Free Concerts at Noe Valley Town Square

Some readers may recall that Noe Music had finalized its Mainstage series of ten concerts this past May. However, I only recently learned that there will also be four free concerts taking place at 5 p.m. on Friday evenings in the Noe Valley Town Square, which is located at 3861 24th Street. As might be guessed, the title of this series will be Noe Music in the Square! I suspect that these will all be shorter in duration, so as not to interfere with plans for dinner! Also, the programs have probably not yet been entirely finalized. Nevertheless, I feel it is important to let readers know what the dates will be and what little further information is currently available.

Sunday, September 11: The title of the program will be Mozart Divertimento. More specifically, this will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 563 divertimento for string trio in E-flat major. Both co-artistic directors will perform: Owen Dalby on violin and Meena Bhasin on viola. As of this writing, the cellist has not yet been announced.

Sunday, September 18: The second performance will be by a cello quartet with performances that will traverse musical traditions involving Sudan, India, Southern Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Friday, October 2: Yacouba Sissoko will lead a trio playing the kora, a plucked string instrument, usually with 21 strings. He will share music from Mali, along with American folk and jazz sources, with cellist Mike Block. Percussion will be provided by Idrissa Koné. The trio will return the next morning for a Noe Music Kids performance. Sissoko and Block will then give a Mainstage recital on Sunday afternoon.

Le Jazz Hot performing at the Freight & Salvage coffeehouse (from the Noe Music Web page for their coming performance)

Friday, October 23: The title of the final program will be Le Jazz Hot. The performers will be the Hot Club of San Francisco, which specializes in Manouche jazz. In contrast to any of the American genres of jazz, the Manouche style was created in the café and courtyards of Paris roughly a century ago.