The best concerts in the Bay Area since 1970!
Your home for piano,
chamber music
and world music concerts
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: 415.474.1608
- 50 concerts per year
- Local professional musicians
- Specializing in World Premieres and New Music
- Deep discounts for students and low-income seniors
Pola Baytelman, piano
Sunday, October 1 at 4:00 pm
Come to an exciting afternoon of piano music from all over the world! Pianist Pola Baytelman will perform a dramatic program of music from Brazil, Argentina, Europe and the US. The concert will begin with music by Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos inspired by regional folk tunes. Also inspired by Brazilian rhythms are the Saudades do Brasil by French composer Darius Milhaud. In addition, Baytelman will play compositions by well-known Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The program will include the Variations Seriueses, Mendelssohn’s masterpiece, and the beautiful Improvisations on Hasidic Melodies by American composer Paul Schoenfield. Rounding out the program, Ms. Baytelman will perform a selection of pieces from Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz’s Iberia – one of the great masterpieces of piano literature.
Ives Collective: Bohemian Rhapsodies
Friday, October 13 at 8 pm
The Performers
Roy Malan, violin;
Nancy Ellis, viola;
Susan Freier, violin & viola;
Stephen Harrison, cello
The Program
Josef Suk Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1
Antonín Dvořák Terzetto in C major for two violins and viola, Op. 74 and Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major Op. 87
About
These three Czech/Bohemian works, written within two years of each other, have those special characteristics that have made Bohemian music from the late 19th century so beloved: soaring melody, the flavor of folk music, and humor. Thrillingly, Robin Sutherland, the long-time pianist of the San Francisco Symphony, will join us along with our dear friends, guest violinist, Roy Malan, and violist, Nancy Ellis, for this concert of Bohemian Rhapsodies. Simply put, Robin is an artist we revere.
Desby - Graber - Rose Trio
Sunday, October 15 at 4 pm
The Performers
Krisanthy Desby, cello; Miles Graber, piano; Tom Rose, clarinet
The Program
Ludwig van Beethoven Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11
Robert Muczynski Fantasy Trio, Op. 26
Paul Juon Miniature Trios
Mikhail Glinka Trio Pathétique
About
The clarinet had just been invented when Mozart put it into a piano trio. This concert explores how the clarinet evolved in its use as a concert instrument, from early Beethoven, through Glinka, and finally to the 20th century Swiss-Russian composer Juon and Polish-American composer Muczynski. In brilliant arpeggios or mysterious low registers, soft murmuring or incisive folk melodies, the clarinet with piano and cello is pure delight.
Liszt Birthday Gala
Sunday, October 22
at 2pm
10 Pianists!
Stephen Bailey, Michael Boyd, Riley Cook, Daniel Glover, Machiko Kobialka, Jeffrey LaDeur, Gwendolyn Mok, Robert Schwartz, Sandra Wright Shen, William Wellborn, piano. Dominic Pang, organ.
Liszt's greatest music!
Including brilliant transcriptions of works by Beethoven, Chopin, Paganini, and Wagner, music from the Years of Pilgrimage, the Hungarian Rhapsodies, Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H and more!
Champagne reception!
Cascada de Flores: A Musical Altar for our Muertos
Sunday,
October 29
at 4 pm
Jorge Liceaga, guitar, and guests
Cascada de Flores celebrates love, life, and music, inspired by the troubadours of Mexico and the Americas. In an evening of song, strings, zapateado and heart, a musical altar will be dedicated to loved ones and inspiring cultural icons that have passed: Sones from different regions of Mexico, danzones, waltzes, boleros, guarachas and compositions using these traditional forms. SING OUT! Magazine has called their performances “a dream from which you have no desire to return. You learn the roots while listening to experts play music they clearly love. The result is rich, delicate, and lovely.” For more information please visit cascadadeflores.com.
Nato, violin;
Monica Chew, piano
Formed in spring of 2016, Minsky Duo’s mission is to present extraordinary music from both popular and obscure composers. While audiences will hear the chamber music they know and love, Minsky Duo also presents listeners with provoking works they will soon not forget. This all-American program includes the Bay Area premiere of Ned Rorem’s sonata for violin and piano, Aaron Copland’s sonata, Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting by Charles Ives, and Road Movies by Bay Area composer John Adams, and a world premiere of some preludes and fugues for piano by American composer Aaron Andrew Hunt.
RossoRose Duo - Friday, November 10 at 8 pm - Alisa Rose, violin; Amy Zanrosso, piano - Alisa Rose and Amy Zanrosso are two expressive and powerful musicians intent on exploring what it means to be a piano and violin duo making music in the 21st century. Striking and dramatic in their musical choices, RossoRose seamlessly melds their classical training with the rhythms and musical freedom of a variety of traditions that include tango and American roots music, and are not shy about breaking rules in order to communicate with an audience.
Musical sisters* separated at birth, Alisa Rose and Amy Zanrosso were magically reunited in February 2015 under the auspices of one Metropolis Violin Concerto. Feeling like they still had a lot more to musically say and explore they formed the RossoRose Duo. They combine the world of their preferred classical classics with music being written in the here and now. *(for the record, we are not actually sisters….)
The Program:
Leoš Janáček Piano Sonata, “From the Street”
Sergei Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major
Alexander Scriabin selected Poèmes, including Vers la flamme, Op. 72
Mr. Waxdeck grew up in Berkeley, where he began private piano lessons at age 6. His studies continued at Princeton University, Yale University, the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he earned a Masters Degree in Performance in 1997, and won the International Bartók Piano Competition later that year. Mr. Waxdeck has performed throughout the US, in Europe, at Weill Hall in New York, and at various summer music festivals in the US and abroad, including the Adamant Music School in Vermont and IBLA festival in Italy. Locally, he has performed on the Fortnightly Music series in Palo Alto, the Dance Palace piano series in Marin County, the Noontime Concerts and the Forrest Hill Music series in San Francisco, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at Old First Concerts as part of our Scriabin Festival in 2015. Mr. Waxdeck also has a law degree from Yale Law School and is a practicing attorney.