An art explosion: It’s that time of year again in Emeryville, a city that has officially declared October Art & Culture Month and is set to launch its 39th iteration of the Emeryville Art Exhibition with an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Public Market Emeryville, 5005 Shellmound St. From Oct. 4-26, more than 200 works by 140 artists who live or work in Emeryville will be on display for free at the Market from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Pieces in the juried show cover the arts spectrum — paintings, sculptures, woodworks and carvings, ceramics, textiles, photographs, digital artworks and some original music. If you happen to like what you see, great, it’s for sale. The exhibition space, donated for free by the local business Oxford Properties Group, is located at the south end of the Market, which has artisan food outlets, plenty of parking and a Saturday morning farmers’ market. For more information, check www.emeryarts.org.
Mexican-born jazz singer Lucia performs Oct. 2 in San Francisco in the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and Oct. 3 in the Stanford Live series. (Lucia via Bay City News) Mexican-born jazz singer Lucia performs Oct. 2 in San Francisco in the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and Oct. 3 in the Stanford Live series. (Lucia via Bay City News)
Freebie of the week: A funny thing happened during Veracruz-born vocalist Lucía Gutierrez Rebolloso’s path to becoming a renowned Mexican/son jarocho singer. She discovered jazz. Granted, there are some foundational similarities between the genres, but Lucia has said that she fell in love with improvisational possibilities in jazz, and with the vocal stylings of such stars as Jazzmeia Horn and Cécile McLorin Salvant. Her passion was well-founded. In 2022, she announced her arrival in the jazz world by winning the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition; she was the first Mexican artist to capture the prestigious event. She has since rebranded herself under the single-name moniker Luci released a self-named debut album and maintained an ambitious touring schedule. Jazz fans might remember her performance at last year’s San Jose Jazz Summer Fest. Now she’s doing another Northern California run, with performances at last weekend’s Monterey Jazz Festival and two performances this week, including a free appearance at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in San Francisco from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday (ybgfestival.org). She’s also performing 7 and 9 p.m. Friday at Stanford’s The Studio venue, as part of the Stanford Live series (43.20-$54; live.stanford.edu.)
Celebrating African American Art: After a successful debut last year, the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Nexus: SF project is again hosting its extraordinary Black Art Week, touching on dozens of exhibits and appearances highlighting Black artists and their work. Running through Sunday, Black Art Week offers scheduled visits to exhibits all across the Bay Area, from the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive to the Cantor Museum at Stanford University. Art lovers can take in New York–based abstract contemporary artist Alteronce Gumby works included at Stanford as part of the Anderson Collection; a new collection titled “The Art of Fashion,” featuring works by designer Brandin Vaughn (who designed Beyonce’s outfits for her Cowboy Carter and Renaissance tours) at the KARL arts complex in San Francisco; or the amazing African American quilts collection at BAMPFA. Many of the plentiful exhibits are free. Catch the entire lineup of events and exhibits at www.nexus-sfbay.com/schedule.
Did you hear the one about the well-heeled blood sucker? Shows marrying horror and comedy have a long, rich history, including classics, “Young Frankenstein,” “Ghostbusters,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Scary Movie” and, perhaps the most important ci nematic achievement in this category, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.” Of course, the genre extends to the stage world as well (“Rocky Horror” began as a stage musical). And now, the South Bay’s City Lights Theater Company has stepped into the ring with “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.” The 90-minute knee-slapper by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen has seen productions in London earlier this year and New York 2023-24, and is described as a mix of Bram Stoker, Mel Brooks and Monty Python, so you know the jokes will come fast and furious and will shamelessly employ any humorous trope available (and probably several that aren’t). As the creators have said, “It’s a show you can really sink your teeth into.” Featuring a cast of six directed by Caitlin Lawrence Papp, “Dracula” plays through Oct. 19 at City Lights Theater in downtown San Jose. Tickets are $40-$68; go to https://cltc.org.
Trombonist Timothy Higgins was commissioned by San Francisco Symphony to write a piece will receiving its world premiere this weekend. (timothyhigginsmusic.com)
Proudly horning in: The San Francisco Symphony puts its longtime principal trombonist Timothy Higgins squarely in the spotlight this weekend as it plays the world premiere of a piece they commissioned from him for full orchestra. “Market Street, 1920s” is described by the composer (who also had the orchestra give the world premiere of his Trombone Concerto, with him in the solo role, in 2021), as “an over-the-top, farcical, tongue-in-cheek argument over the direction of our culture.” So I think we might expect some blats and squawks along with the melodies. Guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno, music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Teatro Real, the leading opera house in Spain, leads the three performances in Davies Hall in a program that also includes Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, with Spanish pianist Javier Perianes as soloist. The program winds up with Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s fate-themed Symphony No. 5. The performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Find tickets, $30-$185, at sfsymphony.org.
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