San Francisco Performances: Jeffrey & Gabriel Kahane

Last Friday I was back at Herbst Theater for a dual concert with the Kahanes, père & fils, presented by San Francisco Performances. It was actually their season-opening gala (sort of, as it was preceded by a couple of other concerts), though I was there only for the concert (there was a dinner which was a separate ticket). In fact when I bought my ticket last spring I'm not sure I realized it was part of a gala. I just like the Kahanes.

Gabriel emceed with his usual genially askew humor. He started by saying he was surprised when the gala was suggested to him, as he didn't think he had that level of glamorous renown (my phrasing, not his), until he realized that maybe if you put him together with his father the combination was enough to qualify as a gala host. And indeed most "galas" feature big star performers, usually in something light &, this is important, short. That's one reason I generally avoid galas. But having the Kahanes host is offbeat enough to say good things about San Francisco Performances, & their attitude, both serious & playful, to what they do: expect musical surprises & artistic pleasures, not boldfaced names & fancy attire (actually, a lot of the audience was more dressed up than the performers, who wore basically black jeans & long-sleeved t-shirts, which is what I was wearing, so I did not feel out of place).

The program was mostly announced from the stage. As the concert slipped into the "past performances" archive on SFP's website, it was not updated with the playlist, as I had thought it might be, so I'm going  by memory here. They opened with three "composed folk" songs, sung by Gabriel to piano accompaniment by Jeffrey (& I apologize for the obnoxious use of first names, but it seems like the easiest way to distinguish them under the circumstances). The first was by Bob Dylan. I didn't recognize that, or the others, though I liked them.

Gabriel referenced the current insanity under which we live with some musical settings of the words of Robert F Kennedy Jr. He prefaced these by quoting the latest bit of wacky WTFery from that source: that autism (which the Secretary seems a bit obsessed with) is caused by circumcision. (Which is why all Jewish men & many of us gentiles are autistic – my joke, not Kahane's –sorry if it's in bad taste, but it's difficult to know how to react in face of the firehose of free-associative madness we're sprayed with daily.) Gabriel has a bit of a specialty in these witty & appealing settings of found texts, as witness his celebrated Craigslistlieder & his Fleischlieder. This set lived up to their predecessors. One was a parody of the much-parodied William Carlos Williams poem apologizing for eating the plums in the icebox (so I guess not quite a found text in this case) & another was a setting of RFK Jr's admission or boast about having a brainworm. It was epic.

Jeffrey played several short pieces on piano. There was a Mendelssohn "song without words" (which could describe a lot of the piano pieces; both the classical & the folk-ish fit in beautifully with each other). I think there was also a Schumann piece? We had what Gabriel referred to as the lightning round, in which the two men traded off piano solos, segueing seamlessly from one to the other, fortunately without intrusive applause (the audience was attentive & appreciative, which also set this apart from other "galas"). I think it was right before or after this that Jeffrey told Gabriel that his iPad (Gabriel's, which his father was using) had locked out & all the passwords he guessed (birthdates, &c) had failed. I couldn't tell at first if this was an entertaining bit of business or, you know, reality. It turns out it was the latter. In a bold move, Gabriel gave his father the password out loud on stage. I forgot it immediately (I'm not a numbers guy), so if any of you happen to end up with Gabriel Kahane's iPad, you're on your own breaking the code.

There was a long song to a text by Matthew Zapruder. Very appealing, though it was dense & long enough so that it was difficult to take it all in on first listen (this is far from a criticism, by the way). I think then Jeffrey played one of the Schubert Impromptus.  Then came the only officially announced portion of the program: the world premiere for two pianos of one of the movements of Heirloom, a piano concerto Gabriel had written for Jeffrey. There was a funny & charming story attached to the movement's title: during the pandemic, Gabriel's very young daughter would only eat chicken, & she used to play in a pretend vehicle her mother had made out of a big cardboard box. So the movement, which was bright & sprightly as well as funny & charming, was named Vera's chicken-powered transit machine. (The original piece has been released by Nonesuch records so you can hear the whole thing, & let's support our artists by buying their art!)

There was one encore; Gabriel announced he would leave us with some Joni Mitchell. She is loved by many whose opinions I respect (including, apparently, the Kahanes) but I do not hear what they're hearing in her. I decided I would try to listen with neutral ears, as if I had not heard the name. I don't know if I succeeded in that or not, as I found it the weakest piece of the evening. No harm done, as it had been an engaging & interesting 90 minutes. The respect & love between father & son was palpable & it was a pleasure sharing in their music-making.

Museum Monday 2025/41

 

detail of Landscape with Pan and Syrinx by Paul Bril, now at the Legion of Honor

Friday Photo 2025/41

 

detail of a mosaic at the Castro Valley Marketplace (the mosaics are the work of artist Rita Soyfertis)

Museum Monday 2025/40

 

detail of Rain Garden Zag IV by Louise Nevelson, now at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

Friday Photo 2025/40

 

geraniums

San Francisco Symphony: Runnicles conducts Berg & Mahler

Last Saturday I was at the second of three performances of Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs & the Mahler 1, with Donald Runnicles leading the San Francisco Symphony. It was a magnificent performance of an excellent program (such are starting to stand out on the Symphony schedule, crowded as it is with attempts to turn these superb musicians into a back-up band for pop groups or soundtrack-suppliers for recent movie hits that already come with perfectly fine soundtracks), & a welcome return to this area for Runnicles, fondly remembered by many (including me) for his work across the street at the Opera House.

