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Mondavi Center Artist-in-Residence Lara Downes has scheduled a rare Davis benefit concert at The Episcopal Church of Saint Martin on Sunday, June 7th at 4 PM.

The concert, which will benefit the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network, Davis Community Meals, and Davis School Arts Foundation, will see Downes performing Beethoven's Piano sonata No. 8 in C minor, op. 13, "Pathetique", Chopin's "Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22", Barber's; "Excursions", and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".

When: 4 p.m. June 7
Where: The Episcopal Church of Saint Martin, 640 Hawthorne Lane, Davis
Cost: Suggested donation: $10
Information: (530) 756-0444 or www.churchofstmartin.org/?p=834

Good news for opera fans - the San Francisco Opera will soon make its second appearance at Mondavi.

No, it won't be a live performance, but it will be the next best thing- an HD broadcast.

The June 25 screening of the San Francisco Opera's production of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at Mondavi Center signals an agreement between the UC Davis presenter and the San Francisco Opera that will likely lead to more operas being shown at Jackson Hall.

The showing is part of the SF Opera's new Grand Opera Cinema Series. San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley told The Bee recently that the series is part of the company's effort to increase the presence of the opera company in Northern California.

And you have to believe that this is a strategic move by the SF Opera to make inroads as the Metropolitan Opera has locally, with its steady diet of live HD simulcasts of operas to five area cinemas. Those simulcasts have been extremely popular.

This not the first time that the company has shown its operas on the big screen at Mondavi. In 2007, the company gave its first-ever HD simulcast at Mondavi with a screening of its production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni".

That simulcast was offered as a free screening. It became the quickest sell-out in Mondavi's history.

"Madama Butterfly" tells the tale of love fraught with the difference of East-West culture clashing in 19th-century Japan. The highly regarded soprano Patricia Racette performs as Cio-Cio-San, the geisha tragically torn between two worlds. Donald Runnicles conducts.

When: 7 p.m. June 25
Where: Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis
Cost: $15 general; $7.50 students and children
Information: (530) 754-2787 or www. MondaviArts.org

A new era begins at the adventurous presenter Cal Performances at UC Berkeley with the announcement that Matías Tarnopolsky will replace longtime director Robert Cole.

Tarnopolsky, 39, comes to the position from his current post of vice-president of artistic planning at the New York Philharmonic,a job he has held since 2006. Before that Tarnopolsky was senior director of artistic planning at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

He replaces Cole, 78, who wraps up his 23rd year as director in August. It will be a tough act to follow. Over his decades-long tenure Cole established Cal Performances as a cutting-edge presenter of arts programming in Northern California.

"I was immediately struck by the vibrancy of the cultural environment at
Berkeley and in the quality and variety of the offerings at Cal Performances," said Tarnopolsky about Cal Performances, in a written statement. "This is a rare phenomenon in the world of the performing arts, and it's what makes Cal Performances a special place."

Tarnopolsky will oversee the artistic vision and executive leadership of Cal Performances, whose focus is ecumenical and ranges from chamber music, to modern dance to a speaker series. The presenter offers roughly 60 to 75 different events each season.

Those performances are given mostly at its home at UC Berkeley's 2,000-seat Zellerbach Hall, as well as the Zellerbach Playhouse, Hertz Hall, Wheeler Auditorium, the Hearst Greek Theatre and Berkeley's First Congregational Church.

The Fleetwood Mac show scheduled for 8 tonight at Arco Arena has been postponed due to an undisclosed illness in the band, said Live Nation, the concert promoter.

A new date has yet to be announced for the postponed show, but will be announced soon.

Patrons holding tickets for tonight's show will be able to use the tickets at the newly rescheduled date.

More information can be found at the Live Nation website: www.livenation.com/help

Before President Obama's announced that Broadway impresario Rocco Landesman, 61, would be his pick to head the National Endowment of the Arts, it was a safe to say that just about everyone had forgotten about the NEA.

But those days may be over.

And that's because Obama's selection is not your run-of-the-mill pick, as was widely reported in the press after the announcement was made Tuesday.

The result? In one fell swoop the NEA is in the public spotlight again.

And perhaps, so will the plight of the arts in a tough economy.

Obama's choice of Landesman is an against-the-grain move. Landesman has a reputation as an outspoken individual in the commercial theatrical world. He is president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns five Broadway houses. His track record is a solid one and includes presenting such productions as "Angels in America" and "The Producers."

Landesman, whose candidacy must be approved by Congress, would oversee a budget that Obama requested at $161 million for fiscal 2010 - a $16 million increase from its allocation in the 2009 budget.

Landesman, if approved, would replace outgoing director Dana Gioia, who served six years at the NEA. During his tenure, the NEA created little stir and was mostly out of the public eye, as was the plight of arts funding.

