Ian Scarfe to Bring Spanish Music to Century Club

Poster for the event being described, showing the three performers (screenshot from the Groupmuse Web page)

Pianist Ian Scarfe will begin the new year with his next visit to the Century Club of California. Once again, he will be joined by a cellist, this time James Jaffe. The title of next month’s program will be An Afternoon in Spain – Classical Spanish Music and Flamenco. Each of the instrumentalists will begin with a solo selection.

Scarfe will open the program with Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 19, his “Boléro” in A minor. This will be followed by Jaffe’s performance of the three-movement suite for solo cello composed by Gaspar Cassadó in 1926. (Cassadó was taught by Pablo Casals and was probably influenced by his teacher’s performances of the solo cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.) Scarfe will then accompany mezzo Deborah Rosengaus in a performance of Siete canciones populares españolas, Manuel de Falla’s arrangements for soprano and piano of seven traditional Spanish songs.

The remainder of the program will be devoted to settings of Spanish dances. Scarfe will begin with Isaac Albéniz’s Opus 36, the six Danzas Españolas. This will be followed by the “Ritual Fire Dance,” an episode from the music composed Falla for the ballet El amor brujo (the bewitched love). The program will then conclude with the Spanish Dances collection by Enrique Granados.

For those that do not already know, the Century Club is located at 1355 Franklin Street, between Post Street and Sutter Street. However, all arrangements must be made through a Groupmuse Web page. Ticket prices begin at $25, with $5 to hold a reservation. As of this writing, 43 of 75 spots are still available. The performance will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 25. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Drinks will be provided at the intermission (both with and without alcohol). However, the club itself is not wheelchair accessible.

Christmas Eve with SF Gay Men’s Chorus

Photograph of the final bows at last year’s performance in Davies

Late yesterday afternoon, my wife and I attended the first of the two performances by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus held in Davies Symphony Hall. Aside from a signed performance of “Silent Night” in an arrangement by Danny Sullivan and an arrangement by ASH of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” the entire repertoire was new to me. As in the past, the entire vocal ensemble filled the Davies stage to the brim, with only a little space at the front for the musicians. Danny Sullivan led from the piano, joined by Kenji Harada on synthesizer, drummer Juan Carreon, and acoustic and electric performances by Matt Wrobel on guitar and Aaron Shaul on bass.

Led by Artistic Director Jake Stensberg, the performance was as satisfying as ever. The visual hi-jinx left no bad-jokes stone unturned, but the choral delivery was as polished as ever. The full title of the program was Holiday Spectacular: Home for the Holidays, and the spectacle sustained over the course of about 90 minutes. I suppose what counted most was the impressive diversity of dispositions unfolding over the course of the program. “Spectacle” may have been the order of the day; but this was an engaging journey through diversity with all of the finer qualities of the poetic “well wrought urn.”

New Century Chamber Orchestra in January

Having pretty much accounted for the “seasonal holiday” events, this site can begin to prepare readers for performances next month. Currently, the only performances that have come to my attention will not take place until late in January. Fortunately, they will be worth the wait!

Violinist Simone Porter (from her Opus3 Artists Web page)

The first of these will be the third of the four performances in San Francisco by the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) with its Music Director Daniel Hope. American violinist Simone Porter will serve as guest leader of a program entitled Enlighten Me, and the ensemble will be joined by students of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The repertoire will span music history from the twelfth century (with Hildegard von Bingen’s setting of the antiphon “O virtus sapientiae”) to “Cathedral of Light” by the contemporary composer Juhi Bansai. Other composers on the program will be Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Porter will also be the soloist in the performance of Bach’s BWV 1042 violin concerto in E major.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place on Saturday, January 24, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The venue will be the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which is located 50 Oak Street, a short walk from the underground Muni station. Tickets may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page with prices between $35 and $80.

SFS Announces Rescheduling of Brass Concert

Readers may recall that the annual Holiday Brass concert, scheduled for this past Saturday evening, December 20, was cancelled due to a citywide power outage. Fortunately, the ensemble did not waste any time in rescheduling the event, which will now take place on Sunday, January 11, at 7:30 p.m. As usual, those who have purchased tickets will be able to use them on this occasion; and, if the date and time are inconvenient, they can contact the Box Office (415-864-6000 or patronservices@sfsymphony.org) to arrange for ticket exchange, donation, gift certificate, or refund. Those who have not previously purchased tickets may do so through a Web page or by visiting the Box Office.

The SFS Trumpet section (courtesy of SFS)

The program will not change, beginning with the two arrangements by SFS Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye of movements selected from Handel’s HWV 351 suite Music for the Royal Fireworks and “Bist du bei mir,” an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's opera Diomedes. There will also be the two major departures from the holiday spirit, the four-movement Suite from Maria de Buenos Aires, compiled by Steven Verhelst from the score of Astor Piazzolla’s opera Maria de Buenos Aires, and Enrique Crespo’s “Bruckner Etude.” Brad Hogarth will replace Edwin Outwater, who had originally been scheduled to conduct.

The Bleeding Edge: 12/23/2025

It should probably go without saying that The Bleeding Edge is a secular undertaking. As a result, things tend to go quiet around this time of year. Indeed, they are so quiet that there is only one event this week that is not  influenced by the “holiday spirit.”

David Boyce performing at the Golden Gate Valley Branch of the San Francisco Public Library this past June (from the YouTube video of his performance)

As some readers might guess, that event is the weekly Other Dimensions in Sound performance curated by reed player David Boyce. He will host a performance by Funkonya. As of this writing, I have no idea whether this is a combo or a solo performance. All I do know is that the music will provide “an extra funky dose of groovalicousness.”

As usual, the performance will take place at Medicine for Nightmares on Friday, December 26. The venue is the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book. Music will begin at 7 p.m., and there will probably be two sets.

Complete Works of Louis Couperin on Erato

Cover image (presumably of keyboardist Jean Rondeau) of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Some readers may recall my writing this past July about how I begin every day with a brief session with my Yamaha Clavinova. For the past months, I have been working my way through the first of the two Dover volumes of the Complete Keyboard Works of François Couperin. Ironically, as I approach this landmark, I have recent acquired an Erato box set of ten CDs and one DVD accounting for the complete works of Louis Couperin, François’ uncle.The Wikipedia page for this elder Couperin provides only the year of his birth, 1626, meaning that, even if we do not know the exact date, next year will mark his 400th anniversary. According to the Amazon.com Web page, this collection will be released this coming Friday; and, as most readers will expect, that Web page can be used to process pre-orders.