The program opened, as you might expect, with the Berg songs, with mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts as soloist. She swept out looking exceedingly glam in her broad-hemmed pink gown. I don't know why the pink surprised me (pleasantly), but it did. Perhaps at some level I was expecting something more somber, for no particular reason. Roberts was in splendid voice, rich & intimate in these crepuscular & shifting songs. As anyone who has been in Davies knows, it is what is kindly called a barn: a vast, not very attractive space with notoriously iffy acoustics. The miracle of this performance was the intimacy Roberts & Runnicles with the orchestra created, the almost hushed immediacy of a direct, heart-to-heart communication, drawing in even those rows back from the stage. I always love the works of the Second Viennese School, but this was really a performance to cherish.

After the intermission we had the Mahler 1, sometimes still known as the Titan, though it's a nickname the composer jettisoned. The familiar music unfolded magnificently, implanting itself newly into my memory (I've been replaying parts of it in my mind for days). What struck me most about the whole thing was the flow & the timing: it never seemed too fast, too slow, too hurried, stretched out, but all perfectly balanced. I loved it, but I have to say, I preferred the Berg. Perhaps the triumphant overcoming of obstacles at the symphony's end, however inspiring to listen to & even theatrically thrilling to see (when the horn players stand), – the "Titan"-esque romantic heroness of it – that doesn't quite resonate with me, especially in this moment, so grim politically as well as in other ways. It is the questing, inclusive, neurotic Mahler that I respond to more, at least these days, & these are qualities found with greater strength, I think, in Mahler's other works.

My anxieties aside, I was deeply grateful to have heard this performance. And of course the subtext here is "the San Francisco Symphony is not doomed" (or maybe, "the San Francisco Symphony is not doomed – yet"); its current administration will forever be branded as the ones who didn't bother to keep Esa-Pekka Salonen,  & it remains to be seen where they'll steer this ship, but in the meantime, we are given this generous & triumphant performance.

San Francisco Performances: Mark Padmore & Paul Lewis perform Schumann

San Francisco Performances opened its season with an all-Schumann program, performed by tenor Mark Padmore & pianist Paul Lewis. I am always happy to hear all three gentlemen.

The first half opened with the Four Hans Christian Andersen Lieder, Opus 40, followed by Liederkreis, Opus 39; after the intermission (which Padmore charmingly referred to in the British way as "the interval"), we had Dichterliebe, Opus 48 – as the opus numbers might tell you, all 33 songs we heard were composed in roughly the same period: according to the program, 1840, the year Schumann finally managed to marry Clara Wieck. Despite the officially happy circumstances of the composer's life at the time, many of these songs are haunted & afflicted with loss. Make of that what you will; of course there is the old warning about answered prayers, but the inner creative impulses of the artist don't always reflect his outer circumstances, even for the Romantics. How could anyone expect something titled Dichterliebe – poet's love – to be straightforwardly happy?

After the opening Andersen lieder, Padmore spoke briefly about the affinity Schumann felt for the writings of that odd spinner of tales. He also mentioned that Schumann was basically a pianist, & we should think of the songs not as verse set to music but as music with words attached. The pellucid playing of Lewis was indeed a highlight of the evening, sparkling & insightful.

With his finely etched features & patriarchal silver beard, Padmore looks like a High Gothic sculpture of one of the prophets, which lends an interesting dimension to some of the songs, such as the solemn conjuration of Cologne Cathedral in Dichterliebe. It seemed to me, with my very limited knowledge of German, that he pointed the words with expressive power, plaintive when needed, thundering on occasion. (I would very much like to hear him sing a program entirely in English.)  The usual adjective applied to British tenors, reedy, doesn't seem out of place; I find it a pleasing quality. And though I have heard these songs sung with more plush tones, given the intellectual & aesthetic integrity & emotional commitment displayed here, the merely plush can seem almost a limitation of what the music contains.

As Padmore pointed out, it's difficult to come up with an encore that could follow Dichterliebe, so he sang one of the four songs that were strangely omitted form the official compilation: Dien Angesicht.

I found it all very satisfying, though the woman behind me managed to make astonishing amounts of noise with her program. I really don't understand this. All the songs are printed there, in the order in which they're sung. Why the endless flipping, folding, searching, creasing, crackling? What is so hard to find? As I was leaving, I heard her say to someone, "That was a nice way to end the week" so I felt kind of bad about my irritation.

San Francisco Opera: Dead Man Walking

Last week I went to the second production of San Francisco Opera's season, Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie & Terrence McNally, based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean about her work as a spiritual advisor to a convict on death row in Louisiana, & how that work changed both of them. The opera had its world premiere here 25 years ago. I saw it then & was impressed by it; a quarter of a century & many, many operas later, I remain impressed by it. It's an especially impressive piece of work when you consider that it was the first opera Heggie wrote. You don't just stumble into such power, though it took considerable insight for those who put the commission together to realize it was implicit in the pleasant young man who had written some pleasing songs.

I think there's often a tendency to be a bit dismissive of Heggie; I have found his music consistently interesting & appealing, elegant though also strong & forceful as needed. I haven't always liked the texts he has set, but although I have some (mild) reservations about McNally's libretto for Dead Man Walking, it is a perfect subject for Heggie (& how did they realize it would be? these are the mysteries of art). He often deals with dark subjects, but I think Heggie is not essentially drawn to darkness, but to the movement from darkness to light. That is why the portrayal of the journey (a key word in this opera) of Sister Helen & the convict Joseph De Rocher seems to me an artistic triumph, whereas Heggie's Moby-Dick left me unsatisfied. I will be the face of love for you is a Heggie sentiment; From Hell's heart I stab at thee! is not.

