San Francisco and the Bay Area have some of the world’s best-known performing arts organizations and cultural offerings. As a listener-supported station, we think it’s important to let listeners know about activities, concerts, soloists and ensembles coming through the area, and with that we offer you a new daily feature. The State of the Arts on Classical KDFC airs twice weekdays, just before 9 am and 6 pm. The features are produced by our new guy Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr, a veteran of National Public Radio’s Arts Desk and Performance Today. Tune in, subscribe to the podcast, or visit this page to hear the latest edition of Classical KDFC’s The State of the Arts!
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is trying an unorthodox approach for finding a concerto soloist for two concerts late in the Fall: they're going to hold an audition via YouTube, and let visitors to their channel help winnow the selection down to 20 semi-finalists. It's been done before (notably by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra) but not by a major US ensemble.
A bit of a quiz today, to get in the mood for our "KDFC Goes to the Movies" countdown later this week. Can you identify all seventeen films represented here?
(To see the answers, click and drag below to make them visible)
Raiders of the Lost Ark *****
Bridge on the River Kwai ***
Rocky ***********************
Jaws ************************
High Noon ******************
Psycho **********************
Diva *************************
Out of Africa ****************
North by Northwest *********
Star Wars *******************
Gone With the Wind ********
Schindler's List *************
Cinema Paradiso **********
Robin Hood ****************
The Great Escape **********
Dances With Wolves *******
The Magnificent Seven ****
Friday, February 17
Feb 21 2012 12:00AM
Posted 1 day 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The ensemble Musica Pacifica presents a series of concerts they're calling "Dancing in the Isles - The Sequel!" The repertoire is a blend of baroque music of the British Isles, from composers like Henry Purcell and Matthew Locke, as well as folk tunes from England, Scotland and Ireland. Recorder player Judith Linsenberg, violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque cellist/gambist Shirley Hunt and harpsichordist Charles Sherman are joined by percussionist John Loose for the concerts.
It's the tenth anniversary season of Company C Contemporary Ballet - and so Artistic Director Charles Anderson has brought back several works for 2 different programs this weekend, performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Anderson sees his company as filling an important role in the Bay Area dance world, bringing to town works that fall outside classical ballet that deserve a wider audience.
Actress Anna Deavere Smith has made a career of taking the words of people she's interviewed, and creating works that try to capture the essence of America. Her newest work, "On Grace" looks at that topic, and will get its first performances at Grace Cathedral this Friday and Saturday, accompanied by cellist Joshua Roman.
For Valentine's Day, a day of romance, a look at one composer's wide interpretation of what a "Romance" should sound like: Ralph Vaughan Williams covered the high, (very) low, familiar, and off the beaten track in four works with that name or description.
Monday, February 13
Feb 14 2012 12:00AM
Posted 8 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
It's been 50 years since Tony Bennett first sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" - and he'll be returning to the city on Valentine's Day, to be honored by the city, and sing a benefit concert at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel, where he launched his signature tune.
KDFC will be among those San Francisco radio stations participating in playing Bennett's iconic version of the song at noon on Tuesday!
Friday, February 10
Feb 13 2012 12:00AM
Posted 9 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
A new, slimmer production of John Harbison's opera "The Great Gatsby" opens tonight at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Conductor Nicole Paiement explains the pit orchestra forces were more than halved, but because of Jacques Desjardins' re-orchestration, it sounds as lush and powerful as the original.
There's more information about the production at Ensemble Parallele's website. Even with fewer musicians, the pit was still quite full at a rehearsal earlier this week.
Thursday, February 9
Feb 10 2012 12:00AM
Posted 12 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The San Francisco Symphony's celebration of the Chinese New Year with a special community concert is this Saturday. Guest conductor Carolyn Kuan will lead the orchestra in a program of works including the "Yellow River Piano Concerto" - a Chinese favorite that weaves together folk tunes with a lush orchestration reminiscent of Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff.
There's more information about the concert at Dianne's Top 5!
Wednesday, February 8
Feb 9 2012 12:00AM
Posted 13 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
This weekend Andrew Mogrelia will be conducting his final two concerts as Music Director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra. During his seven years in that position, he's brought in an impressive roster of guest conductors and helped to expand the role of the orchestra at the SFCM.
Among the Grammy nominees in the "Best Small Ensemble Performance" classical music category is a disc showing the trans-Atlantic influence of Spanish culture in the 17th and 18th Centuries. It's called The Kingdoms of Castille, performed by the early music ensemble El Mundo, led by its founder, guitarist Richard Savino.
You can find acomplete listing of the Grammy nominees here.
Monday, February 6
Feb 7 2012 12:00AM
Posted 15 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Super Bowl's commercials are once again dipping into the well of classical music's greatest hits to sell their products. There don't seem to be quite as many this year as last, but Beethoven and Richard Strauss both feature prominently...