This contrasted with the many controversies that plagued the agency over arts funding in the 1980s and 1990s.

This week Metropolitan Opera head Peter Gelb told the New York Times about Landesman that "the relationship between the government and the arts needs to be energized."

That may be the understatement of the year.

Questions will surely arise about Landesman. Some may bristle at the notion that a for- profit entrepreneuer will head an agency that oversees funds for nonprofit arts organizations.

But in the final accounting, any such questions will pale in comparison to the fact that people are talking about the NEA at all.

It only seems logical that the San Francisco Symphony boast the honor of being the first major orchestra to launch its own social networking site.

After all, it does claim geographic ownership to Silicon Valley.

At community.sfsymphony.org SFS fans will encounter a site that is open to the public that allows uploading of photos and videos, and the posting of blog entries.

Think of it as Facebook for the Tilson Thomas crowd!

An interesting feature of the site is its "Ask A Musician", component that offers SFS musicians responding to questions posted by site members. The latest installment has SFS concertmaster Alexander Barantschik answering questions via video.

Putting a face to a name is a very good idea for any orchestra, and on "Ask A Musician" it's as good an introduction as you're going to get to the SFS.

The site, which is built on the Ning platform, also offers backstage blog posts from musicians, staff and conductors, as well as exclusive interviews and live chats with musicians and guest artists.

www.sfsymphony.org

No doubt about it, Downbeat magazine is keen on the jazz being performed at Sacramento State University.

That much was made evident recently when Downbeat magazine - the jazz world's premier publication - awarded its Outstanding Performance Recognition award to CSUS' Latin Jazz Band and the Sacramento State Jazz Singers.

And it's keen on what's being arranged there too.

CSUS students Ian Brekke and Kate Janzen were picked as two of five winners in the magazine's Jazz Arranging award category.

The awards were formally announced in Downbeat's May issue. It's the fifth time that the magazine has recognized ensembles at CSUS.

The awards come way of Instrumental Jazz program director Steve Roach and his vocal jazz counterpart Kerry Marsh, who both submitted professionally recorded samples of each group's work.

Students used Capistrano Hall's Music Recital Hall and other department facilities to record their works.

Arranger Brekke was recognized for his big-band arrangement of Geoffrey Keezer's "Port Alexander Moon," which he turned into a six-part a cappella vocal piece.

Janzen did the same for "Baby Mine," the hit song from the Disney movie Dumbo. She first adapted the song to an all-female jazz version a few years ago and expanded it this year to include male voices.

To hear selections from the Latin Jazz Ensemble go to www.csus.edu/music/jazz/, then the Latin Jazz button on the left.

If you want to see the breadth and depth of Beethoven's development musically, then his string quartets are as good a musical road map as they come.

And luckily, for local audiences, the Alexander String Quartet, the quartet in residence at Mondavi, is in the throes of a multi-year exploration and survey of Beethoven's string quartets.

In June the ASQ will offer the third installment of the series featuring two Opus 18 quartets: No. 4 in C Minor and No. 6 in B-flat Major. And if the ASQ's past interpretations of Beethoven's quartets are an indication - this one should be a musically stellar affair.

As has been the norm when the ASQ performs, the afternoon performance includes in-concert commentary from renowned educator and composer Robert Greenberg. The evening concert includes a Post-performance Q&A with members of the quartet.

For understanding the context and the musical implications of Beethoven's innovative quartet's there's no better ticket than this one. Note: This event sells out quickly given the limited seating inside Mondavi's Studio Theater.

When: Sun., June 7, 2 & 7 p.m.
Where: Mondavi Center, Studio Theatre, UC Davis, Davis
Tickets: $40 regular; $20 students, children
Information: 530-754-2787, 866-754-2787 (toll-free), or MondaviArts.org

Some people see a video in a dumpster and see gahbage.

Others look in and see a goldmine.

It's all in the eye of the beholder. And beholders Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher would like to show you how when they showcase found footage culled from dumpsters, garage sales and thrift stores.

Dubbed the "Found Footage Festival", the event wil be held this Friday at Movies On A Big Screen in West Sacramento.

Found footage curators Pickett and Prueher (whose credits include "The Colbert Report," "The Late Show with David Letterman" and The Onion), will host the screenings.

The duo will provide their unique and hilarious observations and commentary on the videos.

In a way, this event seems tailor-made for Movies On A Big Screen, whose linoleum-laden union hall vibe lends itself well to those with a jaundiced eye.

When: 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Where: Movies on A Big Screen, 600 4th St, West Sacramento
Cost: $10
Information: www.moviesonabigscreen.com

If ever there was a weekend where opera fans should clear their schedules this weekend would be it.

That's because the Met will be streaming its extensive video and audio catalog of operas for free to entice audiences to sign up for its new Met Player online streaming service.

