Claire Chase Partners with Terry Riley

In 2014 flutist Claire Chase launched a 22-year project to commission a significant body of new music for the flute. She called the project “Density 2036,” because that year would mark the 100th anniversary of “Density 21.5,” a short piece for solo flute composed by Edgard Varèse in 1936. One week from today, Sono Luminus will release a complete recording of the eleventh effort in Chase’s project. The result, entitled The Holy Liftoff, is a suite of 22 movements having a wide diversity of durations, all composed for Chase by Terry Riley.

Riley began his work in 2022, working with “an open score sketchbook brimming with colorful drawings.” Interpretation of the pages of that sketchbook was then managed by Samuel Clay Birmaher, resulting in a hour’s worth of conventional music notation, scored for multiple flutes and string quartet. Chase then worked with the members of the JACK Quartet (violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, John Pickford Richards in viola, and cellist Jay Campbell) and recorded a 60-minute realization of Birmaher’s score.

Album cover of The Holy Liftoff (courtesy of Sono Luminus)

One week from today, that realization will be available for “public listening.” It will be released on a Sono Luminus album also entitled The Holy Liftoff. Curious readers will be happy to know that Amazon.com has already created a Web page for taking pre-orders!

It is also worth noting that, prior to this release, the entire composition has had “history” here in San Francisco. When Chase gave her San Francisco Performances recital in Herbst Theatre this past April 18, she coupled The Holy Liftoff with Riley’s “Pulsing Lifters,” which she performed with pianist Sarah Cahill. That said, the one-hour album serves up diversity in many ways, not only in the music but also in the playful titles of the individual movements. Hopefully, this new album will engage the attention of those that listened to Chase this past April, those familiar with past Riley recordings, and those with an adventurous spirit!

Opera Parallèle Goes “Expansive” Again!

Some readers may recall that, one year ago today, Opera Parallèle (OP) contributed to the fourth annual Expansive showcase. In collaboration with the San Francisco Transgender District, this performance was conceived to showcase transgender and non-binary classical artists. Apparently, this was a successful partnership, because it will continue at the end of this month!

This year’s Expansive poster (courtesy of OP)

The title of this year’s program is Revolution is Just the Beginning!, and the performance will honor the 60th Anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, which, as some will observe while reading this sentence, was an event significant enough to have a hyperlink for its own Wikipedia page! There will be three vocalists: bass-baritone Sapphira Cristál, tenor Katherine Goforth, and mezzo Nina Jones. This year, due to the partnership with OP, its resident pianist, Keisuke Nakagoshi, will provide the accompaniment. Once again the entire program will be hosted by Afrika America.

Also once again, the program will be given only one performance beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 27. The venue will be the A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theater) Strand Theater, which is located at 1127 Market Street. The performance will be jointly presented by Opera Parallèle (OP) and The Transgender District, and tickets are being sold by A.C.T., which has created a Web page for online purchases. Ticket prices for Premium seating are $56. There are also “pay what you can” tickets for either $25 or $15, and $15 will also provide admission for those under the age of 21.

Music for a Solemn Anniversary

This morning Music of Remembrance circulated viewers with the URL for a performance of composer Shinji Eshima’s “August 6th.” That date is when the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, and “August 6th” was composed for the 50th anniversary of one of the darkest memories in history. (Those who saw the film Oppenheimer know that even the most objective of the scientists contributing to the Manhattan Project could not ignore the full extent of devastation wrought when the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.)

Violinist Natasha Bazhanov and Jonathan Green on double bass performing Shinji Eshima’s “August 6th” (screenshot from the YouTube video)

Eshima’s composition covers the extremes of the string section. The instrumentation is a duo scored for violin and double bass. A YouTube video has been created for a performance of this work by violinist Natasha Bazhanov and Jonathan Green on double bass. The video was created in Seattle, Washington, at the llsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall in Benaroya Hall. The entire video is slightly less than five minutes in duration, using a single camera source with Bazhanov on the left and Green on the right.