The keyboardist is Jean Rondeau. His performances alternate among three harpsichords and two church organs. Much of the catalog consists of solo suites, however there are also a generous number of selections involving both vocalists and additional instrumentalists. There are also “guest appearances,” compositions by Couperin’s contemporaries, some of whom, like Marin Marais, are likely to be familiar, while others such as Ennemond Gaultier, who pre-dated Couperin by roughly half a century, have not yet found a place for recordings on Amazon.com! (My only “fun fact” about Gaultier is that he composed a courante given the title “La Belle Homicide!”)

While I have listened to all of the CDs and found them engaging, I have to confess that learning any background about this music is no easy matter. It is only on page 140 of the booklet that the editorial notes (presumably by Rondeau himself) “spill the beans.” The first sentence is as follows: “Given that no manuscripts in Louis Couperin’s own hand have survived and that multiple sources exists, my editorial approach has been to produce a sort of personal edition, making decisions based on these varied sources.” Unfortunately, this means that there is no way to correlate the content with the List of compositions by Louis Couperin Wikipedia page; nor will the curious listener find any assistance on the IMSLP “Compositions by” Web page. For that matter, while the booklet provides the necessary details for the track listings, there is no index to consult to guide the curious listener to a particular selection.

I suppose the problem is that there is no agreed-upon “standard” for organizing this repertoire and then cataloging it. Were the music itself to be familiar, this would not necessarily be a significant issue. However, I suspect that this new release will be purchased by music lovers with little, if any, knowledge of either the composer or his music. If my own “informed background” was frustrated by the “packaging,” I can only wonder how more “casual” listeners are likely to feel about this offering!

Flutist Baibikov to Give Groupmuse Recital

Flutist Rustam Baibikov (screenshot from his Groupmuse Web page)

As of this writing, it appears that I am now ready to account for the first Groupmuse recital of the New Year. The recitalist will be flutist Rustam Baibikov, born in Ukraine but educated in Moscow. He has performed with both symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, in addition to leading his own Tatar folk band. His accompanist will be pianist David Manley, whose background is equally diverse.

The most recent work on the program will be the “Fantasie Brillante on Themes from Bizet's Carmen,” composed by François Borne, the French flautist who taught at the Conservatoire de Musique de Toulouse during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This selection will be followed by music by the French violinist Benjamin Godard. According to his Wikipedia page, Godard was prolific enough to compose “eight operas, five symphonies, two piano and two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs.” (He only lived to the age of 45, having died of tuberculosis.) Baibikov will play his Opus 116, Suite de trois morceaux.

The first half of the program will draw upon more familiar composers from the  Baroque period. It will begin with Antonio Vivaldi’s RV 52 sonata in F major for flute and continuo. This will be followed by two movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1067 (second) orchestral suite, which highlights the flute. Those movements will probably be familiar to many (most?) readers: the Menuet and the Badinerie (which concludes the suite).

The Groupmuse event page has a hyperlink for making reservations in advance for $5. (The audience size will be limited to 30; and, as of this writing, twelve of those spots are still available.) The venue is not wheelchair accessible, and those allergic to pets should be warned that both dogs and cats live there! Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided, but guests are also invited to bring their own libations. The exact address, which is in Noe Valley, will be sent by electronic mail once the reservation has been finalized; and visitors can arrive as early as 6:30 p.m.

Old First Concerts: January, 2026

As we near this afternoon’s annual Wintersongs program performed by Kitka (which will be livestreamed) it is time to start making plans for the coming year. As of this writing, there will be three performances next month, all towards the end of that month. Two of them will begin at 8 p.m., and the next LIEDER ALIVE! offering will be at 4 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. As usual, all of the 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. Hyperlinks to the event pages (which include hyperlinks for streaming) will be attached to the date and time of the performances as follows:

Sarah Cahill (photograph by Kristen Wrzesniewski, from the Old First Concerts Web page for her solo recital)

Friday, January 23, 8 p.m.: Pianist Sarah Cahill describes her next program as “a new project combining classical and new compositions on the theme of homage and loss.” The title of the program is No Ordinary Light, taken from Jawaharalal Nehru’s eulogy after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: “The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light.”

The performance will begin with the oldest work on the program, Maurice Ravel’s suite Le Tombeau de Couperin. There will be four other “retrospective” compositions: “Homage a Fauré” by Robert Helps, Zenobia Powell Perry’s “Homage to William Dawson,” and two Lou Harrison works, “Fugue to David Tudor” and  “Homage à Milhaud.” The contemporary offerings will be by Samuel Adams (“Prelude: Hammer the Sky Bright”), Maggie Payne (“Holding Pattern”), and Danny Clay (“Circle Songs”).

Sunday, January 25, 4 p.m.: The next installment in LIEDER ALIVE!’s fourteenth annual Liederabend Series will be a solo recital by mezzo Kindra Scharich. The first half of the program will be devoted to an account of Robert Schumann’s Opus 39 song cycle, Liederkreis, in its entirety. The second half will then present selected solo vocal compositions by Johannes Brahms, who had been mentored by Schumann. The program will celebrate the 75th birthday of LIEDER ALIVE! founder and director, Maxine Bernstein.

Saturday, January 31, 8 p.m.: It seems as if the Circadian String Quartet makes a visit to Old First every other year during the winter season. Membership consists of violinists Monika Gruber and David Ryther, Ed Wharton on viola, and cellist David Wishnia. Their program, Footprints in the Snow, will consist entirely of twentieth-century compositions. They will begin with selections (not yet identified) by Austrian composer Hugo Kauder. More familiar will be arrangements of three of Claude Debussy’s piano preludes, “Ondine,” “Des pas sur la neige,” and “La danse de Puck.” The final selection will be Philip Glass’ fifth string quartet.

Music to Return to The Lab Next Month

According to material I recently received earlier this week, The Lab is still in the process of expanding. Nevertheless, it has announced its first full-length concert for the New Year. This will be a two-set program of solo performances, both of which are likely to present “bleeding edge” content.

Theresa Wong with her cello and microphone for her vocals (photograph by E. Roe Yovino Smith, from the event page for her performance)

The first set will be a solo performance by Theresa Wong, who is both cellist and vocalist. Some readers may recall that, this past October, the Del Sol String Quartet performed music she had composed associated with the Chinese diaspora. For her visit to The Lab, she will exploit the full extent of its open space, working with quadraphonic surround sound audio technology. In the second set, Kara-Lis Coverdale will perform tracks from her recent album, A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever. She works with both acoustic and electronic media “to create works that transcend reality” (her words).

