Freebie of the week: The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra is presenting three free concerts this week, each highlighted by a composition born out of love and friendship. At center is Grammy-winning Bay Area composer-violinist Evan Price, who was approached by all-world mandolinists (and partners in music and life) Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg to write a piece for them. As Price puts it, the composition had to reflect the full scope of their relationship, from the obvious affection they show each other on and off the stage, to the complementary approach they take to their performances. “What makes their performances so engaging is that we have the pleasure of watching two masters of the same instrument,” Price says, “albeit from seemingly disparate cultures and musical traditions, inspiring and delighting in each other.” The result was titled “A Game of Cat and Mike,” which got its world premiere in San Jose last year. It will be performed again, by the SFCO – with Marshall and Lichtenberg, of course – at 7:30 p.m. Friday at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’Farrell St., San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto; and 3 p.m. Sunday at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Also on the program is “Strum for String Orchestra” by Jessie Montgomery, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Op. 48. There is no admission, but seats may be reserved at www.thesfco.org.
Fable of kindness: For 15 years, San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle has been known for presenting new and distinctive contemporary works, and this weekend’s world premiere of “The Pigeon Keeper” is no exception. Billed as “a modern fable of kindness in a fractured world,” the 75-minute magical realist opera composed by David Hanlon with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann tells the story of young girl and her fisherman father who endeavor to find a home for a refugee boy they encounter adrift at sea. On their journey, they meet the Pigeon Keeper, a mysterious outcast who ultimately teaches them about love and compassion and the goodness of strangers. The cast features soprano Angela Yam, tenor Bernard Holcomb and baritone Craig Irvin as well as members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus. The opera, co-commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera’s Opera for All Voices Initiative, Opera Omaha and Opera on the Avalon, is onstage at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Cowell Theater at San Francisco’s Fort Mason. Tickets are $46.45 to $172.83 at https://operaparallele.org/thepigeonkeeper/.
Dynamic duo: Faye Carol, better known as “The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol,” has been wowing music fans in the Bay Area since she moved from Mississippi to Pittsburg in the 1960s and began belting blues numbers in local nightclubs. Her mastery of jazz and blues remains as impressive as ever, and her performance schedule has hardly slowed a beat. This week, Carol co-stars in a series that will thrill jazz fans. She’ll be performing with the revered jazz/rock/fusion drummer Dennis Chambers, who has turned in memorable studio and live sessions with artists ranging from Santana to John Scofield to Maceo Parker and Stanley Clarke. The pairing of Carol and Chambers was last seen during a memorable concert series titled “Give the Drummer Some” that unfolded at SFJAZZ Center during the 2022-23 season. On Thursday and Friday, Carol and Chambers will perform with pianist Joe Warner and bassist Essiet Essiet. Show times are 7 and 8:30 p.m. each night. Tickets are $25. Go to www.sfjazz.org.
Music with a mission: Tickets are going fast for a fantastic fundraising concert that musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, joining forces with some of their counterparts in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, are mounting this weekend to bring much-needed relief to victims of the devastating fires in the Los Angeles area. They have enlisted the aid of both Edwin Outwater, former resident conductor of SFS and current music director of the Conservatory’s orchestra, and one of San Francisco’s favorite sons, pianist Garrick Ohlsson. Under Outwater’s baton, Ohlsson will be the featured soloist for the ultra-popular Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Antonin Dvorak’s great Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” is also on the program, which will open with Aaron Copland’s “The Promise of Living,” a hymn from his opera “The Tender Land,” with vocals from the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Davies Hall. Tickets, $50-$100, are available at (415) 864-6000 or sfsymphony.org. Net proceeds from all ticket sales will be evenly split between two Los Angeles organizations, the Entertainment Community Fun and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles.
A sneak peek: Composer Héctor Armienta’s “Zorro,” an opera based on the adventures of the swashbuckling masked man, is not set to make its Northern California premiere until mid-April, but the presenting organization, Opera San José, will bring its star, Chilean-born tenor Xavier Prado, and multiple others from the cast to a special preview at the historic Filoli estate for performances March 11-13. The previews will take place in the newly restored ballroom at Filoli, 86 Cañada Road in Woodside. Other artists who will be singing include Maria Brea, Deborah Martinez Rosengaus, Courtney Miller, Jesús Vicente Murillo, Eugene Brancoveanu (March 11 and March 13) and Michael Jesse Kuo (March 12). Performance time is 7:30 p.m. on all three dates. Tickets, $75-$105, are available at filoli.org. The opera will make its run from April19-May 4 in San Jose’s California Theater.
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