I don't know if I'm imagining this, or just starting these lists earlier than I used to, but it seems to me that events are being listed on organization's websites later than they used to be. Perhaps it's just events being added in an on-going, sometimes last-minute, basis. Maybe with all this talk about increasingly short attention spans it's felt to be better to list things closer to their actual occurrence. Maybe I'm hallucinating the whole thing. In any case there are some sites worth checking periodically through the month, as events get added: notably the Center for New Music & the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (the latter will often list concerts – many of them free! – without giving program details until shortly before the event; I tend not to list things that don't give the program, but it's worth keeping an eye on them for updates). There's also Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, if you're in downtown San Francisco around lunchtime on a Tuesday.
Theatrical
Happily Cutting Ball Theater is bringing back its Variety Pack festival, which will run from 1 to 18 February & include three different components: "the SHORT CUTS director series: 5-6 directors working with one repertory cast and set pieces creatively string together their distinct styles through a series of short play experiences that challenge the theatrical form; . . . UNDISCOVERED / UNDEVELOPED where 2 local playwrights share semi-rehearsed readings of promising new experimental works, just itching for full production; and . . . MIXED METAPHORS: an evening of non-scripted, non-traditional theatre pieces ranging from original music to dance to drag to puppetry, all devising an original piece on a communal theme over the course of one week"; get more information here.
Theater Rhinoceros presents the world premiere of Billy, written & directed by John Fisher; the description is "It’s been fifteen years since the Colonel has gone behind enemy lines. The Special Forces are back in action in this modern adaptation of a gay classic" (I'll admit to not knowing what "gay classic" this is based on). & it runs from 1 to 18 February.
Aurora Theater presents Mary Kathryn Nagle's Manahatta, directed by Shannon R. Davis, about a Wall Street securities trader who returns to the ancestral lands of her Lenape people, from 9 February to 10 March.
ACT presents Kate Attwell's Big Data, which is about what you'd think it would be about, directed by Pam MacKinnon, at the Toni Rembe Theater from 15 February to 10 March.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music Department of Opera & Musical Theater presents the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder (based on the film Kind Hearts & Coronets) on 16 & 17 February.
Berkeley Playhouse revives Jonathan Larson's La bohème-based rock musical, Rent, directed by Kimberly Dooley, assistant directed by Peet Cocke with musical direction by Michael Patrick Wiles & choreography by Mel Martinez, from 23 February to 31 March.
Cal Performances presents the west coast premiere of Taylor Mac & Matt Ray’s Bark of Millions: A Parade Trance Extravaganza for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme, a four-hour production that "will stage 55 original songs – one to mark each year since the landmark Stonewall uprising", & that's in Zellerbach Hall on 23 - 25 February.
Shotgun Players presents Prose & Confluence, A Queer Cowboy Musical devised by Max Abner & Teddy Hulsker of Klanghaus, & that's at the Ashby Stage on 24 February.
42nd Street Moon revives William Finn's musical Falsettos, directed by Dennis Lickteig, about a man & his family negotiating gay life at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, from 29 February to 17 March.
Talking
Poet Ada Limón appears in conversation with Alexis Madrigal for City Arts & Lectures on 22 February.
Operatic
The Handel Opera Project presents Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, featuring Sara Couden as Dido, along with Handel's Apollo & Daphne, featuring Daphne Touchais & Bradley Kynard, at the Maybeck-designed First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley on 4 February.
Frederica von Stade & Jake Heggie will be giving a Master Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 18 February.
Choral
Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble will be performing rescheduled Wintersongs concerts ("Seasonal Songs of Sustenance from Balkan, Baltic, Caucasian, and Slavic Lands") on 9 - 10 February at Saint Paul's in Oakland & on 11 February at Old First Concerts in San Francisco.
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir will perform their 9th annual Black History Month Celebration at Freight & Salvage on 11 February.
