From a pair of frontline jazz saxophonists to SF Sketchfest exhibits to a brand new John Adams work, there’s a lot to see and do within the Bay Space this weekend.
Right here’s a partial rundown.
Pair of sax stars hit SFJAZZ
Two unbelievable saxophonists — Tia Fuller and Grace Kelly — are combining forces for one evening in San Francisco.
The 2 proficient musicians, who’re additionally completed composers and bandleaders, carry out a co-headlining present at SFJAZZ Heart on Jan. 16.
Fuller is an award-winning instrumentalist whose many accolades embody having earned the title of finest alto saxophonist within the 2018 JazzTimes Jazz Critics Ballot. That exact same 12 months, she was the Artist-in-Residence on the Monterey Jazz Pageant.
She’s launched various recordings as a bandleader and has performed alongside such skills as Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Chaka Khan, Ledisi, Kelly Rowland, Dionne Warwick, Janelle Monáe, Aretha Franklin and Beyonce.
Kelly obtained an early begin within the trade, having written her first tune at age 7 after which launched her full-length debut, 2005’s “Dreaming,” at 12.
Since then, the saxophonist — who can also be a gifted vocalist — has change into a really recognizable identify within the jazz world, because of a gentle stream of well-received albums like 2009’s “Mood Changes” and 2011’s “Man with the Hat. “
Details: Showtime is 7:30 pm; $25-$85; sfjazz.org.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
‘Remembrance’ of colonialism
Evidence of Mumbai’s colonial past can be found in the city’s chawls, rickety tenement flats stacked upon each other like depressing LEGO blocks.
The structures sprung up around the city to house the poor working class, such as the laborers who contributed to the success of the East India Company through the 1800s. Chawls were typically crowded, unsanitary and structurally perilous – of course, the British merchants themselves lived in huge bungalows out of sight of such things.
Today in Mumbai you can still find chawls in poorer areas of the city. You can also find their influence in “A Forest of Remembrance,” Amol Okay. Patil’s fascinating new exhibit on the Berkeley Artwork Museum and Pacific Movie Archive. India-born artist Patil has altered the museum partitions to look tough and weathered, mimicking the layers of outdated paint in chawls. Hanging all through are work and unusual sculptures of blobby, natural plenty, constituted of clay forged in bronze, with fingers and ft jutting out as if in protest.
By means of such alien but acquainted artwork, the museum writes, Patil “shines light on the social and political injustices these communities face and the dignity, creativity and resourcefulness with which they continue to fight for their rights.”
Particulars: Present is open 11 am-7 pm Wednesday-Sunday from January 18-April 27 at 2155 Heart St., Berkeley; $18 basic admission, bampfa.org
–John Metcalfe, Employees
Classical picks: New Adams work; NCCO, Bullock is again
The Bay Space’s classical music scene by no means appears to relaxation, and having put away December’s vacation treats, we as soon as once more have a full schedule earlier than us. This week’s highlights embody a brand new work by composer John Adams, and pianist Inon Barnatan featured in a program by the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
“After the Fall”: That’s the title of John Adams’ new piano concerto, receiving its world premiere on the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Corridor this week in three performances that includes soloist Vikingur Ólafsson. A SF Symphony fee, the concerto is impressed by Ólafsson’s Bach performances; David Robertson, a brand new music specialist, will conduct. This system additionally consists of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” with soprano Susanna Phillips, tenor Arnold Livingston Geis, and baritone Will Liverman as soloists, joined by the mixed energy of the SF Symphony Refrain and SF Ladies Refrain.
Particulars: 7:30 pm in the present day and Saturday, 2 pm Sunday; Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco; $125-$250; sfsymphony.org.
“Musical Diversions”: Aptly titled, the New Century Chamber Orchestra has an interesting program on the calendar. Pianist Inon Barnatan joins the ensemble in CPE Bach’s dynamic Third Keyboard Concerto; Additionally on this system are Bartok’s “Divertimento,” full of the composer’s beloved Hungarian people rhythms; and Shostakovich’s first piano concerto, with the work’s trumpet solos supplied by visitor artist Brandon Ridenour of the American Brass Quintet.
