Daniel Bernard Roumain & words written & performed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, & Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
On 29 March at the SF Conservatory of Music, John Kendall Bailey leads the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, Suite #2; Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; Kurt Atterberg's Suite #3 for violin, viola, & strings, featuring Michael Long on violin & Ivo Bokulic on viola; & Avril Coleridge-Taylor's Sussex Landscape.
Chamber Music
On 28 February & 2 March at Old First Concerts, the Sixth Station Trio (Anju Goto, violin; Federico Strand Ramirez, cello; Katelyn Tan, piano) will performs Joe Hisaishi’s score for Miyazaki's Spirited Away (it sounds as if the movie will not be shown; the Trio is only playing the music).
On 1 March at Old First Concerts, the Pro Arte Quartet (David Perry & Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; Parry Karp, cello) will perform Denys Lytvynenko's String Quartet #2, Germaine Tailleferre's String Quartet, & Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E-flat major.
On 2 March at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the Brentano String Quartet (Serena Canin & Mark Steinberg, violins; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello) performing the local premiere of a new work by Lei Liang as well as Beethoven's String Quartet in B-flat major, Opus 18, #6 & Brahms's String Quartet #3 in B-flat major, Opus 67.
On 2 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music San Francisco presents violinists Paul Huang & Danbi Um & pianist Albert Cano Smit performing Spohr's Grand Duo for 2 Violins in D Major, Opus 39, #1; the Saint-Saëns Violin Sonata #1 in d minor, Opus 75; the Grieg Violin Sonata #2 in G Major; selections from Glière's 12 Pieces for Two Violins; the first movement of Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonata for 2 Violins, & Sarasate's Navarra for Two Violins, Opus 33.
On 8 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Calidore Quartet (Jeffrey Myers & Ryan Meehan, violin; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello) performing Beethoven's String Quartet #10 in E-Flat Major, the “Harp”; Jessie Montgomery's Strum; Schubert's String Quartet #12 in C-Minor (Quartettsatz); & Korngold's String Quartet # 3, Opus 34.
On 9 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music San Francisco presents violinist Corey Cerovsek, along with trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary, accordionist Félicien Brut, & pianist Steven Vanhauwaert, in a program yet to be announced beyond the inclusion of works by Saint-Saëns, Piazzolla, Rossini, Milhaud, & Bernstein.
Chamber Music Sundaes return to the Hillside Club in Berkeley on 9 March, when violinist Tammie Dyer, clarinetist Roy Zajac, cellist Jill Rachuy Brindel, & pianist Marilyn Thompson perform Shostakovich's Piano Trio #2, E minor, Opus 67; Brian Scott Wilson's Elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth, for Violin, Clarinet, Cello, & Piano; & Dvořák's Piano Trio #4, Opus 90, “Dumky”.
On 13 March at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, Martin West leads members of the SF Ballet Orchestra in chamber music, including movements from Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Mozart’s Flute Quartet, a Piano Trio by Amy Beach, & an original oboe quartet by Vincent Russo; the concert is free but advanced reservations are required.
On 14 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Pavel Haas Quartet (Veronika Jarůšková & Marek Zwiebel, violins; Šimon Truszka, viola; Peter Jarůšek, cello) performing Dvořák's String Quartet #11 in C Major, Opus 61 & Tchaikovsky's String Quartet #3 in E-Flat Major, Opus 30.
On 15 March at Hertz Hall, Matthew Sadowski leads the UC Berkeley Wind Ensemble in a program that includes Luminance by Shuying Li, Meditation by Dwayne S Milburn, Three Odes by Tyler Mazone, Beacons by Peter Van Zandt Lane, & Shared Spaces by Viet Cuong,.
On 16 March at Davies Hall, a chamber-sized group of SF Symphony musicians will perform Duo for Harp and Percussion by Jeremiah Siochi, the Piano Quartet in A Minor by Mahler, & the String Quartet #15 in G Major, D887 by Schubert.
On 16 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music San Francisco presents the San Francisco debut of the Ulysses String Quartet (Christina Bouey & Rhiannon Banerdt, violins; Peter Dudek, viola; Grace Ho, cello), who will be performing Haydn's Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 33, #2; Mozart's String Quintet in G minor, K 516 (with violist Anthony Bracewell); & Dvořák's Quartet in A-Flat Major, Opus 105.
On 15 March at Lafayette Library & on 18 March at the Berkeley City Club, Berkeley Chamber Performances presents cellist Jennifer Kloetzel & pianist Allegra Chapman performing Helene Liebmann's Cello Sonata in B-Flat Major, Opus 1; Libby Larsen's Juba; Mel Bonis's Cello Sonata in F Major, Opus 67; Nadia Boulanger's Trois Pièces for cello & piano; & Leokadiya Kashperova's Cello Sonata in e minor, Opus 1, #2.
On 21 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Tetzlaff Quartet (Christian Tetzlaff & Elisabeth Kufferath, violins; Hanna Weinmeister, viola; Tanja Tetzlaff, cello) performing Mendelssohn's String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 13; Jörg Widmann's String Quartet #2; & Dvořák's String Quartet in A Flat Major, Opus 105. [3 March UPDATE: Unfortunately, the Tetzlaff Quartet has cancelled its US tour, due to concerns about the policies of the criminals currently running the US government (my phrasing, not theirs)[.
On 23 March at the Legion of Honor's Gunn Theater, members of the San Francisco Symphony will perform Mozart's Piano Trio in B-flat major, K502; Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971; & the Piano Trio #3 in C minor, Opus 101 by Brahms.
On 23 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music San Francisco presents the San Francisco debut of the Keonkoro String Quartet (Jonathan Schwarz & Amelie Wallner, violin; Mayu Konoe, viola; Lukas Schwarz, cello), who will be performing Haydn's Quartet in F Major, Opus 50 #5 “The Dream”; Berg's Lyric Suite, & Mendelssohn's Quartet in E minor, Opus 44 #2.
