Danish String Quartet at UC’s Hertz Hall

Teaching taste and timelessness… Cal Performances hosted the dynamic Danish String Quartet for a weeklong residency followed by a concert, held last Sunday at Hertz Hall on the UC campus. Their attentive reading of a modern work and edgy performance of two older works was a reminder of the timelessness of great art. They warmed up with Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54, No. 2, an ingenious work from Haydn’s middle...

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North Star Vocal Artists visit Healdsburg

Keeping the faith fresh A new group of vocal experimenters has been frequenting the North Bay of late. Founded by Sanford Dole earlier this year, this group of 18 singers performed an a cappella program titled “Spirited Light” in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma with a final concert in Healdsburg on Sunday, Nov. 8. Their Healdsburg concert was held in a large and acoustically exquisite gallery with the singers surrounded by art. The new...

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A celebration of Sonic Harvest’s 15th year

  Part of the joy of living in the Bay Area, aside from the expansively gorgeous weather even under the specter of drought and climate change, is the vast range of opportunities in the arts. This is especially true in music and in...

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Outstanding opening for Santa Rosa Symphony

Big sound, strong performers at Sonoma State After a concert at Sonoma State’s Weill Hall one is left with an appreciation for acoustics that should be part of every concert experience. The design and dimensions of this hall, which opened just four years ago, create a sound with a natural loft, clarity and intimacy that is breath taking. ...

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Remembering Robert Commanday, an Interview with Erwin Frech, Jr.

Of cherry blossoms and nonsense songs… Robert Commanday, one of the Bay Area’s more beloved music critics, passed away last Thursday, Sept. 3. A font of wisdom and wit, he was a reviewer for the SF Chronicle for three decades and the founder of San Francisco Classical Voice, an influential online magazine. You can find tributes to him in several obituaries, but it seems appropriate to add one story that I find extraordinary. In the...

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