The SFCV Summer Music Festival Guide, 2023

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival | May 6 – Sept. 30

The 2023 YBG Festival will present dozens of free outdoor events over five months, including music, theater, circus, dance, poetry, and children’s programs. The gardens are located in downtown San Francisco between Third and Fourth Streets and Mission and Howard Streets. The 23rd edition of the festival opens on May 6 at 1 p.m. with the John Santos Sextet and the Afro-Peruvian Coalition. An unusual operatic event is the Consulate of Sweden’s Jenny Lind Concert on June 22 at 12:30 p.m., featuring soprano Josefine Mindus, a member of the young artist program at the Komische Oper Berlin, accompanied by pianist Rebecka Elsgard.

Festival highlights include CO-LLAB Choir directed by Cava Menzies (May 13), Theatre Rhino’s Pericles (May 26 and 27), Melissa Cruz Flamenco (June 3), SF Uke Jam’s “Summer Uke-Splosion” (June 10), La Mezcla and Laura Rebolloso (June 17), Circus Bella’s Bananas (June 23 and 24), the Yosvany Terry Quintet with Gema Corredera and the Arun Ramamurthy Trio (July 1), the Get Free Festival (July 8), Joe Bataan and La Doña (July 15), Martin Luther McCoy presented by the AfroSolo Arts Festival (Aug. 5), Pistahan’s 30th anniversary (Aug. 12 and 13), and more.

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Mountain Play | May 21 – June 18

Every year, on Sunday afternoons in May and June, the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre atop Mount Tamalpais plays host to a Broadway musical production. In 2023, the show is Into the Woods — the modern fairy-tale mashup with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It’s the perfect choice for the sylvan setting, and Mountain Play adds an extra performance: Saturday, June 10.

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San Francisco Opera Summer Season | June 3 – July 1

The company’s centennial concludes with the 2023 summer season, consisting of:

— Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini (June 3 – July 1), with Eun Sun Kim conducting, production by Amon Miyamoto, set design by Boris Kudlicka, and starring Karah Son, Hyona Kim, and Michael Fabiano

— Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss (June 4–28), with Donald Runnicles conducting, stage director Roy Rallo, production and set design by David Hockney, and starring Camilla Nylund, Nina Stemme, Linda Watson, David Butt Philip, and Johan Reuter

— El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The last dream of Frida and Diego) by Gabriela Lena Frank (June 13–30), with Roberto Kalb conducting, director Lorena Maza, set design by Jorge Ballina, and starring Daniela Mack, Alfredo Daza, Yaritza Véliz, and Jacob Ingbar

— 100th Anniversary Concert (June 16), with Kim, Runnicles, and Patrick Summers conducting, plus a slate of guest artists

Tickets are available at (415) 864-3330 and online and include livestreaming options.

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San Francisco Jazz Festival | June 7–18

Long before there was the SFJAZZ Center, there was the San Francisco Jazz Festival, founded in 1983 and still the centerpiece of what’s become a year-round operation in Hayes Valley. For its 40th season, the festival is presenting 40 concerts, all in just 12 days. You can’t miss keyboardist and all-around music nerd Jacob Collier, who plays two nights in Miner Auditorium (June 9 and 10). There’s more young talent on the lineup courtesy of pianist Brandon Goldberg (June 8) and vocalist Samara Joy (June 16), along with undisputed masters of their mediums: organist Sundra Manning (June 7), saxophonists Donald Harrison and Charles McPherson (June 15), and blues icons Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop (June 17). The festival may end June 18, but don’t fret — there’s SFJAZZ’s Summer Sessions to follow, through Aug. 20.

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Ojai Music Festival | June 8–11

Ojai’s signature setup, a different music director each season, has trended more collaborative in recent years. So it’s no surprise that the creative mind overseeing this summer’s schedule — singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens — is promising another slate of guest artists. Francesco Turrisi, Giddens’s partner on two acclaimed albums and a versatile performer in his own right, will, of course, be there. But then, there are the musicians you wouldn’t think of — that is, until you realize they’re on a mission similar to Giddens’s own. Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor and Chinese pipa player Wu Man, instrumentalists who also range easily from folk to classical styles, will headline the 77th festival, too.