Instrumental
On 2 March, the San Francisco Symphony presents Yuja Wang & Víkingur Ólafsson in a Duo Piano Recital, during which they will perform Berio's Wasserklavier; Schubert's Fantasia in F minor, D940; John Cage's Experiences #1; Conlon Nancarrow's Study #6 (arranged by Thomas Adès); John Adams's
Hallelujah Junction; Arvo Pärt's Hymn to a Great City; & Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Opus 45.
On 9 March at Old First Concerts, pianist Utsav Lal & saxophonist George Brooks present their fusion of Indian classical music, jazz, & minimalism.
On 9 March in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents violinist Benjamin Beilman, with pianist Steven Osborne, performing Clara Schumann's Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Opus 22; the Brahms Violin Sonata in G major, Opus 78, Regensonate; Lili Boulanger's Two Pieces for Violin and Piano; & Franck's Violin Sonata in A major.
On 11 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents violinist Midori, with pianist Özgür Aydin, performing the Brahms Sonata #1 in G Major, Opus 76; Poulenc's Sonata for Violin and Piano; Ravel's Kaddish (arranged by Garban) & his Tzigane; & the west coast premiere of Che Buford's Resonances in Spirit. (On 12 March, Midori will be conducting a Master Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.)
On 13 - 14 March at the SF Jazz Center, Paolo Angeli plays his 18-string Sardinian guitar, "a prepared Sardinian guitar of his own invention, a fantastical 18-string hybrid combining elements of guitar, cello and drums".
On 14 March at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, pianists Audrey Vardanega & Eric Zivian perform music for four hands by Schubert (the Rondo in A Major), Debussy (Six épigraphes antiques), & Stravinsky (a piano four-hand arrangement of The Rite of Spring).
On 16 March in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents pianist Evren Ozel in Music of the Night, a program featuring Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, #2, the "Moonlight"; Debussy's Images, Book 2; Bartók's Out of Doors; Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Opus 12; & Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit.
On 20 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Jan Lisiecki in an all-Prelude performance, featuring works by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Górecki, Szymanowski, Messiaen, & Chopin (including the complete Préludes Opus 28).
The 2025 Dewing Piano Recital at Mills College (Littlefield Concert Hall) features Iyad Sughayer, who will perform Helen Ottaway's Levantina, Schubert's Drei Klavierstücke D 946. Sibelius's Impromptus, Opus 5, & Khachaturian's Piano Sonata; the event is free but it is requested that attendees register in advance.
On 25 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Louis Lortie in an all-Ravel program, featuring Menuet Antique; Pavane pour une infante défunte; Jeux d’eau; Gaspard de la nuit; Sonatine; Valses Nobles et Sentimentales; & La Valse.
On 28 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents violinist Johan Dalene, with pianist Sahun Sam Hong, performing Schumann's Sonata #1 in A Minor, Opus 105; Rautavaara's Notturno e Danza; Ravel's Tzigane; Lutosławski's Partita for Violin and Piano; & Grieg's Sonata #2 in G Major.
On 29 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, San Francisco Performances in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presents lutenist Thomas Dunford performing music by Dowland (A Dream; The King of Denmark’s Galliard; Melancholy Galliard; Mrs. Winter’s Jump; Lachrimae; Frog Galliard) Satie (Gymnopédie 1 & Gnossienne 1, arranged by Dunford), Marais (Les voix humaines in D Major from Suite #3 & L’americaine from Suite d’un goût etranger, arranged by Dunford), Bach (Suite for Cello in G Major BWV 1007, arranged by Dunford), Kapsberger (Toccata VI from Primo Libro d’intavolatura de lauto), & Dalza (Calata alla Spagnola, from Quarto Libro d’intavolatura de lauto).
On 31 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music San Francisco presents pianist Yeol Eum Son, who will perform Franz Bendel's Improvisation on Brahms’s “Wiegenlied”, opus 141; Pauline Viardot's Mazourke, Tchaikovsky's Romance in F minor, opus 5; Liszt's “Am stillen Herd” from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; & Beethoven's Hammerklavier.
Early / Baroque Music
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents In Bocca al Lupo in Mundus Inversus, a combination of old & new pieces that "explore the chaos and disarray of our modern times", & you can hear the results on 28 February at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 1 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 2 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
On 16 March at Old First Concerts, you can hear the Junior Bach Festival (specific repertory has not yet been announced).
On 19 March at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents Les Arts Florissants with violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons at 300, a program featuring a transcription of Monteverdi's Adoramus te, Christe, SV 289, Uccellini's Aria sopra la Bergamasca, Opus 3; Geminiani's Concerto Grosso #12 in D minor, La Follia (after Corelli); as well as Vivaldi's titular Seasons & his Concerto for Strings in D minor, Madrigalesco, RV 129; his Concerto in D minor, RV 813; his Overture to La fida ninfa, RV 714, & a movement from his Violin Concerto in B-flat major, RV 370.
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Quicksilver in a concert exploring the stile moderno; specific composers or pieces are not listed, but you can find out what they are on 24 March at First Congregational in Berkeley.
On 21 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, Nicholas McGegan leads the orchestra & chorus of the Cantata Collective in Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, with soloists Thomas Cooley (tenor, Evangelist), Paul Max Tipton (bass-baritone, Jesus), Sherezade Panthaki (soprano), Reginald Mobley (countertenor), James Reese (tenor), & Harrison Hintzsche (baritone).
