A bunch of classical music events happening over the weekend:
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Ciaramella tonight in Palo Alto, tomorrow in Berkeley and Sunday in San Francisco. Ciaramella is Italian for "shawm," which is obscure for "recorder with a reed-like mouthpiece," a precursor of the oboe. Ciaramella is both the name of the instrument and the ensemble, which also includes bagpipes, recorders, sackbuts and voices. They'll sing Medieval and Renaissance songs of shepherds of the Italian mountains, with a Nativity theme of course because they're no way you can get away without it right now.
About Christmas singing, Chanticleer serves it by the heap tonight in Oakland and all around the bay over the next couple weeks. Along more traditional carols, they'll sing the world premiere of Swedish composer Jan Sandstrom’s “And the word became flesh.” The Grammy winning male chorus has be spawned by the same Early Music Society presenting Ciaramella, so we wish Ciaramella to reach the same success and mainstreamness and holiday favoriteness as Chanticleer.
