March 1, 2026: Definitely “in Like a Lion!”

Last year, I invoked the epithet of March going in like a lion as it applied to the diversity of performances taking place during the first weekend of that month. This year the lion will roar on the first day of the month to announce four concerts taking place in the afternoon. The starting intervals will be one hour apart, meaning that there will definitely be overlap. Specifics are as follows:

2 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: This is the annual Chopin Birthday Gala concert. The program will present solo piano compositions by Frédéric Chopin performed by Jason Chiu, Omri Shimron, Robert Schwartz, Ariel Chien, and others yet to be announced. As a result of that qualifier, the program has not been finalized; but it will include a full account of the 24 Opus 28 prelude compositions (covering all major and minor keys) and at least two of the ballades, Opus 23 in G minor and Opus 52 in F minor. As usual, this performance will be available for live stream viewing as well as seating in the church at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue. This will be the first of four performances scheduled for March at that venue, the other three of which will be as follows:

Pianist Ava Nazar (from her Old First Concerts Web page)

1. Saturday, March 14, 2 p.m.: The Princeton Nassoons serve as ambassadors of Princeton University’s musical tradition, performing both choral and jazz selections from the early twentieth century.
2. Sunday, March 15, 4 p.m.: This will be the annual Junior Bach Festival. The Junior Bach Festival Association has been presenting these concerts at Old First for over a decade. The ages of the performers usually range from eight to eighteen; and, as of this writing, the program has not yet been finalized.
3. Sunday, March 29, 4 p.m.: Iranian pianist Ava Nazar will present a program entitled Nahoft. She will perform music by Aso Kohzadi, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Nina Barzegar, and Yassaman Behbahani, all women from the Iranian diaspora. The title of the program is the name of a melodic motif that arises in Iranian music.

3 p.m., Taube Atrium Theater: This will be the latest annual installment in the West Edge Opera Snapshot series; the four operas to be showcased were announced about two months ago.

3 p.m., Herbst Theatre: Pianist Tiffany Poon will return to Chamber Music San Francisco. The earliest work on her program will be Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les tendres plaintes.” At the other end of the “time line,” she will play selections by Maurice Ravel, his “Jeux d’eau” and two of the movements from his Miroirs suite. She will conclude her program with Lili Boulanger’s “D’un jardin clair.” As might be expected, there will also be “obligatory appearances” by Frédéric Chopin and Claude Debussy with nods also to Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré.

4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: The title of the next Discovery Series program presented by American Bach will be The Harmonic Labyrinth. This is a reference to the “Labyrinth” concerto by Pietro Locatelli, the last in his collection of twelve violin concertos entitled L'arte del violino, which bears the inscription: “Laberinto armonico: ‘Facilis aditus; difficilis exitus’” (harmonic labyrinth: easy to enter, difficult to escape). YuEun Gemma Kim will be the solo violinist for this performance. The program will also include solo vocal performances by soprano Maya Kherani and mezzo Sarah Coit. It will begin with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s setting of the Stabat Mater sequence. The second half of the program will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 209 cantata, Non sa che sia dolore (he knows not what sorrow is). The program will then conclude with Giovanni Pergolesi’s setting of the Stabat Mater hymn to the Virgin Mary. As many (most?) readers probably know by now, the church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just to the west of Franklin Street.