SoundBox: Nostalgia by Esa-Pekka Salonen with the San Francisco Symphony
March 11

Nostalgia is a longing to return home, but what if that home isn’t there anymore? In SoundBox: Nostalgia, three composers look to a past that may or may not exist, while opening new portals to the future. SoundBox series returns for a seventh season in 2021, in a new digital format with eclectic programs. Kicking off the series on February, SF Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen curates and conducts an evocative program titled Nostalgia, featuring works composed in the last decade including Freya Waley-Cohen’s Conjure, Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers for Violin, and Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte.

On March 11, SF Symphony Collaborative Partner and soprano Julia Bullock presents a program titled Lineage—an audio and visual snapshot of how lineage can inform, influence, impact, and express itself in a musical context. Bullock’s SoundBox program, originally scheduled to take place last spring and postponed due to the pandemic, has been adapted from live performance to a digital format.

In addition to curating the program, Bullock performs her signature rendition of Nina Simone’s “Revolution” and joins members of the SF Symphony and Chorus in performances of Nina Simone’s “Images,” fellow collaborative partner Esperanza Spalding’s “Little Fly,” Aruán Ortiz’s “Mompouana,” selections from Francis Poulenc’s Rapsodie Nègre, and Ricky Ian Gordon’s Litany. Other works on the program include J.S. Bach’s Invention No. 13 in A minor featuring pianist Sarah Cahill, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Plain Blue/s” from Blues Forms, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, selections from Elizabeth Ogonek’s In Silence and Orpheus Suite (after Rilke), and Hildegard von Bingen’s O frodens virga.

In an in-depth interview published recently, KQED comments, “Bullock’s superpower lies in reaching across centuries and continents, and feeling into the love, yearning and loss at the core of the human experience.”

Information
415-864-6000
sfsymphony.com

Photo courtesy of SF Symphony

Opera San Jose Orchestrates Virtual Valentine’s Day Love Telegrams

Looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for that music lover in your life? Choose from a selection of classic love songs, beautifully performed by Opera San José Resident Artists. The repertoire of popular romantic songs include: “‘Till There Was You” by Maya Kherani; “La vie en rose” by Ashley Dixon; “Be My Love” by Carlos Enrique Santelli; “As Time Goes By” by Eugene Brancoveanu; and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Nathan Stark. Accompanied by pianist Veronika Agranov-Dafoe, the telegrams will be recorded and available in time for Valentine’s Day along with your personalized message!

Information
Cost: $85 donation
408-437-4450
development@operasj.org
operasj.org

Photo courtesy of Opera San Jose

SF 49ers Launch a Virtual Tour of the Team Museum at Levi’s Stadium

Can’t travel to Tampa, Florida for the biggest football game on earth? Don’t despair! Join 5-time Super Bowl Champions, the SF 49ers, on a virtual tour of their incredible team museum at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. With a Zoom connection, the 11 galleries filled with historic and unforgettable photos, films, sculptures, trophies and unforgettable moments from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark’s “Catch” will be available for you to see, learn, and reminisce about the magic of the triumphant SF 49ers 5 Super Bowl Championships right at the comfort of your home. Enjoy the SF 49ers team Museum as they mark their 75th anniversary.

Information
Levis-stadium.com/museum-virtual-tour

Photo courtesy of Terrell Lloyd

Virtual World Premiere from the San Francisco Ballet
February 11 and March 4

Ballets by Dwight Rhoden, Mark Morris, Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Possokhov round out each triple-bill program streaming during the 2021 digital season. Myles Thatcher’s new ballet is set in San Francisco locations including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Heroes Grove at Golden Gate Park, Yerba Buena Gardens, and the stage of the War Memorial Opera House, SF Ballet’s performance home. Thatcher’s work emphasizes saturated colors in its design and explores parallels between consuming art—as one might at an art museum—and creating it. Mark Morris’ Sandpaper Ballet, created in 1999 with costumes by Isaac Mizrahi, is a rare work in the repertory that sets neoclassical ballet to “funny” music—in this case, nostalgic pop-orchestral tunes by Leroy Anderson: “Sleigh Ride,” “Fiddle-Faddle,” “The Typewriter,” and more. Do not miss this absolutely fascinating, whimsical, and charming jewel in the world of dance.

San Francisco Ballet, long recognized for pushing boundaries in dance, has enjoyed a long and rich tradition of artistic “firsts” since its founding in 1933, including performing the first American productions of Swan Lake and Nutcracker, as well as the first 20th-century American Coppélia. Under the direction of Helgi Tomasson, the Company has achieved an international reputation as one of the preeminent ballet companies in the world.

Information
415-865-2000
sfballet.org

Photos courtesy of SF Ballet

Lina Broydo immigrated from Russia, then the Soviet Union, to Israel where she was educated and got married. After working at the University in Birmingham, England, she and her husband immigrated to the United States. She lives in Los Altos Hills, CA and writes about travel, art, style, entertainment, and sports. She hardly cooks or bakes, with no borsch or piroshky on her home cooking menu. Therefore, she makes reservations and enjoys dining out, mostly sushi.