Choices for December 7–9 (and beyond)

This year Advent will begin on Sunday, December 2. To paraphrase Percy Bysshe Shelley, when Advent comes, can holiday programming be far behind? The answer will be found during the first full weekend in Advent, although, to be fair, the choices will be so abundant that there will be no shortage of “secular” alternatives. On the other hand the “and beyond” portion of this article will definitely take into account seasonally appropriate offerings for the rest of the month. Furthermore, my guess is that updates to this page will be in the works, meaning that the Facebook “mirror” page for this site will be busier than usual. Nevertheless, here is the “first pass” at the specifics:

Friday, December 7, 7 p.m.–Sunday, December 9, 2 p.m., Marines’ Memorial Theater: As previously announced this past summer, Opera Parallèle will begin its 2018–2019 San Francisco season with a holiday revival of its colorful and engaging production of Rachel Portman’s two-act opera The Little Prince, based on the book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with a libretto in English by Nicholas Wright. Staging will again be by Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement will conduct the cast and instrumental ensemble joined by the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

The opera will be given four performances at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 7, and Saturday, December 8, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 8, and Sunday, December 9. The Marines’ Memorial Theatre is located at 609 Sutter Street, just off Union Square. (Note that the venue does not have an elevator to the balcony level and that the orchestra level is on the second floor of the Marines’ Memorial building.) Tickets are priced from $25 to $75, and City Box Office has created a single Web page through which tickets may be purchased online for each of the four performances.

[added 11/28, 10:50 a.m.:

Friday, December 7, 7:30 p.m., Adobe Books: This appears to be either an encore performance or a rescheduling of a concert originally announced for the middle of November. The opening set will be the Efectos Humanos duo of Rodolfo Córdova and Pedro Rolón. They will be followed by a solo set presented by Chris Brown. The final set will be the duo of Laetitia Sonami and Wobbly.

Adobe Books is located at 3130 24th Street in the Mission between South Van Ness Avenue and Folsom Street. The concert is free. However, donations will go directly to the performing artists and are strongly encouraged. At past events Adobe has provided free refreshments to those who make a book purchase of $6 or more, and it is likely that the managers of the book store will maintain this effort to encourage reading their offerings.]

Friday, December 7, 7:30 p.m., Red Poppy Art House: December will begin at the Poppy with the return of Drómeno, a quartet whose repertoire is based on Turkish-influenced tunes from Anatolia (frequently known as Asia Minor). The group is a “family-based” ensemble, led by Christos Govetas, who alternates between clarinet and oud and also provides vocals. He is joined by daughter Eleni alternating among violin, saxophone, and defi, while son Bobby focuses on percussion. Vocals are also provided by accordionist Ruth Hunter, who also plays the Turkish qanun.

The Red Poppy is located in the Mission at 2698 Folsom Street on the southwest corner of 23rd Street. Admission will be on a sliding scale between $15 and $20. Tickets will be available in advance online through and Eventbrite event page. Given the demand for these concerts, it is often the case that only a limited number of tickets will be available at the door. The Poppy is a small space. Even those who have purchased their tickets in advance should probably make it a point to be there when the doors open one half-hour before the performance is scheduled to begin.

Friday, December 7, 8 p.m., Heron Arts: One Found Sound will present the second “chapter” in its season of three concerts organized around the overarching theme of storytelling. The title of this “chapter” is Divergence; and the three works on the program will constitute a departure from usual expectations. The program will begin with “Teen Murti” by American pianist and composer Reena Esmail, who draws upon her Indian roots to take an “interdisciplinary” approach to composition. This piece will be followed by a decidedly non-standard concerto composed by Frank Martin for seven wind instruments, timpani, percussion, and string orchestra. The program will conclude with Mozart’s K. 183 symphony in G minor, often called the “little” G minor symphony when compared with K. 550. With its driving use of syncopation and wild melodic leaps, this symphony is a bold departure from conventions at the middle of the eighteenth century.

Heron Arts is located in SoMa at 7 Heron Street on the block between 7th Street and 8th Street. All tickets are being sold for $25. They may be purchased online through an Eventbrite event page.