Interestingly, there are a couple of spots in the opera when the music is muted or silent; the first is in the opening scene, depicting the brutal rape & murder of two teenagers by the De Rocher brothers. After an uneasy trembling opening, the music sort of drops out & what we hear is what's playing on the teenagers' car radio. The silence adds to the tension & horror of the scene; we expect music, but there isn't any.(The orchestra resumes full force in the second scene, showing Sister Helen & Sister Rose (Brittany Renee, a bright & strong presence throughout) singing a hymn with a group of the children they serve at Hope House.) The second time, when we are given not intermittent but complete silence, is during the execution itself. It's an interesting choice, to leave this key moment in silence (not exactly silence, of course, as there really is no such thing; we hear the ominous mechanical metronome-like beeping of the death machinery). It was a controversial choice at the premiere. The musical shock of silence increases our awareness of what is happening. It sets it apart. Perhaps the music is the enveloping social & emotional & psychological bonds of this world, something apart from the cold & silent hand of state-administered death. Perhaps it is only the portrayal of life, not death, that interests the composer.

Heggie's music for this work is strong & encompassing, with distinctive regional touches – old-school hymns, delta blues, some Elvis Presley when the nun & the killer bond over a shared love of the King. Patrick Summers was back to lead the orchestra (he also led the premiere), & led a committed & rousing performance, though he does still have his tendency in moments of high drama to let the orchestra cover the singers a bit.

My reservation about the libretto is the very prominent role given to De Rocher's mother. My views are perhaps colored a bit by a those of a friend who went to the premiere production with me; the mother, a struggling but, in her own mind, well-meaning character, struck some family chimes with my friend, who found her not only weak but emotionally manipulative. (I'm not sure I would go quite that far.) Mrs De Rocher was the role taken at the premiere by Frederica von Stade, & of course if you have the opportunity to write for such an artist you're going to seize it, but I felt then & again now that the part could be trimmed back a little. This is no reflection on von Stade or on Susan Graham, who created the role of Sister Helen 25 years ago & has returned to give a touching & truthful portrayal of the mother. But I think we discover what she has to say fairly quickly & some of her time & space would maybe be better spent with the parents of the two victims, who, outside of one powerful ensemble, have little to say or do (with the partial exception of the murdered girl's father, in a complex portrayal by Rod Gilfry).

There really is no answer to the opera's debate, which officially is about justice versus vengeance versus mercy, but really is a surging emotion-driven whirlwind of helpless pain on the part of everyone: the mother who cannot believe the beloved little boy she raised committed such horrible acts, the parents who know their children were cruelly robbed of life, the nun who is trying to figure out a way, guided by her understanding of the teachings of Christ & the Catholic Church, to move them all to a place of understanding, forgiveness, & love. These are impossible tasks, &, as with the John Adams / Alice Goodman The Death of Klinghoffer, no matter where you think you stand on the people & issues portrayed, you're going to feel a bit discomfited, which of course is the point.

I don't see this as an "issue opera" about the death penalty; it's pretty clear, from what we're shown, that it is unjust & inequitable. The drama is more about the struggle to understand & to connect along the way. We the audience have seen what De Rocher did, but he denies it, blaming his brother (who had a better lawyer & got off with a life sentence). But is he simply withholding the truth to avoid giving a justification to those who want to kill him in turn? Was he too drugged out to remember what exactly happened? How far should Sister Helen believe him? And has she, as the victims' parents charged, ignored them in favor of a sentimental identification with an evil man? (She realizes she has made a mistake in not reaching out to them, but, as I noted earlier, I think the opera makes the same mistake in not giving them more prominent voices.)

So here's a little sidelight on the struggle for community & connection & understanding: the couple seated behind me were, at least initially, awful. They kept whispering loudly back & forth; one of them snickered at Sister Helen's description of a nun as "the bride of Christ" (perhaps they had never heard this common metaphor? in any case, it's part of the strange power, illustrated also in the opera, that the celibate hold over the imaginations of people). I gave them The Glare during the whispering, & finally turned around & briefly shushed them, which I am very reluctant to do (if the problem is noise, the solution is not more noise, but I could not face having to listen to their inane chatter for the next three hours). The guy exploded at me. I think he told me to fuck myself; he definitely called me a prick (which struck me as an odd, almost charming word, one not heard much these days). After that they did both shut up for the rest of the opera, fortunately, but there you sit pondering connection & community & forgiveness while being attacked in a theater for letting people know you are there to hear the performers & not some random clown in the audience. Such is the strange interplay between theater & life. Why is life so much more trivial?

Back to the drama on stage. I have already mentioned some of the performers, though not the leads.  Jamie Barton gave us a strong Sister Helen, whose struggles with others (notably the prison's recalcitrant chaplain, skillfully portrayed by Chad Shelton as both smooth & gruff) & with herself provide the heart of the drama. She was matched by the Joseph De Rocher of Ryan McKinny, whose strong physical presence masked a recessive & evasive persona that finally gives way, under Sister Helen's influence, to a place of humility & compassion. I've mentioned Rod Gilfry as the murdered girl's father; Caroline Corrales played her mother, & Nikola Printz & Samuel White the parents of the murdered boy, & as mentioned I would have liked to have heard more from them. The entire cast was strong, & the multi-level, cage-like set is extremely effective. Dead Man Walking is, I believe, the most-performed of contemporary operas; this production was a powerful reminder of why this work has already held the stage for a quarter century, & is likely to continue doing so for many more.

