From a world-class jazz bassist to a brand new space opera, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend.
Here is a partial rundown.
Bass legend lands in Bay Area
Christian McBride keeps right on crafting what is no doubt one of the greatest careers for any bassist in jazz music history.
Having already won eight Grammy Awards — and performed with such illustrious figures as Paul McCartney, McCoy Tyner, James Brown, Sting, Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Kathleen Battle and James Brown — McBride is hardly resting on his laurels, but rather forging ahead to create wonderful new music with a variety of collaborators.
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Jazz fans can hear what we mean by checking out the bassist’s current quintet — Ursa Major — on Friday and Saturday at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco and Sunday at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz.
Christian McBride’s Ursa Major features Oakland-born drummer Savannah Harris (who has spent much time on the road with Cécile McLorin Salvant), tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover (who has performed with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), pianist Mike King (who has toured with Dee Dee Bridgewater) and guitarist Ely Perlman (who is studying at Berklee College of Music).
Details: SFJAZZ showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday; tickets start at $35; sfjazzcenter.com; Kuumbwa Jazz Center times are 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday; tickets start at $23.50; kuumbwajazz.org.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Opera blasts off in S.F.
Are you into music that’s REALLY out there, as in, in space? Oakland is holding a performance of a science-fiction opera that deals with love, loss and galactic colonization — and naturally, it’s taking place inside a planetarium.
“Xixoxa’s Spaceship: A Space Opera” is premiering on March 22 at the Chabot Space and Science Center’s full-dome and state-of-the-art planetarium. Composed by Victoria Young, and produced by Opera on Tap, the two-act story follows a young university student who leaves Earth after the death of her father on a doomed mission to Nebula X-3 – a “mysterious and mostly unknown region in distant space rumored to be the physical manifestation of human afterlife.” Along the way she meets Captain Samara, a Proxima Centauri spaceship pilot who offers solace, and becomes stranded in space before ultimately finding a possible road to redemption.
The opera features live singers and music, an electroacoustic score with surround-sound enhancement, and is accompanied by the planetarium’s wow-worthy HD images of space. If you’re not sold by all that — need we mention there’s an intergalactic cantina and space pirates?
Details: Doors open at 7 p.m., show runs 7:30-9:30 p.m. on March 21; 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland; $25 for adults (18-plus); chabotspace.org
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Cinequest rolls on
Silicon Valley’s massive Cinequest film festival wraps up its in-theater experience this weekend, with several screenings and presentation of the Maverick Spirit Award to Gillian Armstrong.
Here are three events not to miss.
“Gunman”: Argentine director Cris Tapia Marchiori knows how to jangle all of your nerves with his one-shot wonder inspired by a true story. A hitman in Buenos Aires gets takes on an assignment for an old boss in what seems like an easy-peasy job that spins way out of sweaty control (9:30 p.m. Friday at California Theatre; 2 p.m. March 23 at 3Below Theaters).
“The Summer Book”: Any film featuring Glenn Close in a starring role is worth seeing, including Charlie McDowell’s enriching drama. It’s based on Tove Jansson’s poignant novel about the relationship between a 9-year-girl and her ill grandmother (7:15 p.m. today at California Theatre).
“The Salt Path”: Armstrong gives another multi-layered performance opposite “The White Lotus Season 3” star Jason Isaacs in a moving adaptation of Raynor Winn’s memoir. It’s gorgeous to behold as it follows a suddenly unhoused couple that takes a trek for 630 miles along the southwest English coastline. Armstrong will receive her Maverick Spirit Award after the 5:45 p.m. screening on March 22 at the California Theatre.
Details: Most screenings $8-14; special events and screenings, $15-$30; cinequest.org
— Randy Myers, Correspondent
Classical picks: Cal Symph, McGegan returns
The Bay Area’s classical music scene has the best kind of busy weekend coming up, including performances of a new work at the California Symphony, a Bach cantata conducted by Nicholas McGegan, and the return of the sublime pianist and Mozart specialist Mitsuko Uchida.
Haddad’s premiere: Composer Saad Haddad, the California Symphony’s composer-in-residence, is known for his artful blend of Western music and Middle Eastern traditions; his works have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the JACK Quartet and many others. Now he’s unveiling a new work in Walnut Creek. Titled “Fantasia for Strings,” the work will be performed by California Symphony under music director Donato Cabrera; the program that also includes Grażyna Bacewicz’s Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. March 22, 4 p.m. March 23; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $25-$50; californiasymphony.org.
Bach in Berkeley: Early music specialist Nicholas McGegan returns to Berkeley this week to lead the Cantata Collective for a special event commemorating Bach’s 340th birthday; he’ll lead the orchestra and chorus, members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and star singers including Thomas Cooley and Sherezade Panthaki in the composer’s indelible “St. Matthew Passion.”
Details: 7 p.m. March 21; First Congregational Church, Berkeley; $33-$101; cityboxoffice.com.
Uchida plays Mozart: The brilliant pianist Mitsuko Uchida continues her multi-year project traversing Mozart concertos this weekend at Cal Performances; appearing with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, she’ll bring her unique artistry to the composer’s Concertos in B-flat major, K456, and C major, K467.
