Symphony

Symphony

Choral and Vocal

Chamber

Symphony

Chamber

5/4/2025 - MYSTICAL PLANETS AND LIVELY GERSHWIN ORTIZ AT FINAL SRS CONCERT - Peter Lert
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor. Orion Weiss, piano. Young Women's Chorus of San Francisco
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...

4/27/2025 - VSO'S CONCERT MUSIC OF TIME, MUSIC OF PLACE - Peter Lert
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei conductor
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 ...

4/26/2025 - VOCAL ELEGANCE AND FIRE AT THE 222'S RECITAL APRIL 26 - Pamela Hicks Gailey
The 222 / Chelsea Hollow, soprano; Taylor Chan, piano
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 ...

4/18/2025 - CANTIAMO SONOMA SINGS AN INSPIRED GOOD FRIDAY MOZART REQUIEM CONCERT - Pamela Hicks Gailey
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...

4/13/2025 - DRAMATIC SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY CLOSES PHILHARMONIC'S 25TH SEASON - Terry McNeill
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...

4/5/2025 - LARGE COLLEGE OF MARIN AUDIENCE GREETS STOPHER ARTISTRY - Terry McNeill
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...

3/30/2025 - FRISSON DELIVERS SHIVERS OF DELIGHT - Abby Wasserman
Frisson Nonet / Frisson Nonet
“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...

3/22/2025 - OLD AND MOSTLY NEW IN SRS MARCH CONCERT IN WEILL - Peter Lert
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. ...

2/23/2025 - TWO FORMIDABLE SYMPHONIES AND PURPLE MOUNTAINS AT SRS CONCERT - Peter Lert
Santa Rosa Symphony / Frencesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Joyce Yang, piano
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, ...

2/15/2025 - THE PARKER CAPTURES DEMANDING ADES QUARTET AT RAC SEBASTOPOL CONCERT - Peter Lert
Redwood Arts Council / Parker String Quartet
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...

2/9/2025 - SPLENDID ECHOES ACROSS THE BAY - Abby Wasserman
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...

2/6/2025 - ETHEREAL DUO IN WEILL HALL RECITAL - Pamela Hicks Gailey
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, ...

2/2/2025 - ESPANA SEGURO AT SO CO PHIL'S JACKSON THEATER CONCERT - Terry McNeill
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...

2/2/2025 - MASTERFUL SINGING CLASS IN SCHROEDER HALL - Pamela Hicks Gailey
National Associastion of Teachers of Singing / Nikola Printz, mezzo-soprano an teacher; Robert Mollicone, piano. Student singers TBA
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...

1/31/2025 - MUSICAL POT POURRI AT SPRING LAKE VILLAGE RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Spring Lake Village Classical Music Series / Cristiana Pegoraro, piano
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...

1/26/2025 - CELLO AND CLARINET HIGHLIGHT TRIO NAVARRO'S CONCERT - Ron Teplitz
Pierné’s Op. 19 Canzonetta for clarinet and piano, opened the Trio Navarro’s winter concert Jan. 26 in Schroeder Hall before an audience of 75. Played by guest artist Roy Zajac and Trio founder Marilyn Thompson, the Canzonetta unfolded as a charming waltz, in singing cantabile, with an occasional b...

1/26/2025 - SONGS OF LOVE, IN A WARM TRIO - Pamela Hicks Gailey
The 222 Gallery Impresario Caroline Altman presented Jan. 26 another marvelous Opera Series recital entitled Songs of Life, Songs of Love. A nicely full room of about thirty art song lovers warmly welcomed a young soprano Morgan Harrington as she delved into a nicely varied, well-structured cache of...

1/19/2025 - EARTHLY PLEASURES AT THE VALLEJO SYMPHONY - Peter Lert
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei conductor
It’s refreshing to see a resurgence in performances of the works of Mahler. Once the province only of major metropolitan orchestras, it’s now increasingly common to find Mahler symphonies on the programs of smaller regional (and, in some cases, even volunteer community) orchestras. One such professi...

1/19/2025 - EARTHLY PLEASURES AT THE VALLEJO SYMPHONY - Abby Wasserman
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei conductor
At a pre-performance talk January 19 the Vallejo Symphony’s conductor Marc Taddei addressed an early-bird Empress Theater audience with tales of two composers, Haydn and Mahler. He characterized the program we were about to hear as “two approaches to our place in Nature.” He termed Haydn’s Symphon...

1/19/2025 - TWO AND FOUR HANDS DELIGHT AT THE 222 - Nicki Bell
The 222 / Vieness Piano Duo
Before a packed Jan. 19 house in Healdsburg’s 222 gallery the Vieness Piano Duo played a nearly two-hour recital that seemed to evoke joy and often vivid musical excitement. Pianists Eva Schaumkell and Vijay Venkatesch, playing in two and four-hand formats, began most works with compelling spoken i...

1/18/2025 - NEW CENTURY'S BRILLIANT STRING PLAYING IN WEILL - Terry McNeill
San Francisco-based New Century Chamber Orchestra has a long relationship with North Coast audiences, and Jan. 18 found their 18 musicians again in Weill Hall before an audience of 350, presumably mostly string afficionados. Pianist Inon Barnatan joined the ensemble in C.P. E. Bach D Minor Third K...

1/11/2025 - SYMPHONIC CONTRASTS IN SRS WEILL HALL CONCERT - Peter Lert
Santa Rosa Symphony's Jan. 11 concert was billed as “RACH and the Hollywood Sound,” although the actual order of the program put Rachmaninoff's 1940 Symphonic Dances last, rather than first. The rest was indeed the Hollywood Sound, beginning with a suite from Elmer Bernstein's score for the 1960 fi...