Particulars: 7:30 pm Friday at First Congregational Church, Berkeley, 3 pm Saturday at Inexperienced Music Heart, Sonoma, and a pair of pm Sunday at Presidio Theater, San Francisco; $35-$100; ncco.org.
Bullock returns: When you had been fortunate sufficient to expertise soprano Julia Bullock’s efficiency of Olivier Messiaen’s “Harawi” final September at Cal Performances, you understand why the she’s been referred to as one of many important artists of her era. Now Bullock is ready to return to Berkeley in her second engagement of the season. Joined by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, she’ll sing arias in Italian, French and English by Handel, Lully, Rameau, and Purcell. This system additionally options instrumental works by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, and Pachelbel.
Particulars: 3 p.m. Jan. 19, Zellerbach Corridor, UC Berkeley; $61-$106; calperformances.org
Recreation on in San Jose
Metropolis Lights Theater Firm in San Jose kicks off 2025 with “In Love and Warcraft,” Madhuri Shekar’s R-rated rom-com that explores a wide range of hot-button subjects — particularly the challenges of experiencing real-life intimacy in a world dominated by digital communications.
The motion facilities on Evie (performed by Anna Kosiarek), a university pupil who’s a fierce gamer and skilled at on-line position enjoying. In the meantime, she quietly runs a side-business immersed within the old-school apply of serving to the romantically challenged write love letters. In fact, all the things adjustments when she begins to fall in love for actual.
South Bay native Shekar’s different stage works embody “House of Joy,” “Queen,” “A Nice Indian Boy” and “Bucket of Blessings.” She’s additionally written for the Netflix present “Three Body Problem” and HBO’s fantasy collection “The Nevers.”
American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program staged “In Love and Warcraft” in 2020, now it’s Metropolis Lights Theater’s flip.
Particulars: In previews in the present day and Friday; primary run is Saturday via Feb. 9; Metropolis Lights Theater, San Jose; $31-$70; cltc.org.
— Randy McMullen, Employees
Artwork Week returns to Bay Space
In order for you an opportunity to expertise how huge and diversified the Bay Space’s artwork museum/gallery scene is, San Francisco Artwork Week is the occasion for you. Working Saturday via Jan. 26, SFAW options particular occasions and applications at some 70 artwork museums and galleries within the metropolis, East Bay, South Bau and Marin County. And virtually all of them are free.
The occasion formally kicks off 6 p.m Saturday with a celebration on the Institute of Up to date Artwork’s new downtown location, though there might be occasions all through the day on the Institute of Up to date Artwork in San Jose, the San Francisco Museum of Fashionable and the Berkeley Artwork Museum and Pacific Movie Archive. A number of venues are internet hosting particular occasions on Monday tied to SF Artwork Week in addition to the Martin Luther King Jr. vacation. These embody the Museum of the African Diaspora, which can embody a efficiency by the good Bay Space composer and musician Marcus Shelby and his Youth Orchestra in addition to the younger members of the Prescott Circus. Principally, nonetheless, the occasion offers us all an opportunity to see how spectacular the Bay Space museum/gallery choices are. For an entire lineup and extra info, go to sfartweek.com
— Bay Metropolis Information Basis
New Century groups with famed pianist
Music director Daniel Hope and the New Century Chamber Orchestra are harnessing the skills of famend pianist Inon Barnatan, who will be a part of the ensemble as a featured soloist on the 2 main works on this system. C.P. E. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D minor is a Baroque masterpiece that might be paired with the twentieth century’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor by the good Dmitri Shostakovich, and Barnatan finds “fascinating connections” between the 2, together with the “bold, unpredictable twists” they each deploy. “I love how these pieces speak to each other across time,” Barnatan says, “ and I hope the audience hears both the contrasts and the unexpected common ground between them.”
One uncommon aspect of the Shostakovich work is that it additionally requires a solo trumpet to interact in a type of duel with the piano, and Brandon Ridenour from the American Brass Quintet will step into that position. This system will shut with Béla Bártok’s Divertimento for String Orchestra.
