Monday, August 7
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free “Baroque Marathon” concert I. The American Bach Soloists Academy—the educational component of the ABS Summer Bach Festival—offers advanced conservatory-level students and emerging professionals unique opportunities to study and perform Baroque music in a multi-disciplinary learning environment. Academy participants are featured exclusively in three programs of Academy-in-Action ”Baroque Marathon” Concerts.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free “Baroque Marathon” concert II. The American Bach Soloists Academy—the educational component of the ABS Summer Bach Festival—offers advanced conservatory-level students and emerging professionals unique opportunities to study and perform Baroque music in a multi-disciplinary learning environment. Academy participants are featured exclusively in three programs of Academy-in-Action ”Baroque Marathon” Concerts.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Tuesday, August 8
American Bach Soloists Festival
Master class in harpsichord. The ABS Academy opens its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make Master Classes so tremendously exciting, as performers and their master teachers share their knowledge and insights.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free public lecture. Join the members of the American Bach Soloists Academy for a series of enlightening and informative public lectures presented by the Academy faculty on a wide range of subjects centered on Festival themes. Debra Nagy will discuss “Winds on the Water: Grand Music for the Great Outdoors.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free “Baroque Marathon” concert III. The American Bach Soloists Academy—the educational component of the ABS Summer Bach Festival—offers advanced conservatory-level students and emerging professionals unique opportunities to study and perform Baroque music in a multi-disciplinary learning environment. Academy participants are featured exclusively in three programs of Academy-in-Action ”Baroque Marathon” Concerts.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Wednesday, August 9
American Bach Soloists Festival
Master class in violin and viola. The ABS Academy opens its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make Master Classes so tremendously exciting, as performers and their master teachers share their knowledge and insights.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free public lecture. Join the members of the American Bach Soloists Academy for a series of enlightening and informative public lectures presented by the Academy faculty on a wide range of subjects centered on Festival themes. Jeffrey Thomas will discuss “Bach’s Mass in B Minor: A Look from the Inside.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Thursday, August 10
American Bach Soloists Festival
Master class in violoncello, viola da gamba, violone, and contrabass. The ABS Academy opens its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make Master Classes so tremendously exciting, as performers and their master teachers share their knowledge and insights.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free public lecture. Join the members of the American Bach Soloists Academy for a series of enlightening and informative public lectures presented by the Academy faculty on a wide range of subjects centered on Festival themes. Judith Malafronte discusses English theater music in the 17th century—“O come let us howl.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
Henry Purcell’s King Arthur, considered a “semi-opera”—a work that includes arias and choruses, spoken dialogue, and dance music—is a setting of a libretto by the great English poet, literary critic, translator, and playright John Dryden (1631–1700), named England’s first Poet Laureate in 1668. The plot revolves around episodes in the battles between King Arthur’s Britons and the Saxons, centering primarily on Arthur’s efforts to recover Princess Emmeline, his fiancée who had been captured by his arch-enemy, the Saxon King Oswald. The music is a colorful anthology of songs, dances, and choruses, certainly ranking at the top of all theatrical music from the period of Restoration England, and features some of Purcell’s most beautiful, lyrical, and recognizable works including the serenely beautiful aria, “Fairest Isle.”
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Tickets online $33–$95
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Friday August 11
American Bach Soloists Festival
Master class in flute, oboe, and bassoon. The ABS Academy opens its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make Master Classes so tremendously exciting, as performers and their master teachers share their knowledge and insights.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Free public lecture. Join the members of the American Bach Soloists Academy for a series of enlightening and informative public lectures presented by the Academy faculty on a wide range of subjects centered on Festival themes. Robert Mealy discusses “King Arthur and Purcell’s French and Italian Influences.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
Henry Purcell’s King Arthur, considered a “semi-opera”—a work that includes arias and choruses, spoken dialogue, and dance music—is a setting of a libretto by the great English poet, literary critic, translator, and playright John Dryden (1631–1700), named England’s first Poet Laureate in 1668. The plot revolves around episodes in the battles between King Arthur’s Britons and the Saxons, centering primarily on Arthur’s efforts to recover Princess Emmeline, his fiancée who had been captured by his arch-enemy, the Saxon King Oswald. The music is a colorful anthology of songs, dances, and choruses, certainly ranking at the top of all theatrical music from the period of Restoration England, and features some of Purcell’s most beautiful, lyrical, and recognizable works including the serenely beautiful aria, “Fairest Isle.”
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Tickets online $33–$95
415-921-7900, [email protected]
California Bach Society, David Rappoport, conductor
Zeroto232 presents Bach’s Mass in B Minor: Free and Unadulterated. The way nature intended. With Shawnette Sulker, Soprano; Mindy Ella Chu, Mezzo-Soprano; Betany Coffland, Alto; Joel Potts and David Taylor Siegel, Tenor; John Evanson and Andrew Marshall, Bass; and the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra.
8 PM
Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse
2020 Addison St, Berkeley
Free
[email protected]
Saturday, August 12
American Bach Soloists Festival
Master class in voice. The ABS Academy opens its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make Master Classes so tremendously exciting, as performers and their master teachers share their knowledge and insights.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists Festival
Lecture Series. Join the members of the American Bach Soloists Academy for an enlightening and informative public lecture by American Bach Soloists Academy faculty member Kenneth Slowik, who will discuss “Bach & Sons: Sinfonias, Concertos, and Transcriptions.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
“Bach and Sons.” The fame of Johann Sebastian Bach—the keystone of a multi-generational musical dynasty—gave permanence to the careers and legacies of his forebears and sons. This program features some of Bach’s most profound music including orchestral transcriptions of selections from his most important musical creations including The Musical Offering, Clavier Übung III, and the monumental Passacaglia in C Minor. Then, following performances of Sinfonias from some of Bach’s best cantatas, the virtuosi of American Bach Soloists will then turn their attentions to Bach’s most successful progeny. Carl Philipp Emanuel will be represented by a tour-de-force concerto for flauto traverso; Wilhelm Friedemann’s Sinfonia in F features the strings of the ABS orchestra; and a rarely performed Trio for Strings by Johann Christian (known as “the English Bach”) will illuminate the importance of Bach’s offspring.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Tickets online $33–$95
415-921-7900, [email protected]
West Edge Opera
The Chastity Tree (L’arbore di Diana) by Vicente Martin y Soler. If you know Vicente Martin y Soler at all, chances are good it’s from a tossed off quotation in Don Giovanni, but in their day, both Mozart and Martin y Soler enjoyed equal renown in Vienna. Both set the brilliant words of da Ponte, who rated The Chastity Tree the Spaniard’s best work. A smash hit in 1787, The Chastity Tree is a tale of purity, politics on Mount Olympus, and one unusually judgmental plant. True to fashion, West Edge unearths a hidden gem in a startling new production, which features soprano Christine Brandes and Nikki Einfeld, as well as Barihunk Malte Roesner, who makes his North American debut as Doristo.
3 PM
Pacific Pipe Oakland
1391 W. Grand Ave., Oakland
$96/$57
Tickets online or 510-841-1903
Sunday, August 6
American Bach Soloists Festival, Jeffrey Thomas, Artistic Director
Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Jeffrey Thomas leads the ABS Festival Orchestra and American Bach Choir in performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor on each Festival Sunday. A beloved tradition, the annual performances of this pinnacle work of the repertory feature instrumental and vocal soloists from the ABS Academy.
2 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
$33–$95
Tickets online or 415-621-7900
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
