SFS Great Performers: 2026–2027

Having used this past weekend to prepare readers for San Francisco Symphony (SFS) performances of both its Chamber Music Series and the “special solo piano recital” by pianist Lang Lang, this seems to be a good time to prepare listeners for other events in Davies Symphony Hall that do not involve SFS. The Great Performers Series will present ten programs, most of which will be solo recitals. However, the season will begin with a piano trio followed by an orchestral performance.

All performances will take place in Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets will be available for purchase through the hyperlinks for the dates; as usual, tickets may also be acquired at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. Specifics are as follows:

Thursday, October 15, 7:30 p.m.: The series will begin with a piano trio, each of whose members is also a major solo recitalist. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will share the program with Lisa Batiashvili on violin and cellist Gautier Capuçon. The program will begin with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 8, his first piano trio, composed in the key of C minor and originally given the title “Poème.” This will be followed by Claude Debussy’s only piano trio. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 65, his third piano trio, in F minor.

Sunday, October 25, 2 p.m.: Rafael Payare will conduct the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal following his visit as a guest conductor for SFS in May of 2023. The first half of the program will be devoted entirely to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s only violin concerto, his Opus 35 composed in the key of D major. The second half of the program will shift to the key of E minor for Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 93, his tenth symphony.

Tuesday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.: The first solo piano recital in the Series will be performed by Hélène Grimaud. She has prepared a program of two “last” piano sonatas, each of which is a major undertaking unto itself. The first half will be devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 111, composed in the key of C minor. The intermission will be followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 960, composed in the key of B-flat major. It is worth noting that Grimaud prepared a title for her program, which could not have been more informative: The Last Testament!

Monday, November 30, 7:30 p.m.: Violinist Hilary Hahn will be joined at the piano by Yekwon Sunwoo. They, in turn, will be joined by baritone Matthias Goerne for the world premiere of Wir, composed by Reena Esmail on a commission by SFS. The text weaves together German poems by Paul Celan with “interstitial verse by Rebecca Gayle Howell.” The program will begin with Sunwoo accompanying Hahn in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 24 (fifth) sonata in F major, often known as the “Spring” sonata.

Sunday, January 10, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Emanuel Ax will devote the second half of his program entirely to Frédéric Chopin. He will reflect on a diversity of genres, beginning with the Opus 61 Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat major followed by the Opus 60 Barcarolle in F-sharp major. Ax will then “turn back the clock” for the two nocturnes in Opus 27 and the Opus 31 scherzo, the second piece in this genre, composed in the key of B-flat minor. The first half of the program will also have a “reverse chronology,” beginning with Robert Schumann’s very early (Opus 2) Papillons suite, followed by the four impromptus collected in Franz Schubert’s D. 899, composed towards the end of the year prior to his death.

Tuesday, January 19, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this event is An Evening with Itzhak Perlman. It was conceived by director Dan Sullivan as a multimedia program. Violinist Perlman will be accompanied at the piano by Rohan De Silva. However, under Sullivan’s direction, he will interweave storytelling with personal photographs, along with clips from the documentary film entitled Itzhak.

Monday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.: Each half of pianist Seong-Jin Cho’s solo recital will conclude with music by Sergei Prokofiev. The intermission will be preceded by a selection of ten of the movements in the score for the Romeo and Juliet ballet; and the program will conclude with Prokofiev’s Opus 84, his eighth piano sonata composed in the key of B-flat major. This will make for a more-than-generous abundance of notes, so the program will begin with Jörg Widmann’s “Sonatine facile.” The second half of the program will open with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 396, his second “Fantasia,” a fragment composed in the key of C minor and completed by Maximilian Stadler.

Sunday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the first of two consecutive evenings of solo piano recitals. The soloist will be Yuja Wang, who has been visiting Davies almost as long as I have! As of this writing, she has not yet finalized her program.

Monday, April 19, 7:30 p.m.: The pianist for the second evening will be Evgeny Kissin. He has prepared an all-Beethoven program. The second half will be devoted entirely to one of the later compositions, the Opus 120 set of variations, usually known as the “Diabelli Variations.” The first half will begin “almost at the beginning” with the first of the three Opus 2 piano sonatas, composed in the key of F major. This will be followed by the first of the two Opus 27 sonatas, given the title “Quasi una fantasia” and composed in the key of E-flat major.

Alisa Weilerstein with her cello (from the Web page for this season’s Davies performance)

Sunday, May 16, 7:30 p.m.: Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will perform a duo recital with Inon Barnatan at the piano keyboard. Each half of the program will conclude with a sonata for cello, which is the only one written by its respective composer. The first of these will be Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 65 in G minor; and the evening (and series) will conclude with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 19 (which also happens to be in G minor). The program will begin with Suite populaire Espagnole, an arrangement of six of the songs from Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas (seven Spanish folksongs), which Falla arranged with the assistance of Paul Kochanski. Maurice Maréchal subsequently adapted this arrangement as a duo for cello and piano. The second half of the program will begin with selections from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 34, as set of short pieces given the title 24 Preludes. Those selections were arranged for cello and piano by Lera Auerbach.

“Stars and Stripes” When it is Needed Most!

