Michael Zwiebach

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.

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?

Ever wanted to hear the sounds of Alaskan wildlife presented in the context of live, contemporary music? Of course you have.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis ends the regular season at the S.F. Symphony, the late-period score that Beethoven managed to create a kind of oratorio-symphony with, a piece that promises to deepen the orchestra's connection to Beethoven.

To the rest of America, S.F. is the home of gay rights. But the S.F. Bay Area is also a music capital, so it makes sense that the Annual Pride Celebration should make a place for a number of the city's pioneering GLBTQ music ensembles.

Over at the Jewish Museum, a new exhibit on Gertrude Stein is in full swing. On Thursday the Museum hosts the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony and their special guest, New York TImes music critic Anthony Tommasini in a program about the collaborations between Stein and composer Virgil Thomson.

There are lots of big music events going on in the Bay Area this week, but let's not forget about Ojai North! In two concerts soprano Dawn Upshaw performs Winds of Destiny, her collaborative work with director Peter Sellars.

There are a lot of great ways to take advantage of the longest day of the year, otherwise known as the summer solstice. For music fans and, increasingly, for many families in the Bay Area, there's a clear winner: the Garden of Memory Day of Music at Oakland's Chapel of the Chimes.

The opening program of the Carmel Bach Festival is a performance of Joseph Haydn's magnificent oratorio, The Creation. With an impressive lineup of soloists it is this year's main event.

Elliott Sharp brings his interest in modified instruments like "guitarbass," an instrument that was built especially for him, to Meridian Gallery