Volti will premiere a new work by Jens Ibsen as well as perform music by Aaron J Kernis, Joanna Marsh, Emma O’Halloran, & Forrest Pierce on 23 February at the Crowden School in Berkeley & 24 February at Noe Valley Ministries in San Francisco.
Vocalists
On 9 February at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents soprano Renée Fleming with pianist Howard Watkins performing songs by Caroline Shaw, Fauré, Liszt, Grieg, & Kern; the second half will consist of songs by Hazel Dickens, Handel, Nico Muhly, Canteloube, Maria Schneider, Björk, Howard Shore, Kevin Puts, & Burt Bacharach, accompanying Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, an original film by National Geographic.
Cal Performances gives us soprano Erin Morley, with pianist Malcolm Martineau, performing songs by Ricky Ian Gordon, Bizet, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, Schumann, Berg, Thomas Morley, John Woods Duke, Roger Quilter, Haydn Wood, Julius Benedict, Arthur Sullivan, & the anonymous Irish composer of The Last Rose of Summer, & that's at Hertz Hall on 18 February.
This year's Schwabacher Recital Series begins on 21 February with mezzo-soprano Simona Genga & pianist Hyemin Jeong performing Two Laurels, a program "featuring both traditional art songs and new compositions, bringing the audience on a journey through the intimate moments of a queer love story."
On 22 February, SF Jazz presents singer Kandace Springs, along with drummer Camille Gainer & bassist Aneesa Strings, to perform music from her latest album, The Women Who Raised Me, "a loving tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and Dusty Springfield."
Jazz singer Dianne Reeves performs at the SF Jazz Center on 23 - 25 February.
Orchestral
David Milnes leads the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Ossicles - inside out by Edmund Campion, the Sibelius Violin Concerto (with soloist Daniel Kang), & the Rachmaninoff 2 on 9 - 10 February at Hertz Hall.
Here's what's happening orchestrally at the San Francisco Symphony this month: on 2 - 4 February, Jukka-Pekka Saraste will conduct the Schubert 6 & the Beethoven 7; & on 23 - 25 February, Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct Stravinsky's Pulcinella, with vocal soloists Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), Nicholas Phan (tenor), & Luca Pisaroni (baritone), & the Brahms Violin Concerto with soloist Julia Fischer.
The San Francisco Symphony will also have a special concert celebrating the Lunar New Year (the Year of the Dragon is upon us) on 17 February, when Mei-Ann Chen, with featured violinist Paul Huang, will conduct the Spring Festival Overture by Huan-zhi Li, New Year Greetings by Phoon Yew Tien, Jasmine Flower (a traditional piece arranged by Li Wenping), selections from Folk Songs for Orchestra by Huang Ruo, Pizzicato by Vivian Fung, a selection from Violin Concerto: Fire Ritual by Tan Dun, Ali Mountain Evergreen by Che Chang (arranged by Yuan-kai Bao), & Gong Xi Gong Xi by Chen Ge Xin (arranged by Che-Yi Lee).
On 17 February at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Philharmonia Orchestra, led by Thomas Green & Noam Elisha, will perform the Beethoven 3, the Eroica, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, & Jean Ahn's Ongheya.
On 10 February at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Edwin Outwater & student assistant Chih Yao Chang will lead the SFCM Orchestra in Grieg's The Last Spring, Ellen Reid's Petrichor, & the Bruckner 4, the Romantic.
Kedrick Armstrong conducts the Oakland Symphony in Here I Stand: The Artist as Activist, a program including the world premiere of an Oakland Symphony commission, Here I Stand: Paul Robeson, by Carlos Simon to a libretto by Dan Harder, featuring bass soloist Morris Robinson along with the Symphony Chorus & Pacific Edge Voices; the program also includes Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman #6 & the Shostakovich 5, & that's at the Paramount Theater on 16 February.
