Bay Area arts: 8 cool shows and concerts to catch this weekend
From Alonzo King LINES Ballet to Bruce Hornsby, there is a lot to see and hear this weekend in the Bay Area.
From Alonzo King LINES Ballet to Polish opera star Jakub Jozef Orliński to Bruce Hornsby’s watery concert, there is a lot to see and hear this weekend and beyond in the Bay Area. Here is a partial roundup.
Alonzo King’s spring bloom
On paper, the new program debuting this week by Alonzo King’s LINES ballet consists of one world premiere. But it might feel more like two world premieres.
One of the works on the program is a revival of King’s acclaimed 2018 work “The Collective Agreement.” The dance was originally commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet and features a collaboration between King – who is famous for his collaborations – and the revered jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran.
But this isn’t any old revival with a few tweaks and minor revisions. The company describes the new take on “Collective Agreement” as a “transformative re-envisioning by King, the LINES Ballet dancers, and light installation artist Jim Campbell.” Another revival on the bill is the 2013 work “Concerto for Two Violins,” which transforms Bach’s 1730 work into an examination of human relationships.
As for the world premiere on the lineup, King has revealed little except that it bears the timely title of “Spring” and that it is set to a score built on African American spirituals.
Details: Performances are April 5-14; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Blue Shield of California Theater in San Francisco; $45-$125; linesballet.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Classical picks: SoundBox, Pine, Orliński
This week’s music scene brings a new installment of SoundBox, a Bay Area visit from violinist Rachel Barton Pine, and two hotly anticipated appearances by countertenor Jakub Jozef Orliński.
“Press Play”: After the terrible news that music director Esa-Pekka Salonen plans to depart the San Francisco Symphony, Carol Reiley, one of the collaborators he named at the start of his tenure, is curating a new program for the Symphony’s experimental music lab, SoundBox. The title is “Press Play: Carol Reiley and the Robots,” so expect innovation.
Details: 8:30 p.m. Saturday; SoundBox space, San Francisco; $65; sfsymphony.org.
Bach duets: Violinist Rachel Barton Pine remains one of the music world’s most assured Bach interpreters, and with her frequent partner, Jory Vinikour on harpsichord, she comes to the Bay Area this week in a program of the composer’s sonatas and partitas presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at First Congregational Church of Berkeley; 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; $30-$40; sfems.org.
Orliński returns: Polish countertenor Jakub Jozef Orliński left an indelible impression with his previous appearance in concert at Cal Performances and as a super-charged Orpheus at San Francisco Opera. Now, this extraordinary artist returns with Il Pomo d’Oro in a program titled “Beyond,” with performances in Berkeley and Palo Alto.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $35-$106; calperformances.org; 2:30 p.m. April 14 at Stanford University; $15-$110; live.stanford.edu.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Bruce Hornsby takes a dip
Bay Area music fans are well-acquainted with the extraordinary keyboardist, singer and songwriter Bruce Hornsby for his long stint as a touring musician with the Grateful Dead. He’s also known for the Americana outfit Bruce Hornsby and the Range, who had a No. 1 hit with “The Way It Is.”
He’s also collaborated with artists ranging from Ricky Skaggs to Pat Metheny and contributed songs and scores to several Spike Lee projects.
Now he is all about the water. The musician has teamed with the acclaimed experimental chamber group yMusic — they’re collectively known as BrhyM — for the new album “Deep Sea Vents,” consisting of 10 jazz/pop-classical/Americana songs about water and human kind’s relationship to it. Jazz legend Branford Marsalis, multi-instrumentalist Mark Dover and drummer Chad Wright are guest artists on the album, which is available for streaming or purchase on most major music platforms.
On Friday, BrhyM comes to the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco for a concert that showcases the new release.
Details: 8 p.m.; tickets start at $73 and include a copy of “Deep Sea Vents” CD; ticketmaster.com.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Proxy Spring free movies are back
The Proxy Spring Film Festival – a monthlong series of free Friday night movies – kicks off Friday at the walk-in outdoor theater at 432 Octavia Street in the Hayes Valley section of San Francisco. And for the one or two of you who missed it when it came out, the first selection, airing at dusk (“doors” open at 7:15), is Greta Gerwig’s smash hit “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie and an utterly adorable Ryan Gosling as her Ken. Various merchants around the area are supporting the festival, and you’re invited to stop by one of the newest sponsors, Hayz Dog, just a block away at 364 Hayes Street for a yummy frank on a bun – proceeds go to support the festival. Bring your blanket or low camp chair to enjoy the show. Meanwhile, another festival sponsor, Brooklinen, at 519 Hayes, will be dishing out free popcorn to all festivalgoers from 7 to 8 p.m.
Details: More information at proxysf.net.
— Bay City News Foundation
A passion for the piano
When she was just a curious 4-year-old living at home in Seoul, South Korea, Joyce Yang received an incredible birthday present from her aunt – a white piano that the little girl came to regard as her own massive toy. But her crafty aunt, a piano teacher, wouldn’t let her play it until her room was cleaned, her vegetables eaten and her chores done. So of course she fell madly in love with it! Fast forward to 2005, and the gifted keyboardist is, at 19, the youngest competitor in the 12th annual Van Cliburn International in Fort Worth, Texas – walking away with the silver medal, the best performance of a new work prize and a best chamber music performance award she won playing the Dvorak Quintet with the Takacs String Quartet – an ensemble she continues to collaborate with today. Now the celebrated artist and Grammy nominee makes a stop on her international tour at 7 p.m. Sunday in Burlingame to play a recital on the Music at Kohl Mansion series. On her program are selections from Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons,” seven preludes by Rachmaninoff and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Details: Tickets, $30-$58, and more information are available at musicatkohl.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
A milestone worth dancing about
Exciting things have been going on at San Francisco Ballet. The company is in its first season under new artistic director Tamara Rojo, who has made it a goal to program exciting, bold and topical new works. And that goal got a little easier recently when S.F. Ballet received a stunning $60 million anonymous donation, the largest such contribution in the company’s history and reportedly one of the largest single donations to an American dance company ever recorded. Rojo is also keen on broadening the variety of choreography performed by the company and this week’s new program, “Dos Mujeres,” is evidence of that. It marks the first program in S.F. Ballet history devoted solely to works by female choreographers and the first devoted to Latin-themed story lines. It includes “Carmen,” a company-commissioned world premiere by Arielle Smith that radically reimagines the classic Prosper Mérimée novella and features a score by famed Latin jazz composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill. The other work on the bill is the North American premiere of “Broken Wings,” Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s colorful look at the life and art of Frida Kahlo, set to a Mexican folk music-inspired score by Peter Salem.
Details: Performances are April 4-14; War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco; $29-$495; sfballet.org.
— Bay City News Foundation