Tuesday, May 16
Berkeley Baroque Strings, Kati Kyme, Director
“Musica Animalia—Birds, Frogs, Dogs, Sheep” A menagerie of animals will be heard in this concert, including J.S. Bach, Sheep May Safely Graze; Georg Philipp Telemann, Overture-Suite “Alster Overture;” Carlo Farina, Capriccio Stravagante; Girolamo Frescobaldi, Capriccio sopra Il Chucho; and Antonio Vivaldi, Spring, from the Four Seasons.
7:30 PM
Parish Hall, St. Clement’s Episcopal Church
2837 Claremont Blvd., Berkeley.
Free (donations gratefully accepted)
www.berkeleybaroquestrings.org
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
“Le Jardin de la Musique” Harpsichordist Vibeka Lyman performs on two very different harpsichords, a French and Flemish double in this beautiful concert of French, Italian, German, and English music. Among the pieces played, she will perform the entire book, L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin by Francois Couperin and the First Pavan and Galliarde by William Byrd. This is a final recital given in order to receive her Professional Studies Diploma in Historical Performance. After graduation, Ms. Lyman will travel to Bangkok, Thailand, the place of her birth, to start a music school for girls.
8 PM
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free
[email protected] or 510-401-7951
Wednesday, May 17
San Francisco Recorder Society
Monthly playing session with conductor Fred Palmer. New members and guests welcome.
7:30 PM–9:30 PM
Christ Church Lutheran
1090 Quintara St. (at 20th Ave.), San Francisco.
Non-members $10 fee applied to membership.
For more information contact Florence Kress: 415-731-9709, [email protected]
arssanfrancisco.org/
Friday, May 19
La Marina
“Amor Sacro e Amor Profano—Sacred and secular love songs from the Renaissance” La Marina (Carlo Benedetti, cornetto & recorder; Mary Ellen Reed, alto dulcian & recorder; John Harris, alto and tenor sackbuts, recorder; Brian Taylor, tenor sackbut; Robin Houston, tenor and bass dulcians & recorder; Peggy Murray, bass dulcian & recorder) presents a program with sacred and secular music of Italy, Spain, and Flanders. The program includes motets, chansons, villancicos, and madrigals by Victoria, Guerrero, Vazquez, Palestrina, Gabrieli, Monte, and others.
8 PM
St. Mary Magdalen Parish
2001 Berryman St., Berkeley
Tickets: $20 general, $15 students/seniors/sfems
Agave Baroque
The Fantastical Mr. Biber: the experimental harmonies, virtuosity, and modernism of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
Aaron Westman & Anna Washburn, violin and scordatura violin; William Skeen, viola da gamba; Henry Lebedinsky, organ; Kevin Cooper, theorbo and baroque guitar.
Agave Baroque brings their “brilliantly virtuosic… shining… profound playing” (-Early Music America) to the works of the 17th century superstar violinist Heinrich Biber. Biber invented numerous new tunings (scordatura) for his violin, to achieve extended techniques, special tone colors, and “artificial harmonies.” Agave will explore his groundbreaking 1696 collection Harmonia artificioso-ariosa, where he assigns two parts to each violin, for an unusual five-part trio texture! Biber blended the sacred and secular musical styles with the flowing, free-form stylus fantasticus (
8 PM
St. John’s Episcopal Church
14 Lagunitas Road, Ross, CA 94957
Tickets: $30 general, $25 SFEMS/seniors, $15 students (click here.)
Sonoma Bach, Robert Worth, Director
“Early Music Uncorked: On the Power of Music” Drawing from the astonishing array of ‘music about music,’ Circa 1600 presents a fascinating concert exploring how music moves us. From light-hearted celebrations of music’s power to literally move us (onto the dance floor) to cosmic scenes of angelic songs to lively vocal renditions of instrumental music to powerful laments for dearly-loved and now-departed musicians, you’ll be stunned at the variety and beauty evoked by composers expressing in music their love for and fascination with the very art of music. Composers include Jean Richafort, Heinrich Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, Hans Leo Haßler, Thomas Morley, and many others.
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
Friday–Sunday, May 19–21
Marin Headlands Workshop
East Bay Recorder Society presents its annual workshop for recorders (intermediate to advanced levels) at the Point Bonita YMCA in the Marin Headlands, with beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean, and San Francisco. This year’s featured instructors and coaches include Tish Berlin, Frances Blaker, Frances Feldon, Greta Haug-Hryciw, Shira Kammen, Rebecca Molinari, and Derek Tam. Full and partial attendance possible.
Friday evening through Sunday afternoon.
Point Bonita YMCA in the Marin Headlands
Golden Gate Recreation Area, Marin Co.
Fees: Weekend $290; Weekend without lodging $220; Partial Weekend $200; Saturday $130.