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Ensemble Affect in Home Away from Home, a program exploring the immigrant experience through the music of Baroque composers who traveled from their native lands & enriched both traditions by mixing their home styles with those of their new lands; composers performed include Georg Muffat, Scarlatti, Biagio Marini, Godfrey Keller, Teodorico Pedrini, Gaspar Fernandes, Antonia Bembo, & Maria Grimani; you can hear the results on 28 March at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 29 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 30 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
Voices of Music presents L’Amorosa Ero: The Hero of Love, a program for viola da gamba consort, with soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah, exploring Italian madrigals & their influence on English composers, with music by Monteverdi, Marenzio, Ferrabosco the Elder, Dowland, Byrd, Ward, Ferrabosco the Younger, & Coperario, & you can hear it 28 March at First Congregational in Palo Alto, 28 March at Old First in San Francisco, & 30 March at First Congregational in Berkeley.
See also Handel's Alceste, listed above under Operatic, & lutenist Thomas Dunford's (mostly) baroque program, listed above under Instrumental.
Modern / Contemporary Music
This looks interesting & fun: on 22 February at the Dandelion Chocolate Factory (2600 16th Street in San Francisco), Earplay & Dandelion Chocolate collaborate in Schoenberg...and Chocolate?, the program that asks the questions Do you like chocolate? Do you like dark chocolate? Do you like new music?; "Earplay Board member and composer, Ben Sabey, has a theory about the relationship between those questions, and we're delighted to offer this special collaboration with San Francisco's acclaimed Dandelion Chocolate to explore his premise. / Discover complex flavors and powerful emotions in Dandelion’s single-origin chocolate – made with just two ingredients – paired with arch abstract expressionist Arnold Schoenberg's famed String Trio, Op. 45 — performed deftly by the Earplay String Trio. With music professor Ben Sabey and Dandelion’s curriculum director Stephen Durfee as your guides, you will embark on a journey through beautiful and challenging internal landscapes as you creatively and interactively engage with a wide variety of flavors, feelings, temperatures, and textures. Then end the evening with a palate-cleansing performance of Mozart’s Divertimento and a sweet treat!"; all that's left to add to that is that the Earplay String Trio is Terrie Baune on violin, Ellen Ruth Rose on viola, & Thalia Moore on cello.
Harpist Brandee Younger plays some of her new compositions with the New Century Chamber Orchestra at the SF Jazz Center on 6 - 9 March.
On 8 March at Zellerbach Playhouse, Cal Performances presents yMusic performing the world premiere of a Cal Performances co-commission, Aquatic Ecology by Gabriella Smith, along with Ryan Lott's Eleven, & Three Elephants, Whosay, Cloud, & The Wolf by the yMusic ensemble.
On 15 March at the Community Music Center in San Francisco, the Friction Quartet (Otis Harriel &
Kevin Rogers, violins; Mitso Floor, viola; Doug Machiz, cello), joined by percussionists Haruka Fuji & Anne Szabla, will perform Tell es-Sakan by Davide Verotta, a concert-length piece motivated bv the war in Gaza (the title comes from the oldest known settlement in the area).
On 21 March, the Hillside Club in Berkeley presents Daggerboard & the Erik Jekabson Orchestra, giving us "eight world premieres for new music for Chamber Orchestra + Jazz Quartet, plus a celebration of the release of Erik Jekabson's album Breakthrough. The music is composed by the group Daggerboard (Gregory Howe and Erik Jekabson) and Erik Jekabson"; the ensemble will be conducted by Charith Premawardhana, & the concert will be recorded for a forthcoming album.
On 23 March at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, singer & music-box maven Sidney Chen offers Songs & Stories, a program in which he discusses pandemic life with "his DIY hand-crank music boxes, as well as his perspective on ensemble music-making as essential practice for empathetic and compassionate living with others"; the presentation is followed by an audience Q & A hosted by vocalist Sharmila G Lash.
On 24 March at Noe Valley Ministry, Earplay will perform Undiluted, a program featuring world premieres by Andrew Conklin & Brien Henderson along with pieces by Jeffrey Mumford, Kate Soper, & Ursula Mamlock.
On 26 March at Littlefield Concert Hall (Mills College, Oakland), Other Minds presents pianists Gloria Cheng & Ralph van Raat celebrating Boulez at 100 with selections from his Structures Books I & II, along with pieces by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Frank Zappa, Magnus Lindberg, & Igor Stravinsky.
On 28 March, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents a composer portrait concert of faculty member David Conte, featuring the world premiere of Two Settings of Donald Jeffrey Hayes with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Sonatine for Piano performed by Daniel Strebulaev, Two Settings of Ogden Nash with soprano Ellen Leslie & pianist Kevin Korth, & The Young Mother with baritone Enrico Lagasca & the Friction String Quartet.
Here's what's going on at the Center for New Music this month; on 6 March, Aaron Larget-Caplan gives a solo Modern American Guitar Celebration, featuring works by the performer as well as John Cage, Ken Ueno, Daniel Felsenfeld, Douglas Knehans, Ian Wiese, & Richard Cameron-Wolfe's micro-opera Heretic, inspired by Artur Mach's horror novel The Hill of Dreams; on 7 March, the Ben Goldberg / Scott Amendola Duo perform electronics- & Thelonious Monk-influenced jazz; on 8 March, the Accidental Composers Collective presents new music for Trio and soprano (the composers include Allan Crossman, Alden Jenks, Vance Maverick, Davide Verotta, & Shawne Workman; the soprano is Hailey Gutowski; the trio is Stephen Zielinski on clarinet, Maki Ishii Sowash on violin, & Vicky Ehrlich on cello); on 23 March, Aerocade Music gives itself a 10th Birthday Concert, featuring Nick Norton with a "live spatial mix of his new piece for four harps, recorded by Elizabeth Huston"; soprano Chelsea Hollow & pianist Taylor Chan with selections from Cycles of Resistance; Elizabeth Robinson performing Death Whistle for solo piccolo by Nicole Chamberlain. Isaac Io Schankler premiering "some nascent works for accordion + electronics"; & Alchymie & Gregg Skloff performing TRITION: Echoes from the Ice Moon, an "improvisational performance weaving deep drone, ambient textures, and ethereal soundscapes to evoke the mysterious beauty of Neptune’s largest moon".
