Choices for March 1–3, 2024

Readers may recall that the last weekend of this month will be the first “busy weekend” of the New Year. As of this writing, it is almost certain that the next weekend will be even busier. In addition, this report will account for the Old First Concerts performances in March and the new Pocket Opera season. This will amount to a wild ride, so fasten your seatbelts!

Friday, March 1, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ Center: Each of the three days of this busy weekend will have its own SFJAZZ offering. Cosa Nostra Strings is a quintet, which emerged from the Jazz Mafia founded by Adam Theis. Theis, who will alternate between bass and trombone, will lead this group. The string players will be violinist Shaina Evoniuk, Keith Lawrence on viola, and cellist Lewis Pazner. The remaining member of the group is percussionist Aaron Kierbel, whose instruments will include the cajon. All tickets are $25. The SFJAZZ Center is located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street.

Friday, March 1–Sunday, March 3, Davies Symphony Hall: This is the “pairing” of Béla Bartók’s one-act opera “Bluebeard’s Castle” with the “multi-sensory production” of Alexander Scriabin’s “Prometheus,” which was described in the account of the next round of San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performances to be led by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Saturday, March 2, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ Center: This is more than a bit of a departure from the usual “bleeding edge” offerings. The Seshen is a sextet that calls their genre “Afrofuturist funktronica.” (They call themselves “groovemasters.”) The performance will include tracks from their latest album, released last year, entitled Nowhere. Lalin St. Juste delivers the vocals with accompaniment provided by Akiyoshi Ehara (bass), Mahesh Rao (keyboards), Chris Thalmann (drums), Mirza Kopelman (percussion), and Kumar Butler (electronics). Note that this is an “Open Dancefloor” event, which means that many seats may not in the usual configuration. Ticket prices are $25 and $30 (possibly with the higher price applied to seating).

Saturday, March 2, 7:30 p.m., Sunset Music and Arts: As of this writing, there will be only one Sunset performance in the month of March. The title of the program will be Melodías de Buenos Aires. The program will feature vocalist Mariana Quinteros, whose is known as “The Golden Voice of Tango.” As might be expected, she will be accompanied by a bandoneon, performed by Alex Zeyliger, as well as pianist Anibal Berraute. Her repertoire reaches back to the composer Carlos Gardel, dubbed by Wikipedia as “the most prominent figure in the history of tango” and forward to the music of Astor Piazzolla. The “immediate present” will be represented by the tangos of the San Francisco composer and lyricist Debra Simcovich.

As usual, the performance will take place in the Sunset district at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, located at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street. Ticket prices are $25 for general admission with a $20 rate for students and seniors. Because the demand tends to be high, advance purchase is highly advised. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite. Further information may be obtained by calling 415-564-2324.

Sunday, March 3, 2 p.m., Legion of Honor Museum: The first of the four Pocket Opera productions will be a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola. The libretto by Jacopo Ferretti serves up several departures from the usual expectations for the Cinderella fairy tale. Most interesting is that the “fairy godmother” is replaced by the philosopher Alidoro. This is also one of those rare instances in which the leading female vocalist (in this case the title character) is not a soprano. Angelina (the Cinderella figure) can be sung by either a mezzo or a contralto.

As usual, this performance will take place in the Gunn Theatre on the lower level of the Museum. General admission is $79 with a $74 rate for seniors and $30 for those age 30 and younger. A Web page has been created for online purchase. However, because this is the beginning of the season, a subscription for all four operas is available for $260. There is also a $204 rate for those wishing to select only three of the operas. Both of these options can be exercised through a separate Web page. The dates and operas for the three remaining productions are as follows (all Sunday afternoons at Gunn):

• April 28, The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček
• June 30: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai
• July 28: La bohème by Giacomo Puccini

Sunday, March 3, 2 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: Old First Concerts (O1C) will begin the month with a program entitled Chopin Birthday Party. Pianist Robert Schwartz has prepared a program consisting entirely of solo piano compositions by Frédéric Chopin. This will consist of the three Opus 59 mazurkas, two of the impromptus (Opus 29 in A-flat major and Opus 36 in F-sharp minor), as well as the Opus 60 barcarolle in F-sharp major, the Opus 54 scherzo in E major, and the Opus 52 ballade in F minor. No information has yet been released as to where the intermission will be inserted. However, following the concert there will be a reception with champagne and birthday cake.

