Monday, August 8
American Bach Soloists
Academy-In-Action I. The Academy-In-Action concerts showcase the talents of ABS Academy participants—the next generation of early music virtuosi—in cantatas, arias, and chamber music by masters of the Baroque. Each Marathon concert lasts roughly three hours.
3 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists
Academy-In-Action II. The Academy-In-Action concerts showcase the talents of ABS Academy participants—the next generation of early music virtuosi—in cantatas, arias, and chamber music by masters of the Baroque. Each Marathon concert lasts roughly three hours.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Tuesday, August 9
American Bach Soloists
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
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 Debra Nagy, who will discuss “Il Caro Sassone: Handel’s Roman Secular Works.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists
Academy-In-Action III. The Academy-In-Action concerts showcase the talents of ABS Academy participants—the next generation of early music virtuosi—in cantatas, arias, and chamber music by masters of the Baroque.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Wednesday, August 10
American Bach Soloists
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
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 Robert Mealy, who will discuss “Graces under Pressure: Ornamentation in Corelli’s Music”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Thursday, August 11
American Bach Soloists
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
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 Corey Jamason, who will discuss “The Colorful World of the Castrati.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
George Frideric Handel, Parnasso in festa. Handel’s rarely performed serenata is set on the slopes of Mount Parnassus where Apollo and the nine muses oversee the marriage of the mortal Peleus and the divine Thetis, parents of the legendary hero, Achilles. Visiting familiar themes from Greek mythology—Apollo’s pursuit of the nymph Daphne, Orpheus’ descent into the Underworld, and Peleus’ taming of the shape-shifting goddess—Handel realizes the characters and their dramatic situations with vivid specificity. Admired in Handel’s day for its musical variety, the work fell from the repertory after the composer’s death. Parnasso in festa has been presented occasionally in England and Germany, but the performances under the baton of Jeffrey Thomas will be the first outside of Europe, joining the list of significant ABS Festival premieres, such as Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis in 2013 and Marin Marais’ opera Sémélé in 2015. The work, performed in Italian, will feature instrumental and vocal soloists from the ABS Academy.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Tickets online $30–$89
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Friday August 12
American Bach Soloists
Master class in winds and brass. 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
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 Steven Lehning, who will discuss “Vivaldi at the Pietà.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
George Frideric Handel, Parnasso in festa. Handel’s rarely performed serenata is set on the slopes of Mount Parnassus where Apollo and the nine muses oversee the marriage of the mortal Peleus and the divine Thetis, parents of the legendary hero, Achilles. Visiting familiar themes from Greek mythology—Apollo’s pursuit of the nymph Daphne, Orpheus’ descent into the Underworld, and Peleus’ taming of the shape-shifting goddess—Handel realizes the characters and their dramatic situations with vivid specificity. Admired in Handel’s day for its musical variety, the work fell from the repertory after the composer’s death. Parnasso in festa has been presented occasionally in England and Germany, but the performances under the baton of Jeffrey Thomas will be the first outside of Europe, joining the list of significant ABS Festival premieres, such as Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis in 2013 and Marin Marais’ opera Sémélé in 2015. The work, performed in Italian, will feature instrumental and vocal soloists from the ABS Academy.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Tickets online $30–$89
415-921-7900, [email protected]
West Edge Opera
George Frideric Handel’s Agrippina. Handel’s Agrippina might be considered the comic prequel to Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. In some ways as lurid as our more tragic offerings, Agrippina features the kind of satirical wit that director Mark Streshinsky unearthed in last season’s acclaimed Ulysses. Along with much of Handel’s work, Agrippina vanished from the repertory for almost two hundred years but is once again performed and beloved. Rediscover one of ancient Rome’s most tangled webs of intrigue in Handel’s first international triumph. With Sarah Gartshore as Agrippina, Celine Ricci as Nero, Hannah Stephens as Poppea, Ryan Belongie as Ottone, Carl King as Claudio, Nikolas Nackley as Pallante, and Johanna Bronk as Narciso. Jory Vinikour, Music Director/Conductor/Harpsichord; Mark Streshinsky, Stage Director.