(Left off the list: a couple of Doritos commercials with the Barber of Seville Overture, and "La Donna e Mobile" - and a great NFL commercial featuring the oboe-playing Chester Pitts)
Friday, February 3
Feb 5 2012 2:40PM
Posted 16 days 19 hrs 31 mins ago
The Alexander Quartet, the ensemble in residence at San Francisco Performances, is celebrating their 30th-anniversary season with a special concert this weekend. Included on the program is the world premiere of a song cycle written for them and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato by Jake Heggie and lyricist Gene Scheer, telling the events of the life of French sculptor Camille Claudel.
There's more information about the concert at Dianne's Top 5!
Thursday, February 2
Feb 3 2012 12:00AM
Posted 19 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Herbert Blomstedt, Conductor Emeritus of the San Francisco Symphony will be returning to the podium at Davies Symphony Hall for the first of several concerts, with the music of Tchaikovsky and Mozart. Garrick Ohlsson will be soloist in Mozart's 9th Piano Concerto ("Jeunehomme"), and the orchestra will dig into the 'fate' filled Fifth Symphony of Tchaikovsky.
After decades of persistent research, UC Berkeley musicologist Davitt Moroney found a manuscript in the National Library in Paris that had been presumed lost forever: a choral mass for 40 (and in the last movement, 60) totally independent voices by Alessandro Striggio. The massive work, along with others for similarly gigantic forces will have a performance with Moroney conducting this Friday and Saturday in Berkeley.
There's more information about the concert on the Cal Performances website. Here's a video with more background about the Mass:
Tuesday, January 31
Feb 1 2012 12:00AM
Posted 21 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Today is the 75th Birthday of composer Philip Glass, who's still going strong, with the U.S. premiere of his Ninth Symphony at a special Carnegie Hall Birthday concert. There are other big events planned for the year, including a tour of his groundbreaking opera Einstein on the Beach, with a stop in Berkeley.
Monday, January 30
Jan 31 2012 12:00AM
Posted 22 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The "Mozart Effect" - has been used to describe a link between listening to classical music and being "smarter" - even though the original studies were much more specifically focused on spatial relation tasks, and the boost in ability was only temporary. But a more recent study says there's a longer term benefit to those who actually play or practice music, since it improves the listening skills involved in learning foreign languages and reading.
Friday, January 27
Jan 30 2012 12:00AM
Posted 23 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Mozart would have been 256 years old on January 27. Out of curiosity, I gave a listen to the work to which musicologist Ludwig von Kochel assigned the "K number" of 256. It's a lightning fast patter-aria that Mozart wrote to be inserted into a comic opera by another composer, marked to be sung in "a tempo suitable for a big chatterbox".
In the mood for more Mozart? The San Francisco Symphony has birthday-appropriate concerts this weekend. Find out more on their website.
Thursday, January 26
Jan 27 2012 12:00AM
Posted 26 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The first San Francisco production of Onegin, the John Cranko-choreographed ballet of the Pushkin tale of lost love opens at San Francisco Ballet tomorrow night. Courtney Elizabeth is a soloist with the company who will be dancing the role of Olga - a character who inadvertently sets off a string of tragic events, after introducing Onegin to her sister Tatiana.
The Oscar-nominated films in the "Best Original Score" category are "The Adventures of Tintin", "The Artist", "Hugo", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", and "War Horse" - with the first and last by John Williams, who for the eighth time is competing against himself in the category... along with Ludovic Bource, Howard Shore, and Alberto Iglesias. The films are decidedly retro: the most recent time period depicted is the Cold War Era in John LeCarre's story of the world of British espionage.
Tuesday, January 24
Jan 25 2012 12:00AM
Posted 28 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The combined forces of several ensembles known collectively as "East Bay Performing Arts" will perform Carl Orff's Carmina Burana this Friday in Oakland. Michael Morgan, Musical Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony says it's a perfect vehicle for a large group... since you can't have too many people on stage.
There's more information about the concert at the OEBS website.
Monday, January 23
Jan 24 2012 12:00AM
Posted 29 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The schedules for the 2012-2013 seasons for San Francisco Opera and Opera San Jose have been announced, with a variety of familiar classics, two world premieres: "The Secret Garden" by Nolan Gasser, and "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene" by Mark Adamo, plus the highly anticipated Bay Area premiere of Jake Heggie's "Moby-Dick."
The Santa Rosa Symphony's Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane returns for a series of concerts on the podium and at the keyboard this weekend. They'll play Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony and Mozart's Piano Concerto #25 - works that Kahane says complement eachother in texture and approach.
The last big hit of Gilbert & Sullivan was The Gondoliers, a comic opera set in Venice, and the mysterious land of Barataria. The Lamplighters Music Theatre production starts its run at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this weekend, and continues the following weekend in Walnut Creek.
