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Thelma Ahner, doyen of the Sonoma County singing community, died June 19 at her Santa Rosa home. She was 98. Known for her vibrant dramatic soprano in opera, operetta and Broadway musicals with the stage name Thelma Dare, Ahner moved to Sonoma in 1963 and began teaching privately and also opening ...

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Impresario Robert Hayden celebrated his 101st birthday Dec. 7 with a short but festive concert in an Oakmont home before 16 friends. Performing Finzi’s Five Bagatelles and the Brahms E-Flat Sonata, Op. 120, were clarinetist Roy Zajac and pianist Judy Walker. During the buffet reception Mr. Hayden ...

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Two hundred admirers of Norma Brown, doyen of Sonoma County classical music, honored her June 26 in a Memorial program in Weill Hall. Ms. Brown died at 89 in May of last year. Following introductory remarks by Corrick and Derek Brown, San Francisco’s Telegraph Quartet played Ravel’s F Major Quarte...

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With the death of Brian Lloyd in late January from pancreatic cancer, Sonoma County lost one of most eminent musicians and stellar personalities. Known mostly for his attachment for 15 years to the Sonoma County Philharmonic Orchestra as cellist, past Board president and musical cheerleader, Mr. Ll...

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A contingent of Redwood Empire America Guild of Organists met March 10 at the posh Jacuzzi Winery, located at the south end of Sonoma Valley, to inspect and play on the facility’s pipe organ. Built before 1900 and installed for a century in a Sonoma Church, the instrument was purchased by the Cline...

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Sonoma County organist Douglas DeForeest, for many years one of the best known local organ virtuosos, died in Santa Rosa Nov. 13 of undisclosed causes. Born in 1933 in New Jersey, DeForeest graduated from the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and studied with Richard Purvis. He was for many years ...

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Pearl Harbor Day seems an inappropriate time for a celebration, but the gala produced for Santa Rosan Robert Hayden’s 100th birthday was indeed an uplifting event. Held in the auditorium at Mr. Hayden’s Spring Lake Village residence, 60 people gathered to honor the founder of the Music at Oakmont S...

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North Coast musician and impresario Sonia Tubridy died Nov. 26 in her Guerneville home from cancer. It was the second recent local loss of a musician of manifold talents, following in May the death of Santa Rosa pianist and teacher Norma Brown. Manifold talents characterized Sonia, as she was a ch...

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Sonoma County has lost the doyen of classical music May 13 with the death of Norma Brown. A comprehensive obituary appeared in the May 15 Press Democrat, splendidly written by Diane Peterson. For decades a titular figure in North Coast chamber and symphonic music, Norma was the founder of the San...

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During the Pandemic the Mendocino Music Festival has hosted several virtual programs, with singers and instrumentalists, several with local artists. Festival co-director Susan Waterfall’s pre-recorded program Feb. 26 regarding Debussy’s Preludes was expected to continue the series of live performan...

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North Coast Symphonic Music during the Pandemic is alive, but mostly on idle. The Santa Rosa Symphony is featuring three video programs (Oct. 11, Nov. 15 and Dec. 13) from Weill Hall, and presented a charming gala program Sept. 11 spotlighting the contributions by Norma and Corrick Brown to the SRS...

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The idea of "fake news" has gathered great force in the past few years. Perhaps the media truly has reached an unprecedented level of virulence, but the idea of disseminating and then amplifying a wildly inaccurate tale is not a recent cultural phenomenon. History reveals that false reports have bee...

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A full house at Santa Rosa's Church of the Incarnation Jan. 20 heard unpublished vocal, organ and instrumental music by David N. Johnson, performed by local musicians. The Redwood Empire Chapter of the American Guild of Organists produced the event. Participants in the concert included (left to ri...

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During the Sonoma County Philharmonic’s June 17-24 Costa Rica tour, three concerts were played, with the titular event being the splendid June 19 concert in San José’s Teatro Nationál. This seminal concert was the featured review on the Internet at Classical Sonoma. However, the two concerts...

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Nearly a decade ago the Sonoma County Philharmonic took a concert and cultural tour of China, led by its founder and then conductor Gabe Sakakeeny. Many of the participants described the eight days as logistically challenging and arduous, but also artistically successful. The So Co Phil tours agai...

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Long-time Sonoma and Mendocino County music aficionado Jack Power died May 11, at age 73. Details on the cause of death and where he died were not available as of July 1. Jack was known to friends as the best pianist among surgeons, or the best surgeon among pianists. He never lost an opportunity...

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Valley of the moon Music Festival...

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VOM Music Festival Photo...

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Photo by Green Music Center...

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Photo provided by Green Music Center...

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The Vallejo Symphony Orchestra (VSO) announced the election of its new director March 30, and New Zealander Marc Taddei will take the baton beginning with its upcoming 2016-2017 season. Earlier this season the three final candidates conducted an audition concert, and perhaps fate had a hand in the...

