Of the many great concerts happening in the Bay Area, some will be ignored for lack of a big name or because they are not necessarily what or where you might expect. If you're willing to bushwhack to one of our local churches or somewhere further afield, or ready to take a chance on kids or lesser-known artists, here are some choices that will intrigue you.
New York Polyphony
All the way up in redwood country along the scenic Bohemian Highway in Sonoma County lies the little town of Occidental. But it has an arts council that thinks big time. The artists it brings in are all first rank, and the council is producing no fewer than five shows in the fall season. The first of them features New York Polyphony, a vocal group specializing in early music, which won accolades last summer for their Avie Recordings release, Tudor City. The album has been featured on NPR and placed third in WNYC's 2010 listener poll, “Best of 2010.” No one has invited them to the Bay Area yet, but if you're up north biking, or taking advantage of one of the spas, you won't be sorry if you drop in on this concert at the new Occidental Center for the Arts.
Sept. 17, 8 p.m., Occidental Center for the Arts, $25, (707) 874-1124.
Chamber Music Day Live + Free 2011
The San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music provide a nice classical chamber series at the Legion of Honor, but their signature event has quickly become Chamber Music Day at the de Young Museum. It's seven hours of performance, discussion, discovery, wandering about, and meeting people. You won't want to miss this, because there is a huge variety of acts planned, ranging from early music (Voices of Music, Halifax and Jeffrey) to Latin (Quinteto Latino), to musical omnivore acts (Quartet San Francisco), to “world fusion” (Ultra World X-tet), to jazz (Marcus Shelby Quintet) to adventurous string quartets (Del Sol Quartet), and pretty much anything else you might be into.
Oct. 16, 10 a.m.-5:00 p.m., de Young Museum, San Francisco, free.
Pacific Boychoir and Friends
As befits a great spiritual institution, Grace Cathedral has a strong music program, including organ recitals and their own choirs. On October 16, the space will ring with the sound of children's voices. The extremely well-trained Pacific Boychoir and the Piedmont-East Bay Children's Choir play host to two children's choirs from Denmark: the MidtVest Pigekor and Herning Kirkes Dregekor, the girls and boys choirs from the Jutland Singing School.
Oct. 16, 3 p.m., Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, $20, (510) 652-4722.
Clerestory: The Cathedral and the Lady
The men's choir Clerestory, originally a splinter group from Chanticleer, is one of the less-known Bay Area treasures. SFCV has been following it for a few years and the reviews have been uniformly excellent. If you've never looked in on them, here is a wonderful-sounding program about the music of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, presented in conjunction with Humanities West's seminar weekend, “The Soul of Medieval Paris.” It begins with the 12th-century magic of Perotin, high medieval culture in full flower, and continues through to the 20th century and works by Francis Poulenc and Arvo Pärt.
Oct. 29, 8 p.m., St. Dominic's Catholic Church, San Francisco; Oct. 30, 4 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley; Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $17.
Concertante: Mill Valley Chamber Music Society
Thank goodness for the chamber music societies that fill up the calendar with intriguing music for not much money. In November, the Mill Valley Chamber Music Society presents Concertante, a well-established string ensemble that last year finished an impressive two-year commissioning project that included such composers as Lowell Lieberman, Gabriela Lena Frank, Shulamit Ran, Kevin Puts, Tigran Mansourian, and Richard Danielpour. It wouldn't be surprising if one or more of these pieces made it onto their program in Mill Valley. Fans of new and non-warhorse repertory should make time.
Nov. 13, 5 p.m., Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, $30, (415) 381-4453.
California Bach Society: To Bethlehem
Paul Flight can always be counted on to come up with a program that is cohesive and intelligent as well as musically delicious. At the helm of the California Bach Society, he's dreamed up a season of delights, none more intriguing than this quasi-holiday concert of Spanish vilancicos. These 16th- to 18th-century songs, composed by many of the great Spanish composers, do have some Christmas connections but range much more widely than that. Some are simple and lyrical, some are fairly complex. Leave it to Flight to find the mix that will enchant.
Dec. 2, 8 p.m., St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Berkeley; Dec. 3, 8 p.m., All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; Dec. 4, 4 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley, $10-$25, (415) 262-0272.
St. Michael Trio at Villa Montalvo
Lots of groups nowadays do what, in old-fashioned parlance, is called “crossover.” There are many classically trained musicians who play popular styles. But the Saint Michael Trio is offering to do something else again – run the gamut of 250 years of trio music, including jazz, rock, and blues. In 75 minutes. That's got to be more entertaining than your average chamber concert or (especially) a music history lecture. And the group is said to be rock-solid musically. But the only way to find out is to head to the Villa Montalvo.
Dec. 11, 3 p.m., Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, $10-$30, (408) 961-5858.