This Sunday evening, Music Director Joana Carneiro and the Berkeley Symphony will present an "Under Construction" reading concert, with works-in-progress by three young composers. The orchestra will rehearse the pieces, and audience members will be able to ask questions of composers Noah Luna, Evelyn Ficcara and Nils Bultmann.
You can find out more about the concert/rehearsal here.
Tuesday, January 17
Jan 18 2012 12:00AM
Posted 35 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Recently a New York Philharmonic concert was rudely (if unintentionally) interrupted by an audience member's cellphone alarm going off during a quiet passage of Mahler's ninth symphony. Cellphones and the concert hall tend not to mix, but on rare occasion, they do...
Friday, January 13
Jan 17 2012 12:00AM
Posted 36 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival takes place this weekend at Davies Symphony Hall; talented young players will have the opportunity to meet their peers, perform separately, and then selected musicians will finish the concert as a combined festival orchestra. The concert benefits underserved and homeless children in the communities represented by the six orchestras.
An ambitious "semi-staging" of Claude Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien has soloists singing high above the orchestra and choir, and video and photo projections above them all. Michael Tilson Thomas told director and designer Anne Patterson to stress the magic in the work.
There's more information at Dianne's Top Five. And a time-lapse video of the construction of the set here, on the Symphony's website.
Wednesday, January 11
Jan 12 2012 12:00AM
Posted 41 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The piano trio called "Trio con Brio Copenhagen" is made up of Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer, his wife, cellist Soo-Kyung Hong, and her sister, Soo-Jin Hong. Their close ties have helped them develop a critically praised sound. The trio will play as part of the "Music at Kohl Mansion" series in Burlingame this weekend.
Tuesday, January 10
Jan 11 2012 12:00AM
Posted 42 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Members of the Kitchner Waterloo Symphony played their instruments and followed their scores... but also listened to their breathing and heartbeats with stethoscopes to determine how fast they should play. It's a work by Richard Reed Parry, called "For Heart, Breath and Orchestra", that they premiered on a CD from the Canadian label Analekta.
Monday, January 9
Jan 10 2012 12:00AM
Posted 43 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be playing music from her new CD Something Almost Being Said this Saturday, at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga. It pairs the music of J.S. Bach with Franz Schubert, in works that she says sound as though they're "about to break out into words at any moment."
Ensemble Vermillian is performing tonight in Albany, and tomorrow night in Santa Rosa. Recorder player and founding member Frances Blaker says she's been able to find a lot of great Baroque music for the group to play - with the help of the internet.
Thursday, January 5
Jan 6 2012 12:00AM
Posted 47 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The duo of cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O'Riley will be bringing the genre-bending repertoire from their latest CD ("Shuffle.Play.Listen") to Yoshi's tonight. Bernard Herrmann and Igor Stravinsky will be sharing the spotlight with Arcade Fire and Radiohead.
Wednesday, January 4
Jan 5 2012 12:00AM
Posted 48 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Day one of the Classical All-Stars countdown turns up a pair of works by Ravel, trips to Mars and Paris, and a chance for a bit of a mashup of some of the first dozen pieces, selected by listeners as their favorites. You can find the full listings in order so far here!
Tuesday, January 3
Jan 4 2012 12:00AM
Posted 49 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
16-year-old local pianist Hugo Kitano had a chance to take part in the NPR radio show "From the Top" with a concert in November that just aired nationally this past week. He played Chopin, and made an impressively acrobatic arrival onto the stage, showing off his 'parkour' skills as well as his musical talent.
Friday, December 23
Jan 3 2012 12:00AM
Posted 50 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
James Carpenter stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in American Conservatory Theater's presentation of A Christmas Carol. As the run of the show heads to its final, Christmas Eve-afternoon performance, Carpenter describes the role as being like a "mini King Lear".
The short and the long of it... Days begin to grow longer once again, now that we've reached the winter solstice, so we take a look at a short piece of music, a long piece, and some very long pieces indeed. From seconds to years, things are getting longer today!
Wednesday, December 21
Dec 22 2011 12:00AM
Posted 62 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Magik*Magik Orchestra is an ensemble-for-hire that can add instrumental colors and shadings from the world of classical music to songs by rock and pop artists. Orchestra founder Minna Choi puts together a tailor-made group of conservatory-trained players for each assignment, whether it's for a live concert performance, or as the house band at singer-songwriter John Vanderslice's "Tiny Telephone" recording studio.
The top-selling CDs from our "CD of the Week" picks of 2011 seem to have some things in common - composers, repertoire, and even one not-so-likely bit of film music make multiple appearances on the list. You can find the complete list of recordings here.
Monday, December 19
Dec 20 2011 12:00AM
Posted 64 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
John Rutter is one of the most prolific choral composers and arrangers working today. His new holiday CD, "The Colors of Christmas" is an attempt to capture some of the feeling of attending the sold-out Royal Albert Hall concerts he conducts each December.
