From a popular Bay Area jazz/swing crooner to a celebration of Pi Day and a revered chamber quartet playing the stately Kohl Mansion, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend.
Here is a partial roundup.
Here comes Miss Smith
Bay Area singer Lavay Smith came upon her revved up jazz/blues/swing sound in a unique fashion. Growing up in Long Beach, she was fed a steady diet of such standard-bearers as Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Dinah Washington. She moved as a youth to the Philippines, and honed her considerable vocal talents in a Manila rock band.
Back in the U.S., Smith long ago established herself as an indispensable part of the Bay Area blues/jazz/roots scene with a busy schedule of gigs ranging from headlining at concert halls to belting out blues, jazz and swing classics in packed nightclubs — almost always accompanied by her first-rate band, The Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
On Friday, she performs a pair of shows — 7 and 9 p.m. — at Stanford University’s intimate Studio. She’ll likely draw some cuts from her latest album, “Miss Smith to You,” but with her talent and savvy, any tune she tackles becomes a classic.
Details: Tickets are $40-$60; live.stanford.edu.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Exploratorium serves up slice of pi
Times may change on a dime in our tumultuous world, but one thing always remains the same: pi, the irrational-mathematical constant, the ol’ circumference/diameter split, the big 3.14159265358979323…. you get the idea.
As immutable as pi is, so is Pi (π) Day, a celebration that San Francisco’s Exploratorium invented back in 1988 that has become an international sensation. Taking place on March 14 every year, Pi Day in the Bay typically involves math-themed activities and presentations, a pi parade with a brass band that begins at 1:59 p.m. (the numbers that follow 3.14) and then literal pie – free slices of pie for everyone who’s paid museum admission.
In 2025, the Exploratoriuim is promising a “celestial twist” to the festivities, as the holiday occurs on the same day as a total lunar eclipse – the spookily named “Blood Moon,” which will appear as dark red in the sky. What’s being planned? Well, so far there are demonstrations of how female engineers and astronauts use pi in their space-exploration work. Aside from pie, there will also be Moon Pies to scarf up. And that’s probably enough pie for one day for people watching their own circumferences.
Details: Event takes place noon-5 p.m. March 14 at Pier 15 (Embarcadero at Green St,), San Francisco; $40 daytime tickets, exploratorium.edu/pi
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Classical picks: ‘Yes, No’; ‘Swan Lake’
The Bay Area’s music scene has something for every interest this week, as artists from around the world arrive with works new and old. Leading with a chamber opera by the always-provocative South African artist William Kentridge, events also include Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan leading an all-Tchaikovsky program, and chamber works performed by Germany’s Aris Quartet.
“The Great Yes, The Great No”: William Kentridge returns to Cal Performances with his latest stage work, a chamber opera set on a 1941 sea voyage from Marseille to Martinique. Merging surreal imagery with historical events, choral music, dance, video projections and poetry, the opera explores the political, literary, and artistic movements of the era.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $43-$140; calperformances.org.
All Tchaikovsky at the Symphony: Conductor Elim Chan returns to the San Francisco Symphony to conduct the orchestra in music from “Swan Lake,” which the composer himself called “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose.” Audiences can decide for themselves after this program, which also includes Tchaikovsky’s moving Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.”
Details: 2 p.m. today, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $49-$225; sfsymphony.org.
Aris Quartet: Germany’s acclaimed chamber foursome comes to an ideal setting, the beautiful Kohl Mansion, for a program including works by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Lukas Ligeti and Erwin Schulhoff. Ticketholders are encouraged to come early for a pre-concert talk by cellist Christopher Costanza of the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
Details: 7 p.m. Sunday; Kohl Mansion, Burlingame; $30-$62; musicatkohl.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Alamo showcases a film legend
Alamo Drafthouse New Mission is inviting movie-goers to take a deep dive in the fascinating world of David Lynch.
The San Francisco cinema salutes the equally visionary and iconic director — who died in January at the age of 78 — by showing several of his greatest works in March and April.
“He was a singular artist who peeled back layers of the collective unconscious in American pop culture,” organizers wrote about Lynch on the Alamo website. “We invite you to experience — on the big screen — Lynch’s unique ability to blend noir, horror, comedy, and existential dread, and the unforgettable cinematic experiences he created.”
Topping our must-see list is “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” the 1992 prequel to Lynch and Mark Frost’s first-tier cult TV hit “Twin Peaks.” The feature-length film actually drew horrible reviews upon its release, as well as flopped at the box office, but critical and popular consensus has changed over the years and “Fire Walk With Me” is now rightfully considered one of the director’s finest works.
“Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” shows at 9:10 p.m. March 14 and 6 p.m. March 19.
Other Lynch favorites set to hit the big screen include “Wild at Heart,” “Lost Highway,” “Mulholland Drive,” “Inland Empire,” “The Elephant Man” and “Dune” (1984) — with the latter still ranking as our favorite film adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel.