Tickets are now available for advance purchase through the Web page for this event at the price of $23. The fee for those paying at the door will be $25. Doors will open at 7 p.m., and the performance will begin at 8 p.m. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street, a short walk from the 16th Street Muni station.

Better late than never!

Samsung may like calling this a “smart refrigerator;” but has more to do with sales than with knowledge! (photograph by Ajay Kumar from the CNET article cited below)

Some readers may recall that I took on the distorted semantics of “artificial intelligence” this past August:

https://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2025/08/has-artificial-intelligence-gone.html

Apparently, it took CNET almost half a year to catch up:

https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/so-many-brands-are-calling-their-basic-tech-ai-now-heres-why-im-worried/

Author Tyler Lacoma may have been late for the party, but at least he finally made an appearance! 

Keith Jarrett will Ring in Chez Hanny New Year

Keith Jarrett at the piano for a soundcheck prior to a performance on July 17, 2003 at the Jazz à Juan festival in Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France (photograph by Olivier Bruchez, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license)

Once again Jazz Chez Hanny will present a program to celebrate the New Year. The title of the program will be Mandala – The Music of Keith Jarrett. The repertoire will be taken from works that pianist Jarrett composed for the two quartets he led in the Seventies. The first of these was the “American” quartet with saxophonist Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden on bass, and percussionist Paul Motian. The other was the quartet formed in Europe with Jan Garbarek on saxophone, bassist Palle Danielsson, and Jon Christensen on drum kit. Mandala is the name of the quartet that will visit Chez Hanny for the celebratory occasion.

Instrumentation departs somewhat from Jarrett’s. Saxophonist Sheldon Brown will lead, possibly commanding a diversity of wind instruments. Matt Clark will accompany at the piano with Michael Wilcox playing a six-string electric bass and Bryan Bowman on drums.

As many readers probably know by now, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Thursday, January 1. Admission will be $25, payable by Zelle sent to jazz@chezhanny.com, check to Jazz Chez Hanny, or cash. Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, donations, which are tax deductible, will also be welcomed. It is also worth noting that Frank Hanny, who provides the venue and for whom the event is named, has been presenting these jazz performances for 25 years in San Francisco.

There will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend should bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served, meaning that reservations are strongly recommended. They may be placed through an electronic mail address: jazz@chezhanny.com. Mail messages received after noon on the day of a performance are unlikely to be seen until after the show is over, and cancellations should be given at least 24 hours advance notice. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show and moving furniture to accommodate both players and listeners are always appreciated.

Friction Quartet Plays Garner’s “Musical Journey”

Friction Quartet musicians Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor, Doug Machiz, and Jessica Folson (guest artist) recording “The Knight’s Tour” at Skywalker Sound

Early this afternoon I had an opportunity to listen to the Friction Quartet through a YouTube video released late yesterday afternoon. The performance consisted of a single-movement composition by David Garner a little over ten minutes’ duration entitled “The Knight’s Tour.” The music was named after a chess problem: Put a knight on a chess board; then, using only knight moves (two forward and one to the side), visit every square on the board exactly once. (This sometimes appeals to mathematicians more than chess players!)

I am not sure that the music itself has much to say about chess, but it definitely has a rhythmic flow with intimations of a journey. One might even say that the music that Garner composed for Marcus Finnie, playing a drum kit, establishes a sense of forward motion, which then “drives” the string players in the ensemble. They are the members of the Friction Quartet: violinist Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor on viola, and cellist Doug Machiz, joined by guest violinist Jessica Folson. Scott Pingel’s joins them on bass with jazzy rhythms. It would be fair to say that Friction provides a steady sense of flow, which is driven forward by both the bass and the drum kit.

On first encounter, I did not know what to expect. However, I enjoyed the rhetorical framework of that sense of flow driven by the quartet musicians, who, in turn, are driven by the “rhythm section” of both bass and drums. The brevity of the composition allows the user to enjoy the overall flow without the least sense of tedium. Hopefully, I shall have an opportunity to listen to a “live” performance during a Friction recital.

SFS Programs for January, 2026

For the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) the new year will get off to a rather busy start. In addition to the usual weekly Orchestral Series concerts, the annual Shenson Spotlight Series of recitals will begin next month; and there will be three “off-site” chamber music concerts. As in the past, I prefer to deal with the individual events in chronological order. Most of them will take place in Davies Symphony Hall; and, as in the past, each of the dates will be provided with a hyperlink to facilitate ticket purchases. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.

Tuesday, January 13, 5:30 p.m., San Francisco Public Library Bernal Heights Branch: That said, the month will begin with the first Community Chamber Concert. The program has not yet been finalized. However, the performers will be a violinist (Jessie Fellows), a violist (Katie Kadarauch), and a cellist (Anne Richardson); and they may perform in different combinations over the course of the performance. Following the performance, the audience will be encouraged to remain for a Q&A with the musicians.

Thursday, January 15, Friday, January 16, and Saturday, January 17, 7:30 p.m.: Edward Gardner will return to the Davies podium as the first conductor in the new year, and violinist Randall Goosby will return as the first concerto soloist of the new year. His selection will be Max Bruch’s Opus 26 (first) violin concerto in G minor. Director Jenny Wong will prepare the SFS Chorus for the conclusion of the final selection on the program, Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets. The program will begin with music by a fellow Englishman, Ralph Vaughan Williams. The overture he composed for a production of Aristophanes’ The Wasps will receive its first SFS performance.

Sunday, January 18, 2 p.m., Legion of Honor: This will be the first chamber music recital curated by Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, performing on the 1742 Guarneri del Gesù violin. He will be joined by Peter Wyrick on cello and pianist Anton Nel. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Johannes Brahms’ first piano trio, his Opus 8 in B major. The trio will begin with Franz Schubert’s D. 897 “Notturno” in E-flat major. Barantschik will then play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 378 violin sonata in B-flat major, accompanied by Nel.

Sunday, January 18, 3 p.m.: The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra will host the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival. The other participating ensembles will be the California Youth Symphony, the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra. In this annual concert, each participating ensemble will perform a selection, after which they will all join forces to conclude the program. Selections will include overtures by Giuseppe Verdi (Nabuco) and Johannes Brahms (“Academic Festival”) and movements selected from three symphonies by, respectively, Antonín Dvořák (Opus 88, the eighth in G major), Sergei Prokofiev (Opus 100, the fifth, in B-flat major), and Dmitri Shostakovich (Opus 93, the tenth in E minor). There will also be two single-movement selections, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas and the “Pinkillo Serrano” movement from Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra.”