WEB EXTRA: John Rutter on Christmas music and choirs
San Jose State University's Beethoven Center is celebrating the composer's birthday with the final days of an exhibit tracing his influence in America's popular culture... More than just a hero to Schroeder, there were comic books in WWII celebrating Beethoven, the creator of the "V for Victory" motif from the Fifth Symphony. You can visit the Center's website here.
Thursday, December 15
Dec 16 2011 12:00AM
Posted 68 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Today, a re-working of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" for the Classical music lover - from Steve Reich's Drumming and the piper piping at Peter Maxwell Davies' An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise... down to William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, and Haydn's Parisian "Hen"...
Wednesday, December 14
Dec 15 2011 12:00AM
Posted 69 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Canadian Brass will be playing two shows at Yoshi's over the weekend. Trumpeter and arranger Brandon Ridenour says he prefers the cozier venue of a Jazz club to a big hall, where the audience is farther away. The quintet, which got its start in 1970 has just released a CD called "Canadian Brass Takes Flight," following quickly on the disc of Brahms transcriptions that came out just in September.
There's more about their San Francisco appearance at Dianne's Top 5
Tuesday, December 13
Dec 14 2011 12:00AM
Posted 70 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Holiday travel is a little more culturally uplifting at the San Francisco International Airport this winter. During the height of holiday travel season, the series called "You Are Hear" brings area musicians to perform at the terminals (some before security, some after) to entertain those waiting for planes, and new arrivals.
Find out more about the schedule of performers here.
Monday, December 12
Dec 13 2011 12:00AM
Posted 71 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The all-male "Orchestra of Voices" Chanticleer is back in the Bay Area for their annual series of Christmas concerts, and they're going pretty much non-stop from now until the 23rd of December. It's one of the busiest times of the year for the choir, as they sing a broad repertoire from plainchant to gospel. And you can bet they'll be singing Franz Biebl's 1964 arrangement of Ave Maria, the lovely setting they've made their own.
Keep up with Chanticleer's upcoming performances here.
Friday, December 9
Dec 12 2011 12:00AM
Posted 72 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
It's not every day you get to hear a concerto conducted by the composer, and played by the soloist for whom it was written. But Esa-Pekka Salonen's Violin Concerto (which just won the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Award, one of the biggest prizes in all of classical music) is being performed with Leila Josefowicz and the San Francisco Symphony in a series of concerts through Saturday.
In the centennial season of the San Francisco Symphony, this is actually the day - 100 years ago this afternoon the orchestra gave its first concert. As part of the festivities, music historian Scott Foglesong has tracked down every recording he could possibly find made by the SFS, which will be featured in podcasts released by the by Symphony.
WEBEXTRA: Scott Foglesong describes putting together the discography:
WEBEXTRA: Foglesong on the first-ever recording made by the San Francisco Symphony:
Wednesday, December 7
Dec 8 2011 12:00AM
Posted 76 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has two San Francisco performances this week as part of its west coast tour. It's one of six major orchestras from around the US to play here in honor of the Symphony's centennial. Ludovic Morlot, of the Seattle Symphony is substituting for his mentor, James Levine, who recently stepped down as Music Director of the BSO.
Tuesday, December 6
Dec 7 2011 12:00AM
Posted 77 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Pianist Sarah Cahill and the Berkeley Symphony present a rare performance of Bay Area composer Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto on Thursday at Zellerbach Hall. It's a work that fuses the composer's love for Indonesian traditions and medieval dance, and requires a special "cluster bar" to help the performer play blocks of notes.
We're in the middle of the "Sing-along Messiah" season - if you've got the urge to join the choruses, there is some preparation you can do... even if all you really want to do is sing the Hallelujah chorus.
Find information about Messiah performances, sing-along (and listen-along) here. (And you can find those one-part only version videos here)
Friday, December 2
Dec 5 2011 12:00AM
Posted 79 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
When is a concert not a concert? When it's a 'concital.' Jon Nakamatsu and the Symphony Silicon Valley present a concital in San Jose, with the first half a solo piano recital, and the second a symphonic Chopin piano concerto.
This month Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is going to be putting on two masterworks by Bach and Handel (first the Mass in B Minor, then Messiah) along with soloists, and Bruce Lamott and the Philharmonia Chorale. Conductor Nicholas McGegan says both works leave a lot of decision making up to the performers - since the composers were constantly revising, adapting and re-working their music.
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A pair of tickets to Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra's Messiah on Saturday, December 10th is KDFC's Big Night Out contest this week. And congratulations to the Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan for a Grammy nomination for best Orchestral Performance!