Jazz
As part of its Discover Jazz series, the SF Jazz Center presents Continuum of Courage: Afrofuturism Then and Now (Part II), led by Tammy L Hall; the lectures are available individually or as a series, & the topics are: 5 March, The Spiritually Transcendent Vision of Alice Coltrane (with Brandee Younger); 12 March, Transfixed & Transformed: Afrofuturist Fashion Icons (with Renee Wilson); 19 March, The More Things Change: Afrofuturist Literature & Music (with Skip the Needle); & 26 March, Space Is the Place! The Legacies of Sun Ra & George Clinton (with Shaunna Hall).
The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, with a special guest trio featuring Joe Warner on piano, David Ewell on bass, & Dennis Chambers on drums, sings for you at the SF Jazz Center on 6 - 7 March.
On 8 March at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, you can hear the Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman Quartet in Ode to the Piano, in which pianist Schillinger-Hyman presents his arrangements of "some of the most moving yet chronically underplayed masterpieces of Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Dr. Don Shirley, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and more"; the other members of the quartet are his twin Eytan Schillinger-Hyman on bass, Alexandra Ridout on trumpet, & Michael Mitchel on drums.
On 11 March at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, you can spend An Evening with Branford Marsalis & his Quartet.
On 13 - 14 March at the SF Jazz Center, the Joshua Redman Group (Redman on tenor saxophone, Aaron Parks on piano, Joe Sanders on bass, & Brian Blade on drums), with guest vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, perform music from his album Where Are We.
On 21 March at the Piedmont Piano Company, pianist Taylor Eigsti offers a solo performance.
On 22 March at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, Allan Harris presents The Poetry of Jazz, in which he sings & recites classic poetry with trio Freddie Bryant on guitar, Doug Miller on bass, & Sylvia Cuenca on drums.
Pianist Tammy L Hall & her Trio perform at the SF Jazz Center on 22 - 23 March.
On 28 March, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Memories Unleashed: Jazz and Brain Health, featuring a performance Elijah Rock followed by a panel discussion with brain health specialists from UCSF.
Dance
San Francisco Ballet gives us two programs this month: first up, from 1 to 8 March, is what the Ballet describes as Tamara Rojo's "bold reimagining" of Raymonda, with direction & choreography by Rojo after Marius Petipa, with music by Alexander Glazunov; then, from 20 to 26 March, Frankenstein, with choreography by Liam Scarlett & music by Lowell Liebermann.
Art Means Painting
Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm opens at the de Young on 1 March & runs through 6 July.
Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art, exploring his on-going relationship to the expanse of art history, opens at the Legion of Honor on 22 March & runs through 17 August.
Cinematic
BAM/PFA launches a number of film series this month: Swedish Outsider: The Films of Mai Zetterling, exploring her work as both performer & director, runs from 1 March to 8 May; the African Film Festival 2025 runs from 6 March to 6 April; Todd Haynes: Far from Safe runs from 8 March through 12 April; Ukrainian Cinema: Poetry and Resistance runs from 21 March through 13 April.
The Roxie in San Francisco is running In Dreams: A Tribute to David Lynch this month; check here for the specific films & dates.
On 9 March at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, you can see Dee Mosbacher's Radical Harmonies, a documentary exploring the Women's Music movement of the 1970s & 1980s & onward, featuring Meg Christian, Holly Near, Mary Watkins, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, Bitch and Animal, & Melissa Ferrick; the film also "highlights the whole infrastructure that made possible the recording, production, and dissemination of the work of these talented performers".
On 11 March at the Roxie, you can see Robert Florey's 1932 Murders in the Rue Morgue, a pre-Code horror film starring Bela Lugosi & the influence of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.
Museum Monday 2025/7
detail of Christ Carrying the Cross by an unidentified sixteenth-century Netherlandish painter; at the Legion of Honor
14 February 2025
10 February 2025
Museum Monday 2025/6
detail of Tamara de Lampicka's Study for The Round Dance (La ronde) after Madonna of the Long Neck by Parmigianino, seen as part of the Tamara de Lampicka exhibit at the de Young Museum
07 February 2025
03 February 2025
31 January 2025
27 January 2025
Museum Monday 2025/4
detail of a study for a section of curtain for Le coq d'or (Théâtre National de l'Opéra, Paris, 1914) by Natalia Goncharova, currently on view at the Legion of Honor as part of the exhibit Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design
24 January 2025
20 January 2025
19 January 2025
Another Opening, Another Show: February 2025
Short month, full schedule. Let's go!
Theatrical
The San Francisco Neo-Futurists present The Infinite Wrench, "30 original plays in 60 minutes, featuring the personal, the political, and the profoundly WTF", at the Taylor Street Theater in San Francisco from 31 January to 22 February.
Clouds from a Crumbling Giant: The Bardo, a "convergence of Butoh Dance, Noh Theater and Avant-garde theater traditions" will play at Theater of Yugen's NOHSpace on 31 January - 2 February.
If upbeat orphans are your thing, BroadwaySF brings the musical Annie to the Orpheum Theater on 6 - 9 February.
Theater Rhinoceros presents the world premiere of Doodler, conceived & directed by John Fisher, a crime drama based on a series of murders in the 1970s Castro District, & it runs from 6 February to 2 March.
Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend, a "World Premiere One-Man Whodunnit" written by & starring Nathan Tylutki, plays at the New Conservatory Theater from 6 to 16 February.
Aurora Theater presents The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh, directed by Jennifer Chang, about two Asian immigrant woman spending Thanksgiving together while their husbands are at their hospital jobs, & that runs 8 February through 9 March.
The Lamplighters present A Minister's Wife, the musical based on Shaw's Candida, with music by Joshua Schmidt, lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen, & book by Austin Pendleton, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on 8 - 9 February & at the Taube Atrium Theater on 15 - 16 February.
BroadwaySF presents Back to the Future: The Musical at the Orpheum from 12 February to 9 March.