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Britt Music & Arts Festival | June 9 – Sept. 10

A day’s drive from San Francisco, this bustling festival, located in the historic Gold Rush city of Jacksonville, Oregon, has a major draw for every musical taste. The classical programming comprises half a dozen orchestral concerts led by Music Director Teddy Abrams, from the season-opener of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (June 15) to an all-American finale of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein (July 1). The lineup gets busy in July and August with a series of alternative acts: pop-rock band Train (July 24), country singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde (Aug. 2), jazz orchestra Pink Martini (Aug. 24), and many more.

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Hollywood Bowl | June 10 – Sept. 24

History was front and center at the Hollywood Bowl last season, with the venue celebrating its 100th anniversary, and 2023 is shaping up to be no less legendary. The music of John Williams — that staple of pops programming — gets the spotlight in six performances, including a selection of film scores that see the composer conducting (July 7–9), along with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in concert (Sept. 1 and 2). Another industry icon, musician and producer Quincy Jones, celebrates his 90th birthday in a tribute program backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (July 28 and 29).

What else is there to look forward to? Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in nine performances, starting with Felix Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (July 6). Cliburn Competition winner Yunchan Lim reprises his sensational interpretation of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (Aug. 1). And Chris Thile gives the West Coast premiere of his Mandolin Concerto on a cleverly patriotic program that ends with Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring (Aug. 22). That’s only a slice of this typically busy summer at the Bowl, from Tchaikovsky and fireworks to jazz and pop acts taking the stage to more favorite films in concert.

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Music Academy | June 12 – Aug. 5

This advanced training program, formerly known as the Music Academy of the West, is a bonanza for Santa Barbara residents and anybody passing through during the summer. Like Tanglewood, Aspen, and other festivals, the Academy features young professionals whose playing is hardly less entrancing than their mentors’.

This year is the “Summer of the Artist,” and that means recitals that get up close and personal with some of the biggest names in classical music today: mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (June 16), clarinetist Anthony McGill (June 20), and violinist Augustin Hadelich (July 11), among others. Guest conductors joining the Academy Festival Orchestra over the eight weeks include Stéphane Denève (June 24), Osmo Vänskä (July 1), and JoAnn Falletta (July 29). The big events for students in the Lehrer Vocal Institute will be a production of Puccini’s La boheme at The Granada Theatre (July 14 and 16) and Cabaret: 1979 (July 27 and 29), an imaginative offering from opera director James Darrah.

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Mainly Mozart | June 15–24

Mainly Mozart touts “the largest gathering of concertmasters and principal players in North America,” and it’s no wonder why these world-class musicians keep returning season after season. The setting is relaxed — Del Mar for the first week of this year’s festival, La Jolla for the second — while the performances are refined. Music Director Michael Francis leads the All-Star Orchestra in five concerts, and yes, Mozart makes an appearance on almost every program. Stand-alone performances of Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (June 20) and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (June 24) are the special exceptions.

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Healdsburg Jazz Festival | June 17–25

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival celebrates 25 years in Sonoma County this summer, and festivities certainly fill the schedule. 2023 kicks off with a free Juneteenth concert (June 17), followed by a Father’s Day event featuring star singer Samara Joy (June 18). Local artists headline much of the festival, from saxophonist Howard Wiley (June 17) to choro ensemble Grupo Falso Baiano (June 20) to vocalist Stella Heath and her “Billie Holiday Project” (June 21) — all spearheaded by San Francisco bassist and Healdsburg Artistic Director Marcus Shelby. Big-name acts, like guitarist Bill Frisell and his trio (June 22) and jazz diva Dianne Reeves (June 24), bring things home.

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Stern Grove Festival | June 18 – Aug. 20

Stern Grove is one of the country’s oldest music festivals with free attendance. And for the past three years, this San Francisco institution has fought through the pandemic and two rounds of major flooding, yet the Sunday 2 p.m. concerts continue.

In contrast with earlier seasons, which presented a balanced fare of pop, rock, classical music, ballet, and dance, this year’s programs are different. In 2023, there’s only a single SF Symphony concert with special guest Lettuce (July 23) and no appearances by SF Ballet, SF Opera, the Merola Opera Program, or others. The rest of the lineup is: Snarky Puppy (June 18), Indigo Girls and Neko Case (June 25), Santigold (July 2), Lyle Lovett (July 9), Angélique Kidjo (July 16), Bob Moses (July 30), Buddy Guy (Aug. 6), Patti Smith (Aug. 13), and The Flaming Lips (Aug. 20).