The free period begins on 5p.m. Friday and ends Sunday May 3 at midnight.

In that time opera fans will have unlimited access to over 200 videos of Met operas including 20 HD productions from the first three seasons of The Met: Live in HD series.

HD titles recently added to the Met Player catalog include this season's transmissions of Puccini's "La Rondine" featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, and Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" starring Anna Netrebko.

The service also offers audio streams of legendary performances that include the Met's 1937 production of Bizet's "Carmen" starring Rosa Ponselle.

The free weekend of streamed opera is an enticement to get audiences to subscribe to the Met Player service, which will cost $14.99 per month or $149.99 for a yearly plan.

The service also allows the purchase of individual streams at $4.99 for HD videos and $3.99 for audio performances or non-HD video.

In order to register for the free weekend of Met Player, users must have an active username and password for the Met website.

New users can set this up by visiting the "Register" page at metopera.org and providing basic contact information. No credit card will be required.

Think of it as the opera world's version of a test drive.

Or a tasty tease. Or maybe it's just an hour-long offering of opera.

That is exactly what will be performed Wednesday when cast members of the Sacramento Opera's upcoming production of "La Boheme" perform at the "Music at Noon" series at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Soprano NaGuanda Nobles, tenor Adam Flowers, soprano Rochelle Bard, and baritone Nicolai Janitzky (pictured right, in the role of Shchelkalov in this year's San Francisco Opera production of Boris Godunov) will perform excerpts from Puccini's masterwork opera.

The performance will be a prelude to the Sacramento Opera's May 8, 10, and 12 performances at the Community Center Theater.

When: Noon, April 29
Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1300 N St., Sacramento
Cost: Free
Information: (916) 737-1000 or www.sacopera.org.
For information about the Wednesday Music at Noon program at Westminster, contact 916.442.8939 or visit www.westminsac.org.

Soon you will be able to track the developments at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition from the comfort of your living room.

That's because the competition will be broadcast live online from May 22 to June 7.

Not that streaming the competition is a new thing for the Van Cliburn Foundation, which runs the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

The foundation has been streaming the competition online since 2001. But for this competition, it has added extensive functionality to its online offerings. The sophisticated new functions will allow viewers to follow all 30 competitors - in real time.

The webcast (which can be accessed at www.cliburn.tv), is using the same technology used for the Beijing Olympics, with performances streamed live and archived for "on-demand" viewering. It will broadcast 11 hours per day.

An online audience vote, a function that proved popular in the 2005 competition, will be featured again this year. These are held during each round of competition, allowing viewers to weigh their opinions against the jury's. Audience favorites will be recognized during the awards ceremony on June 7, but do not have a bearing on judge voting.

The webcasts will also take a fresh approach to interactivity by featuring the option to view program commentary, which will appear periodically on the bottom of the screen. These will offer pointers alerting the viewer for what to listen for while each piece is being performed.

Live coverage of four symposia presented during the competition finals will also be available on the site. Other features include an "e-mail the competitor" option, two blogs, and video portraits of all pianists.

That competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas, and formed by that city's teachers in honor of pianist Harvey Van Cliburn, Jr., who won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 with a stellar performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3

The Sacramento region will get its first museum devoted to young children when the Sacramento Children's Museum opens in Rancho Cordova.

The museum is scheduled to open in January of 2010 in a building adjacent to City Hall, at 2701 Prospect Park in Rancho Cordova. Unlike other museums in Sacramento, this one will be tailored to children eight years old and younger.

The museum is the brainchild of former San Juan District elementary school teacher Kathleen Palley, who decided to fill the void in such a children's museum four years ago.

"Sacramento has some great resources for older elementary school children, but children eight years or younger have been, historically, an underserved population here," said Palley.

"There's such an important need for a museum of this kind in this community, and I thought that if no one was going to start one, then I would do it myself," she said. "So I started this in the living room of my house, with a couple of people."

To date, the museum has raised $60,000 toward a $1.3 million capital campaign.

Palley selected the site in Rancho Cordova, she said, because it is easily accessible to families with young children. The location is near public transportation and offers free parking, Palley said.

The City of Rancho Cordova is helping the museum get off the ground by underwriting the maintenance costs of the museum's building, said Joe Chinn, assistant city manager for Rancho Cordova. Roebbelen Construction is providing $100,000 of its services to renovating the buiilding that will house the museum.

"We see the museum as a great addition to our community," said Chinn. "It supports our vision as a family-oriented community. And as an education center, it adds a great regional attraction to Rancho Cordova".

Palley, who will be the museum's president, said that the idea for it was deeply influenced by children's museums in Northern California, including the Habitot Children's Discovery Museum in Berkeley and the San Jose Children's Museum.