Eshima’s mother was born in Hiroshima, so it goes without saying that he approached the composition of “August 6th” from a very personal perspective. He even visited the room in which the atomic bomb project was launched when J. Robert Oppenheimer showed his plans to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the notes that he prepared for the YouTube Web page, Eshima wrote that his composition “hints at Haiku in meter, trying, if just briefly, to express the unspeakable.” However, I must confess that the mournfully smooth flow of the two instruments kept me from trying to establish a metric foundation.

I suspect that many of my generation are as familiar with August 6 as they are with December 25; but I have always felt that the former is a date that deserves serious contemplation, rather than any vestige of celebration.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra in Kobe City

Cover design for After the Storm (courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz)

It is almost exactly a month since the last release of a Libra Records album of music created and performed by Satoko Fujii. On that album she served as only a conductor leading the Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra. Her latest album is now available through a SquidCo Web page. The title of the album is After the Storm, and Fujii conducts her own fourteen-piece Orchestra Kobe in a composition that may be described as a post-pandemic reflection.

The advance material I received included the following quotation from Fujii, describing her life after the pandemic:

I was dreaming that the world would finally find complete peace. After the pandemic, there were so many wars and so much conflict that I was so disappointed.

Given the intensity of her many compositions, I was more than a little surprised that she would be so optimistic! On the other hand, in After the Storm she seems to have realized her disappointment through a “no holds barred” approach to creation. I was particularly impressed that her percussion required two drummers, Yoshikazu Isaki and Hiromasa Sadaoka.

The Web page describes the music as “a sweeping progression from stately melody and intimate subgroups to dissonant mass, fiery improvisation and a jubilant final theme.” From a personal point of view, I must confess that I found little by way of either stateliness or intimacy. On the other hand, there was no doubt that all fourteen of the musicians were playing their hearts out; and, as an attentive listener, I had no trouble “going with the flow!”

Many readers probably know that I have been following Fujii’s work for a considerable period of time. Unless I am mistaken, she was one of the first musicians to perform at the Center for New Music after it moved to Taylor Street, just above Market Street in downtown San Francisco. (This made for a relatively easy walk from my condo in the Civic Center.) To be fair, we have never conversed; and I am not even sure how comfortable she is with speaking English! (In spite of my tenure with Fuji Xerox in Silicon Valley, I could never get the hang of Japanese!) I now have a generous collection of Fujii’s albums; and I am looking forward to encountering the next one, which is scheduled for release in about a month’s time!

“You can’t handle the truth!”

A frustrated Anthony Fauci trying to explain logic to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (from an ABC7 Eyewitness News Web page)

The full text of an article from ABC7 Eyewitness News posted about an hour ago is short and bitter:

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.

It comes after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions at a hearing last week about his role in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reading it immediately reminded me of the 1992 movie A Few Good Men. This involved the court-marshal of a Navy colonel performed by Jack Nicholson. A Marine had died as a result of the colonel’s action, but the colonel was convinced that he would be found innocent on the basis of rank. Fortunately, the prosecuting attorney, a mere lieutenant performed by Tom Cruise, persisted in presenting the court with the hard facts. He was successful enough to back the colonel into a corner on the basis of the colonel’s own evidence, which led to Nicholson’s most famous explosive delivery: “You can’t handle the truth!”

Now that Cruise is older and somewhat more “seasoned,” perhaps he will be cast as Fauci struggling to invoke science and logic in order to make a point to Republican senators!

Ensemble for These Times: The “Latin” Album

Soprano Chelsea Hollow, the “new addition” to Ensemble for These Times (photograph by Veronique Kherian, courtesy of Aerocade Music)

Some readers may recall that, this past May, Ensemble for These Times concluded its concert season with a program called El Tiempo Latine. This is also the title of the group’s sixth album, which presents works by nine composers over the course of twelve compositions. Those familiar with the performers know that they consist of a piano trio and a soprano. Nanette McGuinness is the founding soprano, but she seems to have recognized that her voice is not what it used to be. As a result, she only appears on this new release in the performance of José Bragato’s Dos canciones argentinas; and the other vocal selections are sung by Chelsea Hollow.

