October 26: Two Concerts in the Same Building

Having accounted for SF Music Day presenting events taking place simultaneously in four different sites in the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue one week from today, it is worth noting that two of those sites will again be simultaneously occupied on Thursday, October 26.

Poster design for Death By Aria (from the Eventbrite Web page)

The first of these will be the third annual Death By Aria concert, which will get the jump on Halloween by a little less than a week. The program will draw upon The White Lotus and “Hokus Pokus,” along with excerpts from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 620, The Magic Flute, and Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth. The participating performers will be soprano Julie Adams, mezzo Nikola Printz, tenor Zhengyi Bai, baritone Edward Nelson, baritone doubling as oboist Jesse Rex Barrett, bass Kirk Eichelberger, cellist Samson Van Loon, and pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg.

The performance will begin at 7 p.m. The venue will be The Green Room, which is on the second floor. The entire event is expected to last two and one-half hours. Tickets are being sold through an Eventbrite Web page. General admission will be $100; and, as of this writing, only eleven tickets are remaining. The price for young professionals under 30 will be $60, and twelve tickets remain in that category.

The second option will be the second program to be presented in the 2023–24 season of the San Francisco Performances (SFP) Shenson Chamber Series. As was announced this past summer, all five of the programs in this series feature string quartets. The ensemble to be featured on this particular date will be the JACK Quartet, whose members are violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell. They have prepared a program to celebrate the 70th birthday of John Luther Adams, who was born on January 23, 1953. It will include two of his major quartet compositions, “Lines Made by Walking” and “The Wind in High Places.” They will begin with the”Rising” movement from his untouched suite.

This recital will take place in Herbst Theater, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The entrance to Herbst Theatre is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building. Ticket prices are $70 (premium Orchestra and front and center Dress Circle), $60 (remainder of Orchestra, all Side Boxes, and center rear Dress Circle), and $50 (remaining Dress Circle and Balcony); and they may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. As available, single tickets will be sold at the door with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for seniors. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.