Wednesday, November 30
Dec 1 2011 12:00AM
Posted 83 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Brentano String Quartet will be playing in San Francisco's Herbst Theatre this Sunday, with a program called "Fragments: Connecting Past and Present" that pairs newly commissioned works with unfinished pieces by Mozart, Schubert, Bach, Shostakovich and others that served as inspiration.
Tuesday, November 29
Nov 30 2011 12:00AM
Posted 84 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera begin their season (airing Saturday mornings on KDFC) this weekend. It's a season that starts in the Baroque, and includes a "new" work with music from that era by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and others.
This time of year, you're very likely to be able to find performances of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Handel's Messiah. But who has all that time? Here's a seasonal mashup to whet your appetite.
Wednesday, November 23
Nov 28 2011 12:00AM
Posted 86 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen returns to the San Francisco Opera - where she was once an Adler Fellow - to sing the lead in Bizet's Carmen, a character she calls both sexy and smart.
Tuesday, November 22
Nov 23 2011 12:00AM
Posted 91 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society has its 30th Annual Classical Piano Fest this weekend, with two up and coming soloists selected and joined by the Mack McCray, Chair of the Piano department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Monday, November 21
Nov 22 2011 12:00AM
Posted 92 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Violinist Gil Shaham returns to Davies Symphony Hall this week for three concerts of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony. He's also just been named "Instrumentalist of the Year" by the journal Musical America.
Friday, November 18
Nov 21 2011 12:00AM
Posted 93 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
A concert this Saturday of the music of French composer Philippe Hersant will include the American premiere of a viola concerto called "Musical Humors". It's a contemporary piece that gets inspiration from a Baroque-era Scottish composer and viola da gamba player Tobias Hume. There's more information about the concert here.
Thursday, November 17
Nov 18 2011 12:00AM
Posted 96 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Berkeley's Crowden Center for Music in the Community presents a concert Saturday evening... of music by students who are "John Adams Young Composers", as played by the Sierra Ensemble, a professional horn trio.
Wednesday, November 16
Nov 17 2011 12:00AM
Posted 97 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The next concert in the SFJazz Series called "Soulful Singers" will feature Anonymous 4 at Grace Cathedral, where the acoustics keep notes reverberating for seven seconds before they fade away.
Former San Francisco Ballet prima ballerina Muriel Maffre returns to a Bay Area stage, to dance in a production of "The Soldier's Tale" she's co-directing at Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. But she's also acting as puppeteer for the title character, as he's tempted by the devil to give up his violin.
Monday, November 14
Nov 15 2011 12:00AM
Posted 99 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco's upcoming concert is called "BrokeBach Mountain" - and features works by three Bachs: J.S., P.D.Q., and Offen-. Plus, there's music from the 2005 film that inspired the name of the concert.
Friday, November 11
Nov 14 2011 12:00AM
Posted 100 days 10 hrs 11 mins ago
Classical Revolution is the group of chamber musicians who play at Revolution Cafe in the Mission District every Monday night. They're five years old, and releasing their first CD, from the founding members' Music Arts Quintet.
Opera San Jose has paired two tales of love gone horribly wrong. Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Francis Poulenc's La Voix humaine (The Human Voice) - a work for one singer, a woman being jilted by her lover on the telephone.
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The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is trying an unorthodox approach for finding a concerto soloist for two concerts late in the Fall: they're going to hold an audition via YouTube, and let visitors to their channel help winnow the selection down to 20 semi-finalists. It's been done before (notably by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra) but not by a major US ensemble. 
A bit of a quiz today, to get in the mood for our "KDFC Goes to the Movies" countdown later this week. Can you identify all seventeen films represented here? 
The ensemble Musica Pacifica presents a series of concerts they're calling "Dancing in the Isles - The Sequel!" The repertoire is a blend of baroque music of the British Isles, from composers like Henry Purcell and Matthew Locke, as well as folk tunes from England, Scotland and Ireland. Recorder player Judith Linsenberg, violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque cellist/gambist Shirley Hunt and harpsichordist Charles Sherman are joined by percussionist John Loose for the concerts.
It's the tenth anniversary season of Company C Contemporary Ballet - and so Artistic Director Charles Anderson has brought back several works for 2 different programs this weekend, performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Anderson sees his company as filling an important role in the Bay Area dance world, bringing to town works that fall outside classical ballet that deserve a wider audience.
Actress Anna Deavere Smith has made a career of taking the words of people she's interviewed, and creating works that try to capture the essence of America. Her newest work, "On Grace" looks at that topic, and will get its first performances at Grace Cathedral this Friday and Saturday, accompanied by cellist Joshua Roman.
For Valentine's Day, a day of romance, a look at one composer's wide interpretation of what a "Romance" should sound like: Ralph Vaughan Williams covered the high, (very) low, familiar, and off the beaten track in four works with that name or description.