Music Director Joseph Young will lead the Berkeley Symphony in French Reveries, a program featuring Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Guillaume Connesson's A Kind of Trane (a concerto for saxophone & orchestra honoring John Coltrane & featuring soloist Robert Young), & Louise Farrenc's Symphony #3 in G minor, & that's at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley on 25 February.
Chamber Music
The Circadian String Quartet, joined by pianist Amy Zanrosso, will give a two-day festival of piano quintets at Old First Concerts: on 3 February you can hear Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Opus 81, along with a transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite by Circadian violinist David Ryther, & on 4 February you can hear Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major, Opus 44 & Shostakovich's Piano Quintet, Opus 57.
Lieder Alive! presents soprano Julia Bae, pianist Paul Schrage, & violinist Joel Pattinson performing works by Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, & Rachmaninoff on 4 February at the Noe Valley Ministry.
The Berkeley Symphony presents pianist Alison Lee, violinist Sarah Elert, & cellist Douglas Machiz in Spirited Impressions, a French-centered program featuring Fauré's Piano Trio #1 in D Minor, Honegger's Sonatine for Violin & Cello, Jean Ahn's A Flashback of Ravel, & Debussy's Piano Trio in G major, & that's at the Piedmont Center for the Arts on 4 February.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Chamber Music Tuesday on 6 February, with guest violinist Melissa White, who will join Conservatory faculty & students to perform Mozart's Piano Quartet in G Minor, the Brahms Violin Sonata in D Minor, selections from Wynton Marsalis's At the Octoroon Balls, & Max Bruch's String Quintet in E-flat Major; the next day, White will lead a Master Class at the Conservatory.
The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra performs Dvořák's String Quintet #2 in G major, Opus 77, Jennifer Higdon's Autumn Music, three movements from Six Studies, Opus 70 by Alfredo Casella (arranged by P Lemberg), Poulenc's Sextet for wind quintet and piano, & Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes for clarinet, string quartet, and piano, on 9 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 10 February at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 11 February at First Congregational in Berkeley.
Cal Performances gives us cellist David Finckel & pianist Wu Han, performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas at Hertz Hall on 11 February.
San Francisco Performances presents cellist Jonathan Swensen, violinist Stephen Waarts, & pianist Juho Pohjonen performing works by Shostakovich, Janáček, & Franck at Herbst Theater on 15 February.
Voices of Music presents vocal & instrumental works by Schubert & Clara Schumann, featuring tenor Thomas Cooley, Eric Zivian on period fortepiano, & violinist Augusta McKay Lodge, & that's 16 February at First Congregational Church in Palo Alto, 17 February at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 18 February at First Congregational in Berkeley.
Duo Chiaroscuro (mezzo-soprano Tristana Ferreyra-Rantalaiho & pianist Johanna Tarcson) will perform Love and Dreams, a program including works by Schubert, Lili Boulanger, Chausson, Duparc, Emile Paladilhe, Debussy, Peter Lieberson, Carlos Guastavino, & Alberto Ginastera at Old First Concerts on 18 February.
The San Francisco Symphony presents cellist Gabriel Martins with pianist Victor Santiago Asunción at Davies Hall on 21 February, when they will perform Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Opus 73, Debussy's Cello Sonata #1 in D minor, Webern's Drei kleine Stücke, Opus 11, & Brahms's Cello Sonata #2 in F major, Opus 99.
Sixth Station Trio (Anju Goto, violin; Federico Strand Ramirez, cello; & Katelyn Tan, piano) will perform music from Joe Hisaishi’s score for Howl’s Moving Castle at Old First Concerts on 23 & 25 February.
San Francisco Performances presents violinist Leila Josefowicz & pianist John Novacek playing music by Debussy, Szymanowski, Erkki-Sven Tüür, & Stravinsky at Herbst Theater on 24 February.
Cal Performances brings the Takács Quartet back to Hertz Hall on 25 February, where they will perform Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade, Bartók's String Quartet #2 in A minor, & Schubert's String Quartet #15 in G major.
