The end of the first quarter of the year already! I've typed & then deleted several false starts on what this early annual milestone means, or feels like, but, you know, forget it. The days are still mostly cold, if not always wet enough, & when I long for heat I remind myself that in six months I'll be longing for these days of chill & early dark, so I'm trying to enjoy them while they're here. In the meantime, the trees are starting to bud & the birds are singing. Hang in there & go do some of the fun things listed below.
Theatrical
Theater Rhinoceros presents Left Field, a comedy about America's first (openly: I see you, James Buchanan!) gay President, written & directed by John Fisher, & that runs from 19 February through 15 March.
Word for Word & Z Space present The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers, directed by Delia MacDougall, at Z Space’s Steindler Stage from 26 February to 15 March.
The San Leandro Players present The Odd Couple (Female Version) by Neil Simon, directed by Dana Fry, from 28 February to 29 March.
Looking For Justice (In All The Wrong Places) written & performed by Amy Oppenheimer, directed by David Ford, with performance coaching by Julia McNeal, explores Oppenheimer's experiences as a lesbian feminist & activist working in, with, & against the legal system, & that runs from 1 to 29 March at The Marsh in Berkeley.
ATG (which used to be BroadwaySF) presents Monty Python's Spamalot at the Golden Gate Theater from 3 to 22 March.
New Conservatory Theater Center presents Gods and Monsters, based on the novel by Christopher Bram, written & adapted by Tom Mullen, & directed by M Graham Smith, about Frankenstein director James Whale in his post-Hollywood years, & that runs from 6 March to 5 April.
On 7 March, the Orinda Theater will present AR Gurney's Love Letters, directed by Derek Zemrak, starring Pamela Sue Martin & Parker Stevenson.
Pass the Nails and Shame the Devil, written & performed by Pearl Louise &directed by David Ford, about her family building a home in Oakland in the midst of the 1980s crack epidemic, runs at The Marsh in Berkeley from 7 March to 18 April.
Golden Thread Productions & the Brava Theater Center co-present What Do the Women Say? 2026; "Join [Golden Thread] founder Torange Yeghiazarian, outgoing Artistic Director Sahar Assaf, and incoming Artistic Director Nabra Nelson as they co-host a special Women’s Day Celebration marking our 30th Anniversary. Our leaders will welcome women artists connected to Golden Thread to share music, spoken word, and plays and engage them in a wide-ranging conversation about the past, the present, and the future of the company", & that's at the Brava Theater on 8 March.
UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream, adapted by Diane Timmerman & directed by Patrick Russell, from 12 to 15 March in the Durham Studio Theater.
The Magic Theater & Play On Shakespeare present Macbeth in a "new version" by Migdalia Cruz, directed by Liam Vincent & set in 1970s New York City, running from 18 March to 5 April.
Samantha Bee: How to Survive Menopause is on the Brava Theater mainstage on 21 March; the first two performances (in January & February) sold out, so don't delay on this if you're interested.
Brava Theater & BACCE present a staged reading of Duck Gulps in Silence by AeJay Antonis Marquis, directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, about "a queer Black man, Paul, navigating grief, inherited silence, family obligation, and the fragile work of staying alive", & that's in the Brava Studio Theater on 21 & 22 March.
Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage present Edward Albee's The Goat; or, Who Is Sylvia?, directed by Kevin Clarke, from 21 March to 19 April.
The Great American Sh*t Show, written & performed by Brian Copeland & directed by David Ford, about life in Trump-infested America, plays at The Marsh San Francisco on 26 March.
Big Gay Circus, featuring "sexy acrobats, campy comedy, fearless aerialists, and a drag queen with a secret" plays at the Great Star Theater in SF Chinatown from 26 March to 5 April.
San Francisco Playhouse presents Flex by Candrice Jones, directed by Margo Hall, about a girls' basketball team struggling towards a state championship, & that plays from 26 March to 2 May.
Berkeley Rep presents The Monsters by Ngozi Anyanwu, directed by Tamilla Woodard, from 27 March to 3 May.
