Michael Zwiebach

Though many members of college orchestras spend the summer months at their parents' homes or bicycling through Europe, enough young musicians live in the Bay Area to cobble together a respectable orchestra. This is the premise behind the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony, a collection of fine musicians from the region's many youth orchestras.

After the epic lavishness of Turandot, Festival Opera isn’t looking to bowl you over with its upcoming production of Gounod’s Faust. But while the physical design of Faust takes the opposite tack from Puccini’s blockbuster, the end result promises to be just as impressive.

Festival-goers may not mind that, for one night, Carmel Bach becomes Carmel Beethoven. David Breitman, who is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory and is an expert on historical performance techniques, plays Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto (on a modern piano). And the orchestra, under Bruno Weil, finishes up with one of the composer's most popular symphonies, the “Eroica.”

The Mendocino Music Festival closes with a performance of Mozart's Requiem Mass. Completed by his pupil, Francis Xavier Süssmayer, it is still one of the two most popular Requiems in the classical repertory. But even Mozart would have forked over some cash to be able to hear it in a tent overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with a fine team of professional soloists.

The Midsummer Mozart Festival is coming to a concert venue near you. First up is the absolutely delightful Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365, a flute concerto, and the exciting "Haffner" Symphony, No. 35. As always the orchestra travels so you don't have to — from Santa Clara to San Francisco to Sonoma.

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The opening program of the Carmel Bach Festival is a performance of Joseph Haydn's magnificent oratorio, The Creation. From its famous depiction of Chaos through to the uplifting final chorus, "The heavens are telling the glory of God," this is a worthy successor to Handel's great English oratorios.

If you're a classic cartoon buff, don't miss Bugs on Broadway, part of the San Francisco Symphony's Summer and the Symphony series.

The rebellious souls among us already know where to go for real “alternative” music — music that mixes genres or cultural traditions, or that uses nontrad

Nothing says summer like an outdoor pops concert, especially if its free. The Peninsula Symphony scores big on all three counts, as they present a free concert on the steps of the Redwood City Courthouse Square. Besides great music from three Bs (Berlioz, Bizet, and Bernstein), the fun includes a raffle. Let the kids stay up late, bring a picnic, and enjoy.