Symphony

The Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra presented their “Bon Voyage” concert June 14 in Weill Hall, a few days before departing for a European tour. During their 11 days abroad, they’ll begin in Berlin, where they’ll be coached by the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, attend a Philharmonic c...

Chamber

The Noth Coast’s premier multi art concert venue, Healdsburg’s 222 Gallery, closed their season June 14 with a recital by violinist Gary McLaughlin and pianist Rose McCoy. Mr. McLaughlin is the 222’s classical music producer and has long been associated with Healdsburg area music. It was an odd men...

Choral and Vocal

Cantiamo Sonoma concluded their 2024-25 season June 8 at St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Cathedral, going out perhaps not with a bang, but certainly with a sigh of happy accomplishment. Although not packed, the appreciative audience was fairly full and enthusiastic. Director Carol Menke led five se...

Symphony

Finishing the 97th season, the Santa Rosa Symphony took a long stride June 1 on its “Road to 100” odyssey in a dramatic concert before an audience of 1,200 in Weill Hall. The “Road to 100” is a celebratory march and marketing slogan set to spotlight the Symphony’s nearly 100 years of concerts, and a...

Symphony

The final concert of the Ukiah Symphony's 2024-2025 season featured the winners of the Orchestra's Youth Concerto Competition, for which entrants must be undergraduate student musicians. Winners were flutist Sungdu Bae, a senior at Sonoma State University, and violinist Serena She, a freshman conser...

Symphony

For their final concert of the 2024-2025 season the Santa Rosa Symphony programmed, in addition to a contemporary piece by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, two proven crowd pleasers: Gershwin’s 1925 Concerto in F, and Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets, composed during the first World War. These p...

Symphony

The Vallejo Symphony's final concert of the 2024-2025 season was performed April 27 in their usual venue, Vallejo's historic Empress Theater. Built in 1911 as one of the first small “movie palaces” in northern California, it went through various incarnations before being lovingly restored, complete ...

The opera series at Healdsburg’s 222 Gallery closed its season April 26 in a splendid program given by virtuoso soprano Chelsea Hollow with pianist Taylor Chan. It was a smallish audience for this eclectic program of art songs and cabaret pieces, yet Ms. Hollow sang the vocal pyro techniques as if ...

In retrospect, Cantiamo Sonoma’s April 18 performance of Mozart’s Requiem sadly presaged the loss of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. Santa Rosa’s Church of the Roses was packed even more than usual for their annual Good Friday concert, and Carol Menke led a musically solid, powerfully heartfelt rendi...

Sonoma County Philharmonic’s season ending concerts always program a work that can be a stretch for the all-volunteer orchestra, and April 12 and 13 found Shostakovich’s demanding D Minor 5th Symphony the piece de resistance. The weekend pair of concerts, conducted by Norman Gamboa in his th...

Music department faculty recitals are a rare commodity on the North Coast, and over many years one looked in vain for artist performances at Santa Rosa JC, Dominican University, Mendocino College, Sonoma State University, Napa College and Pacific Union College. No so at College of Marin, where facu...

Chamber

“Frisson” means “a moment of intense excitement…a shiver,” and that’s what Frisson Nonet provided nonstop on March 30 at Mt. Tamalpais Methodist Church in Mill Valley. Their dynamic performances of works by Rossini, August Walter, Gershwin, Martinú and Ravel marked Chamber Music Marin’s season close...

Santa Rosa Symphony's March 22 concert might be thought of as encompassing both the old world (Mendelssohn's E Minor Violin Concerto, one of the cornerstones of the German Romantic period) and the new, with both an echo of the European late romantic period: Dvorak's Symphony New World Symphony (No. ...

Symphony

The Santa Rosa Symphony's February 23 concert included works from three distinct periods. Chinese American composer Shuyung Li’s Purple Mountains, premiered in 2023, while Brahms’ E Minor Symphony was first heard in 1885. Fitting between them was Leonard Bernstein's second, titled Age of Anxiety, ...

Chamber

The New England-based Parker Quartet was heard Feb. 15 as part of the Redwood Arts Council's concert series, in the acoustically rewarding Sebastopol Community Church. As is the practice at the RAC, the concert was opened by a local musician, Korean flautist Sungdu Bae, studying at Sonoma State Uni...

In what is hoped not to be a permanent departure, ECHO Chamber Orchestra moved its concert Feb. 9 from the First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Oakland. The churches are similar, both having high vaulted ceilings and good acoustics. ECHO, led by musical director...

The virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell appeared Feb. 6 in Weill Hall in an unforgettable performance. I would say that he descended from heaven but that wouldn’t begin to completely describe the empyreal beauty that emanated from his Stradivarius instrument, made in 1713. Joined by pianist Peter Dugan, ...

Choral and Vocal

Santa Rosa born and rising Bay Area operatic luminary Nikola Printz graced the Schroeder Hall stage Feb. 2 in a hybrid concert/master class featuring four Sonoma State University voice student alums. Printz was a stellar participating singer as well as teacher. The master class is a coproduction o...

Calling a Sonoma Philharmonic program “lightweight” might be accurate related to their recent powerhouse concerts of Shostakovich and the Frankenstein movie score adaption, but that would do a disservice to the Feb. 2 concert in the Jackson Theater of music with a Spanish flair. Beginning with a se...

Recital

Spring Lake Village’s Concert Series tend to be short one hour events, often with a pot pourri of works, and Jan. 31 found Italian pianist Cristiana playing 15 works in a concise and novel group format. In a rare standing room only concert for 150 SLV residents, Ms. Pegoraro’s charming spoken intro...

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Santa Rosa Symphony / Sunday, February 13, 2022
Aram Demirjian, conductor. Michelle Cann, piano
SR SYMPHONY CHOOSES HARMONY OVER FOOTBALL by Steve Osborn

In his introduction to the Super Bowl Sunday concert by the Santa Rosa Symphony, guest conductor Aram Demirjian remarked, “We’re so glad you’ve chosen harmony over football.” He may have meant harmony in the literal sense, but his comment also evoked the idea of harmony between people rather than th... read full text

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