San Francisco Ballet dancers performing “Stars and Stripes” (photograph by Lindsay Thomas, courtesy of the Balanchine Trust, from the SF Classical Voice review of last February’s performance written by Steven Winn)

Some readers may recall this past February, when I wrote about Balanchine: Father of American Ballet when it was performed by the San Francisco Ballet in the War Memorial Opera House. That program concluded with George Balanchine’s best known “Americana” ballet, “Stars and Stripes,” set to music by John Philip Sousa, orchestrated by Hershy Kay. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate Independence Day than with choreography created by a man often recognized as the father of American ballet. This was Balanchine’s way of thanking the government for granting his citizenship. Mind you, I am sure there are good reasons why the War Memorial Opera House would not be able to support this timely undertaking, so I may just have to resort to recordings of Sousa’s music to tweak my memory of the many past performances I have enjoyed, not only here in San Francisco, but also in New York City and Boston!

SFP Plans for 2026–2027 Season

Last year plans for the San Francisco Performances (SFP) 2025–2026 season were announced at the beginning of April. The timing was the same for the coming 47th season, but things have been busier than usual on the “Bleeding Edge.” Nevertheless, as in the past, this site will, prior to the beginning of the season, give a series-by-series account of the programs that have been planned.

This year’s Gala will be on October 2 and will be held in conjunction with the first Great Artists & Ensembles recital of the season, which will be performed by violinist Geneva Lewis, accompanied at the piano by Joshua Mhoon. The season will again conclude at the beginning of May with a recital by pianist Fazil Say, who will juxtapose his own compositions with two of Ludwig van Beethoven’s best-known piano sonatas, Opus 13 (“Pathétique”) and Opus 57 (“Appassionata”).

The new season will also mark the beginning of a new series with the first performance in the Beethoven Anniversary Series. Over the course of two seasons, the Esmé Quartet, the SFP Artists-in-Residence, will perform all of the string quartets composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. The first half of the survey will consist of three performance, all at 7:30 p.m., on March 26, April 23, and May 6 of next year. Dimitri Murrath has replaced violist Jiwon Kim. The other three members are still the same: Wonhee Bae (first violin), Yuna Ha (second violin), and Yeeun Heo (cello). The PIVOT Festival will again return at the end of January with performances on January 27, 28 and 29. As usual, the other series will be familiar to SFP audiences:

• Great Artists & Ensembles
• Chamber
• Art of Song
• Guitar
• The Shenson Piano Series

The members of the Paul Taylor Dance Company (from the SFP event page)

Finally, following the conclusion of the season, SFP will join forces with the Presidio Theatre to present four performances by the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The program will include Taylors “Junction,” “3 Epitaphs,” and “Esplanade,” as well as “Tensile Involvement,” created by Alwin Nikolais. Further information about the program, including other works, will be announced in the fall. There will be three performances at 7:30 p.m. on May 20, 21, and 22, as well as a Saturday Family Matinee performance at 2 p.m. on May 22. All ticketing will be handled by the Presidio Theatre. All of the other SFP performances will take place in Herbst Theatre, located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street.

836M to Launch Young Artists Program

Hopefully, some readers will recall that this month will conclude with three performances of The Glance, a two-hour “laptopera” composed by Anne Hege during her four-month residency at the 836M Gallery, which is located at 836 Montgomery Street. The latest news from 836M was announced a little over a week ago involving the inauguration of its Young Artists Program. “Young” refers to those between the ages of eighteen and 25 that are interested in performance and/or visual arts, possibly with the intention of establishing a career. The program will begin by providing three platforms to introduce those artists to the general public.

One of them, fashion designer Ashlyn So, will use the space for an Open Studio between June 17 and July 1. The others will produce world premiere events. Each of these will be given two performances, all beginning at 7 p.m., the first in mid-June and the second at the end of July. Specifics for these productions are as follows:

Sophia West (from the 836M Web page for Young Artists Program: Summer 2026)

June 12 and 13: Choreographer Sophia West will partner with four dancers for a performance of two works. The second of these will be a world premiere entitled “Life Goes On.” She created the work in collaboration with Polina Bortok, Catherine Daguman, Julia Lafuente, and Erin Ritchie. This will be preceded by an adaptation of a recent work given its debut at City College of San Francisco.

July 24 and 25: PARTY is a full-length opera currently being developed by Artis, a collective of four of the students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Ezekiel Sokoloff is a violinist, and both Peyton Dexter and Brayden Meng are composers. The remaining member of the group, Thomas Stenzel, was enrolled in the Technology and Applied Composition program. The narrative of the libretto explores what happens when dysfunctional psychology, such as mental illness, substance abuse, and identity crises, begins to “invade” intelligent technology.

There will be no charge for admission to both of these events. However, an advance RSVP will secure admission. These may be secured from separate hyperlinks for the performances in June and July.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: the 3rd Visit

The members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain making it clear that they take their music seriously (photograph by Stefan Mager, courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances concluded its 2025–26 season with a third appearance of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. George Hinchcliffe continues to manage as Musical Director; but, as in the past, he did not make an appearance. The stage was occupied, as it was at the last visit in April of 2024, by seven performers playing a diversity of instruments. The Concert Ukulele was played by Guy Hargreaves and Leisa Rea, the latter doubling on sopranino ukulele. Peter Brooke Turner played soprano ukulele. Ben Rouse and Laura Currie both played tenor ukulele with the lower register shared by Ben Hales on baritone ukulele and Laurie Higgins on bass ukulele.

As usual, the program was a diverse one. Television was honored with theme music from both Bonanza and The Muppet Show (one for each side of the pond). The concert genre was shared by the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and the can-can music from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The more popular side saw a quodlibet of “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Love Story,” and “Killing Me Softly.” These were the most familiar selections from the broader diversity of the entire evening.