Talking
On 3 March at the Henry J Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss the last presidential election.
On 4 May at the Sydney Goldstein Theater, City Arts & Lectures presents Michael Pollan in conversation with Dacher Keltner about Pollan's new book, A World Appears, a study of the current science of human consciousness (a copy of the book is included with each ticket).
On 27 March at the Orinda Theater, you can spend An Evening with Temple Grandin.
Operatic
West Edge Opera presents Snapshot, its preview of four operas in process: Case Closed (composer Martin Rokeach, librettist Steven Blum), in which a TV news reporter covers a crime she was responsible for (a car accident after which she fled the scene); Cry Wolf (composer JL Marlor, librettist Clare Fuyuko Bierman), in which a trio of young men get caught up in on-line "ideological rabbit holes"; Threshold of Brightness (composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh, librettist Lisa Flanagan), about Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, who insisted on writing "as freely as a man would"; & The Joining (composer Issac lo Schankler, librettist Aiden K Feltkeamp), about a futurist world in which golems play a prominent & ambiguous role, & you can experience it all on 28 February at First Congregational in Berkeley & 1 March at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco's War Memorial Complex.
Livermore Valley Opera stages Mozart's Così fan tutte, featuring Meryl Dominguez as Fiodiligi, Megan Potter as Dorabella, Courtney Miller as Despina, Samuel Kidd as Guglielmo, Sid Chand as Ferrando, & Eugene Brancoveanu as Don Alfonso, staged by Robert Herriot & conducted by Alexander Katsman, & that's on 28 February & 1, 7, & 8 March at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore.
On 8 March in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances will present Handel's Hercules, performed by The English Concert & conductor Harry Bicket, with vocal soloists Ann Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano: Dejanira), William Guanbo Su (bass: Hercules), Hilary Cronin (soprano: Iole), & Alexander Chance (countertenor: Lichas), as well as The Clarion Choir, led by Steven Fox.
On 13 - 14 March in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances & Opera Parallèle present La Belle et la Bête, the Philip Glass opera based on the celebrated film by Cocteau, directed & designed by Brian Staufenbiel & conducted by Nicole Paiement, with vocal soloists Chea Kang (soprano: La Belle), Hadleigh Adams (baritone: La Bête/Le Prince/Avenant), Sophie Delphis (mezzo-soprano: Félicie/Adelaïde), & Aurélièn Mangwa (baritone: Le Père/Ludovic/L’Usurier).
On 13 & 14 March, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Massenet's Cendrillon, directed by Peter Kazaras & conducted by Ari Pelto (as usual with Conservatory productions, there are different casts at each performance).
Choral
If you want to participate in choral singing, on 7 March at Calvary Presbyterian on Fillmore Street, the San Francisco Bach Choir will hold its annual choral festival, Many Voices, One Art; click here for further information.
On 7 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, John Kendall Bailey will lead Chora Nova, joined by guests Gabrielle Goozée-Nichols (soprano) & Jesse Micek (piano), in An American Choral Journey, including music from the 1640 Bay Psalm book to our contemporaries.
On 14 March, Old First Concerts presents the Princeton Nassoons, who will bring their "signature arrangements [which] blend timeless five-part harmony with contemporary flair."
San Francisco Choral Artists presents L'Chaim! A Celebration of Life, with "music from the Jewish tradition and around the world" including works by Salomone Rossi & Mendelssohn to contemporary musicians including Tzvi Avni, Matt Van Brink, Sylke Zimpel, L Peter Deutsch, & Alice Parker, as well as world premieres from Max Marcus & Peter Hilliard, & you can hear them 15 March at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, 21 March at All Saints' Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 22 March at Netivot Shalom in Berkeley.
On 21 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, Don Scott Carpenter leads Vox Humana SF in In Praise & Protest, a program featuring Hail, Gladdening Light by Charles Wood, Magnificat à 8 by Palestrina, the Mass in G Minor for Double Chorus by Vaughan Williams, The New Colossus by Saunder Choi, & Après Moi, le Déluge by Luna Pearl Woolf (with Michael Kaufman on solo cello).