Registration form Information Merlyn Katechisby email, or by phone: 510-593-4679
Saturday, May 20
Berkeley Baroque Strings, Kati Kyme, Director
“Musica Animalia—Birds, Frogs, Dogs, Sheep” A menagerie of animals will be heard in this concert, including J.S. Bach, Sheep May Safely Graze; Georg Philipp Telemann, Overture-Suite “Alster Overture;” Carlo Farina, Capriccio Stravagante; Girolamo Frescobaldi, Capriccio sopra Il Chucho; and Antonio Vivaldi, Spring, from the Four Seasons.
4 PM
Hillside Community Church
1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito
Tickets $20, students $10, children under 12 free
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Wonder Women—A concert of music by women composers from the Medieval through the Baroque” Join San Francisco Renaissance Voices for this very special concert featuring works by early women composers for women’s voices including several west coast and modern-day premieres. Music includes that of the late Renaissance/early Baroque Italian “musical nuns,” Raffaella Aleotti, Caterina Assandra, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Isabella Leonarda, Maria Xaveria Peruchona, and Lucrezia Orsini Vizzana, as well as a motets by Maria Francesca Nascinbeni dAncona and Mexican poet/philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and chant by Hildegard von Bingen, Beatritz de Dia and Kassia. With guest artists Katherine Heater, harpsichord and Gretchen Claassen, cello/viola da gamba
8 PM
Le Petit Trianon Theatre
72 North Fifth Street, San Jose
$30 general admission, $25 student/senior – at the door 1/2 hour before each concert or on-line at www.SFRVoices.org.
Sunday, May 21
Black Box Baroque and Albany Consort
George Frideric Handel, Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo. Black Box Baroque and the Albany Consort combine forces for our third Handel production together. This dramatic cantata features daring, experimental sound colors from early in Handel’s output (1708), and extraordinary vocal writing for bass-baritone, pants-role soprano, and mezzo-soprano. Aci and the sea-nymph Galatea are deeply in love, but the violently jealous cyclops Polyphemo murders Aci. Galatea’s true devotion turns Aci into an immortal river spirit. This is the Italian precursor to Handel’s beloved English oratorio Acis and Galatea. With soloists Sara Hagenbuch as Aci, Ellen Presley as Galatea, and Ben Brady as Polifemo, Stage direction by Katie Nix musical direction by Jonathan Salzedo. Full production with orchestra.
7:30 PM
Christian Science Organization
2601 Durant Ave at Bowditch, Berkeley
$30/$20
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2929051
Music of the Spheres
“Celestial Harmonies and Earthly Overtones of the Early Baroque” Amy Michele White, voice, and Dominic Schaner, archlute & theorbo, explore the musical connections between heaven and earth with songs from 17th-century Italy, England and France; solos from Vincenzo and Michelagnolo Galilei (father and brother to Galileo); and readings from Robert Fludd and Johannes Kepler. The philosopher/artist/musician Robert Fludd (1574–1637) developed a mathematical system to relate the Copernican movement of the planets to the measurements of strings on the lute. Fludd’s system, like the Greek philosophers he admired, supposed that the orbits of the spheres corresponded to earthly overtones. Fludd saw the universe as a musical instrument played by the soul or spirit of the world. Music became a reflection of the divine. Amy Michele White and Dominic Schaner delight in bringing early music to modern audiences. White and Schaner commonly explore themes of contemplation, inward reflection, mysticism and poetic vision. Their music seeks to divine a glimpse of poetry and mysticism through fleeting and free spirited improvisation, contemplative solos and dramatic songs interspersed with quiet instrumental meditations and select recitations.
3 PM
Santa Sabina Center
25 Magnolia Avenue, San Rafael
Suggested offering $20
415-457-7727, http://www.santasabinacenter.org/specials.html
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Music Director
“Wonder Women—A concert of music by women composers from the Medieval through the Baroque” Join San Francisco Renaissance Voices for this very special concert featuring works by early women composers for women’s voices including several west coast and modern-day premieres. Music includes that of the late Renaissance/early Baroque Italian “musical nuns,” Raffaella Aleotti, Caterina Assandra, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Isabella Leonarda, Maria Xaveria Peruchona, and Lucrezia Orsini Vizzana, as well as a motets by Maria Francesca Nascinbeni dAncona and Mexican poet/philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and chant by Hildegard von Bingen, Beatritz de Dia and Kassia. With guest artists Katherine Heater, harpsichord and Gretchen Claassen, cello/viola da gamba
8 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
$30 general admission, $25 student/senior – at the door 1/2 hour before each concert or on-line at www.SFRVoices.org.
Sonoma Bach, Robert Worth, Director
“Early Music Uncorked: On the Power of Music” Drawing from the astonishing array of ‘music about music,’ Circa 1600 presents a fascinating concert exploring how music moves us. From light-hearted celebrations of music’s power to literally move us (onto the dance floor) to cosmic scenes of angelic songs to lively vocal renditions of instrumental music to powerful laments for dearly-loved and now-departed musicians, you’ll be stunned at the variety and beauty evoked by composers expressing in music their love for and fascination with the very art of music. Composers include Jean Richafort, Heinrich Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, Hans Leo Haßler, Thomas Morley, and many others.
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
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