O1C events will continue to be “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. Seating will remain limited to 100 tickets, all being sold for $25 (no reduced rate for seniors or students). Tickets may be purchased through this concert’s event page. The remaining events of the month will be as follows with hyperlinks attached to the date and time of each the performances:

• Sunday, March 10, 4 p.m.: The title of the next performance of the Wooden Fish Ensemble is Centuries of Innovation in Celebration of International Women’s Day. The performers will be the “core” ensemble of violinist Terrie Baune, Thalia Moore on cello, and pianist Thomas Schultz. Schultz will perform a selection of the “Romance” compositions from the Opus 11 and Opus 21 collections of Clara Schumann. He will also give a solo performance of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s “Piano Study in Mixed Accents.” He will accompany Baune in the performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s duet. The program will begin with the entire trio playing the world premiere performance of Hyo-shin Na’s “Many Paradises.”
• Friday, March 15, 8 p.m.: The Spizzwinks(?) are composed entirely of full-time undergraduate students at Yale. They have prepared over 600 arrangements of the vocal music that they perform a cappella. They were founded in 1914, meaning that they have been at it for over a century. As of this writing, there is no information about repertoire. Most likely, announcing the selections will be part of the show!
• Sunday, March 17, 4 p.m.: O1C has hosted the Junior Bach Festival since 2015. Performances are by both soloists and ensembles, who are just beginning to emerge as performers. For those that have not yet guessed, the repertoire consists entirely of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach!
• Monday, March 18, 7:30 p.m.: The Earplay musicians will return for their next subscription program, entitled Life Cycle. The program will feature the world premiere of a work yet to be titled by Chris Castro. “Dyades,” composed by Haris Kittos in 2016, will be given its United States premiere. There will also be two West Coast premieres. The program will begin with Koh Cheng Jin’s “Flower Mantis,” which was the winner of last year’s Donald Aird Prize. The other premiere performance will be of Toshio Hosokawa’s “Threnody.” The remaining work on the program will be Erik Ulman’s “Skamandros.” The program will be followed by the ensemble’s first-ever mid-season fundraising gala. As a result, the Web page for this program will include admission for both events as will as the alternative for attending only the performance.
• Saturday, March 23, 8 p.m.: The month will conclude with another vocal ensemble. Conspiracy of Venus is an all-female ensemble directed by Joyce Todd. For the most part, they prepare their own arrangements, which tend toward the popular genres. Once again, information about the program has not yet been released and most likely will be delivered by the performers.

Sunday, March 3, 3 p.m., Taube Atrium Theater: As usual, West Edge Opera will supplement its summer season with its annual Snapshot program. The program is a showcase for new and developing works from West Coast composers and librettists. In the past music has been provided by Earplay, but this week’s release did not say anything about instrumental accompaniment. This season’s program will showcase four new operas as follows:

1. The libretto by George Kopp for Madame Theremin, composed by Kennedy Verrett, is about the wife of Leon Theremin, the inventor of the electronic instrument after which he was named, who was the Black ballet dancer Lavinia Williams.
2. Tony Asaro prepared a libretto for composer Matt Boehler based on T. C. Boyle’s The Road to Wellville, which is about John Harvey Kellogg and his invention of corn flakes.
3. Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea’s Story is an ambitious account of a major historical event known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This began on May 14, 1804 in Illinois. It crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas and proceeded all the way to the Pacific Ocean, where they arrived in 1805. They were aided by the Shoshone Native American Sacagawea. The libretto for the opera was prepared by her great-great-grand niece Rose Anne Abrahamson. The music was composed jointly by Hovia Edwards and Justin Ralls.
4. Least of my Children is the first documented musical work about the AIDS crisis. It was composed by Loren Linnard with a libretto by Donald Brigg to explore the reaction of Catholic families to the disease. Both of them are now dead, but Linnard’s son Dean has unearthed the score.

The Diane and Tad Taube Atrium Theater is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. All tickets are being sold for $45. They may be purchased in advance online from a Tix event page. There will also be “Underwriter” tickets available for $250, which provide reserved seating in the front row.

Sunday, March 3, 3 p.m., Herbst Theatre: Ironically, at the same time as Snapshot, the Esmé Quartet will be giving a recital for Chamber Music San Francisco for which the details have already been documented; as most readers probably know, the entrance to Herbst is on the ground floor of the aforementioned Veterans Building!

Sunday, March 3, 4 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry: The next performance by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble will be performed only by pianist Allegra Chapman, Stacey Pelinka on flute, and cellist Leighton Fong. The full title of the program is Butterflies, Moons, and Mirrors: A Saariaho Celebration. The program will “celebrate” the memory of composer Kaija Saariaho by performing four of her compositions: “Papillons,” “Oi Kuu,” “Mirrors,” and “Dolce Tormento.” Chapman will give a solo performance of the three “Piano Miniatures” of Kay Rhie,” after which she will accompany Pelinka in a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 94 flute sonata. The Noe Valley Ministry is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Tickets may be purchased through a Tix Web page with prices of $35 for general admission and $15 for students.

Sunday, March 3, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ Center: As T. S. Eliot wrote in “East Coker,” “In my end is my beginning.” This long journey through the weekend will conclude, where it began, with SFJAZZ. To the best of my knowledge, this will be a solo performance by Melanie Charles. Based in Brooklyn, she has established herself as a truly contemporary singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, beat maker, and composer. Her influences involve an aesthetic that balances deep roots in the jazz tradition with hip-hop culture, the avant-garde, and her Haitian heritage. Her selections will include tracks from her Verve Records debut, Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women. Note that this is another “Open Dancefloor” event; but, for this one, all tickets are being sold for $25.