Museum Monday 2025/39

 

detail of Bacchus & Ariadne by Corneille Van Clève, an early eighteenth-century French bronze now in the Legion of Honor

Another Opening, Another Show: October 2025

Usually I would launch this preview with some wit & wisdom for you, but I seem to have developed a new thing where I go to a performance & come down with a terrible headache, & I've been to several performances lately (write-ups to follow, once headaches subside), so you will have to supply your own wit & wisdom this time, possibly with help from one of these events:

Potpourri

Intermusic SF presents the 18th SF Music Day on 19 October at the War Memorial venue (Herbst Theater, the Green Room, the Taube Atrium Theater); as usual, there will be a smorgasbord of local musicians ("20 local ensembles, with over 85 artists performing for 6+ hours of continuous music . . . including blues, chamber-folk, classical, early, experimental, jazz, new, tango, world music – and everything in between"); unlike previous editions, there is a (minimal) admission charge for this one, due to unrelenting cutbacks for arts funding, particularly on the federal level.

Theatrical

From 8 October to 2 November at Z Below, Word for Word and Z Space present Hard Times: Appalachian Stories by Ron Rash, featuring The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth, Sad Man in the Sky, & Hard Times, directed by Jim Cave & Amy Kossow.

The Oakland Theater Project presents The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings (transcripts arranged by Arian Moyad), based on the case of a Filipina married to a US citizen who accidentally checked the wrong box on her driver's license form & fell into the Kafka-esque world of the US immigration system, & that runs 9 - 19 October at the Flax Theater in Oakland.

Ray of Light Theater presents its annual immersive production of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, with D'Arcy Drollinger as Frank N Furter, from 9 to 31 October at the Oasis in San Francisco  (as this venue is a nightclub selling alcohol, audience members must show proof that they are at least 21 years old).

From 10 - 12 October at the Potrero Stage, Modest Miracle Productions presents In Our Own Words, a found text play by Jackie B; this is the first show by this group, a collective of theater professionals who want to use the medium to explore 12-step programs & recovery.

From 11 October to 2 November, Theater Lunatico at La Val's Subterranean presents Frankenstein, adapted by Tina Taylor & directed by Lauri Smith; the production highlights the female characters in Mary Shelley's original novel.

From 16 to 19 October at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies presents The Trials by Dawn King, directed by Daniel Larlham, a "dystopian courtroom drama set in a near future devastated by climate change" in which "a jury of twelve teenagers deliberates, argues, and passes judgment on the adults who failed to act while there was still time".

New Conservatory Theater Center presents the world premiere of Spanish Stew by Marga Gomez, directed by Richard A Mosqueda, about a young Latina lesbian who moves to 1970s San Francisco & recreates a family recipe while creating a family of choice, & that runs 17 October to 23 November.

From 22 October to 9 November at the Orpheum, BroadwaySF presents Suffs, the Broadway musical created by Shaina Taub about the American women's suffrage movement.

From 23 October through 23 November, the San Leandro Players present Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey, directed by Daniel Dickinson; "On the eve of WWII, a man seeks solace in a lighthouse on Lake Michigan as he flees the world and its problems.  When all looks darkest, a collection of ghostly figures help him find the strength and courage to rejoin the world of the living."

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From 25 October through 10 November at ZSpace's Steindler Stage, Golden Thread Productions & Z Space present the world premiere of Pilgrimage by Humaira Ghilzai & Bridgette Dutta Portman, directed by Michelle Talgarow, about five women, friends & relatives, who make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

ACT in association with BroadwaySF present Stereophonic by David Adjmi, with original music by Will Butler, directed by Daniel Aukin, the much-praised show about a rising 1970s rock band recording their new album, amid increasing expectations & tensions, & that will be at the Curran Theater from 28 October to 23 November.

Berkeley Rep presents the west coast premiere of The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth, directed by Loretta Greco, about four sisters, intended by their mother to be a singing group, returning as adults o their childhood home in England, & that plays from 31 October to 7 December.

Operatic

Livermore Valley Opera presents Verdi's La Traviata, conducted by Alexander Katsman & directed by Candace Evans, with Avery Boettcher as Violetta, Brad Bickhardt as Alfredo, & Krassen Karagiozov as Father Germont, & that's 27 - 28 September & 4 - 5 October at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore.

West Bay Opera presents Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns, conducted & directed by José Luis Moscovich & featuring John Kun Park as Samson, Kim Stanish as Dalila, & Kellen Schrimper as the High Priest of Dagon, on 10, 12, 18, & 19 October at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto.

October is strangely quiet at San Francisco Opera, but the month ends with something big: their first production in 25 years of Parsifal; Eun Sun Kim conducts, continuing her traversal of Wagner's works; Matthew Ozawa directs, & the cast includes Brandon Jovanovich in the title role, Kwangchul Youn as Gurnemanz, Brian Mulligan as Amfortas, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Kundry, & Falk Struckmann as Klingsor, & you can experience it all on 25 & 28 October & 2, 7, & 13 November. In conjunction with these performances, the Wagner Society of Northern California is presenting two lectures: on 18 October, via Zoom, Paul Schofield will discuss his book The Redeemer Reborn, Parsifal as the Fifth Opera of Wagner’s Ring, & on 1 November at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Thomas Grey will discuss Outside/Inside: Sacred Spaces in Parsifal.