The museum will offer 7 themed exhibit areas that include "Waterways", World Market" "My Neighborhood" and "Art Studio".

Palley said that the museum will encourage play and exploration.

"We like to say that play is an essential part of children's work. And when children have the opportunity to do that, and succeed at it, they then gain confidence and a sense of self in the community," she said.

Want more information? Call (916) 203-1814 or visit .

On April 26th, in Grass Valley, the poetry of Gary Snyder will get a provocative musical turn when contralto Karen Clark and the Galax Quartet perform a song cycle married to Snyder's poetry.

Snyder, who lives in the Sierra foothils, worked with violist Roy Whelden of the Galax Quartet to turn his poetry into music.

And the result may just prove to be a fetching evening of music, with Clark's rich contralto adding a tantalizing sheen to Snyder's poetry. Clark premiered the song cycle in San Francisco last year, with the Galax Quartet, to glowing reviews.

Clark is a well-known recitalist in Northern California. And she's not shy about tackling a wide range of repertoire that includes everything from medieval music to opera as well as 20th century and contemporary music.

One of the most compelling aspects about this musical collaboration is that both Clark and the Galax Quartet have a solid background with early music.

Clark has performed and recorded with the world's leading early music ensembles, such as Joshua Rifkin's Bach Ensemble, Ensemble Sequentia, and Boston Camerata. And the San Francisco-based Galax Quartet are early music specialists, with the ensemble keen on 18th century practice methods and the use historical instruments.

When: 3 p.m., April 26
Where: The Center for the Arts, 314 West Main St., Grass Valley
Tickets: $40
Information: (530) 274 - 8384 or www.TheCenterForTheArts.org

Fans of Grieg's Piano Concerto Op. 16 might want to check out the Camellia Symphony Orchestra's concert on April 25.

That's because the bold and expressive pianist Richard Cionco will be performing it. Cionco, a Juilliard grad who is on the piano faculty at CSUS, has performed as soloist with orchestras nationally and internationally. Cionco recently released the CD "Latin American Music for Solo Piano" on Centaur Records, to positive reviews.

The concert program, enititled "The Great Romantics", includes the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's opera "Tristan and Isolde" as well as Tchaikovsky's four-movement Symphony No. 5, Op. 64.

When: 8 p.m., Saturday, April 25
Where: Memorial Auditorium, 1515 J Street, Sacramento
Tickets: $25, $20 (seniors); $15 (students); $8 (child)
Information: (916) 929-6655 or www.camelliasymphony.org.

It's safe to say that the past four days have been the most musically intense of amateur violinist Calvin Lee's life.

And last night was the culmination.

That's because the Modest-based surgeon and acupuncturist was one of 93 musicians who participated in the first digitally formed orchestral performance better known as the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

The musicians met for the first time in New York on Sunday for intense rehearsals. And last night they performed at Carnegie Hall with San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas at the podium. The orchestra played a wide range of works from Gabrieli to John Cage. The highlight was the premiere of composer Tan Dun's Internet Symphony No. 1, "Eroica," a work especially written for the event.

We caught up with Lee while he was getting in some sightseeing in New York before returning to Modesto Saturday. We asked him about his experience playing in the world's first digital orchestra.

Q: So, how was the experience?
A: It was a pretty exhausting couple of days. But it will be such a memory for everyone. The most surprising thing to me here was the sheer number of great musicians I encountered who were part of this orchestra. I think they were enticed by the chance to play with Michael Tilson Thomas, and not so much by the chance to play at Carnegie Hall.

Q: Where were you placed in the orchestra?
A: The second violins. At first, when I found out I was being placed in the seconds I thought the whole experience would be boring since I've sat in many sections like that before. But there were so many talented players around me that it wasn't boring, and I never felt out of place.

Q: I understand the rehearsal experience was intense. How did they play out?
A: They included master classes, and these were the most unique thing that I've ever experienced in my lifetime. It was basically Tilson Thomas and four or five musicians in the rehearsal room that he called 'mentors.' So, while he conducted the orchestra, he would have master musicians work with us, and these are some of the best teachers in the field, and they taught us on the side. And sometimes MTT to make a musical point would have one of these teachers demonstrate a musical passage. A lot of what he talked about during the rehearsal was about musical phrasing.

Q: What was it like working with a conductor like Tilson Thomas?
A: I felt so comfortable working with him because I understood what he meant and what he was trying to convey to the orchestra. Being that comfortable is why I think he is so sought after as a conductor. A lot of conductors I've played with, I've had to struggle to understand them and I have not always agreed with what they were saying - as I definitely have set ideas of my own. But with Tilson Thomas, I felt we agreed on just about everything, and that's really rare.

Q: How was the performance?
A: Really amazing. The performance was interspersed with some videos from YouTube. It was a completely soldout house, they had to post a soldout sign on the Carnegie Hall doors.