Taken as a whole, the content was as rich as ever; but the musicians kept things going at their usual breakneck clip. Personally, I enjoy an evening in which the performance technique is as diverse as the selections being performed. Indeed, the diversity of this one single program served as a perfect reflection on the overall diversity of this season’s offerings. I look forward to many return visits by this ensemble in the future.

Angel Island Oratorio to be Staged with Ballet

Some readers may recall that, in the fall of 2021, the China New Music Festival has hosted by Bard Music West. Performances included the world premiere of Angel Island - Oratorio for Voices and Strings, composed by Huang Ruo. The strings for the performance were the members of the Del Sol string quartet: violinists Sam Weiser and Benjamin Kreith, violist Charlton Lee, and cellist Kathryn Bates. The voices were the members of the Volti a cappella vocal ensemble. The libretto was based on poems inscribed on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station by those interned there during the years of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Poster design for next month’s Oakland Ballet performance (from the event’s City Box Office Web page)

The beginning of this month will see a second presentation of the oratorio. This time the musicians and vocalists will be joined by Oakland Ballet as part of its Dancing Moons Festival. Choreography will be provided by Natasha Adorlee, Phil Chan, Lawrence Chen, Ye Feng, Elaine Kudo, Ashley Thopiah, and Wei Wang, all of whom are Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

Angel Island will be given two performances on Friday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 9, at 2:30 p.m. The venue will be Herbst Theatre in the Civic Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue, across the street from City Hall. The performance will last about 90 minutes. Tickets may be purchased online through the hyperlinks for the respective dates. General admission will be between $56 and $158, with a 15% discount for those 65 and older or less than eighteen.

SFS Programs for May, 2026

Next month will be both busy and diverse for the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Once again, performances will extend beyond Davies Symphony Hall, with particular attention to branches of the San Francisco Public Library. As usual, all of the dates and times will have hyperlinks to facilitate ticket purchases; and they may also be acquired at the Box Office, which is at the entrance to Davies on the south side of Grove Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street.

Sunday, May 3, 2 p.m.: The next chamber music performance in Davies will be diverse not only in its performers but also in instrumentation. This will include Yuhsin Galaxy Su, Matthew Griffith, and Jerome Simas playing basset horns. The instrument is somewhat similar to an alto clarinet but with a lower register. The program will begin with an arrangement by the Apollo Chamber Players of two of the movements from Harry Burleigh’s Six Plantation Melodies Old and New: “Negro Lullaby” and “An Ante-Bellum Sermon.” This will be followed by Carl Nielsen’s “Serenata in vano,” a quintet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello, and double bass. This will be complemented by a string trio composed by one of Nielsen’s contemporaries, Jean Françaix. The remainder of the program will be devoted to two more familiar composers from two different centuries. The three basset horns will play movements from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 439b, the last in a set of five divertimentos in B-flat major. The program will then conclude with Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 39, a quintet in G minor for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass.

Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 10: The first visiting conductor of the month will be Dima Slobodeniouk. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 36, his fourth symphony in F minor, often known for its “Fate” motif. The first half of the program will be shared by two twentieth-century French composers. The opening selection will be “Métaboles,” composed by Henri Dutilleux, followed by Jacques Ibert’s only flute concerto.

Saturday, May 9, 2 p.m.: The first free Community Chamber Concert will take place at the Library’s Portola Branch at 380 Bacon Street and will last one hour.

Thursday, May 14, 5:30 p.m.: The second Community Chamber Concert will be performed by violinist Anne Richardson and Dan Smith on bass. The venue will be the Marina Library Branch at 1890 Chestnut Street. This will also last one hour.

Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 17, 2 p.m.: Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt will return to the Davies podium. The entire program will be devoted to Gustav Mahler’s ninth symphony, the last symphony that he completed. As its Wikipedia page observes, a “typical performance” lasts between 75 and 90 minutes. In the past, I have experienced an extended pause following the extended duration of the first movement.

Sunday, May 17, 7:30 p.m.: The SFS Youth Orchestra will conclude its season with two significantly contrasting symphonies. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Opus 47, his fifth symphony in D minor, composed in 1937. This tends to receive the most attention among the fifteen symphonies he composed between 1923 and 1971. By way of contrast, the first half of the program will conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 21, his first symphony, composed in the key of C major. The “overture” for this program will be Dylan Hall’s “Scherzo for Orchestra.”

Friday, May 22, and Saturday, May 23, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 24, 2 p.m.: Cristian Măcelaru has made regular appearance on the Davies podium, the most recent having been in April of 2023. His concerto soloist will be Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski, performing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s first piano concerto, the Opus 1 in F-sharp minor. The second half of the program will be devoted entirely to Antonín Dvořák’s ninth (and last) symphony, composed in the key of E minor during his tenure as the Director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. The program will begin with the world premiere performance of “Embers,” composed by Tyler Taylor on an SFS commission.

Friday, May 29, and Saturday, May 30, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this program is Ravel & Music of the Americas, and it will conclude with Maurice Ravel’s “Rapsodie espagnole.” Ravel’s rhapsody will be complemented by its predecessor, the “Danzas fantásticas” by Spanish composer Joaquín Turina. The American side of the program will begin with dances from Alberto Ginastera’s Opus 8, his score for the ballet “Estancia,” commissioned for the American Ballet Caravan by Lincoln Kirstein. This will be followed by the United States premiere of “Shift,” composed by Peruvian composer Jimmy López on an SFS commission.

Sunday, May 30, 2 p.m.: The third Community Chamber Concert will be performed by violinist Jeein Kim and Davis You on cello. The venue will be the Anza Library Branch at 550 37th Avenue. Like the other library events, this will last one hour.

