Arts & Culture :: Music

Holiday Gaiety with the San Francisco Symphony

Holiday Gaiety with the San Francisco Symphony

  • by Advertising Department sponsored content
  • Dec 4, 2019

'Tis the season to be merry and gay! Co-emceed by conductor Edwin Outwater and drag sensation Peaches Christ, this old-fashioned holiday variety show guarantees an evening of festive fun and fabulous flair. Hear holiday hits played by the Orchestra, and b

Holidays with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

Holidays with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

  • by David-Elijah Nahmod
  • Dec 3, 2019

The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus is riding high, preparing to celebrate the holiday season as they bring their annual extravaganza to the Sydney Goldstein Theater, followed by three Christmas Eve performances at the iconic Castro Theatre.

Wintertime concerts

Wintertime concerts

  • by Philip Campbell
  • Dec 3, 2019

Love it or loathe it, or something in-between, the holidays are here, and Christmas music is everywhere. Regardless of taste, religion, or lack thereof, music-lovers can still agree: a cozy concert helps cure the wintertime blues.

Reynaldo Hahn, in search of lost songs

Reynaldo Hahn, in search of lost songs

  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Dec 3, 2019

It's become the work of recordings to restore composer Reynaldo Hahn's work to the acclaim it warrants and almost inevitably brings.

Music as antidote to evil

Music as antidote to evil

  • by Roberto Friedman
  • Nov 26, 2019

The rapidly approaching new year will bring to the San Francisco Bay Area 50 of the 86 so-called "Violins of Hope," recovered and restored Holocaust-era string instruments that survived the ghettoes and the death camps.

Big names deliver at the symphony hall

Big names deliver at the symphony hall

  • by Philip Campbell
  • Nov 26, 2019

The San Francisco Symphony closed November with concerts featuring works by big-name Austrian and German composers. Impressive guest artists and conductors joined the Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall.

Witch hunts: 'Hansel & Gretel'

Witch hunts: 'Hansel & Gretel'

  • by Philip Campbell
  • Nov 19, 2019

The final production in the San Francisco Opera's fall season is also the first big entertainment of the holidays. Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" opened last week.

Gay Chorus meets the Deep South

Gay Chorus meets the Deep South

  • by David-Elijah Nahmod
  • Nov 19, 2019

The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus showed tremendous courage in the aftermath of Donald Trump's ascension to the presidency and the passage of "religious freedom" laws that legalized LGBT discrimination in conservative states.

Grand Opera's material girl, Manon Lescaut

Grand Opera's material girl, Manon Lescaut

  • by Philip Campbell
  • Nov 12, 2019

First impressions are important, but they shouldn't lead to snap judgment. It is usually wiser to stop and think, but in the world of opera — especially Puccini — lovers tend to fall in love at first sight.

Mandy Patinkin sings from the heart

Mandy Patinkin sings from the heart

  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Nov 12, 2019

"If I could only do one kind of performance," Mandy Patinkin explained in a recent phone interview with the B.A.R., "it would be doing concerts."

Transcendental beauty of Ives symphonies

Transcendental beauty of Ives symphonies

  • by Philip Campbell
  • Nov 5, 2019

Young Michael Tilson Thomas inherited a passion to popularize Gustav Mahler and Charles Ives from his legendary mentor Leonard Bernstein.

It's not just a stage

It's not just a stage

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Nov 5, 2019

You've got to give Michael Longoria, Broadway performer in "Jersey Boys" and "Hairspray," credit for being ballsy.

Percussive attack on climate change

Percussive attack on climate change

  • by Philip Campbell
  • Oct 29, 2019

SFS Principal Percussion Jacob Nissly is one of the orchestra's standout players, usually showing his skills from the rear of the stage.

Loving jazz music in an art museum

Loving jazz music in an art museum

  • by Roberto Friedman
  • Oct 29, 2019

The highlight of Out There's recent jaunt to New York City was an artistic encounter with the MacArthur "genius grant"-winning jazz pianist and bandleader Jason Moran.