Q: Was it like any concert experience you've had before?
A: No. All the rules were broken for this performance. There was a sign posted outside the hall that read "no photographs," but the YouTube people allowed photographs. Sometimes there were so many flashes going off it felt like a light show.

Q: How was the "Eroica" piece?
A: Composer Tan Dun conducted the work. And afterward he told us he was very pleased with it.

Q: What else did you play?
A:Then Tilson Thomas conducted a selection of other pieces. I played the third movement from Mozart's Concerto No. 5, with Gil Shaham. And I also played "Hunt the Squirrel" by Benjamin Britten, the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No, 4, and the last movement of a work by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Q: What did you learn form the experience?
A: Well, it was a revelation to hear Tilson Thomas say that he wants us to take the lead and revolutionize the way musicians play orchestral music. There is a controversy about how music should be played. There is the stiff approach, like Jascha Heifetz, where you do not move around much when playing. But there are now a lot of younger players who move around a lot when they play in an orchestra. And Tilson Tomas said we need to move together, that we need to free up the body to play music, and we should be part of that revolution. Hearing that from someone with that much authority, for me, is such a good thing.

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For some, auditions, like war, can be hell.

That much is made clear in the documentary "The Audition" by the Metropolitan Opera. The documentary will be shown at 5 area theaters (see below) on Sunday at 12 p.m.

"The Audition" chronicles 11 finalists in the last week of the 2007 National Council Auditions. Those auditions are crucial career-making affairs that start with over 1,500 singers. Past winners include Stephanie Blythe, Renee Fleming and Ben Heppner.

The documentary is directed by 4 time Emmy winning director Susan Froemke, who casts the camera's gaze on singers, judges and coaches alike - both backstage and onstage.

The film intimately tracks the progress of such hopefuls as tenor Alek Shrader, who will attempt to sing nine high C's for his audition, and tenor Ryan Smith, a singer with little training, who takes a last stab at an opera career, at the age 30.

The film will be shown at locally at these theaters (contact theater for ticket and cost information):

Sacramento:
Stadium 14,
Downtown Plaza 7,
Greenback Lane 16
Natomas Marketplace

Elk Grove
Cinemark Laguna 16

Roseville
Cinemark 14

No, this is not the state lottery, it's Roseville Arts new effort that seeks to put art in the hands of art lovers, while raising funds for its programs and Roseville's Blue Line Gallery.

Roseville Arts, a 41-year-old nonprofit devoted to raising community and youth awareness of art in South Placer County,has dubbed the lottery event "Everybody Wins--Lottery for the Arts". The lottery will take place on Sept. 11.

Here's how it works: everyone who holds a ticket gets a guarantee to take home an original piece of art produced by a Northern California artist. The arts nonprofit is shooting to have a total of 200 pieces of art donated with lottery tickets limited to 200, corresponding to the number of pieces.

Participants who purchase a ticket will then be eligible to select a piece from the show after their lottery number is drawn.

Roseville Arts is currently inviting artists to contribute to the lottery.

For more information: (916) 783-4117 or www.rosevillearts.org

For some, Gilbert and Sullivan's opera "The Gondoliers" may just be their best work. It's topical, funny and driven by that magical comic device: mistaken identity.

In other words, its a patently Gilbert and Sullivan affair.

The two-act opera gets a turn at Sacramento State University's Music Department on Friday and Saturday in the University Theater, at Shasta Hall.

This production, originally written to take place in Venice circa 1750, will be updated to the 1930's. Director Michael Sokol is keen on describing the feel of this production as inspired by the films "Dinner at Eight" and "Top Hat".

"The Gondoliers" deals with the mistaken indentities of two soon-to-be-wed gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri, and which will become the rightful king of Barataria. The opera stays true to form for Gilbert and Sillivan by offering a last minute revelation.

It premiered in 1898 at London's Savoy Theatre, and was an instant success. It ran for 554 performances. At the time, it became the fifth longest-running piece of musical theatre in history.

The CSUS production features students from Sacramento State's opera workshop and is directed by CSUS' opera workshop director Michael Sokol, and conducted by Sacramento Opera's Timm Rolek. Internationally renowned performer/director/designer Angelina Reaux will costume the CSUS cast.

When: Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.
Where: University Theater, Shasta Hall, CSUS, 6000 J St., Sacramento
Tickets: $18; $12 students and seniors
Information: (916) 278-4323

If you are an aspiring teacher or a parent of a music student, (or a music student-to-be) then the upcoming "Every Child Can!" class might be right up your alley.

To be held at Sacramento State University on April 18, the all day course will be taught by violinist Judy Weigert Bossuat and will provide an in-depth look at the approach to Suzuki teaching and learning.

