Musician Marc Capelle is within the lineup of 10 artists becoming a member of a Porchlight storytelling session at a Jan. 17 SF Sketchfest present on the Nice American Music Corridor. (Courtesy Lenny Gonzalez)
SF Sketchfest bounty: San Francisco’s annual comedy explosion often called SF Sketchfest has one thing to tickle nearly everybody’s humorous bone. Sketchfest was based in 2001 by Bay Space comedians David Owen, Cole Stratton and Janet Varney to showcase native sketch comedy teams, and through the years has developed into one of many world’s most intensive and spectacular comedy festivals. Working Thursday by Feb. 2, it options practically 200 exhibits at principally San Francisco venues. Occasions run from standup comedy to superstar Q&As to movie screenings with particular company to just about something that isn’t a chemical weapons explosion. There’s clearly an excessive amount of occurring to explain all the things right here however one actually promising wanting providing is an improv occasion titled “Dinner Date.” It options Rachel Bloom of (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” fame), Dan Gregor, John Ross Bowie and Jamie Denbo on a faux, extemporaneous dinner date that, as organizers say, “could end in anything from murder to polygamy depending on the suggestion.” It’s onstage at 7 p.m. Friday and 9:30 p.m. Saturday on the Nice Star Theater in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Tickets are $45-$57. Additionally, San Francisco’s long-running Porchlight storytelling sequence has a gig on the Nice American Music Corridor, 859 O’Farrell St., from 8 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday. Porchlight co-founders Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick are within the lineup of actors, writers and musicians who will stand in entrance of the microphone with out good thing about notes or teleprompters and try to entertain the viewers with a full 10 minutes of witty monologue. Different contributors are musician Merrill Garbus of the band Tune-Yards, actor-writer-producer Michael Hitchcock, “MythBusters” co-host Adam Savage, author Ayelet Waldman, composer-arranger-producer Marc Capelle, TV and film actor Gary Anthony Williams and funk musicians Daybreak Silva and Gail Muldrow. Discover tickets, $38 together with a service payment, and the complete competition lineup at sfsketchfest.com.
Classically educated violist and acclaimed comic Isabel Hagen performs two exhibits at Stanford College on Jan. 16. (Courtesy Isabel Hagen)
Taking a bow: Not each comic within the Bay Space this week is right here for Sketchfest. Take Isabel Hagen. The New York Metropolis-born entertainer lands at Stanford College on Thursday for 2 performances introduced by Stanford Stay. Some would possibly acknowledge Hagen from her different most important pursuit. She is a classically educated violist who has carried out with modern classical and new music outfits in addition to within the pit orchestra for Broadway productions together with “Lion King,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Les Miserables.” Whereas she was a sophomore on the Juilliard College, Hagen posted a comedic video titled “How to Convince People You’re Really Good at Chamber Music,” and the optimistic response she bought satisfied her she might need a knack for comedy. And when she was sidelined from taking part in music for a time due to an damage, she hit open mic comedy nights and located extra success. Maybe her largest breakthrough got here in 2020, when she appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and made her viola a part of her routine. It’s a follow she continues at the moment. Her two units at The Studio at Stanford College are at 7 and 9 p.m. Thursday, and tickets, $15-$45, are going quick. Go to reside.stanford.edu.
Saratoga Symphony’s free live performance on Jan. 19 options 4 compositions written between 1909 and 2007. (Courtesy Saratoga Symphony)
Free classical live performance: Saratoga Symphony, a group orchestra that includes 45 devoted musicians, performs a free live performance of various music this weekend led by conductor Jason Klein, who will provide commentary on every bit in this system. It contains Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso,” Debussy’s “Berceuse héroïque,” Hungarian composer Ernst Dohnányi’s Suite in F# minor and South Bay composer Lee Actor’s 2007 Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, that includes soloist Ross Gershenson. All 4 items had been composed between 1909 and 2007. The efficiency is at 3 p.m. Sunday at West Valley Presbyterian Church, 6191 Bollinger Street in Cupertino. Admission is free, however donations can be appreciated. For particulars, go to saratogasymphony.org/concert events.
Bay Space bassist Marcus Shelby performs on the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco Jan. 20 as a part of San Francisco Artwork Week and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day vacation. (Courtesy Marcus Shelby)
Extra free artwork: To expertise the huge and different Bay Space artwork museum/gallery scene, try San Francisco Artwork Week. Working Saturday by Jan. 26, SFAW options particular occasions and packages at some 70 artwork museums and galleries within the metropolis, East Bay, South Bay and Marin County. And virtually all of them are free. The occasion formally kicks off 6 p.m. Saturday with a celebration on the Institute of Up to date Artwork’s new downtown location, though there shall be occasions all through the day on the Institute of Up to date Artwork in San Jose, the San Francisco Museum of Fashionable Artwork and Berkeley Artwork Museum and Pacific Movie Archive. A number of venues are internet hosting particular occasions on Monday tied to SF Artwork Week in addition to the Martin Luther King Jr. vacation. These embody the Museum of the African Diaspora, which is able to embody a efficiency by the good Bay Space composer and musician Marcus Shelby and his Youth Orchestra in addition to the younger members of the Prescott Circus. Largely, nonetheless, the occasion provides everybody an opportunity to see many extremely spectacular Bay Space museum and gallery choices. For a whole lineup and extra data, go to sfartweek.com
Acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan joins the New Century Chamber Orchestra for concert events in Berkeley on Jan. 17, Rohnert Park on Jan. 18 and San Francisco on Jan. 19. (Courtesy Marco Borggreve)
An honored visitor: Music director Daniel Hope and the New Century Chamber Orchestra are harnessing the abilities of famend pianist Inon Barnatan, who will be a part of the ensemble as a featured soloist on the 2 main works on this system. C.P. E. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D minor is a Baroque masterpiece that shall be paired with the twentieth century’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor by the good Dmitri Shostakovich, and Barnatan finds “fascinating connections” between the 2, together with the “bold, unpredictable twists” they each deploy. “I love how these pieces speak to each other across time,” Barnatan says, “and I hope the audience hears both the contrasts and the unexpected common ground between them.” One uncommon side of the Shostakovich work is that it additionally requires a solo trumpet to have interaction in a type of duel with the piano, and Brandon Ridenour from the American Brass Quintet will step into that function. This system will shut with Béla Bártok’s Divertimento for String Orchestra. The concert events happen at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Berkeley’s First Congregational Church, 3 p.m. Saturday in Sonoma State College’s Inexperienced Music Heart in Rohnert Park and a couple of p.m. Sunday on the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco. Discover tickets, $35-$80, at ncco.org.
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