Wednesday, January 21, 7:30 p.m.: The Shenson Spotlight Series will begin with a solo piano recital by Jaeden Izik-Dzurko. He has framed his program with two Russian composers, who will appear in chronological order. He will begin with Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 28 “Fantasy,” composed in the key of B minor. He will conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 23 collection of ten preludes. The “keystone” for the program will be César Franck’s “Prélude, Choral et Fugue.”

Thursday, January 22, Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.: Finnish conductor John Storgårds will make his debut in the SFS Orchestral Series. The “overture” for the program will be by a “fellow Finn.” “The Rapids of Life,” composed by Outi Tarkiainen, will receive its United States premiere. It will be followed by a more familiar piano concerto, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 35, scored for piano, trumpet, and string orchestra. The piano soloist will be Seong-Jin Cho, and the trumpet part will be performed by SFS Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye. The intermission will be followed by an even more familiar symphony: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 67 in C minor, often known just as “the fifth.”

Sunday, January 25, 2 p.m., San Francisco Public Library Western Addition Branch: The program has not yet been finalized for the second Community Chamber Concert of the month; but it will be a trio performance involving two violinists (Yvette Kraft and Kingston Ho) and a violist (Leonid Plashinov-Johnson).

Pianist Emanuel Ax (photograph by Nigel Parry, courtesy of SFS)

Thursday, January 29, Friday, January 30, Saturday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Emanuel Ax will return to Davies as concerto soloist. He will perform Mozart’s K. 503 (25th) piano concerto in C major under the baton of Jaap van Zweden. The intermission will be followed by Anton Bruckner’s WAB 107, his seventh symphony in E major.

Joachim to Bring her Haiti Project to Noe Music

Nathalie Joachim, creator of the Fanm d’Ayiti event (from the Noe Music Web page for purchasing tickets)

Next month Noe Music will host Fanm d’Ayiti (women of Haiti), created by Nathalie Joachim. Her objective in creating this program was to honor stories about Haitian women from both the past and the present. She has prepared a program of vocal compositions, traditional songs, and chamber music. In the latter category, she will be joined by a string quartet from Decoda, based in Carnegie Hall but co-founded by Owen Dalby and Meena Bhasin, who currently run Noe Music. Program specifics have not yet been provided, but the entire performance will last one hour.

Most readers probably know by now that the venue is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street. The performance will begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, January 10. As usual, tickets will be available online through the Web page for the event. Reserved seating will be $60, and general admission tickets are available from $15 to $45 on a first-come first-served basis.

The Bleeding Edge: 12/16/2025

Once again, the week can be described as “relatively busy.” This week there will be two events that have already been reported. As at least some readers will expect, one of them is the ongoing event reported at the beginning of this month: 1000 Whispers From Our Future, which will be taking place at Audium this week on Thursday, December 18, Friday, December 19, and Saturday, December 20, beginning at 8 p.m. The other will be pianist Sarah Cahill’s visit to the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library on Sunday, 2 p.m. to celebrate composer Terry Riley’s 90th birthday. The venues for the remaining events will probably be familiar to regular readers; and, as usual, the options are impressively diverse. Details are as follows:

Tuesday, December 16, 6 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The title of the program will be Bridging Musical Traditions. Saxophonist Francis Wong will be on one side of the bridge, so to speak. The other will be shared by Jinji Sayson and Conrad Benedicto, both of whom specialize in Asian percussion instruments: the kulintang, an idiophone of metal gong kettles, and the dabakan Philippine drum. As always, the venue is the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

The Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar that Sonny Sharrock played on his Guitar album

Tuesday, December 16, 7 p.m., Make-Out Room: This month’s Jazz at the Make-Out Room will consist of only two sets, each a little short of an hour in duration. The opening set will be a non-standard trio, the Myles Boisen String Trio. Guitarist Boisen will be joined by Fred Longberg-Holm on cello. Rhythms will be provided by a bassist not yet announced. Guitarist Karl Evangelista will take the second set at 8 p.m. He will perform Guitar, which will be a tribute to the six tracks on Sonny Sharrock’s album of the same title (the last of which is the four-movement “Princess Sonata”). For those unfamiliar with the venue, it is located in the Mission at 3225 22nd Street.

Wednesday, December 17, 6 p.m., San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), Golden Gate Valley Branch: This will be an outdoor event described as a “participatory neighborhood promenade with shimmering ambient music.” All attendees will be required only to share the same instructions: “Each participant simultaneously plays one of four pre-recorded tracks from a mobile device that amplifies music as we walk together on a pre-determined 45 minute route that will take us to the nearby Marina branch library and back to the Golden Gate Valley branch.” Those familiar with the area should be reassured that no steep hills will be involved, but the performance will not be “canceled on account of rain!” For those that do not already know, the “library of origin” is located at 1801 Green Street, between Laguna Street and Octavia Street.

Friday, December 19, 6 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The only available information is that this will be a duo performance by saxophonist David Boyce accompanied by Scott Foster on guitar. Admission will be $20. Those wishing to make reservations can call 415-586-3733.

Friday, December 19, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This time the venue will host the next Other Dimensions in Sound performance curated by reed player David Boyce. This week Boyce will host Subterranean Fire. Again, there will be no charge for admission.

Flutist Yubeen Kim’s SFCM Faculty Recital

Readers that have previously encountered Yubeen Kim’s name probably know that he is Principal Flute with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), a position he assumed in January of 2024. However, he is also on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM); and last night he performed a Faculty Artist Series recital in the Recital Hall of the 50 Oak Street building. Most of his selection required piano accompaniment, provided by Yu-Hsin Galaxy Su. (She is also a clarinetist, also performing with SFS.) Kim also performed duo work with another flutist, Julin Cheung, Assistant Principal Flute and Piccolo of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Flutists Yubeen Kim and Julin Cheung performing with Yu-Hsin Galaxy Su at the piano (screenshot from the livestream of last night’s performance)

Due to the small number of performers, a relatively small area of stage space was occupied. As a result, camera work was limited to making sure that all performers were in the frame. Those limited numbers eliminated any risk of the camera looking in the wrong place! The only major activity on the stage involved replacing the piano with a harpsichord for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s H 569 trio sonata in D minor (after which the piano returned to its proper place for the remainder of the program). Kim also performed an encore with Su, an arrangement of the “Méditation” intermezzo from Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs, possibly performing from the vocal score.