The Marsh has a couple of one-person shows coming up this month: on 12 February at The Marsh San Francisco, Yvonne Martinez tells the stories of women of color labor activists in Someday Mija, You’ll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman, & on 18 February at The Marsh Berkeley, Pearl Louise talks about her family building a house in a crack-afflicted neighborhood in 1980s Oakland in Pass the Nails and Shame the Devil (directed by David Ford).
Berkeley Rep presents Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, adapted by Conor McPherson & directed by Simon Godwin, from 14 February through 23 March.
SFBATCO presents the world premiere of Cuckoo Edible Magic by Reed Flores, directed by Michelle Talgarow, an anime-&-edible inspired quest through the Bay Area, at the Magic Theater from 13 February through 8 March.
Berkeley Playhouse presents the Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice musical Jesus Christ Superstar, directed by Kimberly Dooley, from 21 February through 30 March.
ACT presents Nobody Loves You: A Musical (book by Itamar Moses, lyrics by Gaby Alter & Itamar Moses, music by Gaby Alter, choreography by Steph Paul, directed by Pam MacKinnon), about a man who goes on a reality dating show to win back his ex, at the Toni Rembe Theater from 28 February through 30 March.
Talking
BroadwaySF presents An Evening with Shankar Vedantam, creator & host of the podcast / NPR program Hidden Brain, on 2 February at the Curran Theater.
As part of its Unscripted series, Broadway SF presents Bill Gates in conversation with Dax Shepard, discussing Gates's new memoir, Source Code (all ticket holders will receive an unsigned copy of the book) on 11 February at the Curran Theater.
On 26 February in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents historian Heather Cox Richardson in conversation with UC Berkeley Law & History Professor Dylan Penningroth on Forging a New Political System, 2024 and Beyond.
Operatic
Opera San José gives us Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (performed in English), directed by Shawna Lucey, & conducted by Joseph Marcheso, with Zachary Nelson as Bluebeard & Maria Natale as Judith, & it plays 15 February to 2 March.
Both Eyes Open, a chamber opera about the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII, with music by Max Giteck Duykers & libretto by Philip Kan Gotanda, plays at UC-Berkeley's Zellerbach Playhouse on 15 - 16 February.
Pocket Opera starts its 2025 season with Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, with music director Marika Yasuda & stage director Sergey Khalikulov, & you can see it 21 February at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 23 February at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, & 2 March at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Jeffrey Thomas leads the American Bach Soloists in Handel's Acis & Galatea, featuring soprano Hélène Brunet as Galatea, tenor James Reese as Acis, & bass Mischa Bouvier as Polyphemus, & tenor Michael Jankosky as Damon, & you can hear it 21 February at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 22 February at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 23 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 24 February at the Davis Community Church in Davis.
Choral
Sacred & Profane presents Languages of Love, a multilingual traversal of love songs from around the world, & you can hear them on 15 February at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley & 16 February at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.
Vocalists
On 4 February at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Bay Area debut of soprano Lise Davidsen, with Malcolm Martineau on piano, performing works by Grieg, Purcell, Verdi, Richard Strauss, Schubert, & Wagner.
On 5 February at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents jazz singer Samara Joy, backed by Connor Rohrer (piano) Paul Sikivie (bass), David Mason (alto saxophone & flute), Kendric McCallister (tenor saxophone), Jason Charos (trumpet), Donavan Austin (trombone), & Evan Sherman (drums).
Taste of Talent presents OperAloha, "an epic Valentine celebration of Love & Music where Opera meets Aloha! Experience a musical feast of Opera, Fado, Hawaiian songs, and Jazz" by performers including Maria Valdes (soprano), Aivale Cole (soprano), Christopher Oglesby (tenor), Jongwon Han (bass-baritone), with Ronny Michael Greenberg on piano, on 5 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
The first Schwabacher Recital will take place on 13 February at the Taube Atrium Theater, when Georgiana Adams (soprano), Caroline Corrales (soprano), Thomas Kinch (tenor), & Samuel Kidd baritone, with pianist Julian Grabarek, will perform pieces by Amy Beach, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Rebecca Clarke, Richard Strauss, George Butterworth, Alma Mahler, Claude Debussy, & Kurt Weill, selected by tenor Nicholas Phan.
Mavis Staples sings at the SF Jazz Center on 14 - 16 February.
On 16 February at Old First Concerts, Lieder Alive! presents soprano Charlotte Kelso with pianist Peter Grünberg performing songs of "love, longing and fulfillment" by Schubert, Wagner, Mahler, & Marx.
On 21 February at Old First Concerts, mezzo-soprano Naama Liany with pianist Kevin Korth will perform Daydream, a lock-down inspired program of Barber's Despite and Still, Bernstein's I Hate Music: A Cycle of Five Kid Songs, Federico Mompou's Combat del somni, Albena Petrovic's The Piano Blue, & Poulenc's Banalités.
On 26 February at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron with pianist Kunal Lahiry in The Power & the Glory: Music of Colonialism, a program exploring "the search for identity at the height of Empire" & including pieces by Montsalvatge, Valcárcel, Messiaen, Lecuona, Mahler, Schoenberg, Weber, Weill, Sankaram, Delage, Ravvel, Ravaei, Azezi/Frenkel, Ruo, Chen Yi, & traditional melodies.
Orchestral
On 9 February at the Berkeley Community Theater, Joseph Young leads the Berkeley Symphony in a dance-inspired program, featuring The Chairman Dances by John Adams, Anna Clyne's Rumi-inspired DANCE (featuring cellist Inbal Segev & members of the Berkeley Ballet), & the Beethoven 7 (according to Wagner, the "Apotheosis of the Dance").
Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose upcoming departure is like a warning bell in the night that the San Francisco Symphony is being led by its short-sighted Board down a very unfortunate path, conducts two programs this month: he leads the Orchestra in Debussy's Gigues & Rondes from Images pour orchestre, Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand & Rautavaara's Piano Concerto #1 (both with Yuja Wang as soloist) & Debussy's Ibéria from Images pour orchestre, & that's on 13 - 16 February; he then leads the Orchestra in the world premiere of a Symphony commission, Strange Beasts by Xavier Muzik, along with the Prokofiev Piano Concerto #2 (with soloist Daniil Trifonov) & Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on 21 - 23 February.
Paavo Järvi leads the San Francisco Symphony in Shostakovich's Piano Concerto #2 (with soloist Kirill Gerstein) & the Mahler 7 on 6, 7, & 9 February.
On 8 February at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony celebrates the Lunar New Year (the Year of the Snake, a resonant animal considering that President "Not Technically a Rapist According to State Law" will be back in office) with a concert led by Francesco Lecce-Chong, featuring soloists Wu Man on pipa & Amos Yang on cello, performing An-Lun Huang's Saibei Dance, from Saibei Suite #2, Tian Zhou's Indigo from Concerto for Orchestra, the world premiere of a new work, commissioned by the Symphony, from Shuying Li, selections from The Butterfly Lovers Concerto by Chen Gang & He Zhanhao, Zhao Jiping's Pipa Concerto #2, & the Spring Festival Overture by Huan-zhi Li (arranged by Long Yu).
On 12 February at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Philharmonia Orchestra, with conductors Thomas Green & Noam Elisha, will perform a free noontime concert featuring Mozart's Overture to the Magic Flute, Rossini's Overture to the Barber of Seville, Jessie Montgomery's Strum, & Wagner's Overture to Die Meistersinger.
On 15 February, Edwin Outwater leads the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra in Carl Maria von Weber's Overture to Der Freischütz, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, &, with featured vocalist Meow Meow, a semi-staged production of the Brecht/Weill Seven Deadly Sins.
On 26 February at Davies Hall, the SF Symphony presents the Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields, with leader & violinist Joshua Bell, performing Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 104 (with soloists Bell & Fiona Cunninghame-Murray); the Haydn 29, & Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (as this concert is the culmination of a residency at the SF Conservatory of Music by Bell & the Academy, Cunninghame-Murray & some of the other performers are SFCM students).
Chamber Music
Canta, Violino! (Andrew Finn Magill, violin; Clarice Cast, percussion; Edinho Gerber, Brazilian seven-string guitar) will perform original Brazilian choro & samba music at Old First Concerts on 2 February.
On 2 February at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the Danish String Quartet (Frederik Øland & Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola' Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello) performing Caroline Shaw's Entr’acte, the Andante from Haydn's String Quartet in F major, Opus 77, #2, Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet, Baroque-era Irish harpist Turlough O’Carolan's Three Melodies: Mabel Kelly, Planxty Kelly, Carolan’s Quarrel with the Landlad, & Shostakovich's String Quartet #15, Opus 144.
Berkeley Chamber Performances presents the Alexander Quartet (Zakarias Grafilo & Yuna Lee, violin; David Samuel, viola; Sandy Wilson, cello), which is disbanding after this season, in Schubert's Death & the Maiden, Kian Ravaei's The Little Things, & the Haydn Quartet Opus 77 #1 in G Major on 4 February at the Berkeley City Club & on 8 February at the Lafayette Library.
The Saturday morning lecture series at Herbst Theater, presented by San Francisco Performances, featuring musicologist Robert Greenberg & the Alexander String Quartet (Zakarias Grafilo & Yuna Lee, violins; David Samuel, viola; Sandy Wilson, cello), completes its exploration of The String Quartets of Papa Joe & Wolfgang with the final concert in the series on 8 February, featuring Haydn's String Quartet in C Major Opus 76, #3, “Emperor”, & his String Quartet in G Major, Opus 77, #1. (This is the final performance for SF Performances by the Alexander String Quartet, which has been their Quartet-in-Residence for 36 years & is disbanding after this season.)
On 9 February at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents pianist Wu Han, violinist Arnaud Sussmann, & cellist David Finckel playing Haydn's Piano Trio in E major, Shostakovich's Piano Trio #2 in E minor, Opus 67, & Mendelssohn's Piano Trio #2 in C minor, Opus 66.
Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco offers violinist Pasha Sabouri & pianist Amy Zanrosso playing Beethoven's Sonata #6 in F Major, Opus 10, #2, Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, & Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing Suite, Opus 11 on 11 February & the Midsummer Mozart Chamber Festival Chamber Players (John Wilson, piano; Robin Hansen & Ani Bukujian, violin; Elizabeth Prior, viola; Saul Richmond-Rakerd, cello) playing Amy Beach's Piano Trio in A Minor, Opus 150 & Samuel Coleridge Taylor's Piano Quintet #1 in G Minor on 18 February.
This month's Chamber Music Tuesday at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music will take place on 11 February & feature violinist Stefan Jackiw, who, with student performers, will play Ernő Dohnányi's Serenade in C Major, Opus 10; Prokofiev's Violin Sonata #2 in D Major, Opus 94a; & Mendelssohn's String Quintet #2 in B-flat Major, Opus 87.
On 14 February at Old First Concerts, the Shoreline Piano Trio (Sui-mi Shin, violin; Katie Youn, cello; & Menghua Lin, piano) perform Explorations of Love and Art: A Valentine’s Concert, featuring Caroline Shaw's Gustave Le Gray, Maria Theresia von Paradis's Sicilienne, Jessie Montgomery's Duo, Amy Beach's Romance, Opus 23, Jennifer Higdon's Piano Trio. #1, & Clara Schumann's Piano Trio in G minor, Opus 17.
On 15 February at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents cellist Steven Isserlis & pianist Connie Shih performing Beethoven's Cello Sonata in G Minor, Opus 5, #2, Martinů's Cello Sonata #1, Nadia Boulanger's 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano, & Grieg's Cello Sonata, Opus 36.