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Kronos Festival | June 22–24

The Kronos Quartet is as much a chamber ensemble as a way of musical thinking, and the group’s annual festival, back at the SFJAZZ Center this summer, makes that much clear. Wherever you turn on the three-day lineup, from guest artists to featured repertoire, the Kronos influence is there. Three fellow string quartets also working in a contemporary vein — the Aizuri Quartet, the Attacca Quartet, and the Friction Quartet — share the stage with the San Francisco ensemble that started it all. Three mainstage concerts offer a tour through Kronos’s “50 for the Future” project, the collection of new pieces the group has commissioned in recent years. A family matinee (June 24) and some extra events fill out the schedule.

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Festival Opera | June 22 – Aug. 20

Festival Opera in Walnut Creek is contributing two performances of its staple community gift. Opera in the Park I is on June 22 at Orinda Community Park, with opera and Broadway hits. Opera in the Park II, on Aug. 6 at Civic Park in Walnut Creek, presents a special preview of the company’s mainstage production of Carmen. This is all in addition to Festival Opera’s production of Carmen itself (Aug. 18 and 20 at the Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center).

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Chamber Music Northwest | June 24 – July 29

Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim are the artistic directors of Portland’s chamber music festival, which this year explores the interaction between music and poetry. Great composers such as Schubert, Brahms, Gabriel Fauré, and William Bolcom set the verse of poets like Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Rückert, Paul Verlaine, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Composer David Serkin Ludwig and Oregon poet Katie Ford have collaborated on a new monodrama, The Anchoress. And of course, top-flight performers will bring these works to the stage, including clarinetists Anthony McGill and David Shifrin; the Emerson String Quartet will appear in two of the final performances of the ensemble’s storied career.

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Merola Opera Program | June 29 – Aug. 19

Merola’s training is internal, but the following events are public. The summer kicks off on June 29 with “Metamorphosis: Recovery, Renewal, and Rebirth,” a voice and piano recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A staged production of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia is performed on July 13 and 15 at Herbst Theatre. Memorable works from the classic opera repertoire will be highlighted in the Schwabacher Summer Concert — a semistaged concert of extended scenes performed with full orchestra — on Aug. 3 and 5 at SFCM. The season ends on Aug. 19 with the Merola Grand Finale, a concert featuring all the 2023 participants, presented at the War Memorial Opera House, with a reception following in the Green Room.

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Stanford Live Arts Festival | July 7 – Aug. 4

The outdoor Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford University campus is the setting for a stellar lineup. This summer’s entertainment includes ukulele sensation Jake Shimabukuro (July 9), a tribute to the women who influenced the Beatles (“And I Love Her,” July 16), and the National Youth Orchestra of the U.S. conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring violinist Gil Shaham (July 26). Of course, the successful series of San Francisco Symphony performances at Frost continues, with local boy and star soloist Alexi Kinney returning for Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto (July 7) and Denis Kozhukhin doing the honors in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (July 14), along with a movie-based concert under Edwin Outwater (July 21) and a showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark with live orchestra (July 28). In its third year at Stanford Live, SFJAZZ brings in legendary Brazilian bandleader Sérgio Mendes and his group (July 8), songwriter Andrew Bird (July 22), and Academy Award-winning Uruguayan artist Jorge Drexler (July 27). SF Ballet winds up the monthlong festival with some of the hits from this year’s “next@90” programs (Aug. 3–4).

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Festival Napa Valley | July 8–23

Festival Napa Valley was one of the first “lifestyle festivals,” incorporating not just music but daily patron dinners and luncheons at the wineries around Napa. If you’re not going to be hobnobbing with the rich and famous, you can still come for the day to enjoy the annual opera production (Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, July 22) or “Dance Gala: Reunited in Dance,” featuring dance soloists displaced by the war in Ukraine (July 21).

Festival Orchestra Napa leads off with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Alexander Malofeev), Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez (with soloist Pablo Sáinz Villegas), and a premiere by Yang Bao. (July 14) The orchestra draws the festival to a close with Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances (July 23). A third orchestral concert, titled “Seasons of Hope,” celebrates the themes of courage and sacrifice and includes vocal works by Gordon Getty. Contact the festival for information about becoming a patron and enjoying special luncheons, dinners, and events.

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Classical Tahoe | July 9 – Aug. 17

Each summer, Classical Tahoe brings together America’s leading classical musicians for a 16-concert series that delights audiences with its superb performances, intimate al fresco pavilions, educational programs, and majestic Lake Tahoe setting. The Brubeck Jazz Summit, July 9–15, starts things off before the concertizing gets into full swing.