On 24 & 26 October at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Festival Opera joins with the Diablo Symphony Orchestra in a concert presentation of Verdi's La Traviata, conducted by Matilda Hofman & staged by Richard Harrell, with Jamie Chamberlin as Violetta, Nathan Granner as Alfredo, &  Zachary Gordin as his father.

Opera Parallèle presents the world premiere of Hello, Star, with music by Carla Lucero & a libretto by  Jarrod Lee (based on the book by Stephanie V. Lucianovic celebrating the contributions of Black women to science); this "family friendly" opera will play 25 - 26 October at the Creativity Theater in the Children’s Creativity Museum at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Choral

On 28 October at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble will join with Kurbasy (from L'viv, Ukraine) in Songs from the Ukrainian Forest. a celebration of eastern European vocal folk traditions as well as "democracy, peace, and justice".

Vocalists

On 4 October at the SF Jazz Center, vocalist Kurt Elling, joined by pianist Christian Sands, will perform music from his recent album Wildflowers.

On 5 October in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter with Kristian Bezuidenhout on fortepiano performing Schubert's Schwanengesang along with some of his keyboard works.

On 5 October at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, you can spend An Afternoon with Holly Near: Songs, Stories and Breathe! with pianist Jan Martinelli accompanying Near.

On 6 October at Davies Hall, the SF Jazz Center presents Ledisi in For Dinah, her tribute to blues great Dinah Washington.

Jazz / cabaret singer Paula West performs two shows of her signature mix of the Great American Songbook & classic American pop (Dylan, Bowie, &c) at the Piedmont Piano Company on 11 October.

On 12 October at the SF Jazz Center, Martha Redbone & her sextet will celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.

On 24 October at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents baritone Benjamin Appl with pianist  James Baillie performing their Homage to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, a program featuring lieder by Schubert, Albert Fischer-Dieskau, Klaus Fischer-Dieskau, Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Reimann, Tchaikovsky, Eduard Künneke, Hanns Eisler, Grieg, Carl Loewe, Clara Schubert, & Carl Maria von Weber.

Lila Downs returns to Cal Performances & Zellerbach Hall on 25 October with her annual celebration of Día de los Muertos.

On 25 October, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Barbro Osher Recital Hall on Van Ness Avenue, pianist Craig Terry, as the culmination of his Voice Department residency, will lead Beyond the Aria, a program featuring Terry, soprano Christine Goerke, & baritone Hugh Russell, as well as Conservatory voice students, performing an as-yet unannounced program.

Orchestral

On 3 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Hume Concert Hall, Kedrick Armstrong leads the Conservatory Orchestra in the Concerto Competition Winners Program, featuring Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's The Bamboula, Berlioz's Les nuits d'été (with competition winner Cristina Villalobos, soprano), & Bartók's Viola Concerto (with competition winner Zoe Yost).

On 4 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Donald Lee III leads the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in the California premieres of Damien Geter's Sinfonia Americana & Joel Thompson's To Awaken the Sleeper (to a text from James Baldwin) along with the Beethoven 5.

On 4 October at Herbst Theater, Jessica Bejarano leads the San Francisco Philharmonic in an all-Beethoven program, featuring the Fidelio Overture, the Triple Concerto (more formally, the Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Opus 56, with respective soloists Cordula Merks, Amos Yang, & John Wilson), & the Fifth Symphony.

On 5 October at First Congregational in Berkeley, Edwin Outwater leads the Berkeley Symphony in Refracted Light, a program consisting of Samuel Adams’s Chamber Concerto (with violin soloist Helen Kim), Yaz Lancaster's Gender Envy, & the Haydn 100, the Military (First Congregational is much smaller than the Berkeley Symphony's former hall, Zellerbach, & I notice their September concert is sold out, so if this program look interesting to you, you might want to buy tickets sooner rather than later).

Here's what's happening orchestrally at the San Francisco Symphony this month: on 3 - 5 October, Gustavo Gimeno leads the band in the world premiere of an SFS commission, Market Street, 1920s by Timothy Higgins, along with Grieg's Piano Concerto (with soloist Javier Perianes), & the Tchaikovsky 5; on 16 - 18 October, Jun Märkl makes his SFS debut leading the band in Bartók's Violin Concerto #2 (with soloist Leonidas Kavakos) & Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (full score, not the suite); & on 24 - 26 October, David Afkham makes his SFS debut leading the band in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (with soloist Sergey Khachatryan) & the Shostakovich 8.

On 17 October at the Paramount Theater, Kedrick Armstrong leads the Oakland Symphony in Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G (with soloist Sara Davis Buechner), Adolphus Hailstork's Symphony #1, & Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919 version).

Jory Fankuchen leads the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven's Egmont Overture, selections from Jennifer Higdon's Dance Card, & Max Bruch's Violin Concerto #1 (with soloist Robin Sharp,), & you can hear it all on 17 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 18 October at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 19 October at First Presbyterian in Berkeley; admission is always free & RSVPs are not required but appreciated.

Cal Performances brings London's Philharmonia Orchestra & conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali to Zellerbach Hall on 18 - 19 October for two different programs: on the 18th you can hear Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5, the Emperor (with soloist Víkingur Ólafsson), Gabriela Ortiz's Si el oxígeno fuera verde, & the Sibelius 5; & on the 19th you can hear Sibelius's Finlandia, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major (again with soloist Víkingur Ólafsson), & the Shostakovich 5.

