Wednesday, October 25
Early Music Open Mic Night
Join us for Early Music Open Mic Night in the East Bay, 4th Wednesday of the month from September through May. 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
MUSA
“Smorgasbord Baroque” Cynthia Black and Addi Liu, violins; Gretchen Claassen, cello; and Derek Tam, harpsichord, perform baroque and Classical music from unexpected places. From the imperial Chinese court to the cathedrals of Guatemala, composers drew from European and indigenous sources to create music that dynamically captured the first wave of globalization from the 16th through 18th centuries. Works by Rafael Antonio Castellanos, Francesco Geminiani, Antonio de Salazar, and Georg Philipp Telemann.
12 Noon
142 Throckmorton Theater
142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley
[email protected]
Friday, October 27
Barefoot Chamber Concerts presents the Farallon Recorder Quartet
“Boreas Blows” Letitia Berlin, Frances Blaker, Louise Carslake, Miyo Aoki perform Germanic gems of various hues, by Senfl, Finck, Isaac, Hofhaimer, Buxtehude, Bach, Fux, and more.
6 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Parish Hall
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
All tickets $15 18 and under admitted free and welcome.
Tickets at the door or reserve online (recommended) at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3055726
510-220-1195
Saturday, October 28
San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Katherine McKee, Director
Gala Fundraising Hallo’Evening with San Francisco Renaissance Voices and Dancers with guest artists organist Rani Fisher and Duo Broceliande. Come join us to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve with special morsels, wine and mead, and festivities and help San Francisco Renaissance Voices and Dancers scare up some funding for their 14th Season 2017-18! The evening starts with a short concert featuring your favorite spooky organ pieces including J. S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in dminor performed by guest organist Rani Fisher, interspersed with a cappella part songs and ballads of death by a quartet of our stellar singers. You’ll also be able to fill your trick or treat bag by taking part in our Silent Auction featuring a variety of goodies such as tickets to concerts and special events, vintage items, jewelry and more. At the reception that ends the evening, enjoy a deadly delicious array of foods as members of our dance troupe entertain you with Plague Dances and other period dances (including an opportunity to learn some steps yourself) accompanied by Duo Broceliande (Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover playing folkharp, mandolin and recorders) who will also perform music of the harvest. DO come in costume or mask—it promises to be a spooktacular evening!
7:30 PM
The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
1750 29th Ave., San Francisco
$35–$75
Tickets online
415-650-6258, [email protected]
https://www.SFRVoices.org
Sunday, October 29
The Arts at St. Bede’s presents Clerestory
“O Sweet, Spontaneous Earth” The Bay Area’s acclaimed 9-man vocal ensemble, presents a musical celebration of the natural world and the wild and beautiful things that inhabit it. In the music of Palestrina, Byrd, Janequin, Howells, Hindemith, Vaughan Williams, and many more, you will be reminded of what nature meant to poets and composers of the past, as well as hear Clerestory’s commitment to putting down roots in the musical soil of its own era. This fresh, local, and ultimately sustainable offering of Bay Area song-fare is sure to delight your senses.
4 PM
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
2650 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park
$10–$20
[email protected], 650-854-6456
Barefoot Chamber Concerts
A Grand Benefit Fun(d) Raiser Concert/Party/Thing. A gala benefit event to raise funds for the “new” piano at one of the East Bay’s favorite concert destinations for chamber music: Hillside Community Church, El Cerrito. Medieval, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern music—and the usual Barefoot snacks.
A great and beneficent time will be had by all! The Hillside Community Church in El Cerrito, one of the East Bay’s favorite concert destinations for chamber music, is acquiring a new (to them) fabulous grand piano, and many of the musicians that use the space and the instrument are joining together to help raise funds towards its acquisition. Performers include (but not limited to): Linda Baker, piano; Andrew Canepa, piano; Frances Feldon, recorders; Peter Hallifax, viol; Katherine Heater, harpsichord; Julie Jeffrey, viol; Shira Kammen, violin things; Judith Linsenberg, recorder things; Anthony Martin, violin/viola; Lynn Tetenbaum, viol;; David Wilson, violin. Seven centuries of music, all the usual snax and then some, and a fabulous cause—what more could you want?