It's been 50 years since Tony Bennett first sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" - and he'll be returning to the city on Valentine's Day, to be honored by the city, and sing a benefit concert at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel, where he launched his signature tune.
A new, slimmer production of John Harbison's opera "The Great Gatsby" opens tonight at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Conductor Nicole Paiement explains the pit orchestra forces were more than halved, but because of Jacques Desjardins' re-orchestration, it sounds as lush and powerful as the original.
The San Francisco Symphony's celebration of the Chinese New Year with a special community concert is this Saturday. Guest conductor Carolyn Kuan will lead the orchestra in a program of works including the "Yellow River Piano Concerto" - a Chinese favorite that weaves together folk tunes with a lush orchestration reminiscent of Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff.
This weekend Andrew Mogrelia will be conducting his final two concerts as Music Director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra. During his seven years in that position, he's brought in an impressive roster of guest conductors and helped to expand the role of the orchestra at the SFCM.
Among the Grammy nominees in the "Best Small Ensemble Performance" classical music category is a disc showing the trans-Atlantic influence of Spanish culture in the 17th and 18th Centuries. It's called The Kingdoms of Castille, performed by the early music ensemble El Mundo, led by its founder, guitarist Richard Savino.
The Super Bowl's commercials are once again dipping into the well of classical music's greatest hits to sell their products. There don't seem to be quite as many this year as last, but Beethoven and Richard Strauss both feature prominently...
The Alexander Quartet, the ensemble in residence at San Francisco Performances, is celebrating their 30th-anniversary season with a special concert this weekend. Included on the program is the world premiere of a song cycle written for them and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato by Jake Heggie and lyricist Gene Scheer, telling the events of the life of French sculptor Camille Claudel.
Herbert Blomstedt, Conductor Emeritus of the San Francisco Symphony will be returning to the podium at Davies Symphony Hall for the first of several concerts, with the music of Tchaikovsky and Mozart. Garrick Ohlsson will be soloist in Mozart's 9th Piano Concerto ("Jeunehomme"), and the orchestra will dig into the 'fate' filled Fifth Symphony of Tchaikovsky.
After decades of persistent research, UC Berkeley musicologist Davitt Moroney found a manuscript in the National Library in Paris that had been presumed lost forever: a choral mass for 40 (and in the last movement, 60) totally independent voices by Alessandro Striggio. The massive work, along with others for similarly gigantic forces will have a performance with Moroney conducting this Friday and Saturday in Berkeley.
Today is the 75th Birthday of composer Philip Glass, who's still going strong, with the U.S. premiere of his Ninth Symphony at a special Carnegie Hall Birthday concert. There are other big events planned for the year, including a tour of his groundbreaking opera Einstein on the Beach, with a stop in Berkeley.
The "Mozart Effect" - has been used to describe a link between listening to classical music and being "smarter" - even though the original studies were much more specifically focused on spatial relation tasks, and the boost in ability was only temporary. But a more recent study says there's a longer term benefit to those who actually play or practice music, since it improves the listening skills involved in learning foreign languages and reading.
Mozart would have been 256 years old on January 27. Out of curiosity, I gave a listen to the work to which musicologist Ludwig von Kochel assigned the "K number" of 256. It's a lightning fast patter-aria that Mozart wrote to be inserted into a comic opera by another composer, marked to be sung in "a tempo suitable for a big chatterbox". 
The first San Francisco production of Onegin, the John Cranko-choreographed ballet of the Pushkin tale of lost love opens at San Francisco Ballet tomorrow night. Courtney Elizabeth is a soloist with the company who will be dancing the role of Olga - a character who inadvertently sets off a string of tragic events, after introducing Onegin to her sister Tatiana.
The Oscar-nominated films in the "Best Original Score" category are "The Adventures of Tintin", "The Artist", "Hugo", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", and "War Horse" - with the first and last by John Williams, who for the eighth time is competing against himself in the category... along with Ludovic Bource, Howard Shore, and Alberto Iglesias. The films are decidedly retro: the most recent time period depicted is the Cold War Era in John LeCarre's story of the world of British espionage.
The combined forces of several ensembles known collectively as "East Bay Performing Arts" will perform Carl Orff's Carmina Burana this Friday in Oakland. Michael Morgan, Musical Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony says it's a perfect vehicle for a large group... since you can't have too many people on stage.
The schedules for the 2012-2013 seasons for San Francisco Opera and Opera San Jose have been announced, with a variety of familiar classics, two world premieres: "The Secret Garden" by Nolan Gasser, and "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene" by Mark Adamo, plus the highly anticipated Bay Area premiere of Jake Heggie's "Moby-Dick."
The Santa Rosa Symphony's Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane returns for a series of concerts on the podium and at the keyboard this weekend. They'll play Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony and Mozart's Piano Concerto #25 - works that Kahane says complement eachother in texture and approach.
