Arts & Entertainment SFist Previews Tonight's Mercury Soul At Ruby Skye An interview with local composer Mason Bates, and some notes on the SF Symphony Opening Night. Mason Bates is a bridge between two musical worlds, classical and techno. With a PhD in composition
Arts & Entertainment SFist Previews The New Classical Music Season What's coming up this Fall for SF Opera, the SF Symphony, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Opera Parallele, SF Performances, and Cal Performances. Opera in the Park, the free
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Luisa Miller At SF Opera (And More) We round up some reviews of classical and modern music events. Luisa Miller at SF Opera, the Merola Grand Finale concert, Santa Fe Opera commission of a Steve Jobs opera, and the American
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: an Opera Marathon On Saturday last week, we had marathons on our mind. We had paced a friend for a few laps around Crissy Field for the 24 hour solstice run, an event where the winner
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Pianist Stephen Hough An interview with pianist Stephen Hough and a review of Opera Parallele's US premiere of composer Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness. British pianist Stephen Hough performs tonight a recital of Debussy and Chopin
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Berkeley Symphony Music Director Joana Carneiro Where we interview music symphony director Joana Carneiro, review the Philharmonia Baroque performance of Rossini's The Marriage Contract and Stanford Live's world premiere re-creation of The Demo. In 1991, then-Berkeley Symphony Music Director
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: 'Middlemarch In Spring' At Z Space Feminism viewed through the prism of Victorian literature seems so quaint today. Composer Allan Shearer and librettist Claudia Stevens picked up one of the story lines from George Eliot's 1872 classic Middlemarch, appended
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews SF Symphony Principal Bassoonist Stephen Paulson This week and next, the SF Symphony hosts guest conductor Ton Koopman. Ton is short for Antonius, so there's some Dutch trivia for you. Koopman, who visits regularly, focuses almost exclusively on baroque
Arts & Entertainment SFist's Week in Classical Music This week's lineup of classical music events for you to consider: I was sad to miss Sasha Cooke with the Berkeley Symphony last week in a premiere by Jake Heggie. I liked her
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Composer Cynthia Lee Wong; Plus A Review of Michael Tilson Thomas's 70th Birthday Concert Cynthia Lee Wong became the second New Voices composer selected by the San Francisco Symphony, the New World Symphony (MTT's youth orchestra in Miami) and music publisher Boosey & Hawkes. The reward for
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews Violinist Gil Shaham, Plus Reviews Of <i>Partenope</i> And <i>Tosca</i> At SF Opera First, a few classical music items: After 38 years of companionship, SF Symphony musical director and most famous acronym MTT has tied the knot with his partner Joshua Robison. Congratulations, Michael! It looks
Arts & Entertainment SFist Previews: The LPO and Stéphane Denève at Davies Symphony Hall Back-to-back Rach: the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed last night the Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff, and up-and-coming French conductor Stéphane Denève will lead the San Francisco Symphony this week
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: SF Opera's 'A Masked Ball' All good things must end. David Gockley, the Giants-hat-wearing genial host of the free Opera in The Park concert announced last Friday he would end his tenure as SF Opera General Director after
Arts & Entertainment Photo Gallery: Marissa Meyer, Nicky Hilton and Nancy Pelosi at the SFS Gala The SF Symphony Gala happened two weeks ago, but that won't stop us from going all Us Weekly on you with pictures of the well-heeled at the glamorous party. These patrons dropped up
Arts & Entertainment Free Opera In Golden Gate Park This Sunday And 21 More Ways To Enjoy The Classical Music Season The classical music season has arrived and there's so much to see and hear that it's tough to pack into just one post. But, whether you're curious or a seasoned fan, a great
Arts & Entertainment Former New Century Chamber Orchestra Director Reflects On His 18-Year Tenure Parker Monroe started as the executive director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) in 1996, turning a then four-year-old orchestra into one of the most exciting classical ensembles in town. Under Monroe's
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: A Streetcar Named Desire at the Merola Opera Center The opera A Streetcar Named Desire, adapted from the Tennessee Williams play by librettist Philip Littell and composer Andre Previn, premiered in 1998 at SF Opera and was revived last week by the
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: The SF Symphony Britten Festival If the opera is named after your character, you better be up for the task. Stuart Skelton delivered big time as Peter Grimes. A search on this website for Stuart Skelton yields a
Arts & Entertainment SF Opera Stars Ailyn Pérez And Stephen Costello Talk 'La Traviata' Don't miss a free simulcast of SF Opera's La Traviata on Saturday, July 5 at AT&T Park at 8 p.m. Go register here. It's going to be an outstanding new
Arts & Entertainment Hits And Misses At SF Opera's Summer Season, Plus Free Opera At The Ballpark On Saturday On July 5, head to AT&T Park for a free simulcast of the SF Opera's production of Verdi's La Traviata. We're no baseball analytics money ball experts, but signing up for
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Opera Parallele's 'Anya17' Anya17, an opera which received its US premiere at the Marines' Memorial Theater on Friday evening with a libretto by Ben Kay and music by Adam Gorb, wants to raise awareness about sex
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: 'The Classical Style' at the Ojai North Festival To discuss "The Classical Style," the witty, charming, exhilarating new opera by Steven Stucky for the music and Jeremy Denk for the libretto, based upon the eponymous 1971 musicology treatise by Charles Rosen
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Soprano Susanna Phillips You may have heard soprano Susanna Phillips in the Metropolitan opera broadcast of Cosi Fan Tutte a month ago. She's a regular on that stage due to her charming stage presence and gorgeous
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Opera Parallele's Brian Staufenbiel The double bill of Kurt Weill's and Bertold Brecht's Mahoganny Songspiel with Francis Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias — which you can see this weekend at YBCA — is the brainchild of the Opera Parallele
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Los Angeles Opera's James Conlon James Conlon always ranks near the top of best American conductors lists, having conducted every symphonic and opera orchestra of note, and recorded a bazillion albums (and winning two Grammys along the way)