Once again, the greatest shortcoming with the livestream was the audio. Once again I had to crank up the volume to eleven, as they say. However, because the Recital Hall is significantly smaller than the Concert Hall, the listening experience was not as frustrating as it had previously been; and Kim’s repertoire could not have been more engaging!

New Year to Begin with New ARTZenter Works

An example of a three-dimensional Lichtenberg Figure (from its Wikimedia Commons Web page)

The first full week of next month will see the next performance by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP), led by Artistic Director & Conductor Eric Dudley, presenting the next round of world premiere performances made possible by the Emerging Composer Grant Program enabled by the ARTZenter Institute. The program will present works by four beneficiaries of that program, chosen from a group of six finalists from the June 2025 submission deadline. Those composers and their respective works will be as follows:

1. Anak Baiharn (Eastman School of Music): Forever, Until/Until, Forever
2. SiHyun Uhm (University of California, Los Angeles): Pulse
3. Brady Wolff (Indiana University): Lichtenberg Figures
4. Trevor Zavac (University of Southern California): Composition No. 0136

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, January 6. It will take place in Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building. located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Each of the composers has received a $3000 grant to cover travel to San Francisco and accommodations. The performance will be presented free of admission, and no reservations will be required.

Voices of Music Focuses on Arcangelo Corelli

The Voices of Music ensemble playing the D major (fourth) concerto grosso from Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6

This afternoon I returned to YouTube for the latest Sundays at Ten Web site, compiled by Voices of Music (VoM) in a collection of selections from past performances. The title of the program was Corelli in Rome, Episode 45 from Season 5. It was framed by two of the concerti grossi in Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6 collection, the second in F major and  the fourth in D major. The “core” of the program consisted of two Adagio movements from his Opus 5 sonatas. The first of these was from the third sonata in C major for violin, followed by the fourth sonata in F major for recorder. That latter was given a publication by John Walsh with rich ornamentations, and that version was performed by Hanneke van Proosdij. The violin sonata was performed with Augusta McKay Lodge, accompanied at the harpsichord by Paolo Zanzu. The remaining work on the program was the Ciaconna movement from the final (twelfth) sonata da camera in the Opus 2 collection.

Taken as a whole, the selections proceeded at an engaging clip. The Opus 6 performances both lasted about ten minutes, while all of the single-movement offerings were less than four minutes in duration. As usual, the camera work provided a useful guide to following how the thematic material would migrate from one instrumental voice to another. While the video was a collection of performances taking place on different programs, the sequencing of the individual selections made for a coherent account conceived to survey Corelli’s achievements. By all rights, this would have stood up perfectly well as a “live” recital program!

VoM to Celebrate the Season with Vivaldi

The Voices of Music ensemble led by Hanneke van Proosdij at the harpsichord (from the Web page for the program being discussed)

This coming Saturday Voices of Music (VoM) will present its annual end-of-year festive offering. The title of this year’s program is Vivaldi Lights Up the Holidays; and, as might be expected, all the selections on the program will be works composed by Antonio Vivaldi. Because this is a seasonal offering, the major work on the program will be the first four violin concertos in Antonio Vivaldi’s Opus 8 collection, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between harmony and invention). Those four concertos, of course, have a title of their own, Le quattro stagioni (the four seasons). The program will also include RV 580, the last of the concertos for four violins in the Opus 3 L'estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration) collection. The program will also include the RV 419 cello concerto in A minor and the one concerto not for a string instrument, the RV 444 recorder concerto in C major.

This concert will take place in the Caroline C. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, located at 50 Oak Street, just west of Van Ness Avenue. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. this coming Saturday, December 20. Ticket prices range from $10 to $63. The VoM Web site has created a Web page for online ticket purchases.

NCCO: The Coming of the Winter Season

SFGC in 2023 (photograph by Carlin Ma)

This afternoon in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, the New Century Chamber Orchestra presented its latest program, entitled In Winter’s Glow. Music Director Daniel Hope led as Concertmaster, sharing the program with the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) prepared by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe. In fact, compositions by William Billings, Benjamin Britten, and Ola Gjeilo, along with arrangements of “Deck the Halls” and “Silent Night” in arrangements by John Rutter, were performed only by SFGC.

Hope led performances of two multi-movement compositions. The first of these was a concerto for four violins in B minor, the tenth selection in the twelve concertos that Antonio Vivaldi collected in his Opus 3, given the title L'estro armonico (the harmonic inspiration). The other instrumental selection was Edward Elgar’s three-movement “Serenade for Strings.” The program concluded with a joint presentation of Nico Muhly’s “Whispered and Revealed.” There were also two joint presentations dedicated explicitly to the Christmas holiday. The first of these was two of the movements from Gordon Getty’s Four Christmas Carols followed by “I Wonder as I Wander” and “Christmas Time of Year” from Jake Heggie’s On the Road to Christmas. The encore selection was “Balulalow,” a Scottish cradle song, often associated with the Nativity.

This was an undertaking as diverse as it was generous. Nevertheless, it all fit neatly into a 90-minute program; and, at least from my vantage point, the audience seemed fixated to the performance from start to finish. Ironically, the only problems with diction seemed to arise in Rutter’s arrangements; but all the other SFGC performances were as clear as crystal.

I suspect that one of the reasons why this program was, for the most part, consistently engaging is that Hope and Sainte-Agathe had no trouble in working with each other. Each selection was greeted with sincere applause, but it was the overall journey through an impressive variety of dispositions that sustained attention. Hope and Sainte-Agathe may have alternated in leadership, but it was clear that they shared the vision of that overall journey. Listening to the final round of applause, it was clear that the audience could not have been more satisfied with that vision.

