The availability of $10 standing-room tickets to San Francisco Opera’s The Ring of the Nibelung should remind all those feeling they can’t afford classical music performances that where there’s a yearning, there’s a path.
The Bay Area is ripe with free musical events, even in the summer.If you’re feeling thwarted by the high cost of concertgoing, know that the Bay Area is ripe with free musical events, even in the summer, when the main supplier of such — the San Francisco Conservatory of Music — is not in session.
Noontime Concerts at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral
The venerable Noontime Concerts at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral on Tuesdays at 12:30 are free, but an optional $5 donation is requested. Some of the upcoming events:
- June 21, pianist Hugo Kitano performs music by Liszt and Prokofiev.
- June 28, Eusebius Duo (violinist Monika Gruber and pianist Hillary Nordwell) play Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata and Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Major, K. 301.
- July 5, members of the Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra, led by George Cleve, give a program of music by Mozart.
- July 12, pianist Hilda Huang plays Bach.
Peninsula Symphony Free Pops Concert
Classical music meets classic Broadway as the Peninsula Symphony performs with soprano Natalie Ford. Violinist Lily Tsai, a Young Musicians Competition award winner, performs the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 and the orchestra opens with Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor Overture. Performances are this Saturday, June 25, 6:30 p.m., at Hillview Soccer Field in Los Altos, and June 26, 3 p.m., at the Fox Theater in Redwood City.
Stern Grove
In its 74th season, the Stern Grove Festival, June 19–Aug. 21, will offer at least three concerts of interest to classical music fans:
- July 11, the San Francisco Symphony performs works by Copland, Gershwin, and Beethoven. Michael Francis conducts, with pianist Sara Davis Buechner as soloist.
- July 31, San Francisco Ballet, with excerpts from some of the season’s highlights.
- Aug. 21, San Francisco Opera Orchestra and singers, including mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick.
Symphony in the Park
Conducted by Michael Francis, and featuring pianist Valentina Lisitsa, the San Francisco Symphony gives a free concert at Golden Gate Park’s Sharon Meadow, on July 10, beginning at 2 p.m. On the program: Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
BBC Proms
The very best of free live music all summer long is as close as your computer. Attend it if you’re in London, or watch it on TV in England, or just listen to it on the computer everywhere: The BBC Proms is the biggest and best of music festivals. It runs between July 15 and Sept. 10, offering more than 70 concerts in the 140-year-old Royal Albert Hall and numerous events elsewhere.
Unless you’re a 9-to-5-er, concert starting times on the West Coast for most concerts is a convenient 11 or 11:30 a.m.
Soloists include pianists Martha Argerich, Alice Sara Ott, Yuja Wang, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Stephen Hough, Lang Lang, Maria João Pires, and András Schiff; violinists Nigel Kennedy, Tasmin Little, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Gil Shaham, and Christian Tetzlaff; flautist Emmanuel Pahud; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The Proms starts like gangbusters: The opening concert on July 15 presents works by Brahms, Liszt, and Judith Weir, with the second half graced by Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. Jirí Belohlávek conducts.
The next day is a concert performance of Rossini’s William Tell, with the orchestra and chorus of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano conducting.
Then, upping the ante even more, July 17 is Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1 in D Minor, the “Gothic,” with a dozen choruses and two full orchestras. The two-hour-long work is believed to be the biggest and longest symphony that is actually performed.
ABS Festival and Academy
The American Bach Soloists’ Festival & Academy, held in halls at the S.F. Conservatory of Music, offers free lectures, master classes, and public colloquia, including Judith Malafronte speaking on “Pop Tunes in the Pulpit,” Debra Nagy on Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum, and Jeffrey Thomas talking on a subject he knows inside out: Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
Festival del Sole
At Festival del Sole, in Napa, there are four Bouchaine Young Artist concerts open to the public without charge. They are sponsored by Bouchaine Vineyards, whose owners, Tatiana and Gerret Copeland, are major supporters of the festival. The four are
- Harpist Sage Po, July 16, 10 a.m., Yountville Community Center.
- Pianist Oliver Poole, 11 a.m., July 19, Jarvis Conservatory.
- Cellist Will Chow, 11 a.m., July 20, Jarvis Conservatory.
- Guitarist Mathew Lyons, 11 a.m., July 22, Jarvis Conservatory.
On July 18 at 10 a.m. in the Yountville Veterans Home, and on July 19, at 6 p.m., in the Napa Valley Opera House, the U.S. Army Brass Quintet and the Russian National Orchestra Brass Quintet join in a concert paying tribute to veterans of the Second World War.
Music@Menlo
The Music@Menlo Festival offers free Prelude Concerts almost every day between July 22 and Aug. 13, with the festival’s International Program artists; and Koret Young Performers concerts at 1 p.m., at the Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton on July 30 and Aug. 6 and 13.
Because of the popularity of these events, a free pass is required for each, available at the Will Call desk an hour before the start of each concert. Seating is limited.
Mexican Bicentennial
San Francisco Symphony’s annual free concert in Dolores Park this year makes special tribute to Mexico on the 200th anniversary of its independence. Conducted by Mexico City native Alondra de la Parra, the concert, at 2 p.m. on July 25, includes music by Márquez, Chávez, Rosas, and Moncayo, plus Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “New World.”
Young Musicians Program
The Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley provides full scholarship and training to gifted students,
with many free public events, and with all but the open house (Morrison Hall) held in Hertz Hall:
July 29, 9 a.m. to noon, open house; 1–3 p.m., concert featuring student soloists, the YMP Big Band and the YMP Chamber Orchestra.
- Aug. 7, 3 p.m., voice students perform works originating in the poetry of Shakespeare, Goethe, Emily Dickinson. World premiere of Othello Quartet, by graduating senior Therese Chaix.
- Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m., Young Musicians Program Youth Orchestra, featuring soprano Alfreda Burke, tenor Rodrick Dixon, and baritone Daniel Washington in arias and duets, plus Beethoven Symphony No. 5.
- Aug. 12, 7:30 p.m., YMP junior chorus, small ensembles, and the YMP Big Band.
- Aug. 14, 3 p.m., Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2, performed by the Viennese Quartet; and YMP students’ final concert.