On 22 March at the Episcopal Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in San Francisco, Eric Choate celebrates 10 years at the church with a concert of motets by Brahms & Bach offered by the Children’s, Youth, & Parish Choirs.
Chanticleer performs I Left My Heart in San Francisco, a celebration of the Bay City's musical & cultural diversity, & you can hear it 22 March at Saint John's Lutheran in Sacramento, 23 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, 24 March at Mount Tamalpais UMC in Mill Valley, 27 March at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 28 March at Hume Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Vocalists
ATG (formerly BroadwaySF) presents Patti Lupone in concert at the Golden Gate Theater on 1 March.
Orchestral
On 1 March at the First Baptist Church of San Francisco, Michelle Maruyama leads the SF Civic Music Association in Civic Strings: Colors of Spring, a program featuring Paul Basler's Divertimento for String Orchestra, Max Richter's Recomposed rendition of Vivaldi's Spring, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga's String Quartet #2 in A Major, &, as a "possible encore". The Doctor's Fiddle by Servan Nichifor; the concert is free but RSVPs & donations are appreciated.
On 1 March at Davies Hall, Joshua Bell conducts & plays solo violin for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as they perform the Variations on America by Ives (arranged by Iain Farrington), the Brahms Violin Concerto, & the Schumann 1, the "Spring".
On 5 March, Itzhak Perlman leads the San Francisco Symphony (& acts as violin soloist) in Bach's Violin Concerto #1 in A minor, the Brahms Academic Festival Overture, & the Dvořák 8.
On 6 March at the San Francisco Symphony, John Malkovich stars in Aleksey Igudesman’s The Music Critic; violinist Igudesman also conducts, as Malkovich "slips into the role of the evil critic who traverses—and trashes— some of the best music of all time in a gleeful romp."
On 7 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, Don Scott Carpenter leads the Zephyr Symphony & Chorus in Mendelssohn's Elijah, featuring Andrew Thomas Pardin as Elijah, along with Mary-Hollis Hundley (soprano), Leandra Ramm (contralto), & Elliott James-Ginn Encarnácion (tenor).
On 8 March, Radu Paponiu leads the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in Finlandia by Sibelius, blue cathedral by Jennifer Higdon, & the Mahler 4 (with soprano Hannah Cho).
On 8 March at Herbst Theater, as a celebration of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra's 50th anniversary, Martin West will lead them in a performance of Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade, Overture by Bjork, Scene d’Amour from Vertigo by Bernard Herrmann, the Grand Waltz from Prokofiev's Cinderella, & the Galop Final from Coppelia by Delibes.
On 8 March at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Samantha Burgess leads the Community Women's Orchestra in Mother Nature: A Concert for International Women's Day, featuring Anne Guzzo's Fanfare for Mountains and Peace, Nancy Bloomer Deussen's The Transit of Venus, Andromede by Augusta Holmès, Deepest Blue by Mattea Williams, & Persephone by Imogen Holst.
On 13 & 14 March in Hertz Hall, David Milnes leads the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Keiko Abe's Prism Rhapsody (with Erin Lin on marimba), Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante in E minor (with Sarah Kave on cello), & Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss.
On 13 & 15 March, Daniele Rustioni leads the San Francisco Symphony in the Dvořák Cello Concerto (with soloist Daniel Müller-Schott; both he & Rustioni are making their SFS debuts) along with the Brahms 2.
Violinist Daniel Hope leads the New Century Chamber Orchestra in Luminaries, a program featuring Overture by Jake Heggie (a NCCO commission), the Violin Concerto in A Major by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (with Hope as soloist), the world premiere of Nathaniel Stookey's Bubble Chamber (a NCCO commission in honor of Gordon Getty), & Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, & you can hear it all on 13 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, 14 March at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, & 15 March at Saint Stephen's Episcopal in Belvedere.
On 20 -22 March, Andrés Orozco-Estrada leads the San Francisco Symphony in the Overture to Euryanthe by Carl Maria von Weber, the Mozart Piano Concerto #9 in E-flat major (with soloist Jan Lisiecki), & the Dvořák 7.