The Classical Tahoe Orchestra series runs July 21– Aug. 6, presenting classic favorites like Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, as well as surprising offerings like Lotta Wennäkoski’s Jong for juggler and chamber orchestra. The chamber music series, beginning July 23, will feature exquisite programs that include Georg Philipp Telemann’s Musique de Table and Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, along with wine receptions in enchanted wooded environs.

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Music@Menlo | July 14 – Aug. 5

Led by founding Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han, Music@Menlo returns this summer with “Beethoven Unfolding.” The festival presents six mainstage concert programs, six Beethoven quartet-cycle performances (by the Calidore String Quartet), six “Inside the Quartets” demonstrations, three “Encounter” lectures, and a host of free events, including master classes and performances by students in the Chamber Music Institute. The cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets is integrated with Music@Menlo’s signature “Unfolding of Music” approach, which moves chronologically through the history of chamber music. The festival’s signature thematic programming means that you’ll be immersed.

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The Ford | July 14 – Oct. 28

The LA Phil’s other summer venue, on the opposite side of the 101 freeway, is host to a lineup that makes the Hollywood Bowl seem simply mainstream. The classical offerings alone might give you a sense of just how wonderfully out-there the performances at this 1,200-seat amphitheater can get. Pacific Opera Project returns to The Ford with a wacky staging of The Barber of Seville set in modern Hollywood (Aug. 25). Meredith Monk and the Bang on a Can All-Stars partner for an eclectic retrospective (Aug. 31). And the LA Phil plays a program with the genre-hopping Icelandic artist Laufey (Sept. 16). Remember, those are the classical concerts in a season full of Ukrainian folk music, Brazilian dance, spoken-word poetry, and anything else you can name.

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Carmel Bach Festival | July 15–29

The 86th season of the Carmel Bach Festival is themed “Beginnings” under newly appointed Artistic Director Grete Pedersen. Main concerts include a reimagined, immersive interpretation of Haydn’s great oratorio The Creation; “Father and Son,” a program exploring the relationship between J.S. Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel; a performance of Bach’s Fourth Brandenburg Concerto paired with his “Coffee Cantata”; and an imaginative pairing of Bach with Gustav Mahler, Helmut Lachenmann, Schubert, and Jan Dismas Zelenka.

Things go far beyond Bach, however. At the Carmel Mission Basilica, you can hear a program of American hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, and at the Sunset Center, Edwin Huizinga will lead a program celebrating the power of the human voice with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. And Pedersen will conduct Mahler’s cheerful Fourth Symphony on July 21 and 28.

Aside from the mainstage shows, there are a number of chamber offerings, including Brahms’s Horn Trio, a fortepiano recital by Dongsok Shin, and a program of Schubert chamber music at the Church in the Forest. There are also showcase performances for the young artists in the festival’s training programs and, of course, Carmel Beach.

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Mendocino Music Festival | July 15–29

Mendocino Music Festival is a blend of fine music by outstanding performers in one of the most enchanting sites in Northern California. Evenings include orchestra and big-band concerts, chamber music ensembles, dance, blues, jazz, world, folk, bluegrass, and popular contemporary music. Daytime concerts include lecture-recitals in the piano series, a performance by participants in the Emerging Artists Program, and small concerts in intimate venues throughout the historic town of Mendocino. Highlights this summer include CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band, the Calder Quartet in Maurice Ravel and Schubert, and a final orchestral concert with a sumptuous program of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem and Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Daphnis et Chloé.

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Valley of the Moon Music Festival | July 15–30

This year, Valley of the Moon Music Festival, which seeks to bring chamber music to life on period instruments, presents the theme of “Transformation: Grand Works on an Intimate Scale.” The festival opens with Beethoven’s own arrangement of his Second Symphony for piano trio and continues with highlights like Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, a cabaret-style “lieder evening” with Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for piano four hands. The Blattner Lectures provide preconcert talks before several performances, and the Alfresco Concert Series offers a chance to experience music in select beautiful settings around Sonoma County.

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Bear Valley Music Festival | July 21 – Aug. 6

This vibrant and diverse music festival — held in the picturesque Bear Valley, nestled within the Sierra Nevadas, just above 7,200 feet elevation — brings together renowned artists and ensembles from various genres, including classical, jazz, rock, and pop, under newly appointed Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate. With its stunning natural backdrop, intimate concert setting, and family-friendly atmosphere, the Bear Valley Music Festival has been a cherished cultural tradition for music enthusiasts and nature lovers alike since its inception in 1967. Highlights include a classical concert about the Wild West, a candlelight chamber concert, and Max Richter’s Vivaldi Reimagined.