On 16 February at the Presidio Theater, San Francisco Performances presents violinist Alexi Kenney, violinist/violist Owen Dalby, cellist Christopher Costanza, & pianist Amy Yang performing Danny Elfman's Piano Quartet & Korngold's Suite, Opus 23 for Two Violins, Cello, and Piano left hand.
On 16 February at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the Takács Quartet (Edward Dusinberre & Harumi Rhodes, violins; Richard O’Neill, viola; András Fejér, cello) performing Haydn's String Quartet in C major, Opus 54, #2, "Tost"; Britten's String Quartet #2 in C major, Opus 36; & Beethoven's String Quartet in F major, Opus 59, #1, "Razumovsky".
On 16 February at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music SF presents Amsterdam wind ensemble Calefax (Oliver Boekhoorn, oboe; Bart de Kater, clarinet; Raaf Hekkema, alto saxophone; Jelte Althuis, bass clarinet; Alban Wesly, bassoon) playing Rameau's Le rappel des oiseaux, Debussy's Four Preludes, a Scarlatti sonata, Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith, Bach's Fantasia & Fugue in G minor, “The Grand”, Henriëtte Bosmans's Quartet, Cole Porter's Just one of those things, & Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
On 22 February at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances, in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts, presents Sharon Isbin on guitar, Amjad Ali Khan pm Sarod, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash on Sarod, & Ammit Kavthekar on Tabla, performing Strings for Peace, a program exploring common ground between Indian ragas & European medieval music,
On 23 February at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the Hagen Quartet (Lukas Hagen & Rainer Schmidt, violins; Veronika Hagen, viola, & Clemens Hagen, cello) playing Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Opus 54, #1 & his String Quartet in E major, Opus 54, #3 as well as Schumann's String Quartet in A major, Opus 41, #3.
The Friction Quartet (Otis Harriel & Kevin Rogers, violin; Mitso Floor, viola; Doug Machiz, cello) presents Hard Times, a program put together by Rogers consisting of Thomas Adès's Four Quarters, Trevor Weston's Fudo Myoo, Vivian Fung's String Quartet #4 “Insects and Machines”, & Tigran Hamasyan's Song for Melan and Rafik & Vortex (arranged by Rogers), & you can hear it 26 February at the Berkeley Piano Club & 28 February at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Palo Alto.
On 27 February at the Presidio Theater, San Francisco Performances presents Dreamers' Circus (Nikolaj Busk, piano; Rune Tornsgaard Sørensen, fiddle; Ale Carr, guitar) playing their twist on traditional Nordic music.
The Sixth Station Trio (Anju Goto, violin; Federico Strand Ramirez, cello; Katelyn Tan, piano) performs Joe Hisaishi’s score for Miyazaki's Spirited Away at Old First Concerts on 28 February & 2 March (it sounds as if the movie will not be shown; the Trio is only playing the music).
Instrumental
On 4 February at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Sir Stephen Hough, performing Cécile Chaminade's Automne, her Autre Fois & her Les Sylvains; the Liszt Sonata in B Minor, Chopin's Sonata in B Minor, & his own Sonatina Nostalgica.
On 5 February, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in partnership with the Naumburg Foundation will present Jonathan Swensen, the 2024 winner of the Foundation's 2024 Cello Competition, performing Bent Sørensen's Farewell Fantasia for Solo Cello, Bach's Cello Suite #4 in E-flat Major, Dutilleux's Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher, & Zoltán Kodály's Sonata for Solo Cello in B Minor, Opus 8.
On 8 February at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Marc-André Hamelin, playing Haydn's Piano Sonata in D Major, Frank Zappa's Ruth Is Sleeping, Stefan Wolpe's Passacaglia, John Oswald's TIP, Nikolai Medtner's Improvisation in B Flat Minor Opus 31 #1 & his Danza festiva, Opus 38 #3, & Rachmaninoff's Etude-Tableau Opus 39 #5 & his Piano Sonata #2, Opus 36 (1931 version).
On 9 February in Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents pianist Seong-Jin Cho performing the complete piano music of Ravel; the program will include two intermissions & include Sérénade grotesque, Menuet antique, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Jeux d’eau, Sonatine, Miroirs, Gaspard de la nuit, Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Prélude, À la manière de Borodine, À la manière de Chabrier, & Le tombeau de Couperin.
On 19 February at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents violinist Tessa Lark with pianist Amy Yang, performing Romanian Folk Dances by Bartók, Ysaÿe's Sonata #4 in E minor for Solo Violin, Ysaÿe Shuffle & Jig and Pop by Lark, Kreisler's Chanson Louis XIII et Pavane in the style of Louis Couperin & his Syncopation, & Corigliano's Sonata for Violin and Piano.
On 25 February at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music SF presents the San Francisco debut of pianist Yunchan Lim, who will perform Hanurij Lee's …round and velvety-smooth blend… along with Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Early / Baroque Music
The Cantata Collective continues its survey of Bach's sacred cantatas, presented for free at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley, on 23 February with Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132; Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin, BWV 144; & Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196, with featured soloists Sherezade Panthaki (soprano), Sara Couden (alto), Matthew Tresler (tenor), & Paul Max Tipton (bass).
Tactus SF celebrates the 500th birthday of Palestrina with performances of sacred & secular choral works, including the Missa Tu es Petrus, on 27 February in San Francisco & 28 February in Berkeley (the website currently doesn't specify where in San Francisco & Berkeley, but you can check here closer to the performance dates).
See also Handel's Acis & Galatea, performed by the American Bach Soloists, listed above under Operatic.