The Suzuki method was started by violinist and educator Shinichi Suzuki and is now taught on every continent. Born in 1898, Suzuki studied violin in Japan for many years before going to Germany in the 1920's for further study. It wasn't until after World War II that Suzuki devoted his life to the development of his teaching method.

That method is rooted in the belief that musical ability is not an inborn talent, but an ability which can be taught.

For those interested in becoming Suzuki teachers, the class serves as a first course in the Suzuki Association of the Americas Teacher Development Program.

The class will explore such elements as the ambitious goals of the method, the history and development of Suzuki education, and the role of parents.

The "Every Child Can!" course is six hours long. Instruction includes the use of video materials and Suzuki-developed courseware. Each participant will be provided with reference manuals for later study.

The registration deadline is April 6th.

To register contact Judy Bossuat at jwbossuki@onebox.com

More information on the teacher development program can be found at http://suzukiassociation.org/teachers

For the Vox Musica vocal ensemble, whose next concert is this Saturday at St. John's Lutheran Church at 7 p.m., all musical roads lead from the Republic of Georgia to the raga-infused streets of Mumbai, India.

At least they will on Saturday when the 3-year-old all women's ensemble performs with the Nada Brahma Ensemble, which is sure to add a provocative Indian fusion vibe to Vox Musica's program.

That program includes 6 works from India, or inspired by music from the Indian subcontinent and four works that are either Persian or set to Persian texts.

When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: St. John's Lutheran Church, 1701 L St., Sacramento
Cost: $15
Information: (916) 471-0507 or www.VoxMusica.net

The March 13 performance of Grupo Corpo, which had to be rescheduled due to repair problems at the Mondavi Center with an acoustic canopy in Jackson Hall, has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 7 at 8 p.m., the presenter announced today.

Grupo Corpo, Brazil's most successful dance troupe, will perform "Seven or Eight Pieces for a Ballet", and the new work "Breu," both choreographed by Rodrigo Pederneiras

Patrons holding tickets for the March 13 performance can and should use their same tickets and parking passes for the rescheduled performance. A Post-performance Q&A moderated by Ruth Rosenberg, Mondavi Center dance consultant, will take place in Jackson Hall. There will be no Pre-performance Lecture for this performance

Patrons unable to attend on April 7 should contact the Mondavi Center Ticket Office, 530-754-2787, to request a refund.

www.MondaviArts.org
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A new era of music-making will begin this summer at UC Davis when Christian Baldini takes over the university's symphony orchestra.

Baldini, conductor and music director of the Symphony Orchestra of the State University of New York at Buffalo, will replace outgoing conductor Kern D. Holoman in June. Holoman has been conductor of the university orchestra for the past 30 years. The orchestra was founded in 1959 and boasts 96 members.

The Argentinean-born conductor will make his concert debut at UC Davis on June 2 at the Mondavi Center in a program that will include Rossini's "Barber of Seville" overture, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, and Beethoven's Sixth Symphony ("Pastoral").

Baldini, who is also a composer, will join the UC Davis Department of Music as an assistant professor.

He comes to Davis with an impressive resume. He has won several awards including the 2005 Seoul International Competition for Composers in South Korea and the 2006 Sao Paulo Orchestra International Conducting Competition in Brazil.

Baldini regularly conducts orchestras in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, and has served as the assistant conductor of the Britten-Pears Orchestra in Aldeburgh, England.

No, Ira Glass won't be gracing Sacramento's streets in person, but he will be on six of its movie screens when the hit radio show "This American Life" comes to area movie houses.

The hit radio show will be broadcast live on April 23rd at 8:00 p.m. For the West Coast, the show will be shown at 8:00 p.m. as a time-delayed broadcast.

The show originates from the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, and will be shown in over 400 movie theaters nationwide, including the following Sacramento area cinema houses:

* Laguna 16 - Elk Grove
* Roseville14 - Roseville
* Downtown Plaza - Sacramento
* Stadium 14 - Sacramento
* Greenback Lane 16 - Sacramento
* Natomas Marketplace - Sacramento

The evening's lineup will include popular show contributors Dan Savage, Starlee Kine, Mike Birbiglia, David Rakoff and Dave Hill, There will be a special musical performance by Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Together they will perform a two-hour, live stage version of the radio show, centered on the theme "Return to the Scene of the Crime."

Tickets for this special one-night event are available at presenting theater box offices and at www.FathomEvents.com. .

This weekend's slate of performances at the Mondavi Center's Jackson Hall will be rescheduled or canceled.

The repair of a malfunctioning acoustic canopy that hovers over the Jackson Hall stage is the reason for the rescheduling, said Camille Spaccavento, marketing director of the Mondavi Center.