Instrumentalists
San Francisco Performances presents pianist Javier Perianes at Herbst Theater on 7 February, playing music by Clara & Robert Schumann, Brahms, & Granados.
Chamber Music San Francisco presents the local premiere of pianist Zlata Chochieva at Herbst Theater on 11 February, when she will perform Scriabin's 5 Preludes, Opus 15, Chopin's 12 Etudes, Opus 10 & his Polonaise-Fantasie, Opus 61, & Rachmaninoff's Variations on a theme of Chopin.
San Francisco Performances presents guitarist Pepe Romero at Herbst Theater on 11 February, when he will perform works by Luis de Milán, Gaspar Sanz, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Angel Barrios, Joaquin Malats, Granados (in a transcription by Celedonio Romero), Federico Moreno Torroba, Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, & Celedonio Romero.
SF Jazz presents organist Cameron Carpenter at Grace Cathedral on 17 February, performing music he composed to accompany Lang's silent classic Metropolis (the phrasing on both the SF Jazz & the Grace Cathedral websites is a little tricky, & I'm not sure the actual film is being shown; it sounds as if Carpenter will be performing some of what he composed as a soundtrack to the film).
Chamber Music San Francisco presents pianist Tiffany Poon on 25 February at Herbst Theater, when she will perform Schumann's Kinderszenen, Opus15, Debussy's Children’s Corner, Bach's Preludes & Fugues #1 & #2, from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier, & Chopin's Preludes, Opus 28.
At Herbst Theater on 27 February, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, playing music by Mozart, CPE Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Carter (Night-Fantasies), Sweelinck, & Ives.
Early / Baroque Music
Philharmonia Baroque has a program they call Double Espresso, hoping to capture the novelty & fire of the early coffeehouses; Richard Egarr will play harpsichord & conduct, with Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya also on harpsichord, & you can hear them & the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in music by Telemann & Bach on 1 February at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, 2 February at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 3 February (matinee & evening performances) at First Congregational in Berkeley.
SF Jazz presents organist Cameron Carpenter playing Interpretations of Bach on 16 February at Grace Cathedral.
On 18 February the Cantata Collective continues its free Bach cantata concert series at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley; this time they're performing Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95 & Es ist euch gut, daß ich hingehe, BWV 108, with soloists Tonia D’Amelio (soprano), Sylvia Leith (alto), David Kurtenbach Rivera (tenor), & Edmund Milly (bass).
See also the Handel Opera Project's performance of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas & Handel's Apollo & Daphne, listed above under Operatic.
Modern / Contemporary Music
David Milnes leads the Eco Ensemble in an all-Cindy Cox program, featuring Cañon, [Four Studies of Light and Dark], Hishuk ish ts’ awalk [All things are One], & the world premiere of scenes from The Road to Xibalba (featuring as soloists soprano Amy Foote, alto Sara Couden, tenor Michael Jankosky, & baritone Nikolas Nackley), for Cal Performances at Hertz Hall on 3 February.
Old First Concerts presents new music ensemble Earplay on 5 February, in The Poetry of Physics, a program featuring the world premiere of an Earplay commission, Ad Hoc by Miguel Chuaqui, the west coast premieres of Suzanne Sorkin's String Trio in Two Movements & Yotam Haber's Estro Poetico-armonico II, as well as Kaija Saariaho's Light and Matter & Ines Thiebaut's panta rhei.
Hauschka, which is "the recording alias of Academy Award and BAFTA-winning composer Volker Bertelmann" will be playing his new works for prepared piano at the Chapel on Valencia in San Francisco on 29 February.
