Previews

Some conductors have a special affinity with a particular piece of music and that’s the way it is when Jeffrey Thomas steps up to conduct J.S. Bach’s B-Minor Mass. You can miss it, but you’ll be kicking yourself in the morning.

If you haven’t had your Mozart fix in a few months, the Midsummer Mozart Festival is here to help you out. The impressive lineup of the first concert begins this weekend.

You might not think about attending the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, unless you’re a film buff. But all musicians know what makes silent film sound. If you’re intrigued by this merging of old and new, the Castro Theater is the place to be from July 14 to 17.

Experimental music in a wide variety of styles marks the Outsound Music Summit, now hitting its 10th year.

Most summer concerts are the equivalent of beach reading – the musical versions of vampire romances and spy thrillers. But for those who prefer to heft Gravity's Rainbow to the seaside, there is also a musical equivalent. Christopher Kula, the chief of Pacific Collegium is definitely one of the heavy lifting crowd and his programs never lack for ambition.

If you're wondering about the increasing coverage of jazz in the virtual pages of SFCV – more on this later – it's because jazz is classical music (not just America's classical music). Think about it: long-form instrumental pieces with lots of harmonic and rhythmic complexity (some of that derived from those European dead white males); small, niche market of enthusiasts; a repertoire of bedrock, classic pieces, which musicians reinterpret over and over again; casual listeners may find it “difficult”. What am I describing, traditional classical or traditional jazz?

If you like the breath of fresh air provided by Pamela and Amy X Neuburg, then you'll want to check in to the Room at the Royce Gallery to hear Los Angeles' Robin Cox Ensemble.

Jazz plus a taste of the Middle East at the Carmel Bach Festival? You betcha, says the protean pianist/composer/conductor Stephen Prutsman.

In a spectacular setting on the Northern California coast, the 25th annual Mendocino Music Festival promises to deliver an irresistible range of music from artists of every stripe.

When a composer has a great dance tune with no place to go, it's time to write a serenade. Serenades are on the populist end of classical music, which is why the San Francisco Symphony is devoting one of their summer pops concerts to them. Eine, kleine Nachtmusik is a case in point: We don't know why Mozart composed it, but since tunes dropped from his brain like water droplets off a wet collie, he didn't really need a reason, did he?