Younis Raza – Page 49 – Repeat Performances

April 24, 2010

Pacific Boychoir at Lake Merritt Cathedral

Glorious Russian Mass in Oakland Sanctuary On Saturday, April 24, ninety voices filled the sanctuary of Oakland’s newly built Christ the Light Cathedral by Lake Merritt. The Pacific Boychoir, a world-renowned choir that makes its home in Berkeley, is also celebrating their recent Grammy for Best Choral Performance, a product of their collaboration with the SF Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Three years ago choral director Kevin Fox decided to recreate Sergei...

Categories: music

Critic Alex Ross and pianist Ethan Iverson at Herbst

Jazz Improv and 20th century composers—a divisive subject Alex Ross, author of the best selling “The Rest is Noise,” came to Herbst Theater Saturday morning to read selections from his book and explicate a century of modern music. The book is brilliant. The 90-minute...

Categories: music

April 6, 2010

SF Performances hosts Auerbach and Weilerstein

Herbst Theater spellbound Hot young composer Lera Auerbach joined Alisa Weilerstein, arguably the next generation’s great cellist, in a program that explored Bach through the lens of Shostakovich, and then re-imagined it for piano and cello. This layering of composers revealed the...

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April 1, 2010

Berkeley Symphony at Zellerbach

Carneiro essays challenging program The Berkeley Symphony, under the baton of Joana Carneiro, ended their season at Zellerbach Hall last Thursday, April 1. Magic can happen when all the ingredients work together, gelling into something whole and unexpected: a spell. But if the recipe should go awry? Excellent musicians, awesome soprano, inspired conductor and grand venue had some magical moments, but did not quite mesh Thursday night for Samuel Barber’s...

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March 29, 2010

Chanticleer, 12 High School Choirs at Davies Hall

Preparing the next generation The Bay Area’s beloved Chanticleer, a vocal powerhouse and National Treasure, proved their mettle with their ambitious new educational program. Inviting 12 choirs from across the country, including the Piedmont High School A Cappella Choir, they held four days of intensive workshops that culminated in a joint concert at Davies Symphony Hall. The concert was a thing of swooning beauty. But the heart lay in the grit of the...

Categories: music

February 26, 2010

Oakland Symphony at Paramount

The search for American treasure Michael Morgan took the Oakland East Bay Symphony for a fishing expedition Friday night, Feb. 26, searching out American idioms in a program titled “Diverse views of America.” Morgan put the program...

Categories: music