On 21 March at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Bob Mollicone leads the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in We’ll Always Have Paris, a program featuring Rossini's William Tell Overture, Lili Boulanger's D’un matin de printemps (On a Spring Morning), Britten's Les Illuminations (texts by Rimbaud, sung by soprano Chea Kang), & Gershwin's An American in Paris.
On 21 March at Herbst Theater, Jessica Bejarano leads the San Francisco Philharmonic in Love and Loss, a program featuring Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture, the Brahms 4, & "additional programming to be determined".
On 21 - 22 March at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in Northern Lights, a program featuring Valentin Silvestrov's Stille Musik (Quiet Music), Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa, & the Sibelius 2.
On 22 March at Herbst Theater, the San Francisco Pride Band will hold its Winter Community Concert, but other information has not yet been announced.
David Morales leads Cantare (with Orchestra & vocal soloists Shawnette Sulker, soprano; Laura Krumm, messo-soprano; Samuel White, tenor; Kenneth Kellogg, bass) in The Three Bs, a program featuring Beethoven's Ode to Joy from the 9th Symphony, Bach’s Motets Lobet den Herrn, all Heiden, & Jesus bleibet meine Freude, Brahms’ Nänie & the 4th movement of the German Requiem, & you can hear it on 21 March at Walnut Creek Presbyterian & 22 March at First Presbyterian in Oakland.
On 26 - 28 March, Philippe Jordan leads the San Francisco Symphony in Debussy's Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un faune, the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto #5, the "Egyptian" (with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet), & Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.
On 27 March at the Paramount, Kedrick Armstrong leads the Oakland Symphony in Clarice Assad's Baião N’ Blues, the Hammond Organ Concerto by Brian Raphael Nabors (with Jerome Lenk as soloist), & the Saint-Saëns Symphony #3, the "Organ".
On 29 March at Herbst Theaer, the SF Civic Music Association presents the SF Civic Symphony in The American Sound – In celebration of America’s Semi-quincentennial; Paul Schrage leads the band in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha Overture, Variations on America by Charles Ives as arranged by William Schuman, Gershwin's Piano Concerto (with soloist Daniel Glover), The Oak by Florence Price, John Henry by Aaron Copland, & the Symphony #1 by Louis Moreau Gottschalk; the concert is free but RSVPs & donations are appreciated.
Chamber Music
On 4 March at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, the SF Ballet Orchestra will offer some chamber music, including "movements from Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet, Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, Schulhoff’s Concertino and Dohnanyi’s humorous Sextet for Piano, Winds and Strings".
On 8 March at the Presidio Theater, Chamber Music SF presents the Stella Chen, Matthew Lipman, and Brannon Cho Trio (Chen on violin, Lipman on viola, & Cho on cello), who will perform Dohnányi's Serenade in C Major for String Trio, Opus 10, the US premiere of Cantares by Andreia Pinto Correia, & Mozart's Divertimento in E-flat Major for String Trio.
On 8 March at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, violinist Daniel Darmesin Flanagan, joined for some pieces by guest violinist Momoka Florence Yanagisawa, will perform The Bow and the Brush: A Concert of Music and Visual Art, pairing works by Bach, Jean-Marie Leclair, & others with projections of appropriate paintings; a Q&A session will follow.
On 10 March at the Berkeley City Club, Berkeley Chamber Performances presents the Circadian Quartet (Monika Gruber & David Ryther, violins; Omid Assadi, viola; David Wishnia, cello) performing The Crucible: Three Lives Transformed by World War II, featuring music by Hugo Kauder, Anton Webern, & Pavel Haas, along with traditional klezmer tunes (the program will be repeated on 14 March at the Library in Lafayette).
On 14 March at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, the SF Civic Music Association presents An Afternoon of Chamber Music, featuring Paul Valjean's Dance Suite, Paul Hindemith's Kleine Kammermusik, Beethoven's Trio in B-flat major, Opus 11, the "Gassenhauer", Madeleine Dring's
Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano. & Spohr's Grand Nonetto, Opus 31; admission is free but RSVPs & donations are appreciated.