Next Week with The Living Earth Show

Andy Meyerson, Travis Andrews, and Mark Applebaum, presumably preparing for next week’s performances (from the Eventbrite Web page for Classic Bucket List)

At the end of next week, the duo of guitarist Travis Andrews and drummer Andy Meyerson, known to regular readers as The Living Earth Show (TLES), will join forces and share percussion resources with composer Mark Applebaum. The trio calls itself Bucket List, and they will present two different programs on two consecutive evenings. Both performances will last about 90 uninterrupted minutes beginning at 7:30 p.m. They will take place at the TLES “home base,” the Roar Shack, which is located in the heart of the Mid-Market district at 34 Seventh Street. Tickets are available through Eventbrite Web pages, whose hyperlinks are attached to the specific dates as follows:

Thursday, December 18: The title of this program will be Classic Bucket List.  In the words of the performers, the concert will showcase their “dedication to the deadly serious but playfully ludic execution of carefully planned explosions of absurdity, whimsy, gravity, and levity: funk and rock grooves; subtle jazz improvisations; minimalist phasing accompanied by choreography; mercurial, gritty new complexity chamber music; performance art with office supplies and doodads; grocery store time-lapse video; incompetent but vociferously executed vocalizations made whilst trapped in a purple, three-person pope costume; and the reckless administration of mustard to a series of hotdogs.” (It goes without saying that the trio is also dedicated to run-on sentences!)

Friday, December 19: This will be a performance of a single continuous 50-minute piece. It will be realized through cross-fading thirteen distinct musical modules, created by The Achievement Institute, the alter ego of Bucket List. This will be a performance in the round. Some traditional seating will be available; but, again in the words of the trio, “listeners are also encouraged to take in the soothing tones on their own yoga mat and pillow.”

SFCM Highlights: December, 2025

Apparently, I have not written about performances at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) since the opening of the concert season this past September. However, the month of December tends to offer several recitals to take stock of progress in the different departments. Since the first two of those events will take place at the same time this evening, I need to account for them sooner rather than later. Seats may be reserved through the hyperlinks for each of the events. Specifics are as follows:

Friday, December 12, 7:30 p.m., Barbro Osher Recital Hall: Seven students from the Composition Department will contribute to the end-of-term recital. They are as follows:

1. “Prelude to a Glyde Thru Hybernation,” a solo piano composition by AC Chen to be performed by the composer
2. “Firebird Capriccio,” a solo violin composition by Alex Malinas performed by Brayden Meng
3. The Cathedral Windows for Solo Trombone, a seven-movement suite by Mukil Narayanan performed by Mikael Malmgren
4. “Breaths,” a solo piano composition performed by the composer
5. A violin sonata by Joaquin Castillo performed by violinist Anishka Vogl, accompanied at the piano by Hanmo Jiang
6. “Midnight Rhapsody” by Isaiah Diaz, composed for violin (Meng), clarinet (Zoe King), and piano (George Miller)
7. “Scenes from Summer” a trio by Julian Ossa, who will perform the piano part joined by Meng and clarinetist Nick Alvarez

The venue is located on the eleventh (top) floor of the Bowes Center at 200 Van Ness Avenue.

Friday, December 12, 7:30 p.m., Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall: This will be the end-of-term recital for students in the String and Piano Chamber Music Department. Violist Mateo Calderon will be joined by Noor Salameh on cello to begin the program with the duet composed by Paul Hindemith. This will be followed by the early piano trio by Claude Debussy, composed in the key of G major and not discovered until 1982. Pianist Kingsley So will perform with Yan Li on violin and cellist Elias Shapero. The first half of the program will conclude with the more familiar “Ghost” piano trio by Ludwig van Beethoven, the first of the two Opus 70 trios composed in the key of D major, performed by violinist Bri Aye, Nathaniel White on cello, and pianist Nathaniel Zhang. The intermission  will followed by one major work, Johannes Brahms’ first piano trio, his Opus 8 in B major. Bonhwi Kim will be the pianist, performing with Jaimie Yoon on violin and cellist Calvin Kung. The Recital Hall is on the first floor of the Bowes Center at 200 Van Ness Avenue.

Flutist Yubeen Kim (photograph by Shin Joong Kim, from the Web page for his coming recital)

Monday, December 15, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall: This will be a Faculty Artist Series recital by Yubeen Kim, who is also Principal Flute of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. For most of the program, he will be accompanied at the piano by Yu-Hsin Galaxy Su. He will begin with two short compositions by Philippe Gaubert: “Berceuse” and “Sicilienne.” They will then be joined by a second flutist, Julin Cheung, in performances of the Wq 145 trio sonata in D minor by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Franz Doppler’s Opus 25, a coupling of Andante and Rondo movements. Following the intermission, Cheung will return to perform Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s F. 57 duet for flutes in F major. Su will then join Kim for his instrumental version of the aria sung by Lensky in the first act of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin. They will then conclude the recital with Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 94 sonata for flute and piano in D major. The Concert Hall is on the first floor of the 50 Oak Street building.

Last-Minute Announcement: C4NM on Sunday

C4NM poster for Handmade Futures (from the Web page for the performance)

By all rights this content should have been included in this week’s Bleeding Edge article, but I only encountered it this past Wednesday! There will be a second performance at the Center for New Music (C4NM) following the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S, which was included in that article and will take place tomorrow at noon. The title of that performance will be Handmade Futures; and, as its Web page proclaims, it will involve “Custom instruments, modular architectures, audio transformations, tactile interfacing from artists building their own sonic worlds.”

The program will consist of four solo sets, ordered on that Web page as follows:

1. Sharkiface is the performance name for Angela Edwards, who is based in Oakland. She works with synthesizers and custom instruments, accompanying her own vocal work. She describes the results as “visceral, noise-influenced, electronic works.”
2. Following his G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S performance last month, sound designer Thomas Dimuzio will give a solo performance on a Buchla modular synthesizer.
3. I have not previously encountered the work of Ava Koohbor; but she describes her performances as “sensory fields where vibration becomes texture, risk, breath, and presence in space.”
4. Jon Leidecker (Wobbly) will perform a set of live sample-based collages using touch-sensitive interfaces for spontaneous digital manipulation.

As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street; and general admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students.

Weekend of Groupmuse Recitals Coming

Readers may know by now that Groupmuse tends to be my primary source for keeping up with news about recitals to be performed by pianist Ian Scarfe. This coming weekend will see the next of those recitals taking place on Saturday. However, I have also learned from Groupmuse about a recital that will take place on the following afternoon. It thus seems fair to account for both of these events in a single article (as a nod to the service that Groupmuse provides me). Specifics are as follows:

Saturday, December 13, 7 p.m., Presidio of San Francisco: Scarfe will open up the townhouse he shares with his partner Tané. He will honor the Christmas spirit with solo piano arrangements of selections from the score for score for the two-act ballet The Nutcracker, as well as “a few Christmas tunes!” The first half of the program will be more secular, beginning with selections from Edvard Grieg’s Opus 40, the Holberg Suite. This will be followed with selections from another suite, this time Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. The Groupmuse event page has a hyperlink for marking reservations in advance for $5. (The audience size will be limited to eighteen; and, as of this writing, eight of those spots are still available.) Shoes are not allowed inside the house, so wear socks judiciously! Also, those allergic to cats should be warned that one of them shares the place! The exact address will be sent by electronic mail once the reservation has been finalized, and visitors can arrive as early as 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 14, 2:30 p.m., Mission District: Elektra S. will cohost, with her partner Stephanie W., a duo performance by violinist Vanness Yu, accompanied at the piano by Phoebe Wu. They have prepared a program that will span the period from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth. The works will not be performed in chronological order.

