As a reminder / warning, the last weekend in June is Pride Weekend & any non-pride events in San Francisco will take extra time & effort to get to, so check your dates before making plans (I speak from experience here). Summer comes in with several festivals, ranging from the medieval / Renaissance / Baroque world of the Berkeley Early Music Festival to the written-right-now modernism of the Kronos Festival, but there's also a lot of stuff in between: something for everyone!
Theatrical
Ray of Light Theater presents Everybody's Talking About Jamie, the musical by Dan Gillespie Sells & Tom Macrae, about a British teenager in Sheffield who dreams of becoming a successful drag star; that runs at the Victoria Theater from 1 to 23 June.
Steve Budd’s Seeing Stars, a one-person show written & performed by Budd & directed by Mark Kenward, about an adult son trying to reconnect with his father, runs at The Marsh in Berkeley from 1 June to 13 July.
BroadwaySF presents the recent gender-flipped revival of Sondheim's Company (Bobby is now Bobbie), directed by Marianne Elliott, at the Orpheum from 5 to 29 June.
From 6 to 23 June, the Oakland Theater Project presents the world premiere of The Ghost of King, a one-person show created by & starring Michael Wayne Turner III exploring the philosophy & legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Berkeley Rep presents Mother Road by Octavio Solis, a contemporary riff on The Grapes of Wrath, directed by David Mendizábal, from 14 June to 21 July.
On 17 - 18 June, the Shotgun Players Champagne Staged Reading Series presents David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, an "unreliable memoir" exploring color-blind & ethnic-sensitive casting, directed by Daniel Eslick.
Aurora Theater presents The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, based on the book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal (I give the credits as they are listed on the website), directed by Jessica Holt, about a magazine fact-checker & the renowned essayist whose work is being checked, from 21 June to 21 July.
Z Space & Word for Word present Who's-Dead McCarthy: Stories by Kevin Barry, directed by Paul Finocchiaro, from 26 June to 21 July at Z Below.
San Francisco Playhouse is doing the Tim Rice / Andrew Lloyd Weber hit Evita, directed by Bill English, as its summer musical; performances start on 27 June & the show runs through 7 September.
Talking
City Arts & Lectures presents novelist Percival Everett, whose latest novel, James, reworks Huckleberry Finn, & filmmaker Cord Jefferson, who made the film American Fiction, based on Everett's novel Erasure, in conversation with Jelani Cobb on 3 June at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco.
City Arts & Lectures presents gender thinker Judith Butler in conversation with Poulomi Saha on 13 June at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco.
City Arts & Lectures & the SF Jewish Community Center co-present writer Daniel Handler, in conversation & making cocktails with Isabel Duffy, on 20 June at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco.
Operatic
San Francisco Opera concludes its current season with three productions: Mozart's The Magic Flute, conducted by Eun Sun Kim in the celebrated production by Barrie Kosky (informally known as "the silent movie production", which of course makes me need to see it) on 30 May & 2, 4, 8, 14, 20, 22, 26, & 30 June; Saariaho's Innocence, conducted by Clément Mao-Takacs. on 1, 7, 12, 16, 18, & 21 June; & Handel's Partenope, conducted by Christopher Moulds, on15, 19, 23, 25, & 28 June.
Pocket Opera presents Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, with music direction by Robby Stafford & stage direction by Phil Lowery, on 16 June at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, 23 June at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, & 30 June at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Opera Parallèle presents Fellow Travelers, with music by Gregory Spears & a libretto by Greg Pierce, based on Thomas Mallon's novel about the mid-century Lavender Scare in the federal government, on 21 - 23 June at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco.
On 8 June at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, the Wagner Society of Northern California presents Leo Eylar, Music Director of the California Youth Symphony, speaking on Wagner’s French Connections, which will explore the composer's complicated relationship with all things French & his influence on later French music.
Choral
Artistic Director Irina Shachneva will lead Slavyanka Chorus in Songs of Faith, Love and Delight, a program of Slavic folk songs & sacred hymns by Irina Denisova, Dragana Velickovic, Ljubica Marić, Iryna Aleksiychuk, & Dobrinka Tabakova; you can hear them on 7 June at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 8 June at First Congregational in Palo Alto, & 9 June at Star of the Sea in San Francisco.
Ming Luke leads the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra with soloists Sara Couden (mezzo-soprano) & Simon Barrad (baritone) in Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service (Avodat Hakodesh) & Maurice Duruflé's Requiem at Hertz Hall at UC Berkeley on 7 - 9 June; as usual with the BCCO, admission is free & no reservations are required; the doors open about 45 minutes before the concert begins.
In addition to their 9 June performance as part of the Berkeley Early Music Festival (see below under Early / Baroque Music for the festival), Chanticleer will be performing Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame on 2 June at Saint John's Lutheran in Sacramento, 7 June at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, & 8 June at Mission Santa Clara.
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir gives its second annual Juneteenth Concert at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage on 15 June.
On 18 June at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (Jacob Stensberg, Artistic Director) & the San Francisco Symphony will perform All We Need Is Love, a program which will include pieces by Vaughan Williams, Michael Tilson Thomas, Cyndi Lauper, David Conte, Dominick DiOrio, & others.