Friday, December 7, 8 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: The holiday season begins for the Old First Concerts series (O1C) with a program of festive and romantic music for guitar (performed by Larry Ferrara) and cello (Shiqi Li). Selections will include works by Manuel de Falla and Astor Piazzolla, as well as Ferrara’s arrangement of a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. The Old First Presbyterian Church is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. If purchased in advance online from an O1C event page, general admission will be $23 with a discounted rate of $18 for seniors aged 65 or older. Tickets for full-time students showing valid identification will be $5; and children aged twelve and under will be admitted for free. There is also a discount available for those parking at the Old First Parking Garage at 1725 Sacramento Street, just up the street from the church. The remaining holiday concerts, with hyperlinks to their respective event pages for ticket purchases, are as follows:

• Sunday, December 9, 4 p.m.: The Ragazzi Boys Chorus will present a program entitled For the Beauty of the Earth. The selections will honor composers through the ages who have contemplated natural surroundings, giving thanks through music for nature’s gifts. The composed and arranged works will be followed by traditional carols with an invitation to the audience to join the boys in song.
• Friday, December 14, 8 p.m.: Golden Bough is the trio of Margie Butler, Paul Espinoza, and Kathy Sierra, all vocalists accompanying themselves on a a wide variety of acoustic instruments. Those instruments include Celtic harp, penny-whistle, violin, octave-mandolin, mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, recorder, and bodhrán. Selections will include rare versions of Celtic songs of Winter, as well as their unique take on better known Christmas carols.
• Friday, December 21, 8 p.m.: Kitka will return to include O1C on its annual Wintersongs tour. Because this group tends to be in high demand, there will be a change in the prices for admission. “Golden Circle” tickets for preferred seating will be sold for $40. The remaining general admission tickets will be $30 with a rate of $25 for seniors aged 65 or older. Tickets for full-time students showing valid identification will be $10; and children aged twelve and under will still be admitted for free. None of these prices will be subject to discount, but tickets may still be purchased in advance online.
• Sunday, December 23, 4 p.m.: The holiday offerings will conclude with a solo piano recital by Steinway Artist Sandra Wright Shen. Her program will feature Christmas-themed offerings by composers such as Franz Liszt, Percy Grainger, Vítězslav Novak, Olivier Messiaen, and George Crumb. The program will be framed by two major “secular” offerings, Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 829 partita in G major and Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 20 scherzo in B minor.

Friday, December 7, 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre: The December program for the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale will be led by guest conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley. Because Quigley is Founder and Artistic Director of Seraphic Fire, the title of the program will be Philharmonic Fire. Bruce Lamott will prepare the members of the Philharmonia Chorale; and the program will feature four vocal soloists, soprano Margot Rood, countertenor Reginald Mobley, tenor Steven Soph, and baritone Steven Eddy. Selections will focus on sacred music with works by Claudio Monteverdi and Antonio Vivaldi, as well as two cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 61 Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland (now come, Savior of the heathens, written for the first Sunday in Advent) and BWV 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (awake, calls the voice to us). There will also be one secular offering, the music by Henry Purcell for the second scene of the third act of King Arthur, known as the “frost” scene.

The San Francisco performance of this concert will take place on Friday, December 7, beginning at 8 p.m. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, which is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices will range from $32 to $120 for premium seating. Tickets are currently available for advance purchase through a City Box Office event page, which displays a color-coded seating plan that shows which areas correspond to which price levels.

Friday, December 7, and Saturday, December 8, 8:30 p.m., The Lab: Jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell will lead his quartet in his last performances before returning to Madison, Wisconsin; details may be found in an article about concerts at The Lab.

Saturday, December 8, 7 p.m., Red Poppy Art House: As of this writing, only one other concert has been scheduled for next month. The performers will be the duo Dos BandOLEros, presenting a program entitled Power Rumba Flamenca in the Mission. Alberto Gutiérrez is the guitarist, and Raúl Vargas takes care of percussion, including cajón, with occasional ventures into an electric kazoo. Both Gutiérrez and Vargas also provide vocals.

This concert will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, December 8. Admission will again be on a sliding scale between $15 and $20. Tickets will again be available in advance online through an Eventbrite event page.

[added 11/16, 4:45 p.m.:

Saturday, December 8, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre: The San Francisco Opera Center will present its annual program to showcase the 2018 class of Adler Fellows, The Future is Now: Adler Fellows Concert. The program will present a diverse variety of arias, duets, and one trio covering a broad range of the opera repertoire. There will be staging by Aria Umezawa, and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Christopher Franklin. Ticket prices will range from $30 to $65. The may be purchased online through an event page on the San Francisco Opera Web site. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House, located on the northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street. The Box Office may also be reached by telephoning 415-864-3330.]

