Jeff Kaliss

Over three decades, he’s refashioned tasty morsels of jazz, country, world, pop, and classical music, but Bill Frisell and his guitars have always flown far above pigeonholes. Frisell spoke to SFCV from the autumnal splendor of the Vermont Studio Center, where he and his wife, painter Carole d’Inverno, were pursuing their crafts for several weeks in the inspiring company of four dozen other artists.

Early music has considerable postmodern appeal for recorder virtuoso Piers Adams and his group, Red Priest. The group's long-awaited local stop is set as a Halloween-flavored concert on Oct. 28. Arrayed in colorful outfits that evoke olden days and issuing albums with tongue-in-cheek titles, like Red Priest, has effectively marketed itself as an unlikely team of English early-music all-stars.

Whether it's girdling the globe or picking up an Avery Fisher Career Grant at Lincoln Center, both of which she's accomplished this year, 24-year-old Joyce Yang is particular about choosing both her piano repertoire and her wardrobe. She discusses her choices with SFCV, and reveals how she applies all six of her senses to the keyboard.

She drew global attention to her win in Moscow in the International Tchaikovsky Competition 15 years ago, but violinist Jennifer Koh has since developed a reputation as a standard bearer for the nonstandard repertoire. A closer look at her performance programming reveals her conviction that there’s a vital link between past and present. Here she talks with SFCV about her choices.

The multitude of musicians and aficionados swarming, free of charge, through the San Francisco Conservatory last Sunday afternoon displayed how far the annual Chamber Music Day has outgrown the chamber it began in.

Musical genres are concepts that may be crawling toward extinction in the new millennium, or so pianist Billy Childs believes. Looking to a more integrated era, he’s positioning his jazz quartet alongside the classically trained Kronos Quartet for the premiere of his commissioned composition, on Sept. 18 at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Sipping some of the world’s best wines, right where they’re cultivated and cultured, is also one of the best ways to take in some of the world’s best small ensemble music, of various vintages. Welcome to Napa Valley’s Music in the Vineyards festival.

What if you were confronted with a dozen spirited saxophonists, male and female, embracing a stunning range of pitch and a delightful variety of repertoire? That wouldn’t be too much sax, would it? Not in the case of the Selmer Saxharmonic.

Three centuries ago, Antonio Vivaldi was able to find musical magic in all four of the Mantuan seasons. Our own summer gifts kids with more time to to pursue the classical muse: They're temporarily freed from the classroom, evening homework, and the need to go early to bed. It’s high time, then, to take a look at a panoply of kid-and-parent-friendly and mostly free-of-charge musical activities around the Bay Area.

Declared sister cities in 1980, San Francisco and Shanghai have been celebrating that relationship all year, starting in February with a spectacular gala and exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in the former city’s Civic Center. In musical mode, there’ll be an East Meets West Chamber Concert at the Museum on July 10, featuring the American premiere of Joan Huang’s Shanghai Trilogy, performed by the Bridge Chamber Virtuosi.