5 PM
Hillside Community Church
1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito
All tickets $25, no-one turned away for lack of funds! All proceeds go to the Church’s Piano Fund!
Tickets advance (preferential seating), or simply buy them at the door.
Coro Ciconia, Asher Davison, Director
“The Deathly Shallows” Singers Peter Fisher, Cheryl Koehler, Dorothy Manly, Jean McAneny, Ralph Prince, Scott Robinson, and Helen Wolfe-Visnick perform a program of diverse ruminations on the transience of transitions—musical facets, including Machaut’s final three motets and lamentations by Du Fay and Brumel, organized around the five expressive timbres of Ockeghem’s Missa pro defunctis
7 PM
Arlington Community Church
52 Arlington Avenue, Kensington
Suggested donations at the door: $20 general, $15 senior, $10 student
Jonathan Dimmock, Organ
“Reformation: 500—All-Bach Organ Recital” Marking the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, Grammy Award-winning organist Jonathan Dimmock gives a free concert in the magnificent sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, Oakland. The organ in this church, built by Manuel Rosales, is internationally renowned for its power and character. In 1739, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig celebrated the 200th anniversary of Martin Luther having preached from that pulpit. Kantor J.S. BACH marked the occasion with the composition of his Clavierübung III, his master organ work celebrating the great chorale tradition begun in the Reformation. The Reformation affected every living being in the Western world. And Bach’s magnum opus for the organ is the greatest single achievement, in the organ world, marking this moment.
Jonathan Dimmock has recorded many of Bach’s organ works on instruments, in Europe, that were built at the same time as the compositions themselves. Regarded as one of the country’s leading interpreters of Bach’s organ music, Dimmock lends a clarity and a warmth to this stunning repertoire. Co-founder of American Bach Soloists, the names of Dimmock and Bach have been used side by side for three decades in the Bay area. Dimmock is the Organist for the San Francisco Symphony, the Principal Organist at the Legion of Honor, the Music Director at Congregation Sherith Israel, Artist-in-Residence at First Presbyterian Church, Oakland, a highly acclaimed freelance soloist, and the Founder and Executive Director of The Resonance Project, using music in international conflict resolution.
4 PM
First Presbyterian Church
2619 Broadway (at 27th St.), Oakland
free parking
Free
[email protected] or 415-706-6900
Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players and J415, Nicholas McGegan, Conductor
“Around the World in 80 Minutes” Nic and the Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players join the students from the Juilliard School’s elite period instrument ensemble, J415, in a special side-by-side concert to explore the world of baroque music with a tour of works by Leclair, Gluck, Avison, Scarlatti, Telemann, Rameau and others. Hear works inspired by the music, culture and people of Baroque France, Spain, Scotland, the Ottoman Empire, Persia and China in this musical excursion. Come to the museum early to enjoy free access to the dynamic exhibit in Wilsey Court, the Café and Terrace with sculpture garden, and the Hamon Observation Tower on the 9th floor with 360 degree views of the city. Tickets to other museum exhibits can be purchased on site.
4 PM
Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco
Tickets online $25
Sunday–Saturday, October 29–November 4
Road Scholar National Early Music Workshop
Enhance your technique and ensemble playing during an intensive workshop with director Letitia Berlin and other stellar faculty. Two fabulous weeks—choose either week or both! Explore the Music of England and France from the 13th to 18th centuries, with some modern composers as well! Faculty are Letitia Berlin, Frances Blaker, Louise Carslake, and Miyo Aoki, recorders; John Dornenburg, viola da gamba. Recorder and viol technique classes geared toward application of technique practice to the repertoire—making music out of notes! Master class and consort classes. All-Workshop Orchestra, conducted by Frances Blaker. For complete class offerings and to register, visit https://www.hiddenvalleymusic.org/event-road-scholar-early-music-workshop-week-1_134.htm
Continues following week
Hidden Valley Institute of the Performing Arts
88 West Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley
To register online visit https://www.hiddenvalleymusic.org/event-road-scholar-early-music-workshop-week-1_134.htm
For more information contact Peter Meckel at [email protected] or 831-659-3115.
To register by telephone, call Road Scholar Registration toll-free at 1-800-454-5768 and ask for program number #6254RJ.
For questions about the workshop curriculum please email Tish Berlin, Director, at [email protected] or call 510-882-1169.
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