Sunday, May 31, 2 p.m.: This will be the next chamber music performance to take place in the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor. The performers will be the trio of violinist Alexander Barantschik, Peter Wyrick on cello, and pianist Anton Nel. The program will be framed by two major works in the piano trio repertoire. It will begin with Mozart’s K. 542 trio in E major and conclude with Robert Schumann’s Opus 63, his first piano trio, composed in the key of D minor. Between these two selections, Wyrick and Nel will perform Johannes Brahms’ Opus 38, his first cello sonata, composed in the key of E minor.

Members of the SFS Chorus (from the Web page for their performance at the end of next month)

Sunday, May 31, 2 p.m.: At exactly the same time, Davies will see a performance by the SFS Chorus led by Jenny Wong. Accompaniment will be provided by both John Wilson on piano and organist Jonathan Dimmock. The program will begin with the first of the four quartets in Brahms’ Opus 92, “O schöne Nacht!” This will be followed by Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 11, “Cantique de Jean Racine.” There will also be an arrangement of three traditional American songs by Shawn Kirchner. The other composers contributing to the program will be James Macmillan (“O Radiant Dawn”), Lili Boulanger (“Hymne au soleil”), Ola Gjeilo (“Across the Vast, Eternal Sky”), and Morten Lauridsen (“Lux Aeterna”).

April to Conclude with Another Busy Weekend

April is turning out to be such a busy month that it was necessary to provide separate articles for Saturday and Sunday of next weekend. On the following weekend the month will conclude with busy days on Friday and Saturday. One of the events was already reported at the beginning of this month: the performance of The Days Pass Quickly Immersed int he Shadow of Eternity, composed by Lea Bertucci for sampled and live early flutes in 8-channel sound. As usual, there will involve a diversity of other performances at a diversity of venues. As of this writing, specifics are as follows:

Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, 7:30 p.m., St. Ignatius Church: The San Francisco Choral Society, led by Artistic Director Robert Geary, is preparing for a new work by the Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Shchetynsky entitled Signs of Grace. The performance will be preceded by more familiar sacred music from Eastern Europe, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 37, the “All-Night Vigil,” setting fifteen texts from the Russian Orthodox ceremony. Tickets are being sold by City Box Office at prices from $40 to $65 with discounts for seniors, students, and those under the age of 30. Tickets may be purchased online, and City Box Office has created separate Web pages for Friday and Saturday. In addition, the Saturday performance will be livestreamed with digital tickets sold for $40. The church is located on the campus of the University of San Francisco at 650 Parker Avenue, on the northeast corner of Fulton Street.

Friday, April 24, 7:30 p.m., Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco Conservatory of Music: The next Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts program is entitled A to Z Guitar Duo. That title refers to two of the most commanding guitarists currently in Europe, Aniello Desiderio and Zoran Dukić. Program details have not yet been announced. General admission will be $70. Tickets may be purchased through a Humanitix Web page. The Concert Hall is located in the Conservatory building at 50 Oak Street.

Friday, April 24, Saturday, April 25, Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, 8 p.m., Saturday, April 25, Sunday, April 26, Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, 2 p.m., and Tuesday, April 28, Wednesday, April 29, and Thursday, April 30, 7:30 p.m., War Memorial Opera House: Mere Mortals is a full-evening ballet created by choreographer Aszure Barton. The narrative amounts to a technology perspective on the Pandora myth. This will be the return of a ballet originally commissioned for the inaugural season of Artistic Director Tamar Rojo. A single Web page has been created for ticket purchases. As many (most?) readers know, this venue is located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street.

1971 photograph of Astor Piazzolla with his bandoneon (from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, copyright by Pupeto Mastropasqua)

Saturday, April 25, 2 p.m., Presidio Theatre: The New Century Chamber Orchestra will conclude its season with a program entitled Radiance in Rhythm. The guest soloist will be guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, who will be the soloist in the final selection, the “Concierto de Aranjuez” composed by Joaquín Rodrigo. Sáinz-Villegas will also perform Michael Daugherty’s “Bay of Pigs,” a reflection on a darker period in the past history of our country. There will also be a world premiere performance of “Blues Variations,” composed by Henry Dorn on a New Century commission as part of the Emerging Black Composers Project. The other composers on the program will be Astor Piazzolla (“Fuga y misterio”) and Alberto Williams (“Primera Suite Argentina”). As usual, Daniel Hope will serve as both music director and concertmaster. The venue is located in the Presidio of San Francisco on the south side of the Golden Gate and the bridge that crosses it. City Box Office has created a Web page for online ticket purchases.

Volti to Partner with ODC/Dance (Again)

Screen shot from the “trailer” video for Path of Miracles (from the YouTube video)

The end of last year saw an announcement of Path of Miracles, created by Volti in partnership with ODC/Dance. At that time only limited information was available. However, the ODC/Dance Web site now has a Web page with more details, including a hyperlink for purchasing tickets and a “trailer” video on YouTube providing background about the collaboration.

As was previously announced, Path of Miracles will be given three performances at Saint Joseph’s Art Society, taking place at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, Thursday, April 16, and Friday, April 17. The venue is located at 1401 Howard Street. General admission will be $98 with Supporter level tickets (to subsidize individuals for whom price is a barrier) are available for $128. A limited number of Arts Access tickets will be available for $48. All ticket purchases for all three dates will be processed through a single Web page. Tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-863-9834.

