Wednesday, February 22
Early Music Open Mic Night
Join us for Early Music Open Mic Night in the East Bay. This is your opportunity to perform early music in a friendly cabaret style setting. Instrumentalists, singers, soloists, groups, students, youngsters, professionals — all are welcome! Please email [email protected] with the date you’d like to perform. Time slots will be up to 15 minutes, and there will be six time slots on each night. A Roland state of the art harpsichord/organ will be available on site as well as a regular piano. Food and drinks will be provided.
7–9:30 PM
Hillside Community Church,
1422 Navellier Street, El Cerrito
Donations gratefully accepted
[email protected]
Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra
Regular meeting, for players of recorder, early winds or early strings. Bring your instrument(s) and music stand.
7:30–9:30 PM
Trinity Church, Angus Hall
330 Ravenswood Ave. (at Laurel), Menlo Park
650-591-3648 or mpro-online.org
Friday, February 24
Cal Performances presents Nicola Benedetti with the Venice Baroque Orchestra
Scottish violin star Nicola Benedetti joins the virtuosic Venice Baroque Orchestra for a concert of work by Venice’s brilliant native son, Vivaldi. His beloved The Four Seasons showcases the rhythmic vitality and overflowing personality of this accomplished chamber group, blended with Benedetti’s pure and gleaming tone. “They play with the freedom of rock or jazz musicians, and a sensibility that’s distinctively urban” (The Boston Globe).
8 PM
Zellerbach Hall
University of California, Berkeley
$68 and up
Tickets online or 510-642-9988
California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“North German Masters before Bach” This engaging concert highlights the rich musical tradition of northern Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a musical legacy that greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach. Our program features rarely performed motets by Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, and Johann Schop, the chorale cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott by Franz Tunder, and Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, a cantata by the 18-year-old Georg Philipp Telemann.
8 PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell St., San Francisco
Doors open 30 minutes prior to each performance.
Tickets: $40 (discounts for advance purchase, seniors, students, under 30)
650-485-1097, http://www.calbach.org, [email protected]
Saturday, February 25
California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“North German Masters before Bach” This engaging concert highlights the rich musical tradition of northern Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a musical legacy that greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach. Our program features rarely performed motets by Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, and Johann Schop, the chorale cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott by Franz Tunder, and Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, a cantata by the 18-year-old Georg Philipp Telemann.
8 PM
All Saints Episcopal Church
555 Waverley St., Palo Alto
Doors open 30 minutes prior to each performance.
Tickets: $40 (discounts for advance purchase, seniors, students, under 30)
650-485-1097, http://www.calbach.org, [email protected]
SFEMS Baroque Collegium
“Make A Joyful Noise—Concerted Vocal Works from Italy and Germany” This program explores the stylistic changes and compositional developments that occurred in concerted vocal music during the 17th and early 18th centuries by way of the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, and J.S. Bach. The day will be divided into two sessions of two and a half hours each. Information about compositional approaches and style will be woven into the rehearsal format, with a primary focus on playing and singing. All pieces will include parts for voices and instruments. Come have fun working with a specialist and sackbut player of this beautiful repertoire. Pitch: Parts for all instruments at all pitches 415, 440, and 465Hz will be provided. Come one and come all! Read more . . .
9 AM–4 PM
Eden United Church of Christ
21455 Birch St., Hayward
Full Day: SFEMS Members $50 advance, $60 at the door; Non-Members $65 / $75
Half-day: SFEMS Members $30; Non-Members $45
Click Here to Register Online!
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Lady, My Lady” This program of warmth, passion and beauty of music and poetry from the 12th through the 17th centuries features an extremely rare performance of Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina’s exquisite motet Susanna ab Improbis Senibus that tells the biblical story of Susanna and the elders. Other musical treasures include fragments of Johannes Ockeghem’s lady mass, Missa Ma Maitresse and other musical gems dedicated to The Lady and ladies of the Renaissance: Robert Fayrfax’s Eterne Laudis Lilium (from the Lambeth Choirbook), Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Versa est in luctum (composed by Victoria for the funeral of his patron, the Archduchess Maria of Austria and performed in memory of San Francisco Renaissance Voices baritone Raymond Martinez), Jacob Gallus’ Tota Pulchra est, amica mea, songs and arias by Lady Mary Dering and Giovanni Pietro Biandra, trouvère songs by Blanche de Castille and Maroie de Diergnau, madrigals by Casulana, Hassler, Josquin, Rossi and Steffens and poetry from the Findern manuscript, and by Christine de Pizan, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Teresa of Avila, Mechtild of Magdeburg, and Devora Ascarelli. With guest artists Derek Tam, harpsichord, and Tatiana Senderowicz, theorbo.
7:30 PM
Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church Church
1329 Seventh Avenue, San Francisco
Tickets: $30 General, $25 Student/Senior, $20 Child Age 12 or under; at the door a half-hour before each show or at www.SFRVoices.org
Santa Cruz Baroque Festival
The Festival’s 44th Season, “Alla Rustica,” opens with “The Four Seasons.” Celebrate the seasons and their unique flowers with Italian and Scottish music, all highlighted by images of nature projected on a big screen. Come hear Antonio Vivaldi’s Quattro Stagione (Four Seasons); selections from James Oswald’s Airs for the Seasons; and Johann Christoph Schmidt’s “Chaconne” from Les Quatre Saisons (The Four Seasons). Featuring renowned musicians Claudia Liliana Gantivar, recorder; Edwin Huizinga, Baroque violin; Bill Coulter, guitar; Linda Burman-Hall, harpsichord; Barry Phillips, cello; and more!
7:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall
Meyer Drive, UCSC Campus, Santa Cruz
$35/$25/$22/$10
Tickets 0nline, 831-457-9693, or www.scbaroque.org
Sonoma Bach
“Bach and the North Germans” Bay Area organist Rodney Gehrke explores the rich sounds of Schroeder Hall’s Brombaugh mechanical-action organ in music by J.S. Bach and several North German masters of the 17th-century. Organ builder John Brombaugh was particularly influenced by the potent instruments of the great Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and their environs. Bach too was drawn there; in fact, at the age of 20, he walked several hundred miles to Lübeck to absorb the style of Dieterich Buxtehude. In addition to music by Buxtehude and Bach, we will hear other works in the monumental style of Heinrich Scheidemann, Vincent Lübeck, and Matthias Weckmann.
8 PM BachGrounder lecture/demonstration 35 minutes before each concert
Schroeder Hall, Green Music Center
1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park
$25/$15
Tickets online
www.sonomabach.org or 877-914-2224
Trinity Chamber Concerts
Renowned and highly acclaimed baroque violinist Daniel Stepner performs an all-Bach solo violin recital.
8 PM
Trinity Chapel
2320 Dana, Berkeley
$20 general; $15 senior/students
[email protected] or 510-778-1719
Venice Baroque Orchestra
There are few pieces of music as instantly recognizable as Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. And yet, as it is so often heard only in fragments, the complete piece still has the capacity to surprise and delight. The Venice Baroque Orchestra performed the Venetian masterpiece alongside Philip Glass’ “American Four Seasons” in 2010. The group is joined by violin soloist Nicola Benedetti, whose highly personal interpretations of Vivaldi’s work have been called “teasingly wistful one minute, electrifying and explosive the next” (The Scotsman). The program is rounded out by a number of lesser-known, but no less engaging, Baroque masterworks from Italy and England.
8 PM
Mondavi Center
One Shields Avenue, Davis
Tickets start at $37. Discounts are available for youth, students, and active military.
Tickets online or 530-754-2787
Viola da Gamba Society/Pacifica Chapter
Stanford Workshop directed by John Dornenburg. A one-day workshop consisting of topical and technique classes followed by a session of viol orchestra. Faculty are John Dornenburg, director, Julie Jeffrey, Elisabeth Reed, and Marie Dalby-Szuts. All sizes and levels are welcome.
9 AM–4 PM
Braun Music Center (Music Department)
Stanford University, Palo Alto
$75
www.pacificaviols.org
Sunday, February 26
California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“North German Masters before Bach” This engaging concert highlights the rich musical tradition of northern Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a musical legacy that greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach. Our program features rarely performed motets by Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, and Johann Schop, the chorale cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott by Franz Tunder, and Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, a cantata by the 18-year-old Georg Philipp Telemann.
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4 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Doors open 30 minutes prior to each performance.
Tickets: $40 (discounts for advance purchase, seniors, students, under 30)
650-485-1097, http://www.calbach.org, [email protected]
MusicSources
Ignacio Prego, harpsichord. Ignacio Prego is emerging as one of Europe’s most promising young players of the harpsichord. MusicSources is pleased to present him in an all Bach program.
5 PM
St. Mary Magdalen Church
2005 Berryman St., Berkeley
$30 non members, $25 MusicSources members and seniors, $10 students 18 yrs. or younger
510-528-1685 or
[email protected]
www.musicsources.org
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Lady, My Lady” This program of warmth, passion and beauty of music and poetry from the 12th through the 17th centuries features an extremely rare performance of Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina’s exquisite motet Susanna ab Improbis Senibus that tells the biblical story of Susanna and the elders. Other musical treasures include fragments of Johannes Ockeghem’s lady mass, Missa Ma Maitresse and other musical gems dedicated to The Lady and ladies of the Renaissance: Robert Fayrfax’s Eterne Laudis Lilium (from the Lambeth Choirbook), Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Versa est in luctum (composed by Victoria for the funeral of his patron, the Archduchess Maria of Austria and performed in memory of San Francisco Renaissance Voices baritone Raymond Martinez), Jacob Gallus’ Tota Pulchra est, amica mea, songs and arias by Lady Mary Dering and Giovanni Pietro Biandra, trouvère songs by Blanche de Castille and Maroie de Diergnau, madrigals by Casulana, Hassler, Josquin, Rossi and Steffens and poetry from the Findern manuscript, and by Christine de Pizan, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Teresa of Avila, Mechtild of Magdeburg, and Devora Ascarelli. With guest artists Derek Tam, harpsichord, and Tatiana Senderowicz, theorbo.
4 PM
St. Stephan’s Episcopal Church
3 Bayview Ave., Belvedere
Tickets: $30 General, $25 Student/Senior, $20 Child Age 12 or under; at the door a half-hour before each show or at www.SFRVoices.org
Santa Cruz Baroque Festival
The Festival’s 44th Season, “Alla Rustica,” opens with “The Four Seasons.” Celebrate the seasons and their unique flowers with Italian and Scottish music, all highlighted by images of nature projected on a big screen. Come hear Antonio Vivaldi’s Quattro Stagione (Four Seasons); selections from James Oswald’s Airs for the Seasons; and Johann Christoph Schmidt’s “Chaconne” from Les Quatre Saisons (The Four Seasons). Featuring renowned musicians Claudia Liliana Gantivar, recorder; Edwin Huizinga, Baroque violin; Bill Coulter, guitar; Linda Burman-Hall, harpsichord; Barry Phillips, cello; and more!
3 PM
UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall
Meyer Drive, UCSC Campus, Santa Cruz
$35/$25/$22/$10
Tickets 0nline, 831-457-9693, or www.scbaroque.org
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
