‘Bow and the Brush’: Music on the Hill, a nonprofit San Francisco chamber music series dedicated to presenting high quality concerts at affordable prices, is hosting the Berkelium String Quartet in a concert called “The Bow and the Brush,” including new pieces inspired by paintings, with the images projected. First violinist Dan Flanagan, the brainchild behind the ensemble, wrote two compositions on the program: “Water Lilies,” after the painting by Claude Monet; and “Tamayo,” after a painting by Rufino Tamay. Hadyn’s String Quartet, Opus 33, “The Joke,” and Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 127, the first of his “late quartets” (and called “incomprehensible” at its premiere in 1825) round out the lineup. Joining Flanagan are Karen Shinozaki Sor on violin, Jacob Hansen-Joseph on viola and Michael Graham on cello, musicians whose resumes include performances with New Century Chamber Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Oakland Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet, and many more. Established in 2024, the group is named after the synthetic chemical element Bk, discovered in and named after the city of Berkeley in 1949. Its motto is “Virtuosity in the interest of music.” The Music on the Hill performance is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 101 Gold Mine Drive in San Francisco. Tickets are $25 on eventbrite. Visit MusicOnTheHill.org for more information
Starry premiere: Opera Parallèle, San Francisco’s innovating champion of new work, opens its 2025-26 season this weekend with an inspirational show celebrating Black women scientists. The world premiere “Hello, Star” by composer Carla Lucero and librettist Jarrod Lee is based on Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic’s children’s book of the same name. The piece, a co-commission of Opera Parallèle and The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, is about a young girl named Celeste, who, upon learning that a bright light in the sky is a dying star, pledges to keep it company. The experience fosters her lifelong interest in astronomy. Director L. Peter Callender says, “What drives my vision for ‘Hello, Star’ is the chance to show young audiences that scientific curiosity and artistic expression spring from the same source—pure wonder.” The opera features Aniyjah Garrett as Young Celeste, Christabel Nunoo as Adult Celeste, Aisha Campbell as Mother/Trainer, and Bradley Kynard as Big Star. Performances of the family-friendly 50-minute work, which is sung in English, are at 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Creativity Theater, Children’s Creativity Museum at Yerba Buena Gardens, 221 Fourth St., San Francisco. Tickets are $15-$60; a pre-show talk is slated for 1 p.m. both days. Visit https://operaparallele.org/.
Freebie of the week: It seems the Bay Area has always been a place that celebrates storytellers. There’s no shortage of opportunities to embrace artists who transport audiences to different places and times. And, to state the obvious, it’s needed now more than ever. For example, there’s ZYZZYVA, the San Francisco-based literary journal marking its 40th anniversary this year. Named for what’s said to be the last word in a standard dictionary (it refers to a kind of insect and is pronounced ZEE-Zee-Va), the journal publishes three editions a year offering a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction on subjects affecting the Bay Area and the country. Many of the editions are themed; it’s a a guarantee that each publication offers something surprising, engaging or entrancing. On Thursday night, ZYZZYVA is celebrating its birthday with a free bash; everyone’s invited. Literary guest stars include musician and author Daniel Handler (yes, the Lemony Snicket guy), award-winning novelist and essayist Lauren Markham and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, whose “The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir” was a finalist for the National Book Award. The event runs 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at 7Social, 65 Post St., San Francisco (next door to the Mechanics Institute. The event is free; RSVPs are recommended; go to www.milibrary.org/events/24900. For more information about ZYZZYVA, go to www.zyzzyva.org.
Early taste of muertos: Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday in which people remember and pay respects to family members who have passed on, officially takes place Nov. 1-2, and many Bay Area celebrations and performances will be happening then. But to get a jump on the revered holiday, it’s worth a visit to Zellerbach Hall on the University of California, Berkeley campus on Saturday evening, where Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-musician Lila Downs, considered one of the finest Mexican traditional singers on the planet, appears. Her voice is a wonder—a powerful and evocative reflection on the culture and history of the country. She performs in a variety of Mexican dialects, with some English-sung works mixed in, and her setlists are a combination of traditional standards and her own compositions. Always a popular draw in the Bay Area, Downs will be backed by an all-star band in the concert, presented by Cal Performances. The music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35-$125 at calperformances.org.
Appalachian tales: Word for Word, the wonderful stage troupe that presents dramatizations of literary works (and true to its moniker, productions are offered exactly as written), is performing its latest show through next weekend at Z Below performance space in San Francisco. It features stories by Ron Rash, an author deeply associated with the people, communities and issues of Appalachia. He touches on themes such as displacement and change and the loss of cultural identity. The acclaimed author is known for the novels “Serena” and “The Cove” (both have been adapted for the big screen) as well as his rich collection of poems and short stories that have won numerous literary awards. Word for Word is focusing on three stories: “The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth,” a comedic look at marriage and religion; “Sad Man in the Sky,” about a man seeking to get helicopter flyover of a particular neighborhood; and “Hard Times,” a look at Appalachian lives during the Depression. “Hard Times: Appalachian Stories by Ron Rash” is onstage at Z Below, 450 Florida St., San Francisco, through Nov. 2. Tickets are $45-$70; go to www.zspace.org.
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