Balanchine Returns to San Francisco Ballet

The full ensemble for George Balanchine’s “Serenade” (from the San Francisco Ballet Web page for the program currently being presented)

Last night saw my return to the War Memorial Opera House for the second program in the 93rd season of the San Francisco Ballet. The title of the program was Balanchine: Father of American Ballet, and it presented three different aspects of George Balanchine’s highly inventive approaches to choreography. The program began with “Diamonds,” the last of the three Jewels ballets, set to the last four of the five movements of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 29, his third symphony in D major. The “keystone” of the program was the first choreography by Balanchine to be performed in New York. “Serenade” was set to Tchaikovsky’s Opus 48, his four-movement “Serenade for Strings.” The evening concluded with Balanchine’s best known “Americana” ballet, “Stars and Stripes,” set to music by John Philip Sousa, orchestrated by Hershy Kay.

I came to know all of these ballets during my student years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Once I had my own car, I would make regular trips from Cambridge into Manhattan. At that time the Boston Ballet repertoire included both “Serenade” and “Stars and Stripes;” but I still enjoyed watching the members of the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in Lincoln Center. With all that context, last night’s performance amounted to an extended trip down memory lane.

Fortunately, the trip was a good one. Mind you, NYCB has received its share of attention through the Great Performances television series; and I continue to enjoy watching those programs, even when they are repeated. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for the immediacy of the performance of ballet on the stage; and last night the San Francisco Ballet dancers could not have done better justice to that immediacy. Also, from my vantage point in the Dress Circle, I could fully appreciate the diversity of spacial designs that Balanchine invented for his choreography.

All three of last night’s performances were engaging from beginning to end. For works like these, I tend not to focus in individual virtuoso turns. I like to maintain awareness over the full stage, relishing the geometry of the patterns that unfold one after another. Mind you, since I was familiar with all three of these ballets, I knew what to expect and where to direct my glances! As a result, by the end of the evening, I was more than satisfied to have my memories of some of my favorite ballets revived and presented with all the detail and energy that Balanchine would have expected.

SFP PIVOT Festival: the Final Program

Choreography and dancer Myles Thatcher (photograph courtesy of the artist, from the SFP Web page for last night’s program)

Last night in the Taube Atrium Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) concluded its annual PIVOT Festival. Curator Andy Meyerson gave a solo percussion performance accompanying choreography by dancer Myles Thatcher. The title of the program was Parallel Play, reflecting the selections as a series of “parallel pairs.”

Those “parallels” involved the coupling of sound and movement. The program began with the now historic coupling of John Cage with choreographer Merce Cunningham. This was followed by Robin Dekkers performing a synthesis of ballet and modern dance to the sounds of Glenn Kotche. The first half of the program concluded with music by Nicole Lizée for choreography by Rex Wheeler. The second half began with “A Noticeable Pause,” Dani Rowe’s choreography set to Danny Clay’s “Still Cycles.” “Portrait” seems to have been a joint project setting movement by Babatunji to the music of Raven Chacon. Thatcher then concluded the program with his interpretation of the Chaconne movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1004 partita for solo violin, arranged for marimba performance by Meyerson and Jack Van Geem.

Taken as a whole, the program served up a rich panoply of music almost entirely from the current century. (The only exceptions were the “bookends” of the program: Cage and Bach!) The Bach arrangement made for a throughly engaging conclusion with unique marimba sonorities that still did justice to the music’s Baroque “roots.” While I found Thatcher’s performances to be somewhat variable, I was still drawn to his interpretation of Cunningham’s “Solo.” Perhaps this just cast too long a shadow over the choreography that would follow!

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Plans for SFP PIVOT Festival

Some readers may recall that one of the highlights planned for the 2025–2026 season of San Francisco Performances (SFP) is the annual PIVOT Festival. This will be the Festival’s eleventh performance, suggesting that its adventurous offerings have staying power! The curator for this season will be Andy Meyerson, who will probably be known to many readers as the percussionist of The Living Earth Show, playing with his partner, guitarist Travis Andrews. The Festival will present three performances, all taking place in the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. The first two will be in Herbst Theatre on the ground floor followed by last on the top floor in the Taube Atrium Theatre. Specifics for each of the programs are as follows:

Vocalist Tanner Porter with musicians Travis Andrews and Andy Meyerson (from the Web page for the first PIVOT Festival performance)

Friday, January 30, 7:30 p.m.: Legacies will survey works by two generations of composers in the Sleeping Giant collective. The first generation will be represented by Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, Ted Hearne, Robert Honstein, and Andrew Norman. Both Meyerson and Andrews are protégés of those founders, along with vocalist Tanner Porter, who will join them in presenting this offering.

Saturday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.: The Satellite program will be divided across three diverse bands with both Meyerson and Andrews performing in all of them. The first of these is the Bucket List trio, whose third member is composer and percussionist Mark Applebaum. The second is Koollooꓘ, which some readers may recognize as the title of a one-act performance that will be taking place at The Roar Shack at the end of this month at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28. Meyerson and Andrews will be joined by dance artist Babatunji and composer and instrument designer Dennis Aman.

Sunday, February 1, 7 p.m.: For the final program, Parallel Play, Meyerson will collaborate with San Francisco Ballet soloist and choreographer Myles Thatcher. Thatcher will perform “Child of Tree,” choreographed by Merce Cunningham for music composed by John Cage. This will be followed by “The Filthy 15,” composed by Nicole Lizée for choreography by Rex Wheeler (aka Lady Camden). There will also be a world premiere of Thatcher’s choreography set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach.

A Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for the entire series with options for the different areas in Herbst Theatre. The hyperlinks attached to the individual dates above can be used for purchasing single tickets. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545. In addition, single tickets will be available for purchase at the door with a 50% discount for student rush tickets and 20% off for seniors.