Margaret Halbig is still the group’s pianist, performing with Lylia Guion on violin and cellist Megan Chartier. The album is available both as a CD and through digital download, and the above hyperlink leads to the currently available alternatives for either purchase or streaming. I have to confess that my own personal preference is for the solo piano performance by Margaret Halbig. Her selection is Tania León’s “Tumbao;” and my bias may be due to the fact that I have been trying to keep up with León’s compositions for several decades. (I think I had one verbal exchange with her, but that was at the very beginning of my exposure to music.)

That said, this is an album that will probably throw the “Latin” genre into an entirely new light for most listeners; and, as P. T. Barnum would have put it, that definitely makes it worth “the price of admission!”

ARTZenter Announces Next World Premieres

Composer Matthew Lam (from his Web page from the University of Rochester, where he is a Teaching Assistant at the Eastman School of Music)

Readers may recall that, this past June, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP), led by Artistic Director & Conductor Eric Dudley, presented a concert of world premiere performances made possible by the Emerging Composer Grant Program presented by the ARTZenter Institute. Yesterday I learned that the next of these concerts will be taking place at the beginning of this coming September. Once again, there will four works on the program with composers and titles as follows:

1. Ella Kaale: flotsam
2. Matthew Lam: Witchcraft II: Sacrificial Ritual
3. James Larkins: One Thousand Self Portraits
4. Xingyue Song: Crosshair Offset

Also once again, there will probably be an intermission between the second and third selections. At the time of the application, all four of these composers were enrolled in degree-granting programs at United States colleges, universities, or conservatories. The grant included a stipend of $3000, along with funds to support travel and accommodations to participate in the ARTZenter residency in San Francisco.

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, September 8. It will take place at the Brava Theatre, which is located in the Mission at 2781 24th Street. The performance will be presented free of admission, and no reservations will be required.

Numbers are Just Numbers!

An abundance of numbers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (from an Al Jazeera Web page, photograph by Jeenah Moon, courtesy of Reuters)

My wife and I have a broker who has helped us manage a portfolio consisting heavily of mutual funds, making for a relatively stable foundation for our assets. Nevertheless, I usually follow the stock market indices for the United States, Europe, and Asia on a daily basis. I set up the graphs for my Stocks app to account for a week’s worth of data, which I have found to be the right window for observing how those indices rise and fall.

I turned to those graphs this morning after reading the Al Jazeera article with the headline:

US stocks near record high, oil falls as Trump claims Iran talks under way

followed by the sub-headline:

Benchmark S&P 500 approaches all-time peak as Washington, Tehran offer conflicting accounts of status of talks.

Because the site is Al Jazeera, the article was filed eleven hours ago, meaning that it was written after yesterday’s markets closed and before today’s opened. Standard & Poor was definitely off to a good start this morning, which one might almost call a surge. However, it appears that Al Jazeera did not take the trouble to compare those numbers with the Nasdaq index, which took a similar surge, but in the opposite direction! Europe is currently mixed with the most positive advance coming from the German DAX index. Indices for the United Kingdom (Financial Times) and France were both volatile, both closing lower than when they opened. Asia seems to be less volatile, although I wonder how Singapore feels about the current decline in the Straits Times Index!

The only lesson I can take away from this morning’s experience is that, whatever my sources for news may be, I can rely on my yahoo/finance app to “compare and contrast” the indices over a one-week window; and, for now at least, I feel as if things are about as stable as I can expect in the current context of world news reports!

Bellini Opera: All Ridiculous … No Sublime

Soprano Lisette Oropesa doing her best to take I puritani seriously (from the Metropolitan Opera Web page for this performance)

This afternoon I caught up on my recordings of Great Performances at the Met broadcasts to watch Vincenzo Bellini’s I puritani. If the production I saw was faithful to the libretto, then I think I have now encountered the most ridiculous opera narrative ever! I found myself thinking about all the jokes Anna Russell could pack into her account of the four operas by Richard Wagner that constitute The Ring of the Nibelungs. However, that was a matter of clever wit that was amazingly faithful to the narrative.

