February 9 at First Congregational Church of Berkeley: Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Winter Concert. On the program: Brahms’ Double; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Amos Yang, from the S.F. Symphony, does the solo honors on cello. Along with 95 young musicians, ages 12 to 21, conducted by David Ramadanoff. YPSO is the oldest youth orchestra in the state and the second oldest in the United States. There is also a free outreach concert the next day, Sunday, February 10 at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center, featuring the same music. SFCV will have a table in the lobby at the Sunday performance. Come visitus! More information: see event info.
February 9 at African American Arts and Culture Complex: Carmen for Families. Created from San Francisco Opera’s performance of Carmen for Families in 2011, this one-hour movie is a wonderful first opera experience. The performance is in English, with English subtitles and is recommended for ages 10 and up. More information: see event info.
February 10 at the Albert & Janet Schultz Cultural Arts Hall in Palo Alto: Multicultural production of Peter and the Wolf. The OFJCC will offer four performances, narrated in Russian, Hebrew, Mandarin, and English, all conducted by maestro Ming Luke. Children will learn about different instruments that represent animals in the story and can participate in a mask-making workshop and instrument “petting zoo.” Children dressed as Peter and the Wolf characters will receive a special prize! More information: see event info.
February 10 at Marin Center Veterans Memorial Auditorium, in San Rafael: San Domenico alumna viola virtuoso Alexandra Simpson is the guest artist in a Valentine concert by the Marin Symphony. Music from the hit movie Brave by Patrick Doyle is the climax of the concert. More information: see event info.
February 10 at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore: Princess Ida from the Lamplighters Music Theater. A 20-year-old treaty states that Princess Ida and Prince Hilarion are to marry when they come of age. That time has come, but Ida refuses to honor the commitment, and has gone off to the country to start a women's university. There she teaches an interesting variation on Darwin's theory: that man — not woman, just man — is descended from apes, and is thus inferior to woman. The Prince, on the other hand, is an unabashed romantic, and decides to woo Ida and win her love. He and two friends make their way to the university, where they disguise themselves as women in order to enroll and get close to her. Last chance to see this funny, acclaimed production. For more information: see event info.
February 11 at the Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford Museum. Violinist and Stanford Department of Music faculty member Dawn Harms and her musical guests present a lively educational program recommended for children in grades 2-8. Harms is a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and is the associate concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra and has been doing these great programs for a long time. see event info.
Through February 10 at the Firehouse Arts Center, Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre, and Pleasanton Civic Arts present Rent, Jonathan Larson’s Broadway musical based on Puccini’s La bohème. Instead of Paris in the 1840s, it’s Greenwich Village in the 1990s, instead of tuberculosis, AIDS. Otherwise, besides a gay drag queen and Mimi as an S&M dancer, characters and arcs are close to the original. The show, which opened in 1996, won both a Pulitzer and a Tony. Not for the whole family, one could argue, but for most of the family. It’s about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Or think of it this way: If you were going to see the premiere of La bohème on February 1, 1896, at the Teatro Regio in Turin, who would have taken to see that? This is a musical for its time. Tickets: $17 to $33.