Chamber

If the nearly 300 people at a Feb. 4 Ukiah concert are an indication, the Deep Valley Chamber Music series has finally arrived. One of the best-kept secrets in North Coast music, Deep Valley has been presenting increasingly challenging repertoire and first-cabin musicians since 2008, and the “Midw...

Symphony

Marin Symphony’s first concert of 2012 was on many levels a union of old and new. The symphony, as a musical genre, dates back to the 18th century, with the most notable examples being those of Mozart and Haydn. In the 19th Century its legacy was carried on by master symphonists Beethoven and Schube...

Symphony

On a day when several uncontrollable elements--lousy weather, football playoffs, hospital construction--conspired against them, guest conductor/pianist Jeffrey Kahane and the Santa Rosa Symphony packed the Wells Fargo Center by excelling at the one element firmly under their control: great music mak...

Virtuoso Korean pianist Yoonjung Han had tough barriers to surmount in her Jan. 19 Tiburon recital. Plying a repeat date for the Thursday Marin Musical Club after a 2011 recital had been cancelled, the Curtis Institute-trained pianist found an audience of 60 eager to hear her program, but was confr...

Recital

The program for Alexander Barantschik’s violin recital Jan. 15 in Newman Auditorium was not at first glance auspicious. And not because of the merits of the four sonatas, as all are masterpieces of the standard repertoire. The critical quandary was that the program was so conventional, the pieces ...

Chamber

Early music specialists Musica Pacifica played a concert Jan. 13 in the Petaluma Historical Museum that featured virtuoso Italian music from the 17th Century. The Museum is the stately columned old Carnegie Library and has a high ceiling, providing fine acoustics. The small audience was gathered ...

Chamber

Flutist Jeffrey Cohan's Jan. 8 recital in Santa Rosa’s Resurrection Parish was a combination of history, lecture and feats of virtuosity. An entire concert of unaccompanied flute might seem musically thin or missing something until Mr. Cohan plays, and then the realization comes that any other inst...

Chamber

A top quality baroque concert was presented at Santa Rosa’s Waldorf School Jan. 7 featuring the Ensemble Vermillian. Among the five performers at least nine instruments were used, and the variety of this instrumentation brought 17th and 18th Century musical gems to life. The Vermillian in the Soph...

Chamber

Musical detours can bring unexpected surprises, and on New Year’s Eve this writer’s drive to Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater party stopped early for chamber music at the downtown Historical Museum. Sponsored by the Museum and the Sky Hill Cultural Alliance, the concert with gratis holiday refres...

Symphony

Near the end of its Dec. 12 performance of the Brahms Requiem, a soprano in the Santa Rosa Symphony Honor Choir collapsed at the back of the stage, perhaps from excessive heat or lack of air. The incident wasn't surprising, since more than 100 singers were crammed shoulder to shoulder in the limited...

2/4/2012 - CAPTIVATING DOHNANYI AND ELGAR IN UKIAH'S DEEP VALLEY CHAMBER CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Deep Valley Chamber Music / Elena Casanova, piano; Joel Cohen, cello; Roy Malan, violin and Philip Santos, violin, Elizabeth Prior, viola
If the nearly 300 people at a Feb. 4 Ukiah concert are an indication, the Deep Valley Chamber Music series has finally arrived. One of the best-kept secrets in North Coast music, Deep Valley has been presenting increasingly challenging repertoire and first-cabin musicians since 2008, and the “Midw...

1/31/2012 - YOUTHFUL MUSIC AND VIRTUOSITY WELL SERVED IN MARIN SYMPHONY CONCERT - John Metz
Marin Symphony / Alasdair Neale, conductor; Nathan Chan, cello
Marin Symphony’s first concert of 2012 was on many levels a union of old and new. The symphony, as a musical genre, dates back to the 18th century, with the most notable examples being those of Mozart and Haydn. In the 19th Century its legacy was carried on by master symphonists Beethoven and Schube...

1/22/2012 - KAHANE’S TRIUMPHAL RETURN TO SANTA ROSA - Steve Osborn
Santa Rosa Symphony / Jeffrey Kahane, conductor and piano.
On a day when several uncontrollable elements--lousy weather, football playoffs, hospital construction--conspired against them, guest conductor/pianist Jeffrey Kahane and the Santa Rosa Symphony packed the Wells Fargo Center by excelling at the one element firmly under their control: great music mak...

1/19/2012 - PIANIST YOONJUNG HAN OVERCOMES MUSICAL OBSTACLES IN MARIN THURSDAY CLUB RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Virtuoso Korean pianist Yoonjung Han had tough barriers to surmount in her Jan. 19 Tiburon recital. Plying a repeat date for the Thursday Marin Musical Club after a 2011 recital had been cancelled, the Curtis Institute-trained pianist found an audience of 60 eager to hear her program, but was confr...

1/15/2012 - BARANTSCHIK AND FUKUHARA IN GLOWING FOUR SONATA NEWMAN RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Santa Rosa Junior College Chamber Concerts / Alexander Barantschik, violin; Robin Sutherland, piano
The program for Alexander Barantschik’s violin recital Jan. 15 in Newman Auditorium was not at first glance auspicious. And not because of the merits of the four sonatas, as all are masterpieces of the standard repertoire. The critical quandary was that the program was so conventional, the pieces ...

1/13/2012 - MUSICA PACIFICA'S BURNISHED VIRTUOSITY IN PETALUMA ITALIAN BAROQUE CONCERT - Joanna Bramel Young
Musica Pacifica /
Early music specialists Musica Pacifica played a concert Jan. 13 in the Petaluma Historical Museum that featured virtuoso Italian music from the 17th Century. The Museum is the stately columned old Carnegie Library and has a high ceiling, providing fine acoustics. The small audience was gathered ...

1/8/2012 - COHAN'S VIRTUOSITY SHINES IN FEAST OF FLUTES RECITAL FOR CREATIVE ARTS SERIES - Robin Goodfellow
Creative Arts Series / Jeffrey Cohan, flute
Flutist Jeffrey Cohan's Jan. 8 recital in Santa Rosa’s Resurrection Parish was a combination of history, lecture and feats of virtuosity. An entire concert of unaccompanied flute might seem musically thin or missing something until Mr. Cohan plays, and then the realization comes that any other inst...

1/7/2012 - VERMILLIAN'S INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY HIGHLIGHTS RARE BIBER AND COLISTA WORKS - Joanna Bramel Young
Ensemble Vermillian / Francis Blaker, recorder; David Wilson, violin; Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, cello; Katherine Heater, harpsichord; William Simms, lute and guitar
A top quality baroque concert was presented at Santa Rosa’s Waldorf School Jan. 7 featuring the Ensemble Vermillian. Among the five performers at least nine instruments were used, and the variety of this instrumentation brought 17th and 18th Century musical gems to life. The Vermillian in the Soph...