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Northern California’s grand signor of music criticism, Robert Commanday, died Sept. 3 in his Oakland home. He was 93. Best remembered for 30 years as the San Francisco Chronicle’s critic, Mr. Commanday with visionary success founded in 1993 an online music service, San Francisco Classical V...

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I thought it was one of the most enjoyable concerts the ABS has done in awhile, mostly because of the choice of music and the variety. Jeffrey Thomas always mixes things up and you never know how he is going to approach a given piece. He is after the surprises in the music and nothing taken for gr...

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In a flurry of surprise announcements, Zarin Mehta has been named Executive Director of the Green Music Center complex at Sonoma State University. Mehta, 75, was for 12 years the Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and in Sonoma Country media and the New York Times said “it’s...

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As befits its name, Music in the Vineyards is as much about the venues as it is about the music. Encompassing nine Napa Valley wineries and the Napa Valley Museum over a three-week run, the festival allows music to shine through rosé-colored glasses. This year's festival culminated with three weeke...

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Chamber music is probably not the first thing that springs to the minds of barrel-room visitors at Markham Vineyards in St. Helena. True to its name, two sides of the large rectangular space are lined floor to ceiling with 60-gallon oak barrels filled with Napa Valley's finest. The floors are concre...

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Long time Sonoma County musician Carolyn Wiester died Feb. 3 in Rohnert Park after a year-long struggle with cancer. Ms. Wiester was closely associated with activities of the Redwood Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and was a past Dean of the Organization. She was also a pianist noted f...

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Five performances of Sonoma State University’s two-opera production, Haydn’s “Deserted Island” and Vaughn Williams’ “Riders to the Sea,” are scheduled for mid February in the University’s Person Theater. Dates are Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. (performance with piano replacing the orchestra) and at 7:30 p.m. F...

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The virtuoso French organist Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin gave a master class Oct. 20 in Santa Rosa’s Resurrection Parish, associated with her recital in the same venue the following afternoon. Peter Duranceau, prepared by local organist David Parsons, worked with Ms. Cauchefer-Choplin on Vie...

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With all the news revolving around the opening of the Green Music Center, another exciting new building for music has seemingly slipped under the cultural radar. The Sebastopol Center for the Arts is moving to a larger facility, the County Veteran’s Building on High Street in Sebastopol. A festi...

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After 20 seasons of producing classical chamber music programs, the Russian River Chamber Music Society has suspended concerts for the coming 2012-2013 season. Founder and Artistic Director Gary McLaughlin announced that the Board of Directors, headed by President Richard Kagel, is considering seve...

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Marin’s Music Chest’s 2012 winners were announced April 19 and each will perform May 6 at 12:30 p..m. in San Domenico’s School Auditorium. The School is at 1500 Butterfield Rd., San Anselmo, CA 94960. Pictured above are the winners: Front Row (l to r) Stephanie Oh, Chloe Fung, Hallie Jo Gist, Kat...

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Winners for the 2012 Etude Competition have been announced after April 1 auditions in Santa Rosa Junior College’s Forsyth Hall. Continuing a long tradition and originally sponsored by the Santa Rosa Etude Club, the Competition is now independent and managed by Director Peggy Nance. The Santa Rosa...

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This article is the first in a series concerning the coming SRS season’s seven sets of concerts and an opening gala. A new concert hall and an old orchestra are not strange bedfellows, as witness the Santa Rosa Symphony, which will play its first formal Weill Hall concert at Sonoma State Uni...

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Recently the Santa Rosa Symphony announced its inaugural Green Music Center calendar with a daunting schedule of seven sets of concerts, each program having a snazzy title and seemingly designed to showcase the acoustics of the 1,400-seat Weill Hall. The 2012-13 season, the Orchestra’s 84th, present...

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Lang Lang. San Francisco Symphony. Carnegie Hall. Those were the three big names on the lips of speakers at a donor gathering in the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University on New Year’s Day. The upshot was that all three big names will be involved with the upcoming season in the new facility,...

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Robert Hayden, impresario for two decades at the Oakmont Concert Series, recently announced his retirement from managing the felicitous monthly concerts, effective January 1. Mr. Hayden, 89, moved to Oakmont after education executive positions in places as disparate as Thessaloniki, San Salvador,...

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Sonoma County’s preeminent organization of teachers of singing, the Redwood Empire Chapter of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) held their annual recital Oct. 29 at Santa Rosa’s First United Methodist Church. The fund-raising event supports the spring scholarship auditions for loca...

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Announcing its 59th year, the Marin Symphony has set five pairs of concerts for the 2011-2012 season spotlighting an eclectic array of works, beginning with an all-Tchaikovsky event October 2 and 4. Conducted by Alasdair Neale in his tenth year in Marin, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien will be foll...

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Ukiah’s innovative Symphony announced its 2011-2012 season May 27, a season of rich variety and featuring new groups of mostly local soloists in Mendocino College’s Center Theater. Under the baton of veteran conductor Les Pfutzenreuter, four classical music concerts have individual themes, leading ...