On 22 March at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, the Berkeley Symphony presents a chamber music program, French Connections, featuring Debussy's L'Isle Joyeuse, Massenet's Meditation from Thaïs, Poulenc's Sonata for flute and piano, Lili Boulanger's D'un Matin de Printemps for Piano Trio, & Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor.
On 26 March in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg & Serena Canin, violins; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello) performing an all-Haydn program.
On 27 March in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents Edgar Meyer on Double Bass with the Dover Quartet (Joel Link & Bryan Lee, violins; Julianne Lee, viola; Camden Shaw, cello), performing music by Mozart, Meyer, & Mendelssohn.
On 28 March at Saint John's Presbyterian in Berkeley, Four Seasons Arts presents the Ivalas Quartet (Reuben Kebede, Tiani Butts, Marcus Stevenson, violin; Pedro Sanchez, cello) performing Haydn's String Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 76, #4, the “Sunrise”, Deliverance by Derrick Skye, & Beethoven's String Quartet #13 in B-flat Major, Opus 130.
On 28 March at the Presidio Theater, Chamber Music SF presents the Myriad Trio (flutist Demarre McGill, violist Che-Yen Chen, harpist Julie Smith Phillips) performing Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concerts #5 in D minor, Jan Bach's Eisteddfod, Lita Grier's Elegy for Flute, Viola and Harp, & Beethoven's Serenade in D Major, Opus 25 (arranged by Ami Maayani).
On 29 March at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents cellist David Finckel & pianist Wu Han performing Bach's Cello Sonata in D major, Debussy's Cello Sonata, Britten's Cello Sonata, John Corigliano's Fancy on a Bach Air for solo cello, & Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor.
Instrumental
On 1 March, Old First Concerts hosts its annual Chopin Birthday gala, featuring pianists Jason Chiu, Omri Shimron, Robert Schwartz, Ariel Chien, Elizabeth Dorman, Oliver Moore, & more in, of course, an all-Chopin program.
On 1 March at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents violinist Geneva Lewis with pianist Evren Ozel performing Bach's Violin Sonata in E major, Schumann's Violin Sonata #3, Schoenberg's Phantasy, & Schubert's Fantasy in C major.
On 1 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music SF presents pianist Tiffany Poon, who will play music by Chopin, Couperin, Rameau, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Ravel, & Lili Boulanger.
On 2 March at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Barbro Osher Recital Hall, cellist & faculty member Amos Yang will perform Bach Cello Suite #2 in D Minor, Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello (with violinist Dan Carlson) & the Brahms Cello Sonata #2 in F Major, Opus 99 (with pianist John Wilson).
On 10 March at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents guitarist Jack Cimo performing works by Fernando Sor, Manuel María Ponce, Joaquín Rodrigo, & Agustín Barrios Mangoré.
On 12 March at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Lise de la Salle performing Chopin's Ballade #1 in G Minor, Opus 23 & his Ballade #4 in F Minor, Opus 52 as well as Liszt's Sonata for Piano in B Minor, his Cantique d’amour, & his Réminiscences de Don Juan.
On 14 March in Saint Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco Performances in association with OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presents guitarist David Russell performing Mauro Giuliani's Grand Overture, Bach's Prelude and Andante (transcribed by Russell), Pavana, Zambra Granadina, Capricho Catalán, Nocturno, & Malagueña, all by Isaac Albéniz, Don Quijote by Steve Goss (dedicated to Russell), & selections from Homage to Charles Chaplin by Gabriel Estarellas.
On 15 March at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents violinist Pinchas Zukerman with pianist Shai Wosner in an all-Brahms recital, featuring his three violin sonatas.
On 15 March at the Berkeley Piano Club, Four Seasons Arts presents harpist Jennifer Ellis (the program has not yet been announced).
On 15 March at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music SF presents pianist Angela Hewitt performing Bach's Partita N#5 in G Major, Schumann's Sonata #2 in G minor, Opus 22, selections from Couperin's Sixième Ordre, Second Livre de Pièces de clavecin, & Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.