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Festival Mozaic | July 22–29

With 21 events throughout San Luis Obispo County, Festival Mozaic, under Music Director Scott Yoo, presents an appealing range of chamber concerts, film presentations, and midday mini-concerts. On July 27, Yoo will lead an informative lecture-performance on Igor Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale. The opening-night concert features new choreography to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring (and there’s a special family-friendly morning performance). Other highlights include chamber music by Henry Cowell, Gabriel Fauré, and Brahms in the beautiful setting of Mission San Miguel Arcángel, an alfresco dinner in Mission Plaza, and film screenings of Amadeus and Tár. To wrap things up, Yoo leads the annual Baroque concert at the beautiful hilltop setting of Serra Chapel.

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West Edge Opera Festival | July 22 – Aug. 13

Fans of the adventurous and theatrically vibrant West Edge Opera may know that the company’s return to the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland will be buffed by new handrails into the main seating area and improved lighting and projection equipment, as well as two sections of distanced seating (for those concerned about COVID risks).

The season launches with a production of Claudio Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, Adam Pearl conducting, NJ Agwuna directing, and Shawnette Sulker (Poppea) and Sarah Coit (Nero) as the iniquitous lovers (July 22, 30, and Aug. 3). The “mariachi opera” Cruzar la cara de la luna — Sixto Montesinos conducting Mariachi Azteca and Karina Gutierrez directing — will star Efraín Solís and Kelly Guerra (July 23, 28, and Aug. 5). And finally, there is a double bill of Igor Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung, helmed by West Edge Music Director Jonathan Khuner and directed by Giselle Ty, with Helen Zhibing Huang (Nightingale) and Mary Evelyn Hangley (The Woman) starring in the lead roles (July 29, Aug.4 and 6).

As an extra, there’s a sneak preview of the company’s first Aperture program commission, Nicolas Lell Benavides and Marella Martin Koch’s Dolores, at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco (Aug. 13).

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SF Bach Festival (presented by American Bach Soloists) | July 27 – Aug. 13

The foremost Bach exponents in the Bay Area open this treasurable small festival at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre with soprano Sarah Coit singing Cantata BWV 170 and the ensemble playing a new work commissioned from a San Francisco Conservatory of Music student (July 27). Pianist Oliver Moore traces Bach’s influence on keyboard writing in a concert at SFCM’s Barbro Osher Recital Hall at the Bowes Center (July 28). Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons gets an innovative performance by four of American Bach’s violinists in the War Memorial Green Room, with the violinists moving among the audience members, specialty cocktails, and cafe-style seating (July 29). And finally, American Bach Soloists & Cantorei, led by Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas, take on Bach’s B-Minor Mass (July 30). You will not find anyone more invested in this music than Thomas, and his interpretation continues to be uniquely personal. As always, the ABS Academy follows, with Thomas leading a performance of the Magnificat in D Major and Cantatas BWVs 78 and 198 (Aug. 13) and faculty-led concerts on Aug. 5 and 11.

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Music in the Vineyards | July 28 – Aug. 20

This Napa Valley-based festival mixes great music with brilliant locations. The brainchild of co-founders Michael and Daria T. Adams, it’s actually expanding its presentations this year over the four weeks. Three hip, young string quartets will be in residence during the festival: the Telegraph, Calidore, and Catalyst Quartets. MITV has also commissioned eminent (and, as the festival notes, “appropriately named”) composer John Wineglass to write a new piece for piano and strings. There will be more special events, such as a new community concert and an expanded reprise of the popular “Not-So-Silent Cinema” offering. The festival is also committing to performing at more venues around the Valley, in an effort to fulfill the outreach part of its mission. In this case, more is better.

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La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest | July 28 – Aug. 26

The “crown jewel of La Jolla Music Society’s annual programming,” SummerFest is a full month of outstanding performances brought together by Music Director Inon Barnatan at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center. True to the festival’s 2023 theme, “The Great Unknown,” conductor Alan Gilbert curates the first concert without disclosing the program. After that, the big event is a theatrical world premiere, Carnival of the Animals, “reimagining [Camille Saint-Saëns’] work as a story of our shifting societal values told through the lens of spoken-word artist and activist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, dancer Wendy Whelan, and acclaimed choreographer Francesca Harper.” The performance is part of the Synergy Initiative, “a series co-produced by Barnatan and Clara Wu Tsai, which invites top creators to collaborate across different art forms.”