Saturday, December 8, 8 p.m., Center for New Music (C4NM): Apparently, singer, songwriter, and composer Derek Schmidt will be using C4NM for the public presentation of his Major Arcana project, even though this event is not listed on the C4NM concert calendar Web page. Schmidt has been working on this project for five years. The result is a cycle of 22 songs, each of which represents one of the trump cards of the tarot deck. The settings of these songs draw upon both acoustic and electronic resources.

C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, about half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Admission for this concert will be $10 for all. Tickets will only be available at the door.

Sunday, December 9, 2 p.m., War Memorial Opera House: This will be the final performance of Jake Heggie’s opera It’s a Wonderful Life, based on both Frank Capra’s film of the same name and the short story on which the film was based, Philip Van Doren Stern’s “The Greatest Gift.” The War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, on the northwest corner of Grove Street. As with all preceding performances of this opera, single tickets are priced from $26 to $398. Tickets may be purchased online through an event page on the SFO Web site. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House. The Box Office may also be reached by telephoning 415-864-3330. Standing room tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of the performance. They are sold for $10, cash only.

Sunday, December 9, 3 p.m., Herbst Theatre: San Francisco Performances will launch its three-concert Discovery Series with a recital by the Telegraph Quartet, whose members are violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violist Pei-Ling Lin, and cellist Jeremiah Shaw. Winner of the 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the ensemble is currently Quartet-in-Residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They will present a diverse program with an emphasis on Eastern European composers. The program will begin with Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's Opus 51 (“Slavonic”) quartet in E-flat major. He will be followed by a later Czech composer, Erwin Schulhoff, who collected five pieces for string quartet reflecting spirited and colorful dancers. The program will conclude with the Opus 35 (sixth) quartet by Polish-born Mieczysław Weinberg, who managed to flee to the Soviet Union before the Nazis took over his native land. In his new home he became a close friend and colleague of Dmitri Shostakovich. All tickets are being sold for $45. They may be purchased online in advance through a City Box Office event page. The SFP event page provides a menu from which the specific date may be selected.

In addition, because this it the first concert of the series, subscriptions are still available for $120. These may be purchased through a separate City Box Office event page. The remaining concerts in the series will all take place in Herbst at 7:30 p.m. on the following dates:

• Wednesday, February 20: Young Turkish tenor Ilker Arcayürek will make is San Francisco debut by performing a program consisting entirely of songs by Franz Schubert; his accompanist will be pianist Simon Lepper.
• Tuesday, May 21: Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi was a protégé of both Murray Perahia and Alfred Brendel. His major undertakings will be Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 36 (second) piano sonata and the pieces that Claude Debussy collected for his second Images book. He will begin with a generous assortment of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, most of which were arranged by either Ferruccio Busoni or Wilhelm Kempff.

Sunday, December 9, 4 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: San Francisco Choral Artists, led by Artistic Director Magen Solomon, will begin its 2018–2019 season with a program entitled Jingle! Angels! Silent! Merry! The focus will be on holiday music from around the world; and, as the title program suggests, content will range from sublime to silly. In addition to time-honored works by a wide diversity of familiar composers, the program will present new works by Composer-in-Residence Jean Ahn and Composer-Not-in-Residence Robinson McClellan.

St. Mark’s is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. Tickets are on sale at the door for $33 for general admission, $29 for seniors, and $15 for those under the age of 30, respectively. A Brown Paper Tickets event page has been created for all online purchases at a discounted rate.

Once again, this is the first concert of a series. As a result there is also a Brown Paper Tickets event page selling subscriptions for the entire three-concert series. General admission is $75, and the senior rate is $67. The remaining concerts will also take place at the same venue on the following dates and times:

• Saturday, March 9, 8 p.m.: Out of the Garden, Into the Woods: from Paradise to Scary will consist entirely of songs about the many different aspects of the natural world.
• Sunday, June 9, 4 p.m.: Castle, Court and Chamber: Harpsichords at Home will feature a visit from harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree. She will be joined by cellist Paul Hale. The offerings will be both sacred and profane appropriate to the different divisions of social status under different forms of authoritarian rule in Europe.