I puritani, however, was conceived to be dead serious. The narrative revolves around the English Civil War from the middle of the seventeenth century. The title of the opera, of course, refers to the Puritans, who had declared war against the Royalists. However, the effort to weave romance into this story resulted in a libretto that could never rise to any of the assets of Bellini’s capacity as a composer. As a result, there is not much of a through-line in the narrative, meaning that the opera-goer can do little more than enjoy the vocal dexterity (which is definitely very demanding) and forget about all the muddled comings and goings by the cast on stage.

As the narrative slogged its way to conclusion, I found myself wondering if handing out purple hearts to the performers would be more productive than a round of applause.

The Bleeding Edge: 8/3/2026

August will get off to a relatively quiet start on the Bleeding Edge. Most important, however, is that Audium will be hosting a series of performances by Hidden Currents, which will take place cover the course of the entire month on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Only two other venues will be involved this week, both of which are “usual suspects.” Specifics are as follows:

The poster for Hidden Currents, which is the primary source of information about the event (from its BayImproviser Web page)

Thursday, August 6, Friday, August 7, and Saturday, August 8, 8 p.m., Audium: Golden Lionheart Collier seems to be determined to keep its audience as uninformed as possible prior to the performance! The title of the program is Hidden Currents with “Sounding the invisible kinship circuits of the diaspora” as a subtitle. The audience will sit in the center of the space in total darkness surrounded by 176 loudspeakers. The group promises this to be “one unforgettable experience;” but I shall let adventurous readers decide for themselves! For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 1616 Bush Street. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available at the door for each show, on a first come, first served basis; but the preferred cost is between $20 and $30. The door will open at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, August 6, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: This is another familiar venue, but the usual four-set evening will be somewhat less cryptic! Leaking is a trio with Brian Pedersen on baritone saxophone and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. The third member is Jay Korber, who claims he will be playing “the rusty gates of hell!” Sharkiface and Ava Koohbor will join forces as (ff): (the colon is part of the title). Their performance will involve electronics, noise, and spoken word to “enact resistance, reject fascism and level aim to demolish patriarchy.” Kersti Abrams will lead the Evidence Trio performing on alto saxophone and flute, as well as the more exotic mbira. As in the past, she will be joined by Andrew Joron on theremin along with bass guitarist Eli Pontecorvo. Finally, 5k candle will be a solo performance by Chris Farstad combining video with acoustic synthesis. This is another familiar venue, located at 552 Haight Street.

Friday, August 7, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound performance to be curated by “Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce” will be a trio that calls itself Funkonya in the Portal. The members are Kirk Peterson on bass, drummer Sean Alford, and a guitarist known only as Vern. As many (most?) readers probably know by now, the venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Merola Takes on “Autobiographical” Strauss

Readers may recall that, by the time I announced the Merola Summer Festival production of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, tickets for the first performance were already sold out. Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I ventured down to the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to see the second (and last) performance. The bad news is that this venue was not designed for performances of fully-staged operas, particularly one in which the staging of the first part is radically different from that of the second. Nevertheless, the generous cast of vocalists delivered their roles with enviable clarity. Things were a bit more difficult for the orchestra; but what mattered was the balance between vocalists and instrumentalists, which, for the most part, could not have been clearer.

Those familiar with this work know that it is basically an opera about opera. The first part is all about what is taking place before the curtain rises. After the intermission, the “opera itself” begins. Taken as a whole,  Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, developed a narrative about how the background leads to the foreground. Much of that “background” involves the conflicting diversity of the egos of the individual characters (with Strauss casting himself as the young ambitious composer). In a way, it reminds me of the Betsy Ross character in the Stan Freberg album about the American Revolution, who sings “Everybody wants to be an art director!”

Emilie Kealani as Zerbinetta (lower left) with her fellow clowns Truffaldino (John Mburu), Scaramuccio (Logan Wagner), and Brighella (Cole McIlquham) (photograph by Kristen Loken)

The good news is that all of the participating Merolini found their own personalities for their respective egos. Presumably, this was due to the perceptive direction by Omer Ben Seadia, herself a Merola alumnus for 2014. She managed the overall flow of the narrative in such a way that there was never a dull moment. Just as important, however, was Strauss’ tendency to challenge every level of vocalist with no end of hoops that need to be traversed. Soprano Emilie Kealani, in the role of Zerbinetta, needed to deal with the lion’s share of those hoops, diving smoothly through all of them, often to the disturbance of the title character (soprano Aida Evans), a regal character with no interest in commoners!