On 20 March in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents violinist Augustin Hadelich with pianist Francesco Piemontesi, performing Recit du Chant by Nicolas de Grigny (arranged by Piemontesi), Debussy's Violin Sonata, La Boucon by Rameau (arranged by Piemontesi), Poulenc's Violin Sonata, Kurtág's Tre Pezzi, & Franck's Violin Sonata.
On 21 March at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, Mina-Marie Jelinek will perform an organ recital featuring "virtuosic French works".
Noe Music at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco offers two concerts with pianist & composer Dan Tepfer: on 21 March he will perform Inventions / Reinventions, "offering personal interpretations and spontaneous improvisations on J.S. Bach’s Inventions" & on 22 March he will perform Goldberg Variations / Variations, "blending Bach’s masterwork with his own improvisational responses."
On 21 - 22 March at Zellebach Hall, Cal Performances presents Drum Tao in their "newest show, The Best, blend[ing] cutting-edge stagecraft with centuries-old drumming traditions".
On 28 March in the Taube Atrium Theater, San Francisco Performances in association with OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presents guitarists Jason Vieaux & Jiji playing music by Albéniz, Pujol, Harold Arlen, Roland Dyens, Bach, Pat Metheny, Domenico Scarlatti, Gismonti, Granados, Wrembel, Towner, Bellinati, & Jiji.
On 29 March at Old First Concerts, pianist Ava Nazar presents Nahoft, "a program of music by women composers from the Iranian diaspora, featuring works by Aso Kohzadi, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Nina Barzegar, and Yassaman Behbahani. The concert grows out of Nazar’s debut album of the same name, . . . Nahoft takes its name from a melodic motif in Iranian music".
Early / Baroque Music
On 1 March at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley, the Cantata Collective will perform Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 99 & Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, BWV 157 with vocal soloists Nola Richardson (soprano), Christine Brandes (alto), Michael Jones (tenor), & Ben Kazez (bass).
Tactus SF celebrates its 10th anniversary with "a selection of Renaissance and Baroque favorites from our first ten years, with works by Victoria, Guerrero, Lassus, Isaac, Tallis, Byrd, Lechner, and Lotti", & you can hear it on 7 March at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley & 8 March at Saint Matthew's Lutheran in San Francisco.
On 8 March, the Byrd Ensemble will perform music by 15th and 16th centuries Flemish masters as part of the Candlelight Concert Series at the Episcopal Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in San Francisco.
Christine Brandes leads Philharmonia Baroque, with guest countertenor Reginald Mobley, in Pearls of Sorrow, a program combining Baroque music of sorrow & contemplation by Locatelli, JC Bach, JS Bach, Schütz, Erlebach, & Buxtehude with traditional African-American spirituals, & you can hear them on 13 March at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, 14 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 15 March at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford; on 10 March at MOAD in San Francisco will host an Artist Salon featuring museum curator Key Jo Lee& Mobley, who will "host an evening of conversation and music centered on Pearls of Sorrow. Mobley will lead a 45-minute lecture and demonstration that includes 15 minutes of live performance, guiding listeners through the program’s blend of Baroque works and African American spirituals. The evening concludes with a Q&A, offering the audience a chance to engage directly with the artists."
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Concerto Köln, performing works by Telemann, Bach, Giuseppe Sammartini, Handel, Mrs Philarmonica (the pen name of an anonymous female composer), & Vivaldi (his double concerto for two instruments, featuring violinist Shunske Sato & recorder player Max Volbers), & you can hear them 14 March at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco & 15 March at First Congregational in Berkeley.
On 15 March, Old First Concerts will host the annual Junior Bach Festival.
On 21 March at First Congregational in Berkeley, Nicholas McGegan will lead the Cantata Collective in their annual Bach Birthday Concert, this year featuring the Ascension Oratorio, BWV11 & Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21, with vocal soloists Sherezade Panthaki (soprano), Nicholas Burns (alto), Thomas Colley (tenor), & Paul Max Tipton (bass).