Ian Scarfe to Bring Spanish Music to Century Club

Poster for the event being described, showing the three performers (screenshot from the Groupmuse Web page)

Pianist Ian Scarfe will begin the new year with his next visit to the Century Club of California. Once again, he will be joined by a cellist, this time James Jaffe. The title of next month’s program will be An Afternoon in Spain – Classical Spanish Music and Flamenco. Each of the instrumentalists will begin with a solo selection.

Scarfe will open the program with Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 19, his “Boléro” in A minor. This will be followed by Jaffe’s performance of the three-movement suite for solo cello composed by Gaspar Cassadó in 1926. (Cassadó was taught by Pablo Casals and was probably influenced by his teacher’s performances of the solo cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.) Scarfe will then accompany mezzo Deborah Rosengaus in a performance of Siete canciones populares españolas, Manuel de Falla’s arrangements for soprano and piano of seven traditional Spanish songs.

The remainder of the program will be devoted to settings of Spanish dances. Scarfe will begin with Isaac Albéniz’s Opus 37, the six Danzas Españolas. This will be followed by the “Ritual Fire Dance,” an episode from the music composed Falla for the ballet El amor brujo (the bewitched love). The program will then conclude with the Spanish Dances collection by Enrique Granados.

For those that do not already know, the Century Club is located at 1355 Franklin Street, between Post Street and Sutter Street. However, all arrangements must be made through a Groupmuse Web page. Ticket prices begin at $25, with $5 to hold a reservation. As of this writing, 43 of 75 spots are still available. The performance will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 25. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Drinks will be provided at the intermission (both with and without alcohol). However, the club itself is not wheelchair accessible.

Weekend of Groupmuse Recitals Coming

Readers may know by now that Groupmuse tends to be my primary source for keeping up with news about recitals to be performed by pianist Ian Scarfe. This coming weekend will see the next of those recitals taking place on Saturday. However, I have also learned from Groupmuse about a recital that will take place on the following afternoon. It thus seems fair to account for both of these events in a single article (as a nod to the service that Groupmuse provides me). Specifics are as follows:

Saturday, December 13, 7 p.m., Presidio of San Francisco: Scarfe will open up the townhouse he shares with his partner Tané. He will honor the Christmas spirit with solo piano arrangements of selections from the score for score for the two-act ballet The Nutcracker, as well as “a few Christmas tunes!” The first half of the program will be more secular, beginning with selections from Edvard Grieg’s Opus 40, the Holberg Suite. This will be followed with selections from another suite, this time Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. The Groupmuse event page has a hyperlink for marking reservations in advance for $5. (The audience size will be limited to eighteen; and, as of this writing, eight of those spots are still available.) Shoes are not allowed inside the house, so wear socks judiciously! Also, those allergic to cats should be warned that one of them shares the place! The exact address will be sent by electronic mail once the reservation has been finalized, and visitors can arrive as early as 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 14, 2:30 p.m., Mission District: Elektra S. will cohost, with her partner Stephanie W., a duo performance by violinist Vanness Yu, accompanied at the piano by Phoebe Wu. They have prepared a program that will span the period from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth. The works will not be performed in chronological order.

Photograph of Tchaikovsky in 1877, included in Modest Chaikovskii’s The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Chaikovskii (public domain)

The program will begin with Amy Beach’s Opus 23, composed in 1893, her “Romance” for violin and piano. This will be followed by the “Carmen Fantaisie brillante,” composed by Jeno Hubay drawing upon the themes from Georges Bizet’s popular opera. The next selection will be another “Romance,” Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 11, composed a little over a decade before Beach’s. The first twentieth-century composition will be an early work by Olivier Messiaen, “Theme et variations,” composed in 1932. The program will return to the nineteenth century with the performance of “Mélodie,” the last of the three movements that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky collected under the title Souvenir d'un lieu cher (memory of a dear place). The final selection will be Jascha Heifetz’ arrangement of Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita.” (Heifetz recorded this piece twice, the second time to take advantage of stereophonic technology.) Once again, the Groupmuse event page has a hyperlink for marking reservations in advance for $5, and those allergic to cats should be warned! The exact address will be sent by electronic mail once the reservation has been finalized.

SFCM Presents Two David Conte Compositions

Late yesterday afternoon I watched the latest livestream from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The program consisted of two compositions by Composition Chair David Conte, one on either side of an intermission. The first half was a preview of his latest undertaking, a two-act opera with a libretto by Nicholas Giardini adapting the narrative of Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol. The second was a suite based on music drawn from the first act of a projected two-act ballet setting Edgar Allan Poe’s tale, “The Masque of the Red Death.”

The performance of excerpts from A Christmas Carol with Brian Thorsett and Samuel Kidd singing the roles of Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, respectively

The opera excerpts began with the “Choral Prelude,” sung by the Nebula Consort prepared by Eric Choate. This was followed by three episodes, the first being the argument about Christmas between Ebenezer Scrooge (tenor Brian Thorsett) and Bob Cratchit (baritone Samuel Kidd). The second presented Scrooge’s confrontation with the ghost of Jacob Marley (bass Matt Boehler). Finally, Thorsett gave a solo performance of “Scrooge’s Credo.” The Dickens’ source has become so familiar that all of the vocal work was easily followed, even if it was not staged.

The suite was performed by the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. In fact, it was one of the selections of the program they had performed the previous evening (Saturday, December 6), on which Conte’s suite was coupled by another suite by Claude Debussy (Petite Suite), with the entire program framed by familiar selections by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (the “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy and excerpts from the Nutcracker ballet). The title of the Saturday program was Celebrating David Conte’s 70th birthday, and the occasion was the debut of Robert Mollicone as the new music director. Yesterday’s performance was basically a “replay” of the Conte selection.