8 PM
the abandoned train station
1405 Wood Street at 16th, Oakland
Tickets online or 510-841-1903
Saturday, August 13
American Bach Soloists
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
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 “Genesis and Structure of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.”
5 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
415-921-7900, [email protected]
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
“Virtuosi of Venice & Rome” The expert period-instrumentalists of ABS take center stage for a thrilling exploration of Italian concertos for a variety of instrumental combinations that were composed for especially virtuoso players and orchestras. As an added attraction, the string players of the ABS Academy will join the ABS orchestra on stage to perform Concerti Grossi by Corelli and Geminiani with the enormous—and rarely heard—forces used by those composers in their day. Program includes Arcangelo Corelli, Concerto Grosso in D Major; Francesco Geminiani, Concerto Grosso 12 in D Minor “La Folia;” and Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for Flute in D Major “Il Gardellino” (“The Goldfinch”); Concerto for Bassoon in B flat major “La Notte” (“The Night”); Concerto for Trumpet & Oboe in D Major; Sonata for 2 Violins in D Minor “La Folia;” and Concerto for 2 Violoncellos in G Minor.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Tickets online $30–$89
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Project Zefiro
“The Heritage of Flandria” Project Zefiro focuses this year on the influence of Flemish music during the later 15th century, and the spread of this style for a century afterward as its leading composers and musicians were in great demand all across Europe. Their 3- and 4-voice polyphonic chansons had wide circulation from Spain and Italy to France and Germany. When the first printed collections of music appeared in Venice at the very beginning of the 16th century, publisher Ottaviano Petrucci’s first three volumes were comprised entirely of this repertoire, and selections from all three will be presented in the concert. The evolution of this style, blending with vernacular forms in Italy and other countries led to music for increasing numbers of voices, in everything from masses to motets to madrigals. The concert will also draw on this repertoire, including pieces by Andreas Pevernage, one of the few masters who remained in Flanders throughout his career, and whose wonderful music is only recently coming to be available to modern performers and listeners. As always with Project Zefiro, all will be presented on a variety of instrumental combinations of shawms, sackbuts, cornetti, dulcians and recorders.
8 PM
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
1501 Washington Ave., Albany
Tickets at the door: $20 general, $15 seniors/SFEMS/St. Alban’s parishioners.
Sunday, August 14
American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Conductor
J.S. 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. [This work will be repeated on Sunday August 14th in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.]
7 PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell St., San Francisco
Tickets online $30–$89
415-921-7900, [email protected]
Second Sundays Concert Series
“Dancing in the Isles.” Members of Musica Pacifica (Judith Linsenberg, recorders and whistle; David Morris, viola da gamba; Katherine Heater, harpsichord) perform rousing baroque folk and dance music from the British Isles with traditional Irish and Scottish folk tunes, a suite of Jacobean masque music, virtuosic English divisions, and more! Impulsive foot-tapping allowed.
7:30 PM
Swedenborgian Church
2107 Lyon Street (corner of Washington St.), San Francisco
$20
Tickets online or at the door
Information
West Edge Opera
George Frideric Handel’s Agrippina. Handel’s Agrippina might be considered the comic prequel to Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. In some ways as lurid as our more tragic offerings, Agrippina features the kind of satirical wit that director Mark Streshinsky unearthed in last season’s acclaimed Ulysses. Along with much of Handel’s work, Agrippina vanished from the repertory for almost two hundred years but is once again performed and beloved. Rediscover one of ancient Rome’s most tangled webs of intrigue in Handel’s first international triumph. With Sarah Gartshore as Agrippina, Celine Ricci as Nero, Hannah Stephens as Poppea, Ryan Belongie as Ottone, Carl King as Claudio, Nikolas Nackley as Pallante, and Johanna Bronk as Narciso. Jory Vinikour, Music Director/Conductor/Harpsichord; Mark Streshinsky, Stage Director.
8 PM
the abandoned train station
1405 Wood Street at 16th, Oakland
Tickets online or 510-841-1903
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