Details: 3 p.m. March 23; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $90-$185; calperformances.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
‘Natural’ music at Cantor
When Bay Area musician and composer Cheryl E. Leonard performs, she’s more likely to be tapping on bones, crab shells or driftwood than tickling the keys on a piano. Leonard’s specialty is creating and playing compositions on objects one can find in the natural world. She also specializes in “found sounds” – recordings taken from natural landscapes and phenomena. It’s surprising how “musical” such arrangements can be, even if they are a pretty far cry from the latest Olivia Rodrigo single.
You can hear for yourself when Leonard performs a free concert at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University at 6:30 p.m. today. The event is part of the Forms and Frequencies concert series at the Cantor that is intended to pair performances with exhibits at the museum. In this case, the related exhibit is “Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene,” a collection of images chronicling human kind’s impact on the natural world and its climate and environs. Anthropocene is defined as the age in which humans’ impact on the Earth is profound enough to qualify as its own geological period. The exhibit runs through Aug. 3.
Details: Hours at the Cantor are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Admission to exhibit and concert are free; museum.stanford.edu.
‘Cher’ is back in Bay Area
If Cher fans could turn back time, some might opt to spin the dial to June 2024, when the touring musical “The Cher Show” stopped in San Francisco for an all-too-brief run. Except they don’t have to. Cher, or at least the hit-drenched musical that bears her name, has come back to us. Once again, however, you don’t have a ton of time to catch the show, which is playing at the Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose through Sunday. The two Bay Area runs are maybe the only abbreviated things about the show, which crams 35 hits into its 2-hour, 40-minute run time and features not one but three Chers. One represents the 1950s and ‘60s (nicknamed “Babe” and played by Ella Perez), one is for the ‘70s (“Lady,” Catherine Ariale), and one for the ‘80s and ‘90s (“Star,” Morgan Scott).
That’s a lot of Cher, and it’s accentuated by the fact that even though there is a chronological arc to the show, all three actors occasionally appear on stage together to discuss, even argue about, aspects of her life. It’s kind of a brilliant idea and reinforces the endearing fact that while Cher is blessed with a boatload of talent – and darn well knows it – she is not one to take herself too seriously. “The Cher Show” got its Broadway premiere in 2018 and won two Tony Awards, including a best actress nod for Stephanie J. Block and a best costume trophy for Bob Mackie, whose eye-popping designs, as organizers jokingly put it, “caused a sequin shortage in New York City.”
Details: Performances are nightly through March 21; and 2 and 7:30 p.m. march 22 and 1 and 6:30 p.m. march 23; $47-$120 (subject to change); broadwaysanjose.com.
In with the New (Ballet)
San Jose’s New Ballet, founded in 2016 by Bay Area dancer, choreographer and teacher Dalia Rawson, has proved over its fairly short history to be a versatile company indeed. Not only does it routinely tackle the classics – its annual San Jose-set take on “The Nutcracker” is a highlight of the holiday season, and it will present “Swan Lake” in May – but it delights in performing new works as well. That’s what the Fast Forward program, which will be brought to the Hammer Theatre Center in San Jose this weekend, is all about. “It’s a time to engage new choreographers who are interested in pushing the boundaries,” says Rawson of the event. This year’s Fast Forward features seven world premieres. Of particular interest is “DDDD,” a work by Julio Hong, set to music by Latin jazz great Arturo Sandoval. The piece is said to be an emotional tribute to the choreographer’s native Cuba, and rooted in classical ballet with Latin flourishes added to the mix. Rawson is contributing a new piece to the program as well; it’s set to a contemporary solo cello work titled “Lamentations,” with live accompaniment by New Ballet music conductor Thomas Shoebotham. Simply put, you can always expect a surprise or two during Fast Forward, which is back for its eighth year.
Details: Performances are 7 p.m. March 21 and 2 p.m. March 22 at the Hammer Theatre; $17-$50, $136 for premium seats; newballet.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
Israel Philharmonic returns to Bay Area
Davies Hall in San Francisco plays host Sunday night to the Israel Philharmonic, the 88-year-old orchestra based in Tel Aviv that is the pride of its country and is now on a five-city tour of the United States. Led by its young music director Lahav Shani, a conducting protege of Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra will include three works that were specifically composed for the Jewish community. The major piece in the lineup is Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, but the audience will also be hearing contemporary Israeli composer Tvzi Avni’s “Prayer,” a mournful, mellifluous work for strings written in honor of his father, who was killed in 1938 during the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire. Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei,” though written by a Protestant, is based on the most powerful Yom Kippur prayer, with its solo cello deployed in imitation of the synagogue cantor. The Israel Philharmonic’s own principal cellist, Haran Meltzer, will be the featured soloist. The program also includes Leonard Bernstein’s “Halil,” which is Hebrew for flute, and the orchestra’s principal flute player, Guy Eshed, who has played it many times since its 1981 premiere, will fill the honors.
Details: Concert time is 7:30 p.m.; $99-$250; sfsymphony.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