The good news is that both of yesterday’s performances were engaging. However, that engagement was strong enough to overcome one of the worst livestream offerings from SFCM I have encountered. I should have been prepared for this, given my last livestream encounter this past September. On that occasion I wrote the following:

Sadly, the audio delivery could not have been weaker, meaning that I had to crank up the audio on my screen to the maximum level. Even then, there were passages that just did not come across, particularly in the quieter moments in the concluding selection, the “Concerto for Orchestra” by Witold Lutosławski.

Last night the vocalists managed to prevail, thanks to a thorough command of diction (not to mention listener familiarity with the narrative); but much of the instrumental content took it on the chin. A composer of Conte’s stature deserves better.

Watching a 3D Documentary on Television

Screenshot of a frame from Cunningham showing two contemporary dancers performing Cunningham’s “Summerspace” (from the IMDb Web page for the film)

This afternoon I used my HBO Max service to watch the 2019 documentary Cunningham. By way of disclaimer, I should note that, as a graduate student, I became “hooked” on the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) as the result of an “accident.” In the summer of 1969, I followed my doctoral thesis advisor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when he spent the summer at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I served as his teaching assistant, but my principal duty was to take notes for all of his lectures. This was a straightforward undertaking, but it left me with a lot of spare time.

Fortunately, on my first day of personal wandering, I discovered that John Cage was on the campus; and he had put up an announcement for those wishing to attend a “Music and Mushrooms” seminar. Cage, in turn, was the Music Director for MCDC, which was also on the Boulder campus. They were there in preparation for performing in Mexico City. They chose Boulder for its altitude, so they could get their lungs in shape for the higher altitude in Mexico.

Cage’s seminar turned out to be one of driving into the woods and then letting things happen. Since it was a dry summer, very few mushrooms were encountered. However, through Cage, I got to know the other musicians performing with MCDC, David Tudor and Gordon Mumma. I saw two complete (and different) programs performed that summer, and I was hooked. So much so that, when MIT declared January to be a “do whatever pleases you” month for all graduate students, I drove down to New York and watched a full Cunningham season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

I kept a day-by-day diary of every program that I saw. That then found its way into an article in Ballet Review (Volume iii, issue 3). None of this went down very well with my thesis advisor. However, I was “rescued” through the time I was spending at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where Marvin Minsky helped me find a way to write a doctoral dissertation that was as much about music as it was about parallel processing (an approach to digital computing which, at that time, was in it infancy).

All of these past experiences came back to me as I watch Cunningham. Even the way in which the film, directed by Alla Kovgan, was sequenced seemed to emerge as its own unique approach to parallel processing! Ironically, the documentary was originally created with 3D technology. While I never had the opportunity to see it that way, I knew enough about the “source material” that my mind could add the “third dimension” to just about everything I saw. Indeed, to be fair, Kovgan’s film used that third dimension relatively sparingly, since the lion’s share of the content involved archival footage, much of which filled me with more nostalgia than I anticipated.

I grant that, for those unfamiliar with the Cunningham choreography in the documentary, the “third dimension” would clarify Cunningham’s own “three dimensional” approach to the dances he created. The good news was that most of those dances were already burned into my memory, thanks to the many performances I was fortunate enough to attend. I just had to substitute the dancers I saw on television with those I remembered from the past performances I had attended and documented! Mind you, I would not pass up an opportunity to experience Kovgan’s 3D intentions; but I would not be surprised if that opportunity never arose!

Is the Balanchine Legacy Going Stale?

During my graduate student years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I would take breaks by going down to New York to see performances by the New York City Ballet. This was back in the days when George Balanchine was still in charge, and I was consistently hooked on the ways that he could take concert music as repurpose it for his choreography. He had a particular interest in the Baroque period; and, while the  performance of the music coming out of the orchestra pit was seldom (if ever) “historically informed,” the choreography always seemed to find the right imaginative structures to go with compositions by the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, and Antonio Vivaldi.

Indeed, the last two of them provided the source material for one of Balanchine’s most interesting undertakings, “Square Dance.” The choreography was set to a collection of movements extracted from their compositions. In Balanchine’s New Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, the author observed that the music “was of course derived from old folk dance forms and rhythms that were later refined for the courts of Europe.”

That said, it is worth noting that, when “Square Dance” was first performed, the staging could not have been more literal. While the structure of the choreography may have been organized around Baroque music, Balanchine recruited Elisha C. Keeler, described in Complete Stories as “the famous square dance caller,” to call the steps drawing upon the texts he would invoke for any other square dance. Sadly, by the time I had an opportunity to see this piece performed, Keeler was no longer a participant. Mind you, I took that adverb in the last sentence very seriously because a square dance really is not a square dance without a caller!

An example of the “geometric” choreography of “Concerto Barocco” (photograph by Ewa Krasucka, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

In other words, “Square Dance” is now just another ballet in which the performers dance to Baroque music. Put another way, it is little more than a revamping of one of Balanchine’s earliest creations, “Concerto Barocco.” True to its title, that earlier ballet was set to Bach’s BWV 1043 concerto for two violins and strings in D minor. It would be fair to say that just about any serious music lover knows this concerto, and I suspect that this would also have been the case when music lovers in the audience saw “Concerto Barocco” for the first time. As it is now performed, “Square Dance” is basically “‘Concerto Barocco’ redux;” and to be quite frank personally, I am much happier with choreography that follows a single coherent composition, rather than one that is a pastiche of multiple movements from multiple composers!

