Chamber Music Day Live + Free is one of those very special events in the fall that you absolutely do not want to miss. This Sunday there are 42 performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts — at the forum, or in the theater, or the screening room, or in the lounge. Every genre of music, by groups near and far.
“A festival for the eyes and ears,” says Dominique Pelletey, director of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, which sponsors the event. “The idea is just like a salad bar: You come and try things, and maybe you come to listen to a group play Beethoven but you fall in love a jazz group. It’s about discovery.”
Performances last no more than 20 to 30 minutes. And what’s interesting about this festival is how many local groups you’ll hear and you wonder why you haven’t.
“In the Bay Area,” says Pelletey, “ if you want to make it, sometimes it seems it’s better if you live in Reno. There are so many fantastic groups right here and yet they don’t get hired. It’s a mystery. I suppose if you’re here people think you must not be good otherwise you’d be in New York.”
This is also a very family oriented festival. Among the activities: a "petting zoo" offered by students at the Crowden School in Berkeley, where older children teach younger children how to play various instruments. There will also be teenage ensembles performing. Last year the festival drew more than 3,000 people.
Pelletey also recommends this festival because it’s both meeting place and market place for presenters and musicians. “You know a lot of presenters like to come to hear the groups live, instead of just on a CD.”
And while you’re at the festival please stop by and say hello to us at San Francisco Classical Voice. We’d love to meet you.
Chamber Music Day Live + Free, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Nov. 18, from mid morning until late afternoon, free.