The best of the rest: a dozen and 1/2 for 2013-14

Khatia Buniatishvili

Here are another dozen and a half shows coming up during the next season from different Bay Area performing arts organizations which should be interesting, listed in chronological order.

The Artist Sessions. Sept. 17
Lara Downes created this series of concerts last year with the intention of present classical music in non-traditional venues and formats to knock down walls and change perceptions about the music and the people who play it. She's succeeding. Each session includes a performance as well as an onstage discussion, resulting in intimate revelations. The second season kicks off at Yoshi's San Francisco location with Gabriel Kahane and Eleni Mandell. Get tickets and more information here.

New Century Chamber Orchestra: Daugherty Perspectives. Sept. 26-29
The New Century Chamber Orchestra opens their season with a program dedicated to the works of composer Michael Daugherty ranging from a solo piece performed by New Century's Director Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, pieces for various small ensembles, the full chamber orchestra, and one for quartet + tape titled Elvis Everywhere.

Ann Dyer: Vak: Song of Becoming. Sept. 20 & 21
If you are interested in using your own voice, or reclaiming it, this may be for you. Inspired by the ancient Indian goddess Vak, who creates the world through sound vibration, Vak: Song of Becoming calls on ancient yoga philosophies to create an immersive sonic experience. The new work, commissioned by YBCA, comes out of a period in which Dyer withdrew from a successful recording and performing career as a jazz vocalist to explore her personal relationship to voice and self through the study of Indian sound practices. In the piece, Dyer experiments with these ancient principles in a new, contemporary context, creating a monumental work at a new intersection of art and mindfulness. More information can be found here. There are auxiliary events as well.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Sept 20 through Oct. 20
The 2013 Tony winner for for Best Play opens Berkeley Rep's new season with Christopher Durang's farcical homage to Chekov. Click the link for more information.

West Edge Opera: Vanessa  Sept. 21, 22
West Edge Opera performs Samuel Barber's 1958 Pulitzer-winning opera for only two performances at Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage. Starring company stalwart Marie Plette, Jonathan Khuner conducts a 30-piece orchestra along with members of Berkeley's Chora Nova. Chances to see this are rare. The theater is an easy walk from the Downtown Berkeley BART station.

David Daniels with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.  Oct 2-6
Perhaps the world's leading countertenor, Daniels joins the orchestra along with soprano Carolyn Samspon, for performances of  rarely heard Handel, Durante and Perlegosi. The concerts take place in three San Francisco, Atherton and Berkeley. I've heard Daniels sing a handful of times and his voice is a truly special instrument. Complete information is here.

ZOFO Duet performs The Rite of Spring and Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor. Oct 4
Eva-Maria Zimmerman and Keisuke Nakagoshi have their hands in an inordinate amount of the Bay Area's most interesting musical experiences. The twice Grammy-nominated duo has performed around the world and return as part of the alumni concert series to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In a perfect world these two would be superstars. Tickets are $20 for the general public.

Blueprint. Oct 5
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music's New Music Ensemble, led by Opera Parallele Music Director Nicole Paiement, starts off their season of adventurous and engaging programming with “Short Stories,” a series of new works inspired by novels, plays and documentaries. Paiement welcomes special guest Tobias Picker, whose Dolores Claiborne premieres at San Francisco Opera this fall. The ensemble also takes on works by David Del Tredici (Dracula), Terry Riley (Y Bolanzero), John Adams (Son of Chamber Symphony) and Ryan Brown (’05), winner of the Conservatory’s Hoefer Prize, given each year to a distinguished alumnus composer. Listeners can meet featured composers (Picker on this evening) at informal pre-concert “tête à tête” events or learn about their work in greater depth at free Friday seminars called “Composers Talk Shop.” Tickets are $20 for the general public.

Cypress Quartet Salons Oct 18-20.
The intrepid and talented Cypress Quartet take the salon concept to three different locations for three different programs, offering exceptional musicianship and challenging rep in intimate settings. The salons take place at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, the Joe Henderson Jazz Lab in the SFJazz Building, and the Women's Club of Palo Alto. The first program features two Beethoven quartets: Op. 74 in E-flat ("Harp") and Op. 59, No. 2 in E-minor, along with Bartok's String Quartet No. 2. Tickets and additional information including information about the rest of the salon series is here.

The Airfield Broadcasts. Oct. 26 & 27
This is why I live in San Francisco. The first of two highly original and mammoth events hitting the Bay Area this fall. Lisa Bielawa (a member of the Phillip Glass Ensemble among other musical endeavors) has created something which probably can't be fully described and if it goes right will be even harder to explain to those who missed it- so don't. Taking place at San Francisco's Crissy Field,it involves more than 800 musicians of every level from professional to amateur including orchestras, bands and experimental music groups spread out among the space. There will be three 60 minute performances, at 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM Saturday, October 26 and 12:00 PM Sunday October 27. Free, and probably once-in-a-lifetime. More information can be found here.