Details: For showtimes and ticket information, visit drafthouse.com/sf.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Celebrate Aztec New Year
The Mexica New Year, which signals the start of the Aztec calendar, officially arrives March 12. But you have three days to celebrate the event this weekend in San Jose, in what’s billed as the largest event of its kind in the country. That’s largely thanks to Calpulli Tonalehqueh, an Aztec dance and cultural preservation group founded in San Jose more than 30 years ago. The organization offers dance instruction and is available for demonstrations and such year-round, but its annual Mexica New Year celebration – now in its 27th year – is a three-day affair involving hundreds of dancers, artisans and more.
The event takes place 5 to 9 p.m. March 14, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 15-16 at Emma Prusch Park, 647 S. King Road, in San Jose. And at 6 a.m. March 15 there is a special Sunrise Ceremony meant for communal reflection. Admission to all events is free. Calpulli Tonalehqueh, which organizes the celebration, will perform along with troupes from a variety of locations, representing some 500 to 700 dancers in all. There will also be live music and drumming, a traditional Tianguiz (market) with some 80 Native craftsmen offering jewelry, art, clothes and cultural items from across North America, and a wide variety of Native food and drink offerings.
Details: For more information, go to www.aztecadancers.com.
Looking for love and laughs
Anyone who watches reality TV dating/love/hookup shows – whether they are truly emotionally invested or, conversely, tuning in with a healthy helping of snark – has to accept the very simple fact that the odds of two people meeting for the first time on a TV show and falling in love forever and ever are exceedingly remote, at best. Despite this fact, or perhaps because of it, dating/romance reality shows remain popular. Which means they are ripe for the kind of spoofing they get from “Nobody Loves You,” a musical created by East Bay natives Itamar Moses (a Tony Award-winner for “The Band’s Visit”) and Gaby Alter, and opening this week at American Conservatory Theater.
The fact that the show debuted off-Broadway in 2013 and remains ever-so relevant today tells you that Moses and Alter have latched onto a concept with legs. Who doesn’t either love love or hate the people who love love? You either are a fan of the Hallmark Channel, which serves up a daily smorgasbord of G-rated romance movies that all end exactly the same way, or pinpoint it as the nadir of human existence. It is upon this great divide that “Nobody Loves You” begins. Our protagonist, Jeff, hates romance reality shows with as much passion as his girlfriend adores them. When their relationship breaks apart as a result, Jeff enters a reality show to win his girlfriend back, and ruin the show. If you can’t figure out what happens next, you haven’t been watching enough Hallmark Channel.
Details: Through March 30 at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St.; $25-$130; www.act-sf.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
DTH returns: The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded by Arthur Mitchell, partly as a means to create a more accessible style and presence of the art of ballet. Fifty-six years later, the company is still carrying on that mission and delivering some pretty darned exhilarating performances in the process. Not only is its annual hometown run a popular attraction throughout New York City, but the troupe also brings its artistry to venues across the country. The 18-dancer troupe now led by Alex Garland returns to Walnut Creek this weekend, continuing a longstanding relationship with the Lesher Center for the Arts, with a program that will include a variety of works and styles – from classical ballet to contemporary, urban and postmodern. Reportedly, the company on this tour has been performing Garland’s world premiere work “The Cookout,” set to music by Jill Scott, the British Afro-funk band Cymande, and more. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday. Tickets and more information are available at www.lesherartscenter.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
A fine foursome from Europe: The Pavel Haas Quartet, an ensemble founded in 2002 which took the name of the Jewish composer from their country who died in Auschwitz in 1944, is a multi-award-winning group that is currently the artists-in-residence at the Prague Dvořák Festival. Called the finest Czech Quartet in the world, they were recently featured at Carnegie Hall playing in a festival of all Czech music. San Francisco Performances has them – violinists Veronika Jarůšková and Marek Zwiebel, violist Šimon Truszka and cellist Peter Jarůšek – booked for a recital Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Herbst Theatre. On their program is one work by a Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 11 in C Major, and another by a Russian, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat Major. Find tickets, $65-$85, at sfperformances.org or by calling 415-392-2545.
— Bay City News Foundation
Ireland in word and song
The fire in the pub hearth is blazing, and the Guinness foam in the tulip-shaped glass is just beginning to subside, when the crystalline strains of the Celtic harp waft through the smoky air and the storyteller begins his tale. Audiences may have to imagine the pub fire and the Guinness, but they’ll be treated to the finest of the musical and imaginative talents of Patrick Ball, the preeminent Celtic harp player and accomplished spoken word artist, when he launches into his act at 7 p.m. Friday night at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Pleasanton. Call it a musical and theatrical preview of St. Patrick’s day, if you will. Tickets, $5-$20, are available at the door at 1225 Hopyard Road, and refreshments will be served both at intermission and after the performance.
— Bay City News Foundation