The last big hit of Gilbert & Sullivan was The Gondoliers, a comic opera set in Venice, and the mysterious land of Barataria. The Lamplighters Music Theatre production starts its run at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this weekend, and continues the following weekend in Walnut Creek. 
This Sunday evening, Music Director Joana Carneiro and the Berkeley Symphony will present an "Under Construction" reading concert, with works-in-progress by three young composers. The orchestra will rehearse the pieces, and audience members will be able to ask questions of composers Noah Luna, Evelyn Ficcara and Nils Bultmann.
Recently a New York Philharmonic concert was rudely (if unintentionally) interrupted by an audience member's cellphone alarm going off during a quiet passage of Mahler's ninth symphony. Cellphones and the concert hall tend not to mix, but on rare occasion, they do...
The Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival takes place this weekend at Davies Symphony Hall; talented young players will have the opportunity to meet their peers, perform separately, and then selected musicians will finish the concert as a combined festival orchestra. The concert benefits underserved and homeless children in the communities represented by the six orchestras.
An ambitious "semi-staging" of Claude Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien has soloists singing high above the orchestra and choir, and video and photo projections above them all. Michael Tilson Thomas told director and designer Anne Patterson to stress the magic in the work.
The piano trio called "Trio con Brio Copenhagen" is made up of Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer, his wife, cellist Soo-Kyung Hong, and her sister, Soo-Jin Hong. Their close ties have helped them develop a critically praised sound. The trio will play as part of the "
Members of the Kitchner Waterloo Symphony played their instruments and followed their scores... but also listened to their breathing and heartbeats with stethoscopes to determine how fast they should play. It's a work by Richard Reed Parry, called "For Heart, Breath and Orchestra", that they premiered on a CD from the Canadian label Analekta.
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be playing music from her new CD Something Almost Being Said this Saturday, at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga. It pairs the music of J.S. Bach with Franz Schubert, in works that she says sound as though they're "about to break out into words at any moment."
Ensemble Vermillian is performing tonight in Albany, and tomorrow night in Santa Rosa. Recorder player and founding member Frances Blaker says she's been able to find a lot of great Baroque music for the group to play - with the help of the internet.
The duo of cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O'Riley will be bringing the genre-bending repertoire from their latest CD ("Shuffle.Play.Listen") to Yoshi's tonight. Bernard Herrmann and Igor Stravinsky will be sharing the spotlight with Arcade Fire and Radiohead.
Day one of the Classical All-Stars countdown turns up a pair of works by Ravel, trips to Mars and Paris, and a chance for a bit of a mashup of some of the first dozen pieces, selected by listeners as their favorites. You can find the full listings in order so far 
16-year-old local pianist Hugo Kitano had a chance to take part in the NPR radio show "From the Top" with a concert in November that just aired nationally this past week. He played Chopin, and made an impressively acrobatic arrival onto the stage, showing off his 'parkour' skills as well as his musical talent.
James Carpenter stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in American Conservatory Theater's presentation of A Christmas Carol. As the run of the show heads to its final, Christmas Eve-afternoon performance, Carpenter describes the role as being like a "mini King Lear".
The short and the long of it... Days begin to grow longer once again, now that we've reached the winter solstice, so we take a look at a short piece of music, a long piece, and some very long pieces indeed. From seconds to years, things are getting longer today!
The Magik*Magik Orchestra is an ensemble-for-hire that can add instrumental colors and shadings from the world of classical music to songs by rock and pop artists. Orchestra founder Minna Choi puts together a tailor-made group of conservatory-trained players for each assignment, whether it's for a live concert performance, or as the house band at singer-songwriter John Vanderslice's "Tiny Telephone" recording studio.
The top-selling CDs from our "CD of the Week" picks of 2011 seem to have some things in common - composers, repertoire, and even one not-so-likely bit of film music make multiple appearances on the list. You can find the complete list of recordings 
John Rutter is one of the most prolific choral composers and arrangers working today. His new holiday CD, "
San Jose State University's Beethoven Center is celebrating the composer's birthday with the final days of an exhibit tracing his influence in America's popular culture... More than just a hero to Schroeder, there were comic books in WWII celebrating Beethoven, the creator of the "V for Victory" motif from the Fifth Symphony. You can visit the Center's website 
Today, a re-working of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" for the Classical music lover - from Steve Reich's Drumming and the piper piping at Peter Maxwell Davies' An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise... down to William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, and Haydn's Parisian "Hen"...
The Canadian Brass will be playing two shows at Yoshi's over the weekend. Trumpeter and arranger Brandon Ridenour says he prefers the cozier venue of a Jazz club to a big hall, where the audience is farther away. The quintet, which got its start in 1970 has just released a CD called "Canadian Brass Takes Flight," following quickly on the disc of Brahms transcriptions that came out just in September.