Photograph of Tchaikovsky in 1877, included in Modest Chaikovskii’s The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Chaikovskii (public domain)

The program will begin with Amy Beach’s Opus 23, composed in 1893, her “Romance” for violin and piano. This will be followed by the “Carmen Fantaisie brillante,” composed by Jeno Hubay drawing upon the themes from Georges Bizet’s popular opera. The next selection will be another “Romance,” Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 11, composed a little over a decade before Beach’s. The first twentieth-century composition will be an early work by Olivier Messiaen, “Theme et variations,” composed in 1932. The program will return to the nineteenth century with the performance of “Mélodie,” the last of the three movements that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky collected under the title Souvenir d'un lieu cher (memory of a dear place). The final selection will be Jascha Heifetz’ arrangement of Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita.” (Heifetz recorded this piece twice, the second time to take advantage of stereophonic technology.) Once again, the Groupmuse event page has a hyperlink for marking reservations in advance for $5, and those allergic to cats should be warned! The exact address will be sent by electronic mail once the reservation has been finalized.

13th OFS Season Begins with Holiday Tradition

Jamael Smith with fellow OFS bassoonist Georgeanne Banker (from San Francisco Classical Voice)

Some readers may recall that it was about a year ago that One Found Sound (OFS) launched its twelfth season with the annual Holiday Pop Rox! program. This year oboist Jesse Barrett passed the baton to bassoonist Jamael Smith, whose narrations provided the “spinal cord” of the entire performance. As usual, there was an emphasis on vocal works, most of which were delivered by Melinda Campero, who commanded a generously diverse repertoire. The “holiday tradition” also saw the return of reigning Drag Queen of the Year Nicki J.

This year selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 71a, The Nutcracker Suite, provided most of the instrumental offerings. The “Miniature Overture,” “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy,” and “Russian Dance” interleaved with Campero’s selections. Appropriately enough, she launched the entire program with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” She also delivered a delightful account of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” made popular by Andy Williams but composed by Edward Pola and George Wyle. Personally, however, I preferred the “meat” between these two “slices of bread,” “I Put a Spell on You,” which brought Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to the attention of just about every disc jockey. (Hawkins himself wrote the song, working with Herb Slotkin.)

The performance took place at the Saint Joseph’s Arts Society, which was previously a church. This is a vast space, but it definitely drew an enthusiastic crowd. Even music as dated as Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” was welcomed in the holiday spirit. (Fun fact: Anderson began work on this during a heat wave in July of 1946.)

Personally, I was glad to see that the OFS ensemble continues to present thoroughly engaging approaches to the music they perform (as always, without a conductor); and I look forward to the coming concert season!

Charles Amirkhanian Gives the Ratchet its Due

Cover of the album being discussed, showing the instrument that inspired it (from the Other Minds Web page for the album)

This coming Friday Other Minds Records will give the ratchet its due. The album Ratchet Attach It is basically an eleven-movement suite composed by Charles Amirkhanian. According to its Other Minds Web page, it was commissioned by Errollyn Wallen, the Royal Composer of the United Kingdom, for the 2021 Spitalfields Festival in London. That text goes on to note that the result reflected the composer’s “career-long fascination with the noisiest of percussion instruments: the ratchet.”

As one might expect, percussion has its say over the course of the album; but do not wait for an elaborate cadenza from the ratchet. The primary departure from percussion comes with a player piano with piano rolls prepared by Rex Lawson. The most interesting of these is “Bum of the Flightlebee.” This resulted from taking a player piano roll of “Flight of the Bumblebee” and playing it in reverse. Another transformation arises when a piano roll for “To a Wild Rose” for a full piano keyboard is played on a pianola with only 65 available keys.

In many ways, this is an album of “in jokes” for well-informed musicians. For the most part, I could “get” and enjoy most of those jokes, sometimes with assistance from the booklet notes. Nevertheless, the playful rhetoric of this album can only go so far. The overall journey of eleven tracks is, for the most part, satisfyingly amusing. However, I suspect that the humor will not hold up over frequent listenings. On the other hand, returning to the album after a few months’ departure will probably be refreshing!

The Bleeding Edge: 12/9/2025

This will be another relatively busy week. One of the venues will be making its first appearance on this site, but it will probably be familiar to many readers for other reasons. The one ongoing event reported last week will be 1000 Whispers From Our Future, which will be taking place at Audium this week on Thursday, December 11, Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13, beginning at 8 p.m. All of the remaining events this week will receive single performances as follows:

Thursday, December 11, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: This will be the next evening of four adventurous sets to be performed at the Peacock. Sterile Garden will be a solo performance by Jacob DeRaadt, who describes himself as a “stalwart craftsman of industrial aesthetics and musique concrète.” He will be coming from Arcata to give a “rare live performance” (presumably his own words). Jean Carla Rodea will also give a solo performance involving “narration, song, and clear purposeful action.” The combo offering will be the Human Deselection & Realization Nature Group, which is the duo of Anthony A. Russell and Michael Goldwater, who call themselves “tone scientists.” The final set will be Sissisters, which is the title of the seventeen year sustained harsh noise project of Pat Murch.

As most readers probably know by now, the Peacock Lounge is located in the Lower Haight (sometimes known as Haight-Fillmore) at 552 Haight Street, between Fillmore Street and Steiner Street. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. to enable the first set to begin at 8 p.m. sharp. Admission will be on a sliding scale between $5 and $15. As in the past, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Friday, December 12, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This will be the next Other Dimensions in Sound performance curated by reed player David Boyce. This week Boyce is describing his “musical medicina” as a surprise. As always, the venue is the bookstore located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. There is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Friday, December 12, 8 p.m., 4 Star Theatre: The venue is a movie house managed by CINEMASF. However, for this particular evening it will host live improvisations performed by multi-instrumentalist Fred Frith, joined by Coffin Prick (also a multi-instrumentalist) and indie rock musician Mark Robinson. The venue is located at 2200 Clement Street, and doors will open at 7 p.m.