Vocalists
Jane Monheit vocalizes at Herbst Theater, presented by the SF Jazz Center, on 6 June.
On 10 June at the SF Jazz Center, René Marie performs Jump in the Line!, her tribute to Harry Belafonte, with trumpeter Etienne Charles & trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.
On 27 June at the Taube Atrium Theater, the Merola Opera Program offers The Song as Drama, a recital with as-yet unspecified pieces chosen by Carrie-Ann Matheson & Nicholas Phan.
Orchestral
On 2 June in Zellerbach Hall, Music Director Joseph Young leads the Berkeley Symphony in Ellington's Solitude (arranged by Morton Gould), the west coast premiere of Jimmy López Bellido's Aurora Violin Concerto (featuring soloist Leticia Moreno), & the Ravel arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Catch him while you can: current but sadly not future Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Esa-Pekka Salonen leads some stimulating programs this month: on 7 - 9 June, he collaborates with director Peter Sellars & choreographer Alonzo King (with his LINES Ballet) in performances of Ravel's Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) & the SF Symphony premiere of Schoenberg's Erwartung (with soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams); on 13 - 15 June, he leads the Symphony in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto #1 (with soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason), the SF Symphony premiere of Gubaidulina's Fairytale Poem, & Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini; from 21 - 23 June, he leads the Symphony in Schumann's Piano Concerto (with soloist Yefim Bronfman) & the Bruckner 4, the Romantic; & on 28 - 30 June, joined by the Pacific Boy Choir Academy & mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, he leads the Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in the Mahler 3.
Dawn Harms, Music Director of the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, leads them in Ethel Smyth's Overture to The Boatswain’s Mate, Copland's Lincoln Portrait, & the Beethoven 9, the Choral, on 22 June at Herbst Theater.
On 23 June, Jung-Ho Pak leads the Bay Philharmonic in the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 (with soloist Jon Nakamatsu) & his 4th Symphony at the Chabot College Performing Arts Center in Hayward.
Chamber Music
On 2 June at the Legion of Honor, the San Francisco Symphony's Alexander Barantschik (violin), Peter Wyrick (cello), & Anton Nel (piano) will perform Mozart's Piano Trio in E major, K542; Richard Strauss's Cello Sonata in F major, Opus 6, & Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, Opus 15.
On 16 June at Davies Hall, a chamber group of San Francisco Symphony musicians will perform Kodály's Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, Ernst von Dohnányi's Sextet, & Shostakovich's Piano Trio #2 in E minor.
The San Francisco Symphony presents violinist Stella Chen & pianist George Li at Davies Hall on 26 June, when they will perform Schubert's Rondo in B minor, Eleanor Alberga's No-Man’s-Land Lullaby, & Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.
The Eos Ensemble (Craig Reiss, violin; Evan Kahn, cello; & Elizabeth Dorman, piano) will perform piano trios by Dvořák & Haydn at the Piedmont Piano Store in Oakland on 29 June (the store is near Oakland's City Center area, not in Piedmont).
Instrumental
On 14 June, Old First Concerts presents Arjun Verma on sitar & Eman Hashimi on tabla, with "ancient and modern aspects of Indian classical music in the style of the legendary Ustad Ali Akbar Khan".
On 30 June, Old First Concerts presents pianist Lee Alan Nolan in From Rags to Mystics 2, a program including Messiaen's Catalogue d’oiseaux, livre 1, Bruce Christian Bennett's Small Art, & ragtime pieces by Scott Joplin, May Aufderheide, & Irene Giblin.
Early / Baroque Music
The big event this month is the biannual Berkeley Early Music Festival & Exhibition on 9 - 16 June, presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society. You can check out the full "official" (meaning, non-Fringe Festival) acts here; some events that jump out at me from the offered riches are: Chanticleer & Alkemie performing Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame, along with songs from the minstrel tradition, on 9 June at First Church in Berkeley; La Fonte Musica tracking Dante through his Commedia on 11 June at First Church; Alkemie performing 3th-century trouvère songs, dances, and motets on 11 June at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley; La Fonte Musica performing Enigma Fortuna, a program exploring the music of Antonio Zacara da Teramo, on 12 June at Saint Mark's Episcopal; Cappella Pratensis singing Jacob Obrecht's Missa Maria zart on 13 June at Saint Mark's Episcopal; Cappella Pratensis performing mass movements, motets, & chansons by Josquin Desprez & Jean Mouton on 15 June at First Church; Severall Friends in Shadow of Night, a program exploring Elizabethan occult practices as expressed in music, on 15 June at Saint Mark's Episcopal – my selection here leans heavily on Early Modern vocal music, but you could review the schedule & come up with other interesting themes: baroque instrumentals, or non-European traditions; in addition, there is a plentiful field of Fringe Festival events, which you can see here.
Modern / Contemporary Music
On 2 June, Old First Concerts presents pianist Blaise Bryski in an all Mark Winges concert, featuring Red Sky Opening, Nocturnes, & More Hand Jive.
