Old First Concerts: February, 2026

Having accounted for the three performances to be presented by Old First Concerts this month shortly before Christmas, it is now time to look forward to next month’s offerings. There will be only two of them, both piano trio performances. However, content will be significantly different, as most readers will be quick to observe. 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 live streaming and ticket purchasing) will be attached to the date and time of the performances as follows:

Friday, February 13, 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 15, 4 p.m.: The first program will be performed by the Sixth Station Trio. Some readers may recall that this ensemble is a piano trio, all of whose members have had experiences with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The pianist is Katelyn Tan, who received her Masters degree from SFCM in 2020 and now serves as a staff accompanist there. That same year, violinist Anju Goto completed his SFCM undergraduate degree. Finally, cellist Federico Strand Ramirez holds both a Bachelor of Music and an Advanced Certificate degree from SFCM. They have prepared their own arrangement of the music that Joe Hisaishi composed for the Japanese animated fantasy film Howl’s Moving Castle. The narrative for this film is a romantic one, making it appropriate for the weekend of Valentine’s Day!

Ensemble Les Six members Ihang Lin, Katie Youn, and Catalina Barraza (from the Web page for their Old First Concerts recital)

Friday, February 20, 8 p.m.: Ensemble Les Six was founded in March of 2022 by pianist Ihang Lin. The group, named after the six composers that joined forces in France during World War I, consists of ten professional musicians, many associated with local universities, as well as the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera Guild. Three of these musicians will visit Old First, including Lin along with Catalina Barraza on violin and cellist Katie Youn. All three of them will perform Claude Debussy’s only piano trio, composed in 1880 but only discovered in 1982. This will be the final work on the program, which will begin with Lin performing études selected from Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 10 collection. This will be followed by two duo performances for violin and cello. The more familiar of these will be Johan Halvorsen’s arrangement of the passacaglia movement from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 432 harpsichord suite in G minor. This will be preceded by the more recent duo for violin and cello composed by Jessie Montgomery.