The affected shows include:

-Tonight's 8 p.m. show of Grupo Corpo
-Tomorrow's 8 p.m. show of the Academy of Ancient Music
-Sunday's 3 p.m. show of the Vienna Boys Choir

This evening's performance by the dance group Grupo Corpo, will likely be rescheduled, but the new date will not be announced until next week said Spaccavento.

Tomorrow's performance of the Academy of Ancient Music has been rescheduled to Tues. March 17 at 8 p.m. at Jackson Hall. The pre-performance lecture will begin at 7 p.m.

Sunday's Vienna Boys Choir performance has been canceled.

Patrons should hold on to their tickets and parking pass so that they can be used for the rescheduled performance.

To date, the canopy problem has already forced the rescheduling of three concerts to other campus venues

The canopy, part of the shell that helps create Jackson Hall's widely praised acoustics, became stuck in the down position last week, after the stage crew had lowered the canopy to prepare it for a March 8 concert.

Information: (530) 754-2787

The dire economic times for opera companies has taken its latest victim - the 58-year-old Baltimore Opera.

That company recently announced that it was liquidating its assets under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This comes only three months after the company desperately tried to stay viable under a Chapter 11 reorganization that forced the canceling of its remaining 2008-09 season.

The implosion of the Baltimore Opera is the latest development in a dark time in the opera world. In the last six months, companies like Opera Pacific and the Connecticut Opera have closed doors, and many others have cancelled seasons.

The pressure of declining endowments, shrinking donations, the vanishing of corporate entities that gave to opera, and soft ticket sales are putting immense pressure on opera companies.

Many companies, like the Metropolitan Opera, have been forced to take draconian steps to stay viable. At the Met, those measures include scaling down its 2009-10 season, cutting staff, and using its two esteemed lobby paintings by Marc Chagall as collateral to raise a loan.

The curious pairing of classical music and wine returns once again to Northern California this summer.

Artists Renee Fleming, Sarah Chang, and Leif Ove Andsnes are but some of the performers that will grace the stages of one of the country's most unique summer music festivals - Napa Valley's Festival del Sole.

In this festival wine and food follows classical music, and all of it a stone's throw from Sacramento.

The festival just announced its fourth season which runs between July 17-25. The weeklong schedule includes world-class concerts, receptions, lunches and dinners, wine tastings, as well as art exhibitions.

Some of its concerts are free community concerts showcasing young talent on the rise.

This year's Festival opens July 18 at the Napa Valley Opera House featuring three young artists - violinist Sarah Chang, pianist Andrew von Oeyen, and 14-year old pianist Conrad Tao.

As is the habit at Festival del Sole, the concert is followed by an event at a winery - in this case, a twilight dinner on the terrace overlooking Napa Valley at Palmaz Vineyards, a new winery participant at the festival.

Soprano Renée Fleming makes her festival debut on July 23, in a recital at Castello di Amorosa winery. Other artists to appear include a rare appearance by Royal Opera House conductor Antonio Pappano, and cellist Nina Kotova.

Participating wineries and restaurants at the festival include Clos Pegase, The Carneros Inn, and Dominus Estate.

Tickets for concerts range from $35-$125. Discounts are available for students.
Information: (888) 337-6272 or www.fdsnapa.org.
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Are you a young singer with a wan for performing the works of Verdi and Puccini?

Then you might want to look into a full immersion 5-week summer program designed for singers 16-18 years old.

Offered by an organization called Italian Operatic Experience, and located in the medieval town of Piobbico, Italy, the program is tailored to students who are attending or just graduated high school and are looking to pursue studies in vocal music and/or Italian language.

The preparatory program prepares the young singer to "bridge-the-gap" from High School musician to the level expected at University and Conservatory music departments. Coursework includes classes in Italian language study, diction, musical, vocal, stage and dramatic coaching.

Information: (201) 773-0773 or www.italianoperaticexperience.com

A malfunctioning acoustic canopy in Jackson Hall has forced the Mondavi Center at UC Davis to make last-minute changes to its concert schedule.

The performance of Celtic bands Danú and Dervish, scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday, has been relocated to Freeborn Hall on the UC Davis campus. No action is required by audience members other than to come to the performance at Freeborn Hall with their tickets. Parking passes will be honored at the North parking structure. Patrons who desire information about Freeborn Hall can find it online at: freebornhall.ucdavis.edu/.

The student matinee with Danú, scheduled for 11 a.m. on Tuesday, has been canceled. All schools and parents who planned to bring students are being notified. There is not a suitable venue available to which this arts education performance could be relocated.

The following events have also been changed:

The Forum@MC scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Mondavi Center's Studio Theatre has been canceled due to the relocation of the Danú and Dervish concert that follows it. Mondavi Center staff is notifying all those who made reservations for this free event.