Holiday travel is a little more culturally uplifting at the San Francisco International Airport this winter. During the height of holiday travel season, the series called "You Are Hear" brings area musicians to perform at the terminals (some before security, some after) to entertain those waiting for planes, and new arrivals.
The all-male "Orchestra of Voices" Chanticleer is back in the Bay Area for their annual series of Christmas concerts, and they're going pretty much non-stop from now until the 23rd of December. It's one of the busiest times of the year for the choir, as they sing a broad repertoire from plainchant to gospel. And you can bet they'll be singing Franz Biebl's 1964 arrangement of Ave Maria, the lovely setting they've made their own.
It's not every day you get to hear a concerto conducted by the composer, and played by the soloist for whom it was written. But Esa-Pekka Salonen's Violin Concerto (which just won the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Award, one of the biggest prizes in all of classical music) is being performed with Leila Josefowicz and the San Francisco Symphony in a series of concerts through Saturday.
In the centennial season of the San Francisco Symphony, this is actually the day - 100 years ago this afternoon the orchestra gave its first concert. As part of the festivities, music historian Scott Foglesong has tracked down every recording he could possibly find made by the SFS, which will be featured in 
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has two San Francisco performances this week as part of its west coast tour. It's one of six major orchestras from around the US to play here in honor of the Symphony's centennial. Ludovic Morlot, of the Seattle Symphony is substituting for his mentor, James Levine, who recently stepped down as Music Director of the BSO.
Pianist Sarah Cahill and the Berkeley Symphony present a rare performance of Bay Area composer Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto on Thursday at Zellerbach Hall. It's a work that fuses the composer's love for Indonesian traditions and medieval dance, and requires a special "cluster bar" to help the performer play blocks of notes. 
We're in the middle of the "Sing-along Messiah" season - if you've got the urge to join the choruses, there is some preparation you can do... even if all you really want to do is sing the Hallelujah chorus.
When is a concert not a concert? When it's a 'concital.' Jon Nakamatsu and the Symphony Silicon Valley present a concital in San Jose, with the first half a solo piano recital, and the second a symphonic Chopin piano concerto.
This month Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is going to be putting on two masterworks by Bach and Handel (first the Mass in B Minor, then Messiah) along with soloists, and Bruce Lamott and the Philharmonia Chorale. Conductor Nicholas McGegan says both works leave a lot of decision making up to the performers - since the composers were constantly revising, adapting and re-working their music. 
The Brentano String Quartet will be playing in San Francisco's Herbst Theatre this Sunday, with a program called "Fragments: Connecting Past and Present" that pairs newly commissioned works with unfinished pieces by Mozart, Schubert, Bach, Shostakovich and others that served as inspiration.
The live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera begin their season (airing Saturday mornings on KDFC) this weekend. It's a season that starts in the Baroque, and includes a "new" work with music from that era by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and others.
This time of year, you're very likely to be able to find performances of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Handel's Messiah. But who has all that time? Here's a seasonal mashup to whet your appetite.
Mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen returns to the San Francisco Opera - where she was once an Adler Fellow - to sing the lead in Bizet's Carmen, a character she calls both sexy and smart.
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society has its 30th Annual Classical Piano Fest this weekend, with two up and coming soloists selected and joined by the Mack McCray, Chair of the Piano department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 
Violinist Gil Shaham returns to Davies Symphony Hall this week for three concerts of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony. He's also just been named "Instrumentalist of the Year" by the journal Musical America.
A concert this Saturday of the music of French composer Philippe Hersant will include the American premiere of a viola concerto called "Musical Humors". It's a contemporary piece that gets inspiration from a Baroque-era Scottish composer and viola da gamba player Tobias Hume. There's more information about the concert 
Berkeley's Crowden Center for Music in the Community presents a concert Saturday evening... of music by students who are "John Adams Young Composers", as played by the Sierra Ensemble, a professional horn trio. 
The next concert in the SFJazz Series called "Soulful Singers" will feature Anonymous 4 at Grace Cathedral, where the acoustics keep notes reverberating for seven seconds before they fade away.
Former San Francisco Ballet prima ballerina Muriel Maffre returns to a Bay Area stage, to dance in a production of "The Soldier's Tale" she's co-directing at Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. But she's also acting as puppeteer for the title character, as he's tempted by the devil to give up his violin.
The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco's upcoming concert is called "BrokeBach Mountain" - and features works by three Bachs: J.S., P.D.Q., and Offen-. Plus, there's music from the 2005 film that inspired the name of the concert.
Classical Revolution is the group of chamber musicians who play at Revolution Cafe in the Mission District every Monday night. They're five years old, and releasing their first CD, from the founding members' Music Arts Quintet.
Opera San Jose has paired two tales of love gone horribly wrong. Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Francis Poulenc's La Voix humaine (The Human Voice) - a work for one singer, a woman being jilted by her lover on the telephone.