On 22 March at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte & harpsichordist Justin Taylor performing works by Vivaldi, Bach, Biber, & Corelli.
See also Handel's Hercules at Cal Performances, listed above under Operatic.
Modern / Contemporary Music
On 1 March at the Berkeley Piano Club, Ensemble for These Times & the Ross McKee Foundation present A New Music Piano Summit, featuring pianists Dale Tsang. LaDene Otsuki, Mehana Ellis, & Letian Lei performing works chosen from the Ensemble's 2025 Call for Scores for piano four-hands: Michele Allegro's Game Overture, Matt Browne's Tennis for Two, R Michael Dougherty's Joie de vivre, Justin Levitt's The Villains, Edna Alejandra Longoria's Cuatro ritmos, Stephen McCarthy's Potboiler, Joshua Muetzel's Cable Car Canter, Kelly-Marie Murphy's Prima-Goodman Fantasy, & Sam Wu's Hyperlooping.
On 12 March at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, Mary Chun leads Earplay in Kaleidoscopic, a program featuring The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives (arranged by Bruce Bennett), the world premiere of Searching for the Way by Hyo-shin Na (an Earplay commission), Haikus Notebook by Benet Casablancas (US premiere & winner of Earplay's 2025 Donald Aird Composers Competition), Loki's Lair by Mark Winges, & the world premiere of The Wild Party by Shuying Li (a Fromm Foundation commission, also featuring soprano Chelsea Hollow, with text by Joseph Moncure March as adapted by Jeffrey Hastings).
On 15 March at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the JACK Quartet (Christopher Otto & Austin Wulliman, violins; John Pickford Richards, viola; Jay Campbell, cello) performing the world premiere of Gabriella Smith's Aegolius, the west coast premieres of Austin Wulliman's The Late Edition & Keir Gogwilt's Treatise on Limited Freedoms: Future Mode 1, as well as Hans Abrahamsen's String Quartet #4 & Wolfgang Rihm's String Quartet #3, Im Innersten.
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble & Volti join forces for Sound Stories, a program featuring the world premiere of Babel by Chris Castro (with Susan Strauss, storyteller), along with Seasons Falling Through the Clouds by Mark Winges, Fractured Water by Shawn Okpebholo, & selections from Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Opus 12, & you can hear them on 20 March at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco or 21 March at the Maybeck First Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley.
On 23 March at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, composer David Garner will give a faculty recital offering the world premiere of his Trio for Five Instruments, #2 & his Cinco Poemas de Jaime Manrique (featuring mezzo-soprano Christine Abraham, along with Dale Tsang on piano, Victoria Hauk on flute & alto flute, Laura Reynolds on oboe & English horn, & Jennifer Ellis on harp.
See also Philip Glass's La Belle et la Bête at Cal Performances, listed above under Operatic.
Jazz
The Sun Ra Arkestra appears at The Chapel on Valencia Street in San Francisco on 28 February & 1 March.
On 3 March at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents the Contemporary Tango Quartet (the Paris-based Tango trio Fabrizio Colombo/ Émile Aridon-Kociolek/Lucas Frontini, in collaboration with violinist Basma Edrees) performing "new arrangements and works by the world-renowned Argentinian bandoneonist Fabrizio Colombo."
On 6 March at Zellerbach Playhouse, Cal Performances presents the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band, an ensemble that "celebrates and extends the contributions of Indigenous and Native musicians, composers, and bandleaders throughout the rich history of jazz".
On 19 - 20 March in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens (banjo & vocals), in Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual, in a combination of "Italian tarantella, Congolese string music, Indian tabla, and American roots music convers[ing] across ethnic and national boundaries, with the signature organicism and collaborative ethos that has defined Silkroad’s performances since its founding 25 years ago".
Dance
On 5 - 8 March, ODC/Dance presents Dance Downtown at the Yerba Buena Center, featuring the world premiere of After the Deluge from Brenda Way, Theories of Time by Mia J Chong, & Caught in the Act, a world premiere from guest choreographer Gypsy Snider.