The performance by the University Concert Band scheduled for Wednesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in Jackson Hall has been relocated to the Main Theatre in Wright Hall on the UC Davis Campus. UC Davis Department of Music staff is contacting all ticketholders for this event. No action is required by audience members other than to come to the performance at the Main Theatre with their tickets.

Anyone with questions should contact the Mondavi Center Ticket Office at 530-754-2787.

The malfunctioning equipment at Jackson Hall is an acoustic canopy that is part of the shell that helps create the widely praised acoustics of the Mondavi Center's main performance hall. Mondavi Center officials are planning for the repairs to the acoustical canopy to be complete in time for performances this coming weekend, March 13-15, to take place as scheduled in Jackson Hall. For more information, please contact the Mondavi Center Ticket Office at 530-754-2787.

What defines "American" music?

Is it something grand and pastoral? Or, perhaps, its something dark and intensely urban?

Maybe, it's a little of both.

At least that's the suggestion that one can glean from Sacramento Philharmonic conductor Michael Morgan's choice of works for the orchestra's "American Stories" concert.

That concert will be performed Friday evening at Sacramento's Guild Theater (also at 8 p.m. Saturday at Roseville's Magic Circle Theatre and 3 p.m. Sunday at Orangevale's Temple Or Rishon) as part of the Sacramento Philharmonic's smaller format "Signature Series" concerts.

The concert will begin with Dvorak's String Quartet No. 12 in F, also known as "American." Sacramento Philharmonic principal clarinetist Ginger Kroft Barnetson will perform Leonard Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, accompanied by Theresa Keene.

Also on the program are selections from African American composers Calvin Taylor and Margaret Bonds. The concert concludes with Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring".

What can be more "American" than that?

8 p.m., Friday
Guild Theater
2814 35th St., Sacramento

8 p.m., Saturday
Magic Ciecle Theatre
241 Vernon St., Roseville

3 p.m., Sunday
Temple Or Rishon
7755 Hazel Ave., Orangevale

Tickets: $15-$25
Information: (916) 732-9045 or www.sacphil.org

The Sacramento Youth Symphony will perform the world premiere of George Roumanis' "Symphonic Meditations" tonight at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.

Roumanis fell in love with jazz at age 12 and soon became a jazz bassist. At age 18 he began playing with the big bands of Benny Goodman, Charlie Spivak, Les Brown, and Tommy Dorsey.

He has arranged music for television shows like the Twilight Zone, Mission Impossible, and Star Trek: the Next Generation. He has also conducted and arranged for Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Sammy Davis, Jr.

After years on the jazz scene he moved from New York to Hollywood to compose and conduct scores for television and motion pictures. Since then, his focus has expanded to classical music and opera composition. He lives in Half Moon Bay.

Also to be performed is Brahms' Symphony No. 1, and a work by Borodin.The performance begins at 7:30pm.

TICKETS: $25; $15 Students and seniors.

Information: (916) 731-5777 or:
www.sacys.org
www.mondaviarts.org

Sprinkled among the major roles in Mozart's comic opera "The Marriage of Figaro" are some juicy and broadly-sketched comic roles.

One of those is the role of Bartolo - the doctor. And in the Sacramento Opera's upcoming production of "The Marriage of Figaro", bass baritone Burr Phillips has been tapped to sing the small role.

Phillips, a Stockton resident, has some interesting things to say about the role and Mozart's beloved opera.

Q: How many times have you played/sung Bartolo?
A: This is my first time to sing Bartolo, although I have helped two students prepare the role in recent years.

Q: On an artistic level what do you like best about this role?
A: I like Bartolo because he has an aria merely 10 minutes into Act I and then the heaviest load of his singing is complete!

Q: Generally, how do you prepare for a role?
A: I prepare an operatic role by beginning with the score in the same fashion I learn any piece of music - without the text on a single vowel as though I am an instrumentalist. I then translate and speak the text alongside the musical preparation prior to putting the twin elements together.

Q; Do you listen to recordings of the opera?
A: I listen ardently to recordings of the work, as well as try to watch available DVD documents of performances. .

Q: How does Bartolo fit in to an opera where sex and love are synonymous with power?
A: For one thing, Marcellina, Basilio and Bartolo fit into the context of Figaro because they provide the crux of the "buffo" element essential to comic opera. and especially to the classical era of which Mozart played a central role.

Q: How do these roles enhance the opera?
A: These three characters, along with Antonio, the gardener, bring broad characterizations to the general mayhem in the life of all these creatures who inhabit Seville.

Q: What opera houses have you performed in recently?
A: I have performed with Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Chautauqua Opera and Tulsa Opera, to name a few companies around the country.

Q: This opera deals with a corrupt class getting its just desserts. Any correlation between Count Almaviva and a corrupt Wall Street CEO?
A: The Wall Street comparison is at once apt and compelling. The correlation between Count Almaviva, the lord of the manor that provides the backdrop