Features

Picking a handful from the Bay Area's hundreds of musical attractions is, by necessity and definition, an eclectic affair. Here's a selection of a wide a variety as possible.

Now an octogenarian, the philanthropist and composer is looking forward to a number of birthday celebrations, beginning with the San Francisco Symphony on January 6.

Read our teenage reviewers’ experiences of the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s holiday concert.

The holidays are about personal and professional traditions, as well as seasonal ones. And so we asked around to find out how some in the SFCV community celebrate this time of year. Here are a few of the responses.

Here’s a season-appropriate playlist for all those who have overdosed on carols relentlessly piped through shopping malls and other offices and public spaces. We’ve brought some seasonal favorites together for you to include it in your holiday mix.

Recently, the big classical music institutions have acknowledged the problem of their dwindling audiences. Have they learned enough to survive?

We expose a local secret: Ballet Folklorico Costa de Oro, a fine dance company sporting a dance school in San Lorenzo, as well as many South Bay performances.

Here, SFCV celebrates the life of Nelson Mandela through the many songs that were written for him and about him. There are dozens from which to choose, and many of them became rallying signals in the fight against the apartheid regime of South Africa.

With a CD and an upcoming benefit concert, local musicians are focusing on the local scourge of homelessness.

Step one with any instrument. Here's how to get off on the right foot ... er, hand, with the guitar.