Freebie of the week: Music director Ming Luke and the Berkeley Neighborhood Refrain and Orchestra, a six-decade-old group that welcomes with open arms any members who need to sing, usher within the new 12 months with three concert events in Hertz Corridor on the UC Berkeley campus. With San Francisco Symphony pianist John Wilson performing with visitor soloists soprano Ellen Leslie, alto Sara Couden, tenor Jonathan Elmore and bass Simon Barrad, the group will roll out a program that features the Fauré Requiem and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy for piano, refrain and orchestra, with its hints of the composer’s famed “Ode to Joy” forthcoming some 15 years later to conclude the Ninth Symphony. Additionally on this system is Haydn’s “Mass in the Time of War,” composed in 1796 as a lot of Europe was cringing over the advances of Napoleon. The concert events happen at 7:30 p.m. Friday and three p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with doorways opening 45 minutes previous to the performances. For extra info and a program ebook, go to bcco.org.
Singer/producer Toro y Moi will carry out throughout San Francisco’s Free First Thursday occasion on Jan. 2. (Courtesy Toro y Moi).
One other freebie: Two days after enjoying host to all method of revelers greeting 2025, San Francisco jumps again into get together mode Thursday with its first Downtown First Thursdays of the brand new 12 months. The free occasion, created to assist generate a post-COVID resurgence downtown, serves up all kinds of enjoyable and deliciousness from 5 to 10 p.m. on Second Road between Market and Folsom streets. Catch a DJ set by headliner Toro y Moi, a preferred singer/producer/DJ identified for ingenious mashups of in style and digital music kinds, who will carry out from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Second and Howard streets. There may also be different dwell music, drag performances, martial arts demonstrations, youngsters’ actions, a number of meals and craft distributors, outside bars and what’s described as “the biggest disco ball west of the Mississippi.” Additionally, bars and companies within the space will supply specials, and the San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork at Third and Mission streets may have free admission till 8 p.m. The Free First Thursday occasions are slated to run by way of April. Extra info is at www.dftsf.com.
Lily-Rose Depp performs a younger girl who’s affected by the adventures of a vampire within the new movie “Nosferatu.” (Courtesy Aidan Monaghan/Focus Options)
A movie to freak out at: It’s not going to be to everybody’s style, however those that favor films which have them hunkering down of their seats and sometimes masking their eyes could like director Robert Eggers’ harrowing reinterpretation of F.W. Murnai’s iconic “Nosferatu” from 1922 enjoying on three totally different screens through the day and evening on the Alamo Drafthouse within the Mission District on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This basic story of a really creepy vampire and his obsession with a weak younger girl options extra-creepy Invoice Skarsgärd within the function of the menacing Rely Orlok, Lily-Rose Depp as the item of his infatuation, Nicholas Hoult as her husband and the at all times glorious Willem Dafoe because the professor who’s introduced in to seek the advice of on Depp’s character’s unusual conduct. The Web Film Information Base offers the film a 7.8 approval ranking, and it stretches for a protracted two hours and 12 minutes, which can give viewers loads of time to benefit from the cocktails and meals gadgets from a full menu that Drafthouse staffers will ferry to their seats. Attempt the popcorn, which is available in bottomless bowls in three varieties: clarified butter, truffle herb parmesan and cinnamon-infused churro. Tickets are $15.74 for the sooner viewings, $19.74 for night showings, obtainable at drafthouse.com. The theater is positioned at 2550 Mission St., two lengthy blocks from the twenty fourth Road BART station in San Francisco.
The Bay Space primarily based Pacific Mambo Orchestra performs 4 reveals at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4. (Courtesy Pacific Mambo Orchestra)
Let PMO jumpstart the brand new 12 months: In 2010, Mexican pianist Christian Tumalan and German trumpeter Steffen Kuehn determined to kind a Bay Space Latin large band. It didn’t take lengthy for the challenge to achieve consideration. Utilizing a crowd-fund marketing campaign to fulfill studio and different recording prices, the 19-member Pacific Mambo Orchestra launched a self-titled debut album in 2012 that went on to win a finest Latin Tropical Album Grammy Award in 2014. As we speak, the band is extensively thought of among the best Latin teams on this planet, able to tackling genres starting from conventional Latin jazz to salsa, cha cha cha and lots of extra and revered for its high-energy concert events. In addition to performing unique and conventional numbers, the band can be identified for progressive covers of all the things from Stevie Marvel’s “Overjoyed” to Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia” and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. A favourite at jazz and different musical festivals world wide, the Pacific Mambo Orchestra kicks off 2025 with a quartet of native gigs at Yoshi’s in Oakland. Performances are 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and seven:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday; tickets are $33-$65; go to yoshis.com.
Aida Rodriguez brings her comedy present to Tommy T’s in Pleasanton on Jan. 3-5. (Courtesy Aida Rodriguez)
Comedy from tragedy: Comic Aida Rodriguez as of late is finest identified for appearances on TV’s “Last Comic Standing” and “The Young Turks” platform and as a collaborator with Tiffany Haddish, however her life story reads extra like particulars from a real crime particular. Throughout her youth, she was kidnapped twice by members of the family searching for to get her out of a precarious residence setting; and an uncle who cared for her in Florida was murdered in an obvious hate crime. She’s skilled sexual abuse, battled an consuming dysfunction and lived out of her automobile along with her kids for a time. Rodriguez turned to comedy as a method to earn an earnings and as a mode of therapeutic from early brutal early years. She nonetheless addresses her troublesome previous in her comedy and has no drawback tackling hot-button points akin to as politics and cancel-culture. Her standup comedy particular on HBOMax is titled “Fighting Words,” and she or he in the meantime is growing a sequence with the On Demand platform primarily based on her eye-opening experiences. One factor is for certain, issues is not going to be boring when Rodriguez brings her standup present to Tommy T’s comedy membership in Pleasanton for a weekend stand. Performances are 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:45 p.m. Saturday and seven p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25-$35; go to tommyts.com.