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble presents Florence Price's Piano Quintet in A minor & David Sanford's Klatka Still, along with world premiere works from Chris Castro, Kevin Barba, William Jae, Sebastian Lopez Bossi, Christopher Martin, Maile Pacumio, & Evan Wright, & you can hear them all on 8 June at the Piedmont Center for the Arts & 9 June at the Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House in San Francisco.
Ensemble for These Times celebrates its latest release, Emigres & Exiles in Hollywood: The Album, on 15 June at the Berkeley Piano Club with a concert including music by Erich Korngold, Miklos Rozsa, Alexandre Tansman, & others featured on the recording, as well as Schoenberg's Cabaret Songs (Brettl Lieder), with soprano Chelsea Hollow.
On 19 June at the Center for New Music, Ken Ueno & Karen Yu will perform their Noise Box Cantos & their Shadow Mudras, developed collaboratively as a reaction to their experience of feeling subsumed & erased during improvisations with a collective of modular synthesizer players; percussion duo Kevin Corcoran & Jacob Felix Heule will also perform.
The annual Kronos Festival, capping the quartet's celebration of 50 years of innovative music-making, takes place at the SF Jazz Center from 20 to 23 June: on 20 June, we have the world premiere of Beyond the Golden Gate, exploring the history of Chinese Americans. for which pipa virtuoso Wu Man joins the Quartet, followed by a moderated conversation with activist David Lei; the program also pays tribute to Sun Ra with a world premiere from Zachary James Watkins & a mash-up composition by Sun Ra, Terry Riley, & Sara Miyamoto, as well as new works by Sahba Aminikia & Aleksandra Vrebalov; on 21 June, we have the world premiere of Active Radio, which combines Kronos with a live conversation between journalist Brooke Gladstone & civil rights lawyer Dale Minami, along with a world premiere by Jonathan Berger, a recitation by Nathalie Khankan, & throat singer/composer Tanya Tagaq who performs a set of her own compositions, including the local premiere of Watchwolf, with the Quartet; on 22 June, we have violinist John Sherba & violist Hank Dutt, both retiring from the Quartet, in conversation with Brooke Gladstone; also on 22 June, composers Missy Mazzoli & Ellen Reid discuss the Luna Compositions Lab, which "provides mentorship, education, and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers ages 13–18"; the two will discuss the Lab & the Composition Fellows & their work with Kronos; also on 22 June, the program features works by long-time Kronos collaborators, as well as performances by Mahsa Vahdat & the San Francisco Girls Chorus (led by Valérie Sainte-Agathe), selections from Trey Spruance's The Black Art Book of St. Cyprian the Mage, the world premiere of a piece by Mary Kouyoumdjian, & two more world premieres, this time from Luna Composition Lab Fellows; the festival closes on 23 June with the “live documentary” A Thousand Thoughts, with live narration by filmmaker Sam Green & live performances by Kronos, along with filmed moments & interviews.
Garden of Memory, the annual summer solstice celebration of new music at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, will take place on 21 June this year; buy tickets early if you're interested, as the number who can attend is capped & this is a popular event.
Jazz
On 12 June at Davies Hall, in honor of Oscar Peterson's upcoming centennial, the SF Jazz Center presents the American premiere of his previously unperformed Africa Suite, along with his Canadiana Suite & other of his compositions; the evening's host is Delroy Lindo & the music will be performed by a core quartet of pianist Benny Green, guitarist Russell Malone, drummer Jeff Hamilton, & bassist John Clayton, joined by pianists Kenny Barron, Gerald Clayton, & Tamir Hendelman (featured on the Canadiana Suite), as well as bassist Robert Hurst & the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, co-led by John Clayton & Jeff Hamilton.
Appealingly named piano trio GoGo Penguin performs at the SF Jazz Center on 14 - 15 June.
Joshua Redman & his ensemble, with vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, are touring to support their latest album, Where Are We, which was conceived during the pandemic & explores "themes of isolation, wanderlust, and American identity", & that's at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage on 22 June.
Art Means Painting
The Contemporary Jewish Museum's first California Jewish Open includes work from 47 Jewish-identifying California artists; it opens on 6 June & runs through 20 October.
SFMOMA & City Arts & Lectures co-present a conversation on 6 June at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco between Kara Walker, who has a site-specific installation opening at SFMOMA in July, & writer Doreen St. Félix.
Calli: The Art of Xicanx Peoples opens at the Oakland Museum on 14 June.
Sculptor Leilah Babirye will have her first one-person show in America at the de Young Museum, opening on 22 June.
Cinematic
The San Francisco Documentary Festival runs from 30 May to 9 June at the Roxie in San Francisco; a lot looks enticing, but one thing in particular that jumped out at me is Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros, with the filmmakers in attendance, on 31 May.
BAM/PFA starts its summer film programming this month by launching three series: starting 7 June, Les Blank: A Life Well Spent explores the Bay Area-based independent filmmaker's works; starting 8 June, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Cinema explores the Japanese animation giant's beloved films; & on 14 June, Film Noir Classics: America’s Dark Dreams highlights many of the genre's classics.
The 20th Anniversary International Queer Women of Color Film Festival will take place at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco on 14 - 16 June; the screenings are free.
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