Personally, I find this to be an opera about the rich diversity in the human condition. To invoke an old cliché, the personalities in this opera run the entire gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime. Ultimately, Strauss and Hofmannsthal came to an agreement on how the sublime would ultimately triumph over the ridiculous. Nevertheless, the fact that the last word comes from the commedia dell’arte Zerbinetta, the ridiculous still provides the punctuation!

Ron Vincent to Return to Chez Hanny as Leader

Ron Vincent with some of his percussion gear

This month will see the return of drummer Ron Vincent to Chez Hanny. His last appearance was this past January, when he provided rhythm for a quartet led by saxophonist Tim Armacost. This time Vincent will be leading his own quartet with tenor saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu on the front line. The other rhythm performers will be guitarist Brad Buethe and Essiet Okon Essiet on bass.

As always, Chez Hanny is located at 1300 Silver Avenue; and the performance takes place in the downstairs rumpus room. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 16. Admission will be $25, payable by check or cash. Because Jazz Chez Hanny is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-deductible donations will also be accepted.

Also as always, there will be two sets separated by a potluck break. As a result, all who plan to attend should bring food and/or drink to share. Seating is first come, first served, meaning that reservations are strongly recommended. They may be placed through an electronic mail address: jazz@chezhanny.com. Mail messages received after noon on the day of a performance are unlikely to be seen until after the show is over, and cancellations should be given at least 24 hours advance notice. Finally, volunteer efforts for cleaning up after the show and moving furniture to accommodate both players and listeners are always appreciated.

Seriously?

I suspect that, by now, there are at least some readers that know that my first “real” job after I received my doctoral degree involved teaching computer science in Haifa at the Technion, also known as the “Israel Institute of Technology.” (Since I received my doctoral credentials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the transition seemed like an easy one.) In those days, Israel’s relations with the United States were much better than those of any of the countries on its borders. The only “viable” border was the Mediterranean Sea to the west, which involved a significant amount of shipping at several ports (not to mention a few recreational beaches).

More recently, however, Israel finds itself to be a “focal point” in the Middle East as a whole. This is probably due in no small part to the “special relationship” between Israel and the United States. That said, over the last decades our country has established good relations with other Middle East countries. Unfortunately, those relations have been put under a strain, which can be attributed primarily to our government’s Executive Branch.

The current focus of that strain is the strait of Hormuz, which has recently been the source of a major impact on the price of crude oil. The good news is that President Donald Trump has decided to convene with his entire cabinet. To keep the meeting well-focused, the plan was to meet at Camp David, which is outside the District of Columbia but nearby in Maryland. Sadly, my interpretation of “well-focused” was put under more than a little strain when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt chose to describe the occasion as “a lot of fun and something different for the cabinet to experience together.”

Donald Trump on his way to Camp David (photograph by Manuel Balce, courtesy of Centa and the Associated Press, from an article on the Web site for The Guardian)

Judging from the look on our President’s face as he prepares to leave for Camp David, I would guess that “fun” is the last thing on his mind!

An Odd Way to Celebrate a Significant Birthday

Cover design for Music for 18 Musicians (from the Amazon.com Web page for the reissued release of the CD)

This morning’s electronic mail included an item that I found to be as much eccentric as nostalgic. The “headline” was as follows:

In Honor of Steve Reich's 90th Birthday, ECM Releases Recordings on ECM, a 3-LP Box Set Including Reich's Albums That Were Released on the Label Between 1978-1982:

1. Music for 18 Musicians
2. Octet / Music for a Large Ensemble / Violin Phase
3. Tehillim

I find this to be eccentric because I am old enough to remember when the earliest CDs were released, providing listeners with uninterrupted longer durations. For those that do not know, the story goes that the CD was designed to provide an account of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 125 ninth (choral) symphony without the physical interruption of chasing one side of an LP album to another. “Music for 18 Musicians” was even better suited for CD than was the Beethoven symphony, since the entire duration, about 56 and a half minutes, is performed without any interruption.