Myra Melford: Language of Dreams. Nov. 8, 9
YBCA presents Myra Melford in the world premiere of the powerful, multi-sensory experience, Language of Dreams. Incorporating music, movement and video imagery, Melford invokes reflection and provokes dialogue about our collective histories and our path forward as “Americans” in the broadest sense, recognizing our diverse cultures and landscapes as well as the tensions and harmonies that define us. This newest work draws its inspiration from the composer’s deep fascination with Genesis, a 1982 novel by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. The novel, a part of the author’s Memory of Fire trilogy, strings together seemingly disjointed bits of text to form a deeply textured picture of life in the Americas in the era before and during European colonization. Tickets are $30. More info here.

Rhys Chatham's A Secret Rose. Nov. 17
Last June I attended a preview for this event at The Lab in San Francisco that blew my skull open in the best possible way, making this the number one performance I am looking forward during the entire season.
Other Minds will present the West Coast Premiere of Rhys Chatham's awe-inspiring work for 100 electric guitars at Richmond's Craneway Pavilion. Led by composer/guitarist Chatham, who's credited with creating a new type of urban music by fusing early 1960s minimalism with the relentless, elemental fury of punk rock, this large-scale performance features an international team of section leaders working in concert with amateur and professional guitarists from all over the Bay Area and beyond. The performance will cover a wide range between minimal rock and roll grooves and hushed, lush ambiance - the sound of 100 guitars playing as quietly as possible. The guitar orchestra will be joined by a local rhythm section featuring Jordan Glenn (drums) and Lisa Mezzacappa (bass). Doors will opens early to allow concertgoers to eat, drink and enjoy the view, with a bar and food trucks on site. I recently found a link with a recording from the June event- check that out here, read the entire press release from Other Minds about the event here, and get tickets here. Do not miss this.

Be Bop Baby. Nov 19-23Narrated through musical vignettes and monologues, Be Bop Baby follows award-winning actor, director and playwright Margo Hall's eccentric and wild times growing up in a house frequented by Detroit musicians, extended family and friends, and colorful neighborhood characters. Be Bob Baby explores strong bond between Hall and her stepfather, strengthened through their mutual love of music, contrasting it with her difficult relationship with her biological father. Bay Area jazz legend Marcus Shelby's original score animates Hall's heartfelt story with jazz, with a touch of Motown and 70s style-soul. Directed by Sheila Balter, the cast includes Hall and Bay Area actors Halili Knox, Dawn Troupe-Masi and Mujahed Abdul-Rashid. The 14-piece Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra performs live onstage. At Z Space, tickets here.

La Boheme. Dec 6 & 8
The students of the Opera Program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music take on Puccini's classic. It's been said "if you don't like Boheme you don't like opera" and I agree. Youthful singers will only make it that much better, and it's free, though reservations required.

Nora Chipaumire: Miriam. February 13 – 15
YBCA presents renowned choreographer and dancer Nora Chipaumire, as the former member of the acclaimed dance troupe Urban Bush Women, creates her first character-driven work, Miriam. The work is a deeply personal and immersive dance-theater installation that reverberates with tensions between public expectations and private desires, between objectification and power, and between darkness and light. The unusual format and staging of the piece invite the audience to bring their senses, memories, hearts, and minds to bear to fully inhabit and comprehend the experience of being an outsider. $25 advance/$30 at the door.

James Ehnes. March 8
Chamber Music San Francisco presents one of today's most highly regarded musicians in a solo recital at the Marine's Memorial Theater. Ehnes will perform Copland's Sonata, Grieg's Sonata No. 2 in G major, Brahms' Sonatensatz and Schubert's Fantasy in C major.

Khatia Buniatishvili. April 12
Even if she wasn't gorgeous, it would still be worth attending Buniatishvili's local solo debut. Last year she brought down the house at Davies performing the 2nd Rachmaninioff Piano Concerto. She'll be performing Liszt's Sonata in B minor, Ravel's La Valse, Chopin's Sonata No. 2, and Stravisnky's Petrushka in this recital presented by Chamber Music San Francisco. I'm very excited.

Opera Parallele April 25-27
Opera Parallèle, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s resident professional opera company hasn't released the details about A Surreal Evening with Opera Parallèle at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, but based on the company's track record, this promises to deliver. For tickets call 415.978.ARTS.

And finally, Led Zeppelin. Sometime in 2014. Yes, this is going to happen. Really.