Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: SF Symphony Clarinetist Carey Bell Today, San Francisco Symphony principal clarinetist Carey Bell will stand in front of the orchestra for Nielsen's clarinet concerto, led by Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt. Blomstedt, of course, was the music director prior
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Gustavo Dudamel And The LA Philharmonic Conductor Gustavo Dudamel drove his LA Phil band up the 5 for two concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday night at Davies Symphony Hall. I made a good faith attempt to show up on
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Two SF Opera Adler Fellows Starring In 'Rita' Can we laugh about domestic violence? (Hint: the answer is no.) But that's the question posed by the New Century Chamber Orchestra this week with the rarely heard single act opera Rita by
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Conductor Lionel Bringuier I was shocked when I found out that French conductor Lionel Bringuier, who makes his San Francisco Symphony debut tonight, performed live on French TV as a 14-year-old boy for the Victoires de
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Marc-Andre Hamelin, Osmo Vänskä, Emanuel Ax and Anne Sofie von Otter Not quite the polar vertex, but a Nordic breeze found its way to our classical music scene recently. Last week, Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä led the symphony into some music that came in
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Re/Current At The SF Symphony To all the gifts Steve Jobs gave us, the iPhone, the iPad, and most importantly, Toy Story, we must add Mason Bates' B sides, performed last Wednesday by the composer on the stage
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: SF Symphony Cellist Peter Wyrick On Thursday, the Berkeley Symphony will borrow a seasoned musician from across the Bay rather than import a teenage mutant prodigy soloist. Peter Wyrick, whose regular gig is associate principal cellist with the
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Britten's War Requiem Britten's War Requiem overlaps the timeless liturgy of the mass in Latin (complete with children choir!), organ, a soprano and a full orchestra with the English-language poetry of Wilfred Owen, set to the
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Composer Michael Daugherty, Who Just Created A Piece About Frank Lloyd Wright's Famous 'Falling Water' House Composer Michael Daugherty writes music as American as bald eagle apple pie. He's penned pieces about Superman, Route 66, Elvis, Jackie O, Mount Rushmore, Las Vegas and many other iconic 'Merica-tinged places, people
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Crissy Broadcast, Joshua Roman, Edwin Outwater and more... What a busy last week-end, with Lisa Bielawa's Crissy Broadcast at Crissy Field, rising star cellist Joshua Roman with the SF Chamber Orchestra, former SF Symphony resident conductor Edwin Outwater's return at the
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: The Flying Dutchman At SF Opera The Flying Dutchman ran aground. This SF Opera production did not take off, at least it did not fall off a cliff. Wait, that's what it was supposed to do! Spoiler alert: the
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Conductor Bernard Labadie Les Violons Du Roy, a Canadian chamber orchestra that tours all over the world named after the band that use to entertain the French kings, will visit Berkeley's Herz Hall, hosted by Cal
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Berkeley Symphony Director Rene Mandel When the NY Times did a feature on musicians who became directors and managers of their orchestra, they forgot to include Rene Mandel. We're too ochre to compete with the Gray Lady, but
Arts & Entertainment The Classical Music Week in Review Classical music hit for the cycle last week, with a solo recital, an orchestral performance and an opera that were all exceptional. András Schiff: the Hungarian pianist and scholar returned to share his
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: 'Angel Heart' At Cal Performances Cal Performances' director Matias Tarnopolsky warned the child-packed audience for Angel Heart on Sunday afternoon, to the tune of: we love all you guys to be here, we are grateful that you came;
Arts & Entertainment SFist Previews: Classical Music for Kids Five family performances worth checking out: the SF Opera Community Open House tomorrow, the collision of the SF Chamber Orchestra with the Circus Bella, the Peter and the Wolf with the SF Symphony
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: David Daniels & the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra You got to love the access Facebook gives into the mind of performers. Coutertenor David Daniels, who obviously manages his account himself, sold his concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra thusly: "I've always
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Cal Symphony, New 'Dolores Claiborne' Cast, & More After the big hoopla for the gala nights of the Symphony and Opera, last weekend offered a double bill season openers of smaller, but no less ambitious, ensembles. And the SF Opera welcomed
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews A Flutist! The Center for New Music opened roughly a year ago at the edge of the 'loin to foster a community around new music in San Francisco. What is new music? It's hard to
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: 'Dolores Claiborne' At SF Opera There were three strikes against SF Opera's world premiere Dolores Claiborne: soprano Patricia Racette stepped into the title role three weeks ago, taking over from mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick; we wrote a meh review
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Zosha Di Castri with the SF Symphony The New Voices project, a collaboration of the New World Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony (both MTT-led) and the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes to get young composers to write for large orchestra,
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Tricky 'Mefistofele' At SF Opera Arrigo Boito's opera Mefistofele is an odd duck to open the season. It clocks at three and a half hours (thus an eternity before getting to the post-performance opening-night parties). It's not a
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: Placido Domingo at the Greek Theater You recall the Three Tenors? One of them, Luciano Pavarotti, passed away six years ago. Then José Carreras was "that other guy" in a Seinfeld episode, the tenor whose name no one can
Arts & Entertainment SFist Reviews: SF Symphony Opening Night We expect a good time from an opening gala at the SF Symphony. After all, there's an open bar, fancy (or "fancy," in some cases) attire, and everyone rejoices over the new musical
Arts & Entertainment SFist Interviews: Former SF Opera General Director Lotfi Mansouri (1929-2013) Lotfi Mansouri>, the former general director of the San Francisco Opera passed away yesterday after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was at the helm of the San Francisco Opera from 1988