It goes without saying that this album was one of my earliest CD purchases. I still have it; and, while I do not visit it frequently, every listening experience is as refreshing as ever. It is also worth noting that, in addition to duration, the CD has the benefit of no physical contact. Thus, while vinyl records are subjected to some level of wear-and-tear from the phonograph needle, a CD only has to contend with a laser beam that avoids such contact. In other words, every time I listen to my CD of “Music for 18 Musicians,” it sounds as fresh as it did when I made my purchase.

Presumably, ECM announced this new release because there is a trend of going back to LPs. I suppose that trend was motivated by the fact that it is limited in the number of listeners, as if that limitation makes the release more “special” than an “ordinary CD.” To be fair, the only “special” aspect is that the LP is analog, while the CD is digital. This reminds me that the affordances of analog computing are far more limited than those in the digital domain!

Perhaps the appeal of the LP involves the nostalgia for earlier times. In that context, it might be useful to remember what things were like when a trip from New York to Los Angeles would involve rail travel (possibly with several changes of trains), rather than a non-stop flight! Personally, I am no great fan of “good old days;” and it is hard for me to remember if I was ever inclined to resist a new technology!

SFEMF Announces Plans for 25th Season

Poster design for the coming SFEMF

Once again, the 25th Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival will involve a change in venue, as well as performances taking place a little over a month earlier. As was the case last year, there will be three concerts; and this year they will all take place at The Lab, a venue that will probably be familiar to most readers. All performances will begin at 8 p.m. on three consecutive dates with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. The performers on each of those dates will be as follows:

1. Thursday, September 24: Rrose, IDHAZ & Emily Bouton, Blevin Blectum
2. Friday, September 25: Paul DeMarinis, The Gleaners (Laetitia Sonami and Matt Robidoux), Albert Yeh, Stefano Pilia
3. Saturday, September 26: Moor Mother, Seth Cluett, Thomas Carnacki (Gregory Scharpen, Cheryl Leonard, and Gregory Hagan)

The price of the pass for the entire festival will be $60. Single tickets will be sold for $23. A processing fee will be added. Single tickets may be purchased online through the hyperlinks on the above dates. The venue is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street.

SFCO: 2026–2027 MainStage Season

It has been almost exactly one year since the programs for the MainStage Concerts of the 2025–26 season of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (SFCO) were announced. Plans for the coming season showed up in my Inbox yesterday evening at 7 PM. Once again, there will be four programs; and it appears that content has already been finalized. All performances will begin at 7:30 p.m., taking place at three different venues. Tickets may be reserved through the individual Web pages for the concerts using the attached hyperlinks below. Specifics are as follows:

Friday, October 16, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Beethoven’s Eroica, A Hero’s Journey: As the title suggests, the second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 62 (third) symphony in E-flat major. Beethoven was originally inspired by Napoleon until he realized the threat of tyranny, providing a title that would reflect the composer’s own defiant and life-affirming spirit. This will be complemented at the beginning of the program with the performance of Beethoven’s Opus 62 (“Coriolan”) overture, inspired by a five-act play of the same title by Heinrich Joseph von Collin about a Roman general known for defeating the invading Volscians. The first half of the program will conclude with Grace Williams’ “Sea Sketches,” inspired by the Welsh coastline. The performance will take place in the Conservatory building at 50 Oak Street.

Wednesday, December 30, Herbst Theatre, Rising Stars: This program will see the debut of fourteen-year-old pianist Isabel Feng, who will be the soloist in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 25, his first piano concerto, composed in the key of G minor. The “overture” for the program will be “D’un matin de printemps,” a musical portrait of a spring morning composed by Lili Boulanger. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s last symphony, K. 551 (“Jupiter”) in C major. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street.

Friday, February 26, Taube Atrium Theatre, Emerging Voices: The “voices” are the current members of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows.The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to opera arias, whose selections have not yet been finalized. The program will begin with the seventh (D minor) of the thirteen string symphonies composed by Felix Mendelssohn between the ages of twelve and fourteen. This will be followed by one of the more familiar compositions by Caroline Shaw, “Entr’acte.” The venue is located in the same building as Herbst but on the top floor.