Chamber Music

If you're free & in Berkeley on Wednesdays at noon, the UC Berkeley Music Department has free concerts at Hertz Hall: this month, on 15 October you can hear the University Baroque Ensemble, directed by David Miller, performing works by Telemann, & on 22 October you can hear violinist Phoebe Wu & pianist Vanness Yu performing an all-Beethoven program. If you're free at noonish on Tuesdays & in the Financial District, you can go to Old Saint Mary's for the Noontime Concerts series (the October concerts have not been announced yet – I believe they release the schedule quarter by quarter , but you can check here to see what's coming up).

On 5 October at Noe Valley Ministry, Noe Music presents James Austin Smith & his group American Wind Soloists in a program that includes works by Mozart, Ruth Gipps, & Smetana.

On 5 October at the Berkeley Hillside Club, as part of their series Chamber Music Sundaes, the Tomodachi Quartet (Cordula Merks & Mayumi Wyrick, violins; Amy Hiraga, viola; Peter Wyrick, cello), joined by pianist Anton Nel, will perform Amy Beach's Piano Quintet F minor Opus 67& Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet E-flat Major Opus 44; & on 28 October at the Berkeley City Club, Berkeley Chamber Performances presents the Quartet in a program of Ravel, Debussy, Caroline Shaw, & Piazzola.

On 10 October at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Wind Ensemble, led by Matthew Sadowski, will perform Third Suite by Alfred Reed, Crescent Moon Dance by Akito Matsuda, & Eric Whitacre's Godzilla Eats Las Vegas.

On 11 October in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Attacca Quartet (Amy Schroeder & Domenic Salerni, violins; Nathan Schram, viola; Andrew Yee, cello) performing Haydn's String Quartet, Opus 50, #5, The Dream, David Lang's daisy (arranged by the Attacca), & Bartók's String Quartet #4.

On 12 October in Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents the Isidore Quartet (Adrian Steele & Phoenix Avalon, violin; Devin Moore, viola; Joshua McClendon, cello), who will perform Haydn's String Quartet in B-flat major, Sunrise, Gabriella Smith's Carrot Revolution, & Dvořák's String Quartet in G major.

On 14 October, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Barbro Osher Recital Hall on Van Ness Avenue, the Conservatory presents its monthly Chamber Music Tuesday, this time featuring flutist Demarre McGill, who will be joined by SFCM faculty & students to perform Allison Loggins-Hull's Hammers for Flute and Percussion Trio, Alyssa Morris's Motion for Woodwind Quartet, John Corigliano's Three Irish Song Settings for Soprano and Flute, Miguel Del Aguila's Submerged for Flute, Viola, and Harp, Valerie Coleman's Maombi Asante for Flute, Violin, and Cello, Amy Beach's Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, & Erberk Eryılmaz's Raki Havasi for Woodwind Quintet and Duval.

San Francisco Performances continues its popular Saturday morning Herbst Hall lecture / concert series, with host / lecturer Robert Greenberg & the Esmé Quartet (Wonhee Bae & Yuna Ha, violins; Dimitri Murrath, viola; Yeeun Heo, cello) exploring the quartets of Schubert; on 18 October, the centerpiece will be his String Quartet #13 in A Minor, Rosamunde.

On 19 October at Davies Hall, a chamber group of musicians from the San Francisco Symphony will perform Andy Akiho's 21, Martinů's Quartet for Clarinet, Horn, Cello, and Snare Drum, Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders! (as arranged by Hasenöhrl), & Janáček's String Quartet #2, Intimate Letters.

On 24 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Hume Concert Hall, Brad Hogarth leads SFCM’s Wind Ensemble, joined by SF Symphony trumpeter Aaron Schuman, to perform Shuying Liu's In this Breath (this piece will be conducted by Jason Gluck), Oskar Böhme:'s Concerto for Trumpet & Wind Ensemble, Michael Gilbertson's Usonian Dwellings, & Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy.

On 31 October at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents Spooky, a Halloween-appropriate program with the Kronos Quartet (David Harrington & Gabriela Díaz, violins; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Paul Wiancko, cello) & pianist Timo Andres, performing music from Philip Glass's score for Dracula, selections from Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho, selections from George Crumb's Black Angels, works by Nicole Lizée, Penderecki, Oswald (no first name given, & an Internet search reveals several composers with that surname, so adventure ahoy!), as well as the world premiere of an Edward Gorey-inspired work by Gabriel Kahane.

Instrumental

On 10 October in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents Jeffrey & Gabriel Kahane performing Heirloom for two pianos, which Gabriel wrote for his father Jeffrey; they will also perform other works for two pianos.

On 11 October at Saint John's Presbyterian in Berkeley, Four Seasons Arts presents pianist Rochelle Sennet playing Bach's Overture in the French Style, BWV 831, the African Sketches for Piano by Nkeiru Okoye, the Adagio in F minor by Joseph Bolone, Chevalier de Sant-Georges, Carnaval: Suite of Five Dances by Montague Ring, & Souls of Alkebulan by James Lee III.

On 17 October in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Conrad Tao exploring the relationship between Rachmaninoff & popular music in a program featuring pieces by, of course, Rachmaninoff, as well as Billy Strayhorn, Sondheim, Schumann, Irving Berlin, & Harold Arlen.

On 18 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran, San Francisco Performances in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts present guitarist Meng Su, performing the world premiere of Where the Echo Sings by Viet Cuong, as well as pieces by Bach (arranged by Koonce), Agustín Barrios Mangoré, Francisco Tárrega, & Sergio Assad.

On 19 October at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents a solo recital by pianist Marc-André Hamelin, who will perform Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata, Schumann's Waldszenen, Opus 82, & Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit.