Thomas Adès is composer-in-residence at the festival, and audiences will hear his Märchentänze (Aug. 2) and Alchymia (Aug. 5). Other stars who’ll be dropping in for a visit include: Augustin Hadelich, Tessa Lark, Alisa Weilerstein, Anthony McGill, Conrad Tao, the Takács Quartet, Grammy winner and leader of The Late Show band Louis Cato, Paul Wiancko, Joyce Yang, and the vastly underrated “many others.”

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Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music | July 30 – Aug. 13

One of the Bay Area’s most ambitious festivals is also one of its most inviting, set in lively and picturesque Santa Cruz. Ellen Primack’s final season as executive director sticks off with a percussion concerto for Cabrillo Festival Orchestra percussionists Svet Stoyanov and Matthew Strauss (Aug.4). Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel shares a program with Sarah Kirkland Snider’s meditation on the suffragist movement, Forward Into Light, and composer, vocalist, and sound artist Bora Yoon’s The Wind of Two Koreas, inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s early folkloric works.

This year’s festival is paying tribute to one of the Cabrillo’s founders, Robert Hughes, who died in August 2022. His works Uutiqtut and Estampie are on the lists this year. Otherwise, the composers are some of the most esteemed and recognizable names in contemporary music: Tan Dun, Carlos Simon, Gabriela Ortiz, Julia Wolfe, Olga Neuwirth, Kevin Puts, Gabriella Smith, Anna Clyne. They share space with rising stars Peter Shin, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Dan Caputo, and Xavier Foley in evocatively titled programs: “Tears of Nature” (Aug. 5), “Rise & Fly” (Aug. 12), and “Wild Geese” (Aug.13). Once again, the Kronos Quartet makes an appearance, on Aug.6, as seems natural.

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San Francisco International Piano Festival | Aug. 18–26

The festival’s founder and director, Jeffrey LaDeur, writes: “The sixth annual San Francisco International Piano Festival, celebrating the piano and its repertoire, is a solo recital series that will be presented in partnership with Old First Concerts. It opens with acclaimed pianist Tanya Gabrielian in a program of rarely heard transcriptions by Alexander Siloti and works by [Franz] Liszt and [Carl Maria von] Weber. Young artists shine in mainstage concerts and the McKee masterclass series. The festival finale will combine a 150th birthday tribute to [Sergei] Rachmaninoff with a Buster Keaton movie classic, scored by Bay Area treasure Stephen Prutsman. This will be a musical journey of transformation. Complete season announcement and tickets available June 1.”

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Flower Piano | Sept. 8–12

This little experiment between Sunset Piano and San Francisco Botanical Garden is quickly becoming a mini-institution. The basic idea, setting pianos in the gardens, is nice enough. But inviting people to listen and play made it into a five-day rejuvenation in the heart of the city. The schedule of events and featured (invited) pianists is not out yet. But it’s worth putting a note in your calendar not to miss it.

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Monterey Jazz Festival | Sept. 22–24

Jazz fans can once again despair as they try to figure out how to take in the whole of the Monterey Jazz Festival. It’s three days over four stages and the Pacific Jazz Cafe, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Just on the first day at 4 p.m., you’ve got singer-songwriter Kait Dunton (whose music was spotlighted in the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) with her trio playing songs off her latest funk-inspired album. Do you cut out early at 4:30 p.m. to hit up MJF audience fave Latin Jazz Collective with John Nava? And the fun’s only beginning at that point. On Saturday at 8 p.m., it’s Snarky Puppy versus star saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix versus Christian McBride’s New Jawn versus pianist James Francies in the cafe.

One interesting break from music comes on Sunday at 4 p.m. in the cafe, when drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, activist and writer Angela Davis, and scholar and activist Gina Dent come together for a discussion related to Carrington’s ongoing “Music for Abolition” project, which “brings together artists, dancers, and musicians from a variety of genres to craft a multimedia call for reflection and freedom.” Of course, if you miss that in order to hang at the Jimmy Lyons Stage, where vocalist Samara Joy is followed by Charles Lloyd, or at the Garden Stage, where Sandy Cressman’s tribute to Milton Nascimento is followed by the Billy Childs Quartet with guest trumpeter Sean Jones, no one could blame you. That’s just how it goes at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

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