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Celebrating its new 79th season, the Napa Valley Symphony will present seven single concerts, all on Sundays, in Yountville’s Lincoln Theater Napa Valley with a series of guest conductors. Made in Napa is the season’s theme and features three compositions by composers of the greater Napa community....

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Santa Rosa pianist Gail Embree recorded May 5 Schumann's multi-part Carnaval, Op. 9, and the CD has just been released. One of Schumann's most popular and demanding works, Carnaval has been a favorite of virutosi since its composition in 1835, and has been played in the North Bay Concerts Grand s...

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Cellist Chris Jennings, 44-year veteran of the Marin Symphony, retired from the orchestra at the season-concluding concerts May 1 and 3 at the Marin Center in San Rafael. Joining in 1967 after auditioning, Ms. Jennings and the Symphony were then playing to audience members seated in bleachers in a ...

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The Marin Music Chest, a 78-year old organization which presents annual scholarships to Marin County students studying classical music, has announced its 2011 scholarship award winners and two May concerts featuring solo performances by each student musician. Scholarships of $800 each were awarded t...

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The North Bay’s Etude Competition auditions produced 13 winners April 10 in a spirited event at SRJC’s Newman Auditorium. Musicians ages 11 through 18 participated. Sponsored by generous contributions by the Optimist Club and directed by pianist Peggy Nance, the Etude Competition is the premier ev...

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The Santa Rosa Symphony has announced a Summer Music Academy at the Sonoma Country Day School July 11 through July 29. Comprising workshops for individual instruments and ensembles for string, woodwinds, brass and percussion, the Academy’s early bird discount deadline is April 15. The deadline for...

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After years of moribund fund raising and uncertainty about the future, the Green Music Center at Rohnert Park’s Sonoma State University appears to be closer to finally opening. New York banker, financier and philanthropist Sanford Weill, a recent purchaser of a lavish Sonoma County estate, donate...

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Long-time Sonoma County musical figure harry Fry died March 8 at his Oakmont home. He was 84 and suffered from cancer. Mr. Fry was born in Sheffield. England, and graduated in physics from Sheffield University. In World War II he was involved in war-related industrial research and in the late 196...

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Marin’s Music Chest has launched its annual scholarship audition program to provide financial assistance to support Marin County students studying classical music. Students in woodwinds, brass, string instruments, piano, percussion and voice are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be Marin County...

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KDFC-FM, the San Francisco Bay Area's only full-time classical music radio station since KKHI changed format in 1994, has sold its operation to a new owner and has vacated its longtime broadcast frequency of 102.1 MHz. The new owner is the University of Southern California, in conjunction with Enter...

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The popular University of Southern California classical station KUSC is taking over management of KDFC under a non-profit model. In the North Bay the station can now be heard on FM 89.9. For further details read a letter about the chang...

My apologies for dawdling so long with this summary report of my trip to China with the APSC (American Philharmonic Orchestra of Sonoma County) that occurred from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6. I appear to have brought back with me (and many other orchestra members with them) a virus that has laid me low durin...

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Layten P. Heckman, widely-known organist, died Dec. 13 at Sebastopol's Palm Drive Hospital from complications of a blood infection. He was 64 and lived in Rio Nido. Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Mr. Heckman graduated from St. Olaf College, Minnesota, and was a career composer, director and publisher of ...

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It’s my final report before leaving China, and we lucked out weather wise yesterday. We played out last concert the night before here in Beijing, and yesterday went to the Great Wall. It was pretty wonderful – incredible scenery, a great sense of history and the cleanest air we have breathed sinc...

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So you all probably think that China has eaten us alive by now. In a way, it has! It’s been a non-stop whirlwind for a week (a concert every night in a new city) and four airline flights in that week alone. Yesterday and today we finally got a break without concerts in Shanghai, and we are havin...

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It’s been intense. We played our first seven concerts on seven consecutive nights, with flights and bus rides and sometimes some sleep in between. Good to fantastic reception from various audiences; good to mediocre hotel accommodations and hotel food; decent performing venues, with one notable e...

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First information from the American Philharmonic’s trip to China, sent by trumpet player Philip Beard: From December 28 – how is the trip? “The trip is exhausting but fun. Three concerts under our belts so far, at Dalian, Taizhou and today in this incredible performance hall called the ‘Oriental ...

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North Coast music lovers mourn the loss of Nina Elizabeth Shuman, who died peacefully in her home Dec. 12 after a 30-month battle with cancer. Born April 27, 1954, in New York City, Ms. Shuman was surrounded by music and art from childhood summers in Santa Barbara, where her father, Davis Shuman, a...

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American Philharmonic-Sonoma County has been invited by the government of China and the Dalian Yilan Concert Production Company to tour northern China over this coming New Year's holiday. Sponsored and supported almost entirely by the Chinese government, the orchestra will perform eight concerts in ...

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Corricks, Santa Rosa’s unique downtown store, is celebrating its 95th anniversary with weekend musicales and exceptional art in November and the first week of December. Hosted by store President Kevin Brown, the events will run from Nov. 13 to December 5, Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 2 p.m. I...