Events Around the Bay

Symphony San Jose Presents Brahms, Finzi & Fandango

Saturday, May 6 at 8:00pm and Sunday, May 7 at 2:30pm, 2023

There is always something unique and innovative in the heart of Silicon Valley as the virtuoso violinist Anne Akiko Meyers performs a new composition commissioned and composed by the preeminent Mexican composer Arturo Marquez. Ms. Meyers’ request for a concerto based on Mariachi traditions came to fruition as it reflects Marquez father’s heritage.

And so the fiery, soulful Fandango was born. And I am eagerly awaiting to hear it! Anne Akiko Meyers, is one of the most in-demand violinists in the world.

Regularly performing as guest soloist with the world’s top orchestras, she presents ground-breaking recitals and is a best-selling recording artist with 36 albums. Meyers is known for her passionate performances, purity of sound, deeply poetic interpretations, innovative programming and commitment to commissioning significant new works from living composers.

Also on the program are Gerald Finzi’s “Prelude” for String Orchestra in F minor, and Johannes Brahms magical Symphony No. 4 – the selected repertoire to showcase the musical brilliance of the Symphony San Jose under the masterful baton of Tatsuya Shimono, who is back by popular demand of the Bay Area’s appreciative audience to conduct and perform at the iconic California Theater.

Born in Kagoshima in 1969, Tatsuya Shimono cemented his international reputation as a conductor by winning First Prize at the 47th Besançon International Competition in 2001.

Since then he has guest conducted major orchestras in Japan and abroad.

Information

Ticket prices: $55 – $115

408-286-2600 ext. 1

symphonysanjose.org

California Theatre

345 South First Street in San Jose

Courtesy of Symphony San Jose

Asian Art Museum Goes “Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art”

On view through July 10, 2023

“Beyond Bollywood” – a fascinating new exhibit at the Asian Art Museum, one of my favorite museums in the Bay Area, may inspire you to dance at the stunning setting of this magnificent museum. Take a break while exploring 2000 Years of Dance in Art from Temples to Royal Courts to Modern Movie Classics currently in the museum’s display.

Dance is everywhere! Experience the ecstasy, the joy, and the power of millennia of movement while pirouetting among more than 120 artworks from five countries borrowed from 25 of the finest museums and private collections.

Beyond Bollywood immerses museum goers in a multimedia showcase of dance, bringing a diverse array of historic and contemporary sculpture, painting, textiles, jewelry, photographs, and more to vivid, passionate life. Visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the enduring power of dance to inspire artists and audiences alike.

“The world loves Bollywood films for their famously elaborate choreography, and we wanted our community to be able to appreciate the deep historical, spiritual —and even economic and political — roots of dance across South and Southeast Asia, as well as parts of the Himalayas,” says Jay Xu, the Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum.

And you will love this exhibit as well!

For Beyond Bollywood, also includes scheduled live performances in the main pavilion itself, as well as numerous dance performances and programs for the duration of the exhibition.

Information:

Asianart.com
Asian Art Museum in San Francisco

Photos courtesy of Asian Art Museum

San Francisco Decorator Showcase Transforms Beautiful Sea Cliff Manor

April 29 – May 29, 2023

The San Francisco Decorator Showcase is widely considered to be the West Coast’s premier design show house event, renowned for featuring the work of the region’s top interior and landscape designers.

With the growing number of people working from home, the surroundings of the home’s environment and the productive ambience are more important and more practical now than ever.

The magnificent 18^th-Century-style Mediterranean Spanish house in question was built in 1927 by renowned architects Hyman and Appleton and is in San Francisco’s beautiful Sea Cliff neighborhood.

The nearly 6,100 square-foot home at 625 El Camino Del Mar is adorned with Spanish castle classic features with impressive views of the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, and Marin Headlands.

Visitors will once again be able to immerse themselves in three levels featuring 28 design spaces, including five bedrooms, five full baths, one half bath, a game room, a movie room (my dream!), an elevator, a laundry room, and an assortment of rooms with an emphasis on entertaining and the newly created need for doing business at home.

The rooms with a view will certainly create a positive influence on the successful business. Can’t wait the see the spectacular San Francisco Decorator Showcase magical transformation by the talented decorators.

All the funds raised through the Decorator Showcase go directly to the San Francisco University High School Financial Aid Program. Since its inception, the Decorator Showcase has raised over $17 million for the San Francisco University High School Financial Aid Program.

This event allows hundreds of deserving Bay Area students access to a world-class, college preparatory education.

Information

$45 for general admission; $40 for seniors (60 and over)

Tickets at decoratorsshowcase.org or by calling (415) 447-5830

Photo courtesy of Decorated Showcase

Alasdair Fraser Leads the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers in a Joyous Celebration

May 19 at 8:00 pm in Berkeley; May 20 at 7pm in Palo Alto; May 21 at 3pm in Carmel

More than one hundred Scottish Fiddlers are fine tunning their fiddles for a high-energy celebration concerts throughout the Bay Area. Under the outstanding leadership of fiddle great Alasdair Fraser, the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers will present three concerts in Berkeley, Palo Alto and Carmel while sharing their joyous celebration of traditional music from Scotland and beyond.

Their repertoire over the years has expanded to include the music of Brittany, Galicia, Scandinavia and America, while remaining firmly anchored in the Scottish fiddle forms of dance, pipe tunes, and songs.

The performers on stage give full orchestral life to deceptively simple, irresistibly melodic and rhythmic dance tunes and marches. The repertoire features age-old works and newly written ones, all rooted in the traditions not only of Scotland but also Cape Breton, France, Spain and Scandinavia.

Alasdair Fraser is one of the greatest exemplars of the Scottish fiddle music tradition, whose warmly expressive playing, mastery of his instrument and deep understanding of the genre has inspired generations of musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Clackmannan in 1955, Alasdair began taking classical violin lessons at the age of eight, enduring much teasing from schoolmates at a time when carrying a fiddle case around was considered far from cool.

Driven by the love of the instrument and the tunes he heard at home, he persevered, and the musical journey was under way. In his teens Alasdair played with dance bands and began gathering the compositions of great fiddling forebears including Niel and Nathaniel Gow, William Marshall and James Scott Skinner. He went on to win – twice – the Scottish National Fiddle Championship, and continued playing even as his studies led to work as a petrophysicist with British Petroleum, which took him to California in 1981.

Get your traditional checkered Scottish kilt and join the festivities of a fun and mighty musical experience that will have the audiences dancing in their seats and in the aisles.

With a sip of Scotch you may get inspired to learn how to play the fiddle and dance.