Choices for December 7, 2025

Having concluded last month with an article about two overlapping performances this coming December 6, I find myself with a similar overlap on the following afternoon. Two different programs will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 7. One will be the second installment of the Piano Portrait series presented by Noe Music, while the other will honor a major member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) faculty. Specifics are as follows:

Poster design for Past, Present, and Future

Hume Concert Hall, SFCM: Past, Present, and Future is a special concert to honor David Conte, Chair of the SFCM Composition Department. There will be an exclusive preview of two scenes from his new opera A Christmas Carol, based on the novella by Charles Dickens. The program will also include the first suite extracted from his score for the ballet The Masque of the Red Death. This will be performed by Cyrus Ginwala conducting the Bay Areal Rainbow Symphony. The venue is located at 50 Oak Street, and there will be no charge for admission.

Noe Valley Ministry: Noe Music will present the second installment in its Piano Portraits series. The featured pianist will be Inon Barnatan. His program will be devoted entirely to Franz Schubert, with a performance of the D. 960 sonata in B-flat major filling the second half of the program. The program will begin with the first of the four impromptus collected in D. 935, composed in the key of F minor. The venue is located in Noe Valley at 1021 Sanchez Street. Reserved seating is sold out, but general admission tickets are available online from $15 to $45 on a first-come first-served basis.

San Francisco Opera Orchestra: Beethoven & Falla

Eun Sun Kim conducting the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (photography by Sasha Arutyunova, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)

Last night the stage of the War Memorial Opera House was turned over to the San Francisco Opera Orchestra for a concert performance. Eun Sun Kim conducted the ensemble with violinist Kay Stern as Concertmaster. The soloist for the program, entitled Beethoven 5 & Falla, was mezzo Daniela Mack. Those familiar with Ludwig van Beethoven would immediately see that Mack accounted for the Falla selection.

That selection was the familiar Siete canciones populares españolas, arrangements by Manuel de Falla of seven traditional Spanish songs. This was coupled with the second suite extracted from Falla’s score for the two-act ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, choreographed by Léonide Massine. As one can guess from the overall title, the second half of the program was devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 67 (fifth) symphony, composed in the key of C minor. Those familiar with Massine’s ballet know that, at a critical moment, Falla evokes the opening motif of the Beethoven symphony (far from the only dramatic incident to be accompanied by that music).

Since most of Kim’s time is spent in an orchestra pit, I relish opportunities to have a clearer view of her conducting style. Her approach to Beethoven could not have been better. Her command of the score was up there alongside just about every major conductor. Her chemistry with the ensemble could not have been better, allowing for the many subtleties in both phrasing and the scope of dynamic range. Opus 67 may be the most familiar work in the symphonic canon; but Kim brought both freshness and urgency to her interpretation, making the experience far from “just another Beethoven’s fifth” encounter.

Her command of Falla was just as engaging. The songs are relatively short, but Mack knew how to endow each of them with its own dimension of expressiveness. Falla’s approach to the vocal offerings could almost serve as a harbinger of Buckminster Fuller’s injunction that we should learn how to make more and more out of less and less. Somewhat in the spirit of haiku, each song has its own “target of reflection,” distilled into little more than a brief moment. Mack displayed a solid command of this rhetoric of brevity, and her engagement with the orchestra could not have been more compelling. Left to its own devices with the Three-Cornered Hat score, the ensemble captured the full scope of dramatic dispositions, one of which included a “sneak preview” of the music to come during the second half of the program.

As is usually the case with these events, I enjoyed the opportunity of a clearer vision of Kim’s approach to conducting; but what mattered most were the results, which could not have been more engaging!

Choices for December 6, 2025

It may seem a bit early; but, prior to the usual seasonal rush, serious listeners will have to make a choice for the first Saturday in December. There are currently two options, which will overlap. One will be the latest installment in pianist Ian Scarfe’s Suspended Harmony programs and the other will be a birthday celebration by the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS). Specifics are as follows:

7 p.m., Monument SF: Once again, Scarfe and cellist Kendra Grittani will share the program with circus performers. Contributions from the latter will amount to (in the words of the announcement on the Groupmuse Web page) “a variety of performers and dancers on Pole, Aerial Silks, Lyra, Mime and Clowning, and Tap Dance!” The music to be performed will include Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 119 cello sonata and a “Best of Beethoven” selection. The Monument event space is located in SoMa at 140 9th Street. As in the past, ticketing is being managed by the aforementioned Groupmuse Web page.

Photograph of the first act of the original Imperial Ballet production of The Nutcracker, made around December of 1892 (scanned from the 1997 book The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov, public domain in the United States, from Wikimedia Commons)

7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM): The BARS celebration will be that of composer David Conte’s 70th birthday. He will be honored with the first suite he extracted from his 1992 tone poem “The Masque of the Red Death.” Cellist Hans Brightbill will be soloist in a performance of Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo,” given the subtitle “Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra.” The entire program will be framed by the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, beginning with “Romeo and Juliet,” described as a “Fantasy Overture.” The program will conclude with excepts from first act of the ballet The Nutcracker. (Most of the movements of the familiar suite extracted from the ballet score come from the second act.) Cyrus Ginwala will be guest conductor.

The venue will be the SFCM Concert Hall at 50 Oak Street, a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station. tix has created a Web page for processing ticket sales.Ticket prices range between $43.50 and $12. The Web page includes a chart showing which seats are available at what prices.