On 25 October at the Berkeley Piano Club, Four Seasons Arts presents violinist Nathan Amaral performing Debussy's Violin Sonata, the Violin Sonata Opus 14 by Leopoldo Americo Miguez, Mozart's Violin Sonata In B-flat Major, Francisco Paulo Mignone's Valsa de Esquina #2, & Elgar's Violin Sonata in E minor, Opus 29.

On 30 October in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, also known as Nobu, performing Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (as arranged by Liszt), his Appassionata sonata, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite (as arranged by Pletnev), & Prokofiev's Piano Sonata #7.

Early / Baroque Music

The California Bach Society, led by new Artistic Director Nate Widelitz, performs Cori Spezzati: The Spatial Art of Split-Choir Sound, as exemplified in works by Bach (including his double-choir motet Singet dem Herrn), Schütz, Willaert, Phinot, & others, & you can hear them on 3 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 4 October at First Congregational in Palo Alto, & 5 October at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.

The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Tasto Solo in La Flor en Paradis—The New Musical Art in Europe, 1250-1350, a program "exploring motets, liturgical music, devotional songs, and Medieval secular dances and monodies from major historical sources such as the Codex Las Huelgas and the Montpellier Manuscript;"; Tasto Solo consists of Guillermo Pérez, organetto & direction; Anne-Kathryn Olsen, soprano; Natalie Carducci, medieval fiddle; & David Mayoral, percussion; & you can hear them 10 October at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 11 October at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 12 October at Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal in San Francisco.

On 12 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Hume Concert Hall, the SFCM Baroque Orchestra will celebrate the music of Venice with performances of Vivaldi's Concerto for Strings and Continuo in C Major, Giuseppe Torelli's Concerto in D Minor, Opus 6 #10, & a suite of dance music from Andrè Campra's delightful opera Le Carnaval de Venise (yes, I've seen this opera: Boston Early Music Festival, 2017).

Václav Luks leads Philharmonia Baroque, joined by soprano Maya Kherani, in Fury & Heartbreak, a program exploring music of the Italian baroque through Galuppi's Concerto for Strings #4 in C minor, Benedetto Marcello's Ariadne Abandoned, Handel's Armida Abandoned, Francesco Durante's Concerto for Strings #2 in G minor, & Vivaldi's In the Fury of Most Righteous Wrath, & you can experience it all on 16 October at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, 18 October at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 19 October at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

On 19 October at Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco, the San Francisco Bach Choir under Artistic Director Magen Solomon performs the program Viva Vivaldi: Magnificat, Gloria, and Dixit Dominus.

Jeffrey Thomas leads the American Bach Soloists, as well as guest vocalists Mary Wilson & Morgan Balfour (sopranos), Ágnes Vojtkó (contralto), Kyle Tingzon (countertenor), Jon Lee Keenan (tenor ), & Jesse Blumberg (baritone) in a musical re-creation of A Grand Tour, featuring Handel's Eternal Source of Light Divine, Bach's Orchestral Suite #1 in C Major, Vivaldi's Gloria, & Handel's Dixit Dominus, & you can take the trip on 24 October at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 25 October at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 26 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 27 October at the Davis Community Church in Davis.

Modern / Contemporary Music

On 11 October in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Kronos Quartet (David Harrington & Gabriela Díaz, violins; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Paul Wiancko, cello) performing world premieres by Victoria Shen & Dai Wei, as well as Nicole Lizée's Death to Kosmische, Angélica Negrón's Marejada, & Jonathan Berger's arrangement of the traditional song Ya Taali’een ‘ala el-Jabal (inspired by Rim Banna); the performance also includes "Beyond the Golden Gate, a hybrid performance-discussion-screening with Bay Area community activist David Lei that explores the impact of Chinese Americans on American culture".

The Friction Quartet (Otis Harriel & Kevin Rogers, violins; Mitso Floor, viola; Doug Machiz, cello) performs Giant Tiny Steps, a program curated by Machiz of works from the last decade – Juri Seo's Just Intonation Etudes, the world premiere arrangement (for string quartet and bassoon, with Jamael Smith on bassoon) of Rui’s Tango by Marcelo Nisinman, selections from Taylor Joshua Rankin's Sun, Will Grow, & the String Quartet #3 by Samuel Adams – & you can hear it all 18 October at the Berkeley Piano Club & 19 October at the Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.

The Other Minds Festival 29 will be held 16 - 19 October at Brava Theater in San Francisco; there are panel discussions as well as concerts, & you can buy a festival pass or tickets for individual sessions:

* the first night features Pamela Z performing Simultaneous, "an intermedia composition for voice, electronic processing, chamber ensemble, speech samples, gesture control, and projected video."; the program also features Peter Garland's Songs of Exile and Wine, performed by singer Maria Tegzes & pianist Geoffrey Burleson;

* on the second night, the Friction Quartet, violinist Helen Kim, percussionist Haruka Fujii, & pianists Conor Hanick & Sarah Cahill will perform works by Samuel Adams (including a world premiere, commissioned by Cahill, writtenas a tribute to Ingram Marshall); the program also includes a performance by Libby Van Cleve on English horn of Marshall's Dark Waters; 

* on the third night, you can see the world premiere of a choreographed work by Nancy Karp set to James Tenney's Three Pieces for Drum Quartet, as well as Kristine Tjøgersen's Piano Piece (for piano, electronics, & live camera), performed by pianist Ellen Ugelvik & visual artist Evelina Dembacke, as well as composer/harpist Zeena Parkinss & percussionist William Winant's performance of Parkins' Modesty of the Magic Thing, based on the drawings of Jay DeFeo, & on Lou Harrison’s American Gamelan tuning;

* & on the fourth & final night, Putu Septa, leader of the ensemble Nata Swara, will "perform an intercultural set of music for gamelan instruments and piano with fellow Balinese musician I Kadek Janurangga and ZOFO, the Bay Area piano duo of Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi, including music by Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti, Brian Baumbusch, and Colin McPhee".