Friday, December 12, 8:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The next jazz gig at this venue will be performed by the Russian Telegraph sextet, named after our city’s two adjacent hills. The front line is shared by clarinetist Beth Custer, guitarist David James, and Chris Grady doubling between trumpet and flugelhorn. Custer and James will also provide vocals. Rhythm will be provided by Jordan Glasgow on a variety of keyboards, bassist Keith McArthur, and John Hanes on drums. This is another familiar venue for “bleeding edge” events; but, for those encountering the venue for the first time, it is located in Glen Park at 653 Chenery Street. The cover charge is $30 will a student rate of $10. Those wishing to make reservations can call 415-586-3733. Those wishing to imbibe should feel free to bring their own supplies.

Saturday, December 13, noon, Center for New Music: This will be the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S, bringing “bleeding edge” music together with freshly made pancakes. Lauren Hayes will be visiting from the United Kingdom, perhaps with things to be said about food in her native land! The other sets will be taken by Tom Djll, Dyemark, and Tanuki Spider Cat, respectively. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street; and general admission will be $10 with a $6 rate for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, December 13, 7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: This week the shop is hosting performances on two successive evenings! The second performance will be by the Michael Mitchell Quartet, whose leader is the drummer. Saxophonist Raffi Garabedian will take the front line. Rhythm will also be provided by Kai Lyons on guitar, pianist Michael Potter, and David Ewell on bass. (Yes, he calls his quintet a “quartet!”) As of this writing, no information has been given about a price of admission; so readers would do will to get in touch with the above telephone number.

Fetz performing with his electronic gear (from the BayImproviser Web page for the Mission Synths performance)

Sunday, December 14, 3 p.m., Mission Synths: This venue is an electronic music hardware and record store based in San Francisco's Mission District. It began as an online store and then migrated from the digital to the physical. This month marks its fifth anniversary year. Ten electronic music performers will celebrate the occasion:

1. Colin Dyer
2. Fetz
3. Hydroplane
4. Matt Robidoux
5. Müzmin
6. Pihsrow Yportne
7. Richard Haig
8. RMNA
9. Slow Spines
10. USR-D

Fetz A/V & Pajamas will provide live visuals for the performances. The store is located in the Mission at 3026 24th Street.

Organist Gail Archer Returning with Bulgarians

The organ that Gail Archer will be playing on her visit to San Francisco (from the home page for the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption)

Organist Gail Archer’s touring schedule last took her to San Francisco a little over a year ago. Her repertoire was, to say the least, impressive, beginning with selections by Johann Sebastian Bach that would have been familiar to most Bach mavens and concluding with three Ukrainian composers probably unknown to most of her audience: Viktor Goncharenko, Svitlana Ostrova, and Mykola Kolessa. She will return in a little over a month’s time, this time drawing upon her latest album, Dobrich: A Bulgarian Odyssey, for her program. (For those unfamiliar with the title, Dobrich is a city in Bulgaria with a concert hall that has a 1979 Schuke organ with 36 stops and two manuals.)

The album has eleven tracks accounting for seven different composers, four of whom are living. Most likely, all of those names will be unfamiliar to most readers. Fortunately, the “Editorial Reviews” section of the Amazon.com Web page provides a brief but useful introduction to all of them. Two of them, Velislav Zaimov and Radosveta Hurkova, enjoy two separate tracks.

I must confess that, even after listening to this album several times, my ears are still adjusting to the content. To be fair, where the composers allocated two tracks are concerned, I am not sure that side-by-side listening to one of those pairs would encourage me to recognize that they had the same composer! Nevertheless, this album is definitely a “journey of discovery” for anyone interested in the pipe organ repertoire. After all, how often does one ask, “Guess what this is?” before playing a recording to an audience of friends?

Having established the merits of this content, I am now happy to announce that readers in the Bay Area will have the opportunity to attend a performance of this music. It will take place in the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, which is located at 1111 Gough Street, south of Geary Boulevard. The concert will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, January 18. No information has been provided regarding a price of admission, so I assume that donations will be accepted.

SFCM Presents Two David Conte Compositions

Late yesterday afternoon I watched the latest livestream from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The program consisted of two compositions by Composition Chair David Conte, one on either side of an intermission. The first half was a preview of his latest undertaking, a two-act opera with a libretto by Nicholas Giardini adapting the narrative of Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol. The second was a suite based on music drawn from the first act of a projected two-act ballet setting Edgar Allan Poe’s tale, “The Masque of the Red Death.”

The performance of excerpts from A Christmas Carol with Brian Thorsett and Samuel Kidd singing the roles of Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, respectively

The opera excerpts began with the “Choral Prelude,” sung by the Nebula Consort prepared by Eric Choate. This was followed by three episodes, the first being the argument about Christmas between Ebenezer Scrooge (tenor Brian Thorsett) and Bob Cratchit (baritone Samuel Kidd). The second presented Scrooge’s confrontation with the ghost of Jacob Marley (bass Matt Boehler). Finally, Thorsett gave a solo performance of “Scrooge’s Credo.” The Dickens’ source has become so familiar that all of the vocal work was easily followed, even if it was not staged.

The suite was performed by the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. In fact, it was one of the selections of the program they had performed the previous evening (Saturday, December 6), on which Conte’s suite was coupled by another suite by Claude Debussy (Petite Suite), with the entire program framed by familiar selections by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (the “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy and excerpts from the Nutcracker ballet). The title of the Saturday program was Celebrating David Conte’s 70th birthday, and the occasion was the debut of Robert Mollicone as the new music director. Yesterday’s performance was basically a “replay” of the Conte selection.

The good news is that both of yesterday’s performances were engaging. However, that engagement was strong enough to overcome one of the worst livestream offerings from SFCM I have encountered. I should have been prepared for this, given my last livestream encounter this past September. On that occasion I wrote the following:

Sadly, the audio delivery could not have been weaker, meaning that I had to crank up the audio on my screen to the maximum level. Even then, there were passages that just did not come across, particularly in the quieter moments in the concluding selection, the “Concerto for Orchestra” by Witold Lutosławski.

Last night the vocalists managed to prevail, thanks to a thorough command of diction (not to mention listener familiarity with the narrative); but much of the instrumental content took it on the chin. A composer of Conte’s stature deserves better.