Previews

Guitarist David Russell has walked away with every competition he has ever entered and has energized a huge fan base with his nearly perfect technique and musicality. His S.F. Performances show this weekend promises to be pretty special.

Opera San José opens its production of La bohème this weekend. Puccini's bittersweet love story reliably leaves new operagoers in tears and is tailormade for young casts, OSJ's specialty.

The Ives Quartet is taking a musical journey that stretches well beyond a single concert and focuses on education and audience involvement.

Violinist Dawn Harms (member of several Bay Area music groups) performs her entertaining one-woman family show across the U.S., to squeals of delight and smiles of pleasure.

Frederica von Stade tells an engaging musical story together with composer/pianist Jake Heggie and talented teenagers from the Young Musician's Program at UC Berkeley on May 1.

Despite a funding setback, Gold Coast Chamber Players still hosts the Amati Ensemble from the Netherlands for a rich chamber concert in Lafayette.

With their latest Call and Response concert, the Cypress Quartet explores the question, “What is exotic?”

Bay Area audiences know pianist Hadley McCarroll, who is also a well-loved music teacher in Oakland. If you haven't heard her play, you might nip over to Old First Concerts on Sunday.

James MacMillan's passionate setting of the Seven Last Words has had a bit of a mini-revival in the Bay Area the last couple of months. Now it's the turn of the Sanford Dole Ensemble to sing this modern classic.

Renowned lutenist Hopkinson Smith has transcribed Bach's Suites for Solo Cello for the theorbo (a bass lute). Bach lovers can see him play the first three of them at concerts for the San Francisco Early Music Society this weekend.