Particulars: Concert events are 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17 in Berkeley’s First Congregational Church, 3 p.m. Jan. 18 in Sonoma State College’s Inexperienced Music Heart in Rohnert Park and a pair of p.m. Jan. 19 at Presidio Theatre in San Francisco; $35-$80, www.ncco.org.
— Bay Metropolis Information Basis
Dinner date from hell (or heaven!)
When you can’t discover one thing at San Francisco’s annual comedy explosion often known as SF Sketchfest that tickles your humorous bone, your humorous bone is both non-functioning otherwise you’re somebody like Vladimir Putin, who most likely giggles at chemical weapons explosions. Sketchfest was based in 2001 by Bay Space comedians David Owen, Cole Stratton and Janet Varney as a showcase of the Bay Space comedic expertise and has developed over time into one of many world’s most intensive and spectacular comedy festivals. It runs Jan. 16 via Feb. 2 and options almost 200 exhibits at a wide range of principally San Francisco venues.
The occasions run from standup comedy to superstar Q&As to movie screenings with particular company to just about something that isn’t a chemical weapons explosion (sorry, Vlad). There may be clearly an excessive amount of happening to explain all of it right here however one occasion that appears actually promising is an improv comedy occasion titled “Dinner Date.” It options Rachel Bloom, Dan Gregor, John Ross Bowie and Jamie Denbo on a pretend, extemporaneous dinner date that, as organizers say, “could end in anything from murder to polygamy depending on the suggestion.” You’ll be able to catch the present at 7 p.m. Friday and 9:30 p.m. Saturday on the Nice Star Theater in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Tickets are $45-$57. Go to sfsketchfest.com for tickets and extra info on Sketchfest.
— Bay Metropolis Information Basis
Pay attention and Chuckle at Porchlight
San Francisco’s long-running Porchlight storytelling collection has seized a spot on this 12 months’s SF Sketchfest comedy extravaganza, and is booked for a gig on the Nice American Music Corridor, 859 O’Farrell St., from 8 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday. Porchlight co-founders Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick are within the lineup of actors, writers and musicians who will stand in entrance of the microphone with out good thing about notes or teleprompters and try to entertain the viewers with a full 10 minutes of witty monologue. Others collaborating are musician Merrill Garbus of the Tune-Yards band, actor-writer-producer Michael Hitchcock, “MythBusters” co-host Adam Savage, author Ayelet Waldman, composer-arranger-producer Marc Capelle, TV and film actor Gary Anthony Williams and funk musicians Daybreak Silva and Gail Muldrow.
Particulars: Tickets are $38 together with service payment; www.sfsketchfest.com.
— Bay Metropolis Information Basis
She’s taking a bow
Not each comic within the Bay Space this week is right here for Sketchfest. Take Isabel Hagen, for instance. The New York Metropolis-born entertainer lands at Stanford College on Thursday for 2 performances, a part of the Stanford Stay efficiency collection. A few of you would possibly acknowledge Hagen from her different primary pursuit: She is a classically skilled violist who has carried out with a number of up to date classical and new music outfits in addition to a pit orchestra member for a number of Broadway productions, together with “Lion King,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Les Miserables” (and right here’s the place we don’t make an inappropriate wisecrack about classical music lovers needing a humorousness). Whereas she was a sophomore on the Juilliard Faculty, Hagen posted a comedic video titled “How to Convince People You’re Really Good at Chamber Music,” and the constructive response she acquired satisfied her she might need a knack for comedy. And when she was sidelined from enjoying music for a time due to an damage, she hit a collection of comedy joints’ open mic nights and located extra success. Maybe her greatest mainstream breakthrough got here in 2020, when she carried out on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” and made her viola a part of her routine. It’s a apply she continues in the present day. You will discover out for your self Thursday when she performs two units at The Studio at Stanford College.
Particulars: Performances are 7 and 9 p.m.; tickets, $15-$45, are going quick; stay.stanford.edu
— Bay Metropolis Information Basis
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