Old First Concerts: June, 2025

Once again, Old First Concerts will present four events next month, the last two of which will be performances of the same program by a piano trio. This will involve the returns of three ensembles. These events will remain “hybrid,” allowing both live streaming and seating in the Old First Presbyterian Church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue. Each of the event pages (which include hyperlinks for streaming) provides specific price information. The following dates and times provide hyperlinks to those event pages as follows:

The Kitka vocalists (from the Web page for their Old First Concerts recital)

Saturday, June 14, 8 p.m.: The Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble is best known at Old First for its traditional Wintersongs program. However, they will return this year for the Summer Solstice. As usual, the repertoire will draw upon Balkan, Baltic, Caucasus, and Slavic sources, along with new material. The vocalists will be Janet Kutulas, Kelly Atkins, Kristine Barrett, Erin Lashnits Herman, Maclovia Quintana, Katya Schoenberg, Stacey Barnett, Charlotte Finegold, and Talia Skeen, led by Executive and Artistic Director Shira Cion.

Sunday, June 22, 4 p.m.: When they last visited Old First, at little less than a year ago, Le Due Muse, whose members are cellist Sarah Hong and pianist Makiko Ooka, presented a program of Latin American composers. The title for next month’s program will be Russian Romantic. They will perform duo sonatas by Nikolai Myaskovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Following the intermission, they will be joined by violinist Fumino Ando for a performance of Anton Arensky’s piano trio.

Saturday, June 28, 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 29, 4 p.m.: The month will return with two performances by the Sixth Station Trio, whose members are pianist Katelyn Tan, Anju Goto on violin, and cellist Federico Strand Ramirez. Once again, they will challenge the boundaries of what a classical piano trio can do. When they visited last year, they presented their own arrangement of Joe Hisaichi's score for the Japanese animated fantasy film Spirited Away. This time they will perform music composed for the video game Stardew Valley.