Free ‘Hope” concert: The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, known for performing for free and its mission to make classical music accessible and enjoyable for folks of all ages and backgrounds, plays a comforting year-end program this week in San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto. Called “Celebration and Hope,” the concert includes Grażyna Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra; Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28, and Havanaise in E main, Op. 83 that includes violinist Hiro Yoshimura; and Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, “Drumroll.” Principal conductor Jory Fankuchen, who took up the submit this yr, leads the performances at 7:30 p.m. Monday on the Taube Atrium Theater, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Method, Berkeley, and three p.m. Jan. 1 at First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto. Admission is free, however RSVPs are requested. Go to https://www.thesfco.org/main-stage.
San Francisco Ballet’s revered “Nutcracker” manufacturing marks its eightieth anniversary this yr. (Courtesy Erik Tomasson/San Francisco Ballet)
Earlier than they shut ….: There’s nonetheless time, by means of the weekend, to catch two perennial Bay Space vacation favorites that may’t assist however put you in a very good temper. On the Battle Memorial Opera Home, San Francisco Ballet presents “Nutcracker” in what’s technically the vacation staple’s eightieth anniversary. It was in 1944 that the San Francisco Ballet Opera introduced the primary full-length “Nutcracker” in america, a programming alternative that reportedly was not less than partly as a result of the corporate’s manufacturing of “Hansel and Gretel” the earlier yr bombed. What audiences take pleasure in immediately is a totally completely different rendition of the ballet: Former creative director Helgi Tomasson’s lavish and acclaimed adaptation of “Nutcracker” set in San Francisco has been onstage for some 20 years now. In fact, the famed Tchaikovsky rating stays on the helm. The manufacturing runs by means of Sunday, with no performances on Christmas Day; tickets are $19-$465 at sfballet.org. In the meantime, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is presenting its well-liked Jane Austen-fueled vacation present, “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley.” The work was created by Bay Space playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon and is billed as a sequel to Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” this time specializing in the romantic fortunes of center sister Mary Bennet. Performances run Thursday by means of Sunday on the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. Tickets are $34-$115; go to theatreworks.org.
Mike McShane, left, as Ebenezer Scrooge, and Jed Parsario, because the Ghost of Christmas Previous, carry out in San Francisco Mime Troupe’s manufacturing of “A Red Carol.” (Courtesy Mike Melnyk/San Francisco Mime Troupe)
A Dickens of a Dickens present: San Francisco Mime Troupe’s vacation manufacturing of “A Red Carol” just isn’t like most stage productions of the long-lasting Charles Dickens story. Neither is it typical of what’s usually related to a Mime Troupe present – a fast-paced little bit of agitprop with guffaws lighting the best way. No, “A Red Carol” is a harder-edged, considerably darker appraisal of the story of a miser, which Mime Troupe members say is nearer to Dickens’ authentic. Let’s face it, when everybody as much as and together with Mr. Magoo has had a crack at portraying Ebenezer Scrooge, the story has been buffed an excessive amount of. “Charles Dickens wasn’t trying to make people feel good, he was trying to show them a stark reality, scaring them into being more human,” says the Mime Troupe in its description of the present. “He wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ to shake up society, and with ‘A Red Carol’ we are re-establishing his story as the revolutionary call-to-action he intended.” The present relies on Mime Troupe member Michael Gene Sullivan’s adaptation (he additionally directs) and musical preparations and extra lyrics by fellow Troupe member Daniel Savio. It’s being carried out by means of Sunday by a forged of six on the Z Area efficiency heart in San Francisco. Tickets are $20-$50; go to sfmt.org.
San Jose Chamber Orchestra Music Director Barbara Day Turner leads a year-end live performance that includes pianist Jon Nakamatsu and clarinetists Jon and Alec Manasse. (Courtesy Thomas Hassing)
Celebratory sounds for the brand new yr: Persevering with its thirty fourth season, San José Chamber Orchestra closes out 2024 with “Celebration: Joys and Delights” in San José. The live performance of music marking the altering of the yr contains works by Bach, Chopin, Debussy and a world premiere by Bay Space composer Michael Touchi. Conductor Barbara Day Turner leads the proceedings, which embody featured gamers, pianist Jon Nakamatsu (taking part in Chopin’s “Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante”); clarinetists Jon and Alec Manasse (taking part in an interpretation of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto); and Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse (taking part in Debussy’s “Premiere Rhapsodie.”) A reception and a glowing toast will observe the efficiency, which is at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1205 Pine Ave., San Jose. Tickets are $15-$75 at sjco.org and on the door.
Singer-songwriter Vienna Teng returns to her native Bay Space for live shows on the Freight & Salvage Dec. 27-28. (Courtesy Vienna Teng)
An outdated good friend returns: Till singer-songwriter-musician Vienna Teng launched her two-song mini-EP “We’ve Got You” within the fall, it had been 9 years since she had issued new music (the album “The Fourth Messenger” tied to a musical of the identical identify) and 11 years since her adventurous Detroit-themed album “Aims,” which she supported with a live performance tour. If it looks like she has been writing music out of her life, the truth is extra sophisticated. The Saratoga native has all the time had quite a lot of irons within the hearth, and she or he maintains that she is going to launch music and tour when she is impressed to take action, not due to recording or report firm commitments. It was as a Stanford pupil after which an engineer for Cisco Programs in Silicon Valley that Teng started her music profession. Impressed by such cerebral pop artists as Tori Amos and Paul Simon, Teng launched a number of albums within the early 2000s earlier than she enrolled within the Erb Institute for World Sustainable Enterprise on the College of Michigan. She later joined the massive consulting agency McKinsey & Firm, working in renewable power. Teng, lengthy energetic within the problems with local weather change and election equity, is now based mostly in Washington, D.C. and married with a 4-year-old daughter. Her being on the highway once more is a trigger for celebration for her loyal followers. She performs at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday on the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Alex Wong, a longtime collaborator of Teng’s, opens. Tickets are $49-$69; go to thefreight.org.
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