Starla Breshears, concerto soloist for the final MainStage Concert of the season (from the Web page for this performance)

Friday, May 7, Taube Atrium Theatre, Sounds of the City: The title refers to a new multi-media commissioned work by Xavier Muzik entitled “i like my coffee, black,” which was inspired by a series of recent photographs of San Francisco. (I am not sure about the significance of the comma!) This will be preceded by two excerpts from Richard Strauss’ opera Ariadne auf Naxos, the overture and the dance scene. The second half of the program will see the winner of the Irving Klein International Competition, cellist Starla Breshears, who is now the youngest member in the San Francisco Symphony. She will be the soloist in a performance of Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken VIIb/1 cello concerto (his first).

Take Opera Productions on Their Own Terms!

Dashon Burton as Araspe standing over the sleeping Seleuce (Lauren Snouffer) while her husband Tolomeo (Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen) looks on (photograph by Kristen Loken, from the SF Classical Voice article about the Philharmonia Baroque performance of Handel’s opera Tolomeo)

This morning I read Michael Zwiebach’s account for SF Classical Voice of the production of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 25 opera Tolomeo, re d’Egitto performed by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale. (I had written my own account this past Friday.) The title he chose was: “Can a Smaller Bay Area Orchestra Outshine SF Opera? This Tolomeo Says Yes.” Personally, I do my best to avoid using one production as a cudgel to beat another. However, it left me wondering just how much Zwiebach knew about productions of Handel by the San Francisco Opera (SFO).

To be fair, it has been a while since SFO last staged a Handel opera; but that “while” is shorter than Zwiebach might have realized. It was only a little over two years ago that the company revived its production of Partenope (Handel’s HWV 27), given a staging by Christopher Alden that can only be described as “slapstick.” Since that revival was as engaging as the first time around, I would challenge anyone to claim that it could be “outshined!”

Reading Zwiebach’s article reminded me that it is important to take every performance on its own terms, rather than deciding on whether or not it rates “top ten” ranking. To be fair, when I encounter a revival, I usually try to provide some sort of then-and-now account; but I also do my best to present the “now” on its own terms. Productions should not be “ranked” as if they were contestants in a beauty pageant. This definitely applies to ensembles performing full-length operas!

Communism?

Donald Trump reacting to a protestor (from the Al Jazeera Web page for the event)

Last night President Donald Trump delivered a speech at an auto event in Michigan. A protester decided to try interrupting him, and Trump’s response was to call him a “communist.” The Al Jazeera account of this event cited the speech as a “criticism of what he described as the threat of communism facing the country.”

I take this as a sign that Trump is still living in the last century. He might benefit from one of his aides consulting Wikipedia (since he probably would not do it himself). As might be expected, “Communism” has its own Web page; and it is definitely up-to-date! Here are the sentences that put Trump’s reaction into question:

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many governments abolished Communist rule. Only a few nominally Communist governments remain, such as China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Except for North Korea, these have allowed more economic competition while maintaining one-party rule. Communism's decline has been attributed to economic inefficiency and to authoritarianism and bureaucracy within Communist governments.

If Trump can show any evidence that communism is still a threat, I would be happy to examine and comment on it!

The Bleeding Edge: 7/27/2026

David Boyce with his soprano saxophone (from this week’s BayImproviser Web page)

After the abundance of Bleeding Edge events that took place last week, this week the pendulum will swing back to the other extreme. I cannot remember the last time (if any) that only a single event was announced; but that will be the case. As might be expected, that lone event will be the weekly Other Dimensions in Sound offering, curated and hosted by Boohaabian reed player David Boyce. Once again, Boyce will deploy his diversity of winds, this time in a duo with guitarist Scott Foster. As usual, the venue will be the Medicine for Nightmares bookstore, located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street; and the performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 31. Also “as usual,” there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.

Priorities?

Apparently, posting an online article about today’s marathon was more important to the San Francisco Chronicle than delivering the Sunday edition, which, as of 9 AM this morning, has yet to find its way to our doorstep!