By Lina Broydo
Fabulous Holidays at the Fairmont San Francisco
Now through January 1, 2024
The Fairmont’s legendary winter wonderland featuring the extremely popular Gingerbread House is ready to welcome the celebrants of this year’s holiday season.
For over a century Fairmont San Francisco has enchanted guests and its visitors with its joyful holiday festivities, dining and exuberant seasonal ambience.
With See’s Candies as its partner your visit will definitely be very sweet as the hotel’s culinary team under the masterful baton of the Executive Chef Eric Marting, decorated and adorned the grand lobby’s giant, bigger than in previous years, Gingerbread House with colorful candies and thousands of of home-baked gingerbread bricks and more than a ton of royal icing.
Creating a magical holiday experience is Fairmont’s extraordinary talent and the well established tradition.
Happy Holidays!
Information
For additional information on Fairmont San Francisco’s exciting holiday offerings of the Holiday Tea (my favorite!), Gingerbread Private Dining; Cirque Bar; Laurel Court Christmas Eve Dinner Buffet and Christmas Day Buffet, Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar New Year’s Luau on Dec. 31, or the Overnight Stay in one of their luxurious rooms or suites, visit: https://www.fairmont-san-francisco.com/explore/holidays
Photos courtesy of the Fairmont SF
San José Chamber Orchestra’s “New Year’s Eve Celebration”
December 31, 2023 at 3 p.m.
San José Chamber Orchestra (SJCO) continues its 33rd concert season with “CELEBRATION” featuring conductor extraordinaire Barbara Day Turner and virtuoso soloists Jon Nakamatsu (piano) and Alec Manasse (clarinet). Music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Johann Strauss II, Vivian Fung, Michael Touchi and Henry Mollicone will bid farewell to 2023 and greet the New Year. Reception following the concert. The San José Chamber Orchestra, a professional string-based ensemble of 19+ players, presents a series of 7–9 programs per season.
Many performances feature one or more commissions or world premieres by award winning composers with critically acclaimed guest artists as featured soloists. San José Chamber Orchestra is the recipient of five ASCAP/League of American Orchestras Adventurous Programming Awards, has produced seven CDs of American music and commissioned and/or premiered over 200 new works in 32 seasons.
The San José Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1991 out of the desire of local musicians (at the time playing with Opera San José) for an opportunity to play chamber orchestra repertoire and explore music written by living composers. Its formation was sparked by a challenge in the METRO newspaper from the late drummer Sammy Cohen to music director Barbara Day Turner, announcing that an orchestra was forming (unbeknownst to her) and privately saying to stop being lazy and get started.
The San José Chamber Music Society graciously sponsored the first concert and a board was formed shortly thereafter.
Happy New Year!
Information
408-295-4416; sjco.org
Single tix $15 to $75; Adults: $65/$75; Seniors: $55/$65; Students: $15/$25
St Francis Episcopal Church
1205 Pine Avenue in San José
Photos of Music Director Barbara Day Turner by Thomas Hassing. Photo of pianist Jon Nakamatsu and clarinetist Jon Manasse courtesy of the artists
Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style
January 20 through August 11, 2023
Explore San Francisco through fashions. Featuring one of the most iconic collections of 20th- and 21st-century women’s clothing in the United States, this exhibition includes 100 collection highlights, along with local loans of high fashion and haute couture.
The first major presentation of our costume collection in over 35 years, it showcases designs from French couturiers, Japanese avant-garde designers, and other pillars of the fashion industry, including Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, Christopher John Rogers, Comme des Garçons, and Rodarte.
The designs on display, many never shown before, reflect San Francisco’s long-standing tradition of self-expression through fashion.
Information
415-750-3600; famsf.org
De Young Museum at Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in San Francisco
Photo courtesy of de Young Museum
A Fabulous Evening with Sting and the San Francisco Symphony
February 14 & 15, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
Get ready for the most romantic Valentine’s Day celebration with iconic Sting performing live with the SF Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
The 17-time Grammy Award winning artist will perform his most celebrated songs reimagined for orchestra, accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony with conductor Edwin Outwater. Selections will include fan favorites such as “Englishman in New York,” “Fragile,” and “Every Breath You Take,” among others. Composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author, and activist Sting was born in Newcastle, England before moving to London in 1977 to form The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.
The band released five studio albums, earned six Grammy Awards® and two BRIT Awards, and was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. One of the world’s most distinctive solo artists, Sting has received an additional 11 Grammy Awards®, two BRIT Awards, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Oscar nominations, a Tony nomination, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award, and MusiCares 2004 Person of the Year. In 2003, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his myriad contributions to music. Also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he has received the Kennedy Center Honors, The American Music Award of Merit, and The Polar Music Prize. Sting has been awarded honorary Doctorates of Music by the University of Northumbria (1992), Berklee College of Music (1994), University of Newcastle upon Tyne (2006), and Brown University at its 250th Commencement ceremony (2018).
Throughout his illustrious career, Sting has sold 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist.
Get your tickets now!!!!
Information
Tickets start at $75;
Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco
Photo courtesy of SF Symphony
