2+ hour, 4+ min ago   (419+ words) At its best, historically informed performance practice offers surprises. When you hear a familiar piece in an unfamiliar way, it creates an ear-opening sensation that often reorients what you thought you knew. Nobody succeeds in that task more consistently than…...

6+ hour, 34+ min ago   (227+ words) The SF Classical Voice 2026 Audience Choice Awards are coming. Nominations open Monday, July 27, with separate polls for Bay Area and Los Angeles audiences. As in years past, we welcome your picks for the best performances by orchestras, small ensembles, soloists,…...

1+ day, 51+ min ago   (134+ words) The whole thing became an amazingly unified, 69-minute-long collage of supposedly unrelated styles during which it was often difficult to tell them apart without a scorecard. That may have been the point of the exercise — one world united by Rilke…...

1+ week, 3+ hour ago   (559+ words) “Come with open ears!” says Grete Pedersen, extending an invitation to the annual Carmel Bach Festival. Pedersen, artistic director and principal conductor of the Festival, which runs from July 11-25 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, created an intriguing program on the theme “the nature…...

1+ week, 16+ hour ago   (264+ words) In Hourglass (naïve), pianist Simone Dinnerstein and her string ensemble Baroklyn celebrate the fecundity of Glass’s late period. Glass’s partnership with Dinnerstein began when she performed Bach and Schubert for him at his home in 2014. “Right away I knew I…...

1+ week, 18+ hour ago   (253+ words) Many modern musicians routinely ask the following questions: What does it mean to play classical music in an era with so much political upheaval? How can this art form be in conversation with our society’s past and present. And can…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago   (755+ words) Alexandra Munroe, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS), announced today that Meghan Martineau Umber has been named the organization’s Munroe President and CEO, effective from October 1, 2026. Umber joins AMFS from the LA…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago   (530+ words) An operatic double bill by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble this weekend told two contrasting stories. One was a modernist fable, the other a multilayered reflection on American history, which together told a third story about the shapeshifting power of music…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (1166+ words) Russian soprano Elena Pankratova has sung Elektra in some of Europe’s leading opera houses, from Vienna and Amsterdam to Dresden, Lyon and Naples. Now, she brings the demanding title role to San Francisco Opera for the first time. When Pankratova…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (237+ words) For works that lay at the intersection of music and technology, the challenge often lies in whether technology can come across as more than just a novelty. Anne Hege, the mastermind behind The Glance: A Laptopera, said “challenge accepted.” In…...