Jazz
Pianist Kenny Barron will be the resident artistic director at the SF Jazz Center from 31 January to 4 February: on 31 January, there will be a Listening Party with Barron, moderated by pianist Benny Green; on 1 February, he will perform as part of the Kenny Barron Trio, along with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa & drummer Johnathan Blake; on 2 February he performs with his Quintet, for which his Trio is joined by trumpeter Mike Rodriguez & saxophonist Dayna Stephens; on 3 February he leads the local premiere of a new sextet dedicated to Latin-American music, for which he is joined by flutist Anne Drummond, percussionist Valtinho Anastacio, drummer Rafael Barata, vibraphonist Nikara Warren, & bassist John Patitucci; & on 4 February he closes his residence with Freely Improvised Music, for which he is joined by vocalists & multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu, trombonist Kalia Vandever, bassist John Patitucci, & drummer Lesley Mok.
Cal Performances presents Brad Mehldau performing the Bay Area premiere of a Cal Performances co-commission, Fourteen Reveries, along with selections from Suite April 2020 & other works, at Zellerbach Hall on 10 February.
The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, the California Jazz Conservatory's resident Big Band, will perform there on 11 February.
From 15 to 18 February, SF Jazz presents pianist Chucho Valdés with Irakere 50, "the new iteration of the legendary band that changed the course of Latin music in the 1970s and 80s."
Pianist George Cables, joined by bassist Jeff Denson & drummer Gerald Cleaver, will perform at the California Jazz Conservatory on 16 - 17 February.
Dance
The San Francisco Ballet presents two programs this month: British Icons, featuring the SF Ballet premieres of Song of the Earth (choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan to music by Mahler) & Marguerite & Armand (choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton to music by Liszt), from 9 to 15 February; & Swan Lake (choreography by Helgi Tomasson, after Marius Petipa & Lev Ivanov, to music by, of course, Tchaikovsky), from 23 February to 3 March.
On 9 February at the Great Star Theater you can see the local premiere of panels, "a dance film on grief made in the Bay Area, by Bay Area artists. . . . [t]his film is fully a movement narrative, with no verbal speaking"; before the film there will be live dance from the cast, a piece entitled Grief Wrote Me a Letter, "a collection of 11 solos where each movement artist will express personal perspectives on what grieving is".
Cal Performances presents a collaboration among the Pina Bausch Foundation, École des Sables, & Sadler’s Wells: common ground[s] by Germaine Acogny & Malou Airaudo & the Bay Area premiere of Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring, performed by "an ensemble of more than 30 dancers from 14 African countries", & that's 16 - 18 February in Zellerbach Hall.
Smuin Ballet presents Celebrating Michael Smuin, featuring his ballets Zorro! & Fly Me to the Moon, from 29 February to 3 March at the Yerba Buena Center.
Art Means Painting
Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care, exploring the installation / performance work of the artist, opens at the de Young Museum on 17 February & runs through 7 July.
Cinematic
Here's what's going on this month at the PFA portion of BAM/PFA: Preservation Spotlight: David Schickele’s Bushman: Bushman will be shown on 3 & 24 February, along with his Give Me a Riddle (the earlier showing will include special guests, including Schickele’s family, & others who have worked to preserve his films); Documentary Voices 2024 launches 7 February & includes films scheduled through April; & Cauleen Smith – In Space, In Time, exploring the cinematic side of Smith's artistic production, runs 8 to 11 February.
The Roxie Theater in San Francisco will be showing two of my favorite films this month: Tarkovsky's magnificent & hallucinatory Andrei Rublev on 3 February & Lean's elegiac Brief Encounter on 4 February.
On 15 February the Roxie Theater hosts the Dimensions Film Festival, a "one night festival celebrating underground horror, scifi, and oddball films from both local and international filmmakers" focusing this year on monsters.
The Jewish Film Institute's Winterfest runs 24 - 25 February at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco; check out the schedule here.
The San Francisco Symphony, conducted for the occasion by George Daugherty, presents Bugs Bunny at the Symphony in Davies Hall on 10 February, when you can hear the orchestra playing the classics so wittily used in the Warner Bros cartoons. Kill the Wabbit, kill the wabbit!
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