March 13, 2010
‘Slaughter City’ at Zellerbach Playhouse
Neither here nor then ...
The talented members of UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance and...
Jaime Robles
March 12, 2010
ODC at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Brenda Way hit the bull’s eye when she said ODC’s dancers, newly returned from a month-long tour of Southeast Asia, are “in absolutely top form.” They are, and they proved it with ease and grace this past Friday, the opening night of their...
March 7, 2010
The Kate McGarry Trio at the SF Jazz Festival
On Sunday evening, the Kate McGarry Trio performed at the Swedish-American Hall on upper Market Street in San Francisco. McGarry, a vocalist whose sense of jazz is complex, individual and unexpected, was joined onstage by her husband, guitarist Keith Ganz and percussionist Clarence Penn, both terrific musicians.
The concert was part of the 2010 SF Jazz Spring Season, which began on February 19 and ends mid-June. The festival presents a myriad of artists of differing musical persuasions,...
March 6, 2010
Jordi Savall and Philharmonia Baroque
Jordi Savall is in town, appearing in not only the Cal Performances Music Before 1850 series but also with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, an organization with which he has a long-standing relationship. A celebrated soloist and the director of his three renowned ensembles—Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and Le Concert des Nations—Savall is widely admired not only for his virtuosic playing but as a researcher of early music who has brought many forgotten works to music...
March 4, 2010
New Century Chamber Orchestra’s ‘Serenades and Dances’
Britten's 'Serenade' beautifully interpreted
Besides being one of the great song cycles, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a primal piece of music from my childhood. My brother studied the French horn, and he and I...
February 25, 2010
Kronos Quartet at Z Space @ Artaud
Theory is often a feature of experimental or avant-garde art; artists need to wrestle with what they feel is predictable in their art, and to undermine and recreate that art to better fit their vision of the world. But it often seems as if theory undermines the pure emotional...