The San Francisco Ballet presents Don Quixote (choreography by Alexander Gorsky after Marius Petipa, with staging & additional choreography by Helgi Tomasson & Yuri Possokhov; music by Minkus) from 19 to 28 March.
The Paul Taylor Dance Company will appear at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco on 20 March.
On 26 March at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, the Grand Kyiv Ballet will perform Gisele.
The Oakland Ballet Company offers its annual Dancing Moons Festival, this time titled Double Happiness, a program featuring two 2 world premieres: Double Happiness by Phil Chan & Child’s Play by Wei Wang, as well as a revival of Amber Waves by Phil Chan & Opposites Distract by Elaine Kudo, & that's 26 - 28 March at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (the program will be repeated 30 April - 2 May at the Great Star Theater in San Francisco).
Mostly Museums
Bouquets to Art runs at the Legion of Honor & the de Young Museums from 3 to 8 March. For those who don't know, various florists set up large & generally beautiful & interesting bouquets in the galleries, playing off of specific art works. I've been a few times. Sometimes it's lovely, other times . . . proceed at your own risk. (I was going to go into detail, but figured I'd better skip that.)
Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection, a selection of "painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography from the collection of Penny Cooper and Rena Rosenwasser" with an emphasis on women artists working from the 1960s to the present, opens at BAM/PFA on 4 March & runs through 28 June; in conjunction with the exhibit, on 7 March there will be a Conversation among Cooper & Rosenwasser along with artist Catherine Wagner & curator Margot Norton.
Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements, presented by YBCA in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society, featuring works by Ester Hernández, Serge Gay, Jr., Tanya Wischerath, Crystal Mason, & others, will run at the Yerba Buena Center from 13 March to 23 August.
Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night, featuring fifteen tapestries created by Brackens since 2020, opens at the Yerba Buena Center on 13 March.
Monet and Venice opens at the de Young Museum on 21 March & runs until 26 July.
Cinematic
A number of interesting series are launching this month at BAM/PFA: Psychedelia & Cinema, organized with the support of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, opens 1 March & runs through 10 May; Fassbinder and the New German Cinema opens 6 March & runs through 17 May; Iranian Cinema: From Aesthetics to Politics opens 7 March & runs through 23 April; the African Film Festival opens 8 March & runs through 9 May; & Impulses and Abstractions: Sound and Music in 1960s French Cinema opens on 14 March & runs through 29 March.
The Roxie in San Francisco is showing the 2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation on 25, 26, 28 February & 1 & 3 March.
The Roxie in San Francisco is showing a newly restored print of Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest from 6 to 12 March.
On 7 March in Zellerbach Playhouse, Cal Performances will show Chaplin's The Kid, with live musical accompaniment by guitarist Marc Ribot.
On 7 March as part of its Disney Restoration series, the Orinda Theater will show the 1942 Blood and Sand, starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, & Rita Hayworth, with Alla Nazimova in a featured role.
On 8 March, the Roxie in San Francisco is showing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
On 12 March at the Roxie in San Francisco, SF Film Preserve will screen Early Irish Films, featuring restorations of You Remember Ellen (1912) & The Gault Collection, "an incredibly rare ethnographic collection shot on the Irish coast in the mid 1920s"; the show will be hosted by SFFP Executive Director Kathy Rose O’Regan, who restored the movies, & Consulate General of Ireland San Francisco Cultural Officer Elizabeth Creely, with live traditional Irish musical accompaniment by Cormac Gannon and Kyle Alden.
On 17 March at the Castro Theater, Frameline presents Trash Talk with John Waters, Featuring Serial Mom; Waters will be there in person to receive this year's Frameline Award, followed by a screening of Serial Mom "featuring live commentary from the filmmaker himself" (& remember: no white shoes after Labor Day!)
On 22 March, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival marks its return to the newly restored Castro Theater with a newly restored print of It, starring the ever-delightful Clara Bow.
On 31 March, the Orinda Theater, as part of its Classic Movie Matinees on the last Tuesday of the month, will show Hitchcock's Rope.