Modern / Contemporary Music
The San Francisco Symphony presents composer Courtney Bryan on 31 January & 1 February; this is part of their Soundbox series; the program is unspecified but we are promised it will add "multisensory experiences to the underground club atmosphere of the SoundBox space"; I don't usually list the SoundBox events, because, when they started, they sold out almost immediately, & I don't generally list sold-out performances, but also because their whole attitude, starting with the "underground club atmosphere" & their oh-so-insidery, coolest-of-the-cool-kids vibe, along with their ridiculous start times & inconvenient set-up, all combined to make my skin crawl, but YMMV, & Bryan sounds like an interesting composer.
On 1 February at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the Eco Ensemble, led by David Milnes, performing music by graduates of UC Berkeley's composition program, including Sivan Eldar's L’eau la colonne le fer for fixed multi-channel electronics; Didem Coskunseven's Dawn Chorus for vibraphone, marimba, bass drums, and electronics; Maija Hynninen's …sicut aurora procedit for solo violin and electronics; Jimmy López's Warped Symmetry for solo flute; Oren Boneh's Her Majesty the Fool for solo accordion & electronics; Mason Bates's Digital Loom for organ and electronica; Keeril Makan's Mercury Songbirds for alto flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello; & Edmund Campion's Le Sillage (WAKE) for improvising cellist, ensemble, and live electronics.
On 1 February at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Caroline Hume Concert Hall, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, joined by guest artists Steven Schick (percussion) & Frederick A Peterbark (tenor), give us Tracing Paths, a program including Jonathan Bingham's Untitled, Zosha Di Castri's Touch/Trace, Olly Wilson's No More, & Thomas Adès's Chamber Symphony, Opus 2, as well as the world premieres of works for oboe, cello, & percussion by two (unnamed) SFCM TAC (San Francisco Conservatory of Music Technology & Applied Composition) students; the concert is preceded by an "Under the Hood" talk, led by SFCMP Artistic Director Eric Dudley, with composers Di Castri & Bingham & percussionist Schick.
On 18 February at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, there will be a String Quartet Composition Recital; the student composers / performers have not been announced yet.
Jazz / Roots
On 1 February at the SF Jazz Center, drummer Kendrick Scott presents the West Coast premiere of Unearthed, a multi-media performance combining poetry, visuals, a string quartet, & a jazz ensemble in a work honoring the Sugar Land 95 (95 unidentified Black prisoners & forced laborers found buried in the Texas town of Sugar Land in 2018).
Tenor saxophonist & composer Isaiah Collier performs 6 - 7 February at the SF Jazz Center: on the 6th as part of his group I AM (also including Timothy Regis on drums) & on the 7th as part of his group The Chosen Few (other players TBA).
Pianist Jason Moran, with the Marcus Shelby New Orchestra & singer Darynn Dean, perform music by Duke Ellington at the SF Jazz Center on 6 - 9 February.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band puts on a Mardi Gras Party & Celebration of the City of New Orleans (plus pre-concert Food, Cocktails & Festivities with Jazz Mafia) at the Presidio Theater on 14 - 15 February (please note that this year Mardi Gras is actually on 4 March; I expect everyone to be fasting & contrite on Ash Wednesday).
Tenor Saxophonist & Vocalist Camille Thurman, with the Darrell Green Quartet, plays the SF Jazz Center on 15 - 16 February.
On 22 February at the Paramount Theater, the SF Jazz Center presents pianist Chucho Valdés & trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, reunited as part of Irakere 50 & joined by Cimafunk, for an evening of Afro-Cuban jazz.
On 28 February in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents This Land is Our Land, a program featuring the Martha Redbone Roots Project & the American Patchwork Quartet, playing to what's left of America.
Dance
On 7 - 9 February at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Diamond Jubilee tour of Twyla Tharp Dance, featuring Diabelli (with Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations performed live by pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev) & the West Coast premiere of SLACKTIDE (with Philip Glass's music performed live by Third Coast Percussion).
BroadwaySF presents the World Ballet Company in The Great Gatsby, with choreography by Ilya Zhivoy to an original score by Anna Drubich, at the Curran Theater on 9 February.
From 13 to 19 February, the San Francisco Ballet presents Cool Britannia, a program featuring Chroma (choreography by Sir Wayne McGregor to music by Joby Talbot & Jack White III), Within the Golden Hour (choreography by Christopher Wheeldon to music by Ezio Bosso & Vivaldi), & the North American premiere of Dust (choreography by Akram Khan to music by Jocelyn Pook).
Smuin Ballet offers a Choreography Showcase, featuring work by company artists, from 14 to 23 February at the Smuin Center for Dance.
Ohad Naharin brings his Batsheva Dance Company to Cal Performances & Zellerbach Hall on 22 - 23 February, with the Bay Area premiere of Naharin's MOMO (with music including recordings of Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet’s Landfall & Philip Glass’ Metamorphosis: Two, as well as a song/prayer by Venezuelan musician Arca).
Art Means Painting
Matisse’s Jazz Unbound, a display of the master's 1947 artist book on circus & theater, will be displayed at the de Young Museum from 25 January to 6 July.
The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art, opens at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on 1 February.
You have until 9 February to see the fabulous Tamara de Lempicka show at the de Young Museum.
Cinematic
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival holds its annual Day of Silents at the SF Jazz Center on 2 February; I am frankly dubious about the Jazz Center as a cinematic venue, but the day's line-up is sterling: Keaton's The Navigator, Ozu's A Story of Floating Weeds, Gary Cooper & Clara Bow in Children of Divorce, & Chicago, the original film about Roxie Hart, & all films, as usual with the Silent Film Festival presentations, have live musical accompaniment.
BAM/PFA launches two series dedicated to non-fiction films: Climate Journalism on Screen begins 2 February & continues through 23 February, & Documentary Voices begins 5 February & continues through 30 April.
The 27th San Francisco Independent Film Festival runs at the Roxie from 6 through 18 February; check out the schedule(s) here.
Sátántangó, Béla Tarr's powerful & moving epic, is being shown at BAM/PFA on 16 February; due to its nearly eight hour length, the movie begins in the early afternoon & is shown with two intermissions.
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