Jazz / Blues

See also a number of jazz/blues singers listed above under Vocalists.

The Paul Cornish Trio (Cornish on piano, Jonathan Pinson on drums, Jermaine Paul on bass) perform in support of Cornish's new recording, You’re Exaggerating, at the Piedmont Piano Company on 4 October.

As usual, the SF Jazz Center has some concerts lined up to celebrate the 10 October birthday of Thelonious Monk (& if you're looking for an excellent biography of the jazz master, let me recommend Robin DG Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life & Times of an American Original): on 3 October, drummer Jaz Sawyer, joined by bassist Gary Brown & pianist Grant Levin, along with guests Mike Olmos (trumpet) & James Mahone (tenor sax), will perform music from the Art Blakey / Monk collaboration Jazz Messengers; on 10 October, pianist Sean Mason will perform a solo set dedicated to Monk's music; also on 10 October, the Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Adam Cruz Trio (Pérez on piano, Patitucci on bass Cruz on drums) will honor Monk with an evening of "reimagined classics"; on 11 October, Mason returns with his Trio (Mason on piano, Felix Moseholm on bass, Domo Branch on drums) to perform  (not sure how much of this concert will be dedicated to Monk, but I'm sure it will be good); & on 12 October Mason will be back, this timed with trumpeter Anthony Hervey, to perform music by Monk as well as some of their own original compositions.

On 18 - 19 October at the SF Jazz Center, Aki Kumar (harmonica & vocals, with other players to be announced later) celebrates Diwali with his blend of Chicago blues & traditional Indian music.

From 23 to 26 October at the SF Jazz Center, the Branford Marsalis Quartet (Marsalis on saxophones, Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Reevis on bass, & Justin Faulkner on drums) perform music, including a sizable helping of Keith Jarrett compositions.

Akira Tana and Otonowa, led by Tana on drums, along with Masaru Koga (reeds & shakuhachi), Art Hirahara (piano), Ken Okada (bass), & special guest Jimi Nakagawa (taiko), will present traditional & pop Japanese songs done in an American jazz style at the Piedmont Piano Company on 25 October.

On 30 October at the SF Jazz Center, you can hear some high-powered Latin Jazz with Tito Puente Jr & Néstor Torres (Fuente on percussion, Torres on flute, with other players to be announced).

Dance

On 2 - 4 October at Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents the Paris Opera Ballet in the North American premiere of Red Carpet, choreographed by Hofesh Shechter; the Cal Performances website notes that there will be live music, but if it says what the music is, or who it's by, they have hidden the information, but the cornucopia that is the Interwebs tells me that "True to his characteristic style, Hofesh Shechter has also created the soundtrack for Red Carpet, a haunting music with folkloric overtones that matches his “glamorous” and “punk” choreography."

The Grand Kyiv Ballet performs Swan Lake at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on 3 October.

Mostly Museums

The Berkeley Historical Society's latest show, Berkeley's Latino Community, opens on 21 September.

The Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) celebrates its 20th anniversary with Continuum: MoAD Over Time, opening on 1 October & running through 16 August 2026, an exhibit exploring the Museum's art & influence, including works by Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, Chester Higgins Jr, JoeSam, Richard Mayhew, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Gordon Parks, Lava Thomas, & Sam Vernon.

Manet & Morisot opens at the Legion of Honor on 11 October & runs through 1 March 2026.

Boom and Bust: Photographing Northern California opens at the de Young on 18 October & runs through 7 June 2026.

Rave into the Future: Art in Motion opens at the Asian Art Museum on 24 October & runs through 12 January 2026.

Cinematic

Here's what's happening at BAM/PFA this month: the Mill Valley Film Festival screens at the Archive from 3 to 12 October; & Frederick Wiseman: America at Work, the much-praised retrospective of the documentarian's films, opens on 18 October with Ex Libris: The New York Public Library & closes on 19 February 2026 with Meat.

3rd i SF International South Asian Film Festival runs at the Roxie in San Francisco from 10 to 12 October.

On 19 October at the Marina Theater in San Francisco, the Grand Feature Film Orchestra will provide live musical accompaniment to Chaplin's The Rink & Keaton's The Scarecrow & his One Week.

On 23 October at the Curran Theater, BroadwaySF presents the "50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour" of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, hosted by Nell Campbell (Columbia in the film); expect hijinks a-plenty.

This month's Classic Movie Matinee at the Orinda Movie Theater, held as usual on the last Tuesday of the month (28 October), will be 1958's Bell, Book, and Candle with Kim Novak & Jimmy Stewart.

On 30 October at Davies Hall, Conner Gray Covington leads the San Francisco Symphony in a live performance of Bernard Herrmann's score for a showing of Hitchcock's Vertigo.

The SF Jazz Center usually sponsors an appropriate silent film for Halloween, but this year they are treating us to two, both at Grace Cathedral & both with live musical accompaniment by organist Dorothy Papadakos: on 30 October, you can see Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera, & on 31 October, you can see FW Murnau's "Symphony of Horror", Nosferatu.