Features

Watch excerpts from the individual performances by youth orchestras participating in the BAYOF Hope concert on January 16th, 2011 at Davies Symphony Hall.

It sounds like the same old story: Budget cuts have forced reductions in the Mount Diablo Unified School District’s music program. But it may not happen that way. Meet the determined parents, students, and teachers who are working to write a different ending to the script.

SFCV asked composer Matthew Cmiel, who came of age in the “aughts,” to write about what the musical revolution caused by music sharing and “handheld computer devices” means to him. Here is his response, along with an annotated playlist.

Like London, Vienna, and Venice in the Old World in times gone by, the San Francisco Bay Area is a treasure trove of creative music talent, as well as a favored destination for artists from elsewhere. Here’s some of what will be worth going outside classical conventions to get to, during the first half of 2011.

By design, chamber music can be performed anywhere. Bay Area musicians like to perform it everywhere. Here, SFCV’s premier chamber music maven takes on the task of winnowing down this gorgeous superfluity to just five (well, and a few more) hot tickets you can’t afford to miss.

The venues may range from hither to yon, but the early-music concerts on offer this season around the Bay Area will field a dazzling array of stars and novel musical experiences.

More than a few operatic and other vocal diversions may beckon you in the coming spring. Here are just a few of the surprises.

The most prestigious classical music competition in the U.S. isn’t the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, it’s the Naumburg Foundation Competition. As S.F. Performances prepares to host this year’s piano winner, Soyeon Lee, here’s what musicians think of the organization’s enviable track record.