For its 100th birthday, the SF Symphony is offering itself new works to unwrap all season long. This week: Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra by British composer Tom Adès, one of the hottest commodities in the business today. It's only a west coast premiere, since the world premiere happened with the New World Symphony in Miami, an orchestra founded and led by SF Symphony music director Michael Tilson-Thomas. And this gift is a keeper. This is an Adès week-end, with the composer - a talented pianist in his own right- performing work of his and others at Cal Performances with the Calder Quartet in Berkeley, and Inon Barnatan playing Adès' Darkness Visible at Music@Menlo in Atherton. more ›

We heard of Leila Josefowicz for the first time after she won a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008. "Out of blue, $500,000, no strings," declares the fellowship's page. But! Some strings were attached, because Leila received the prize for playing the violin. (Har.) Which she does play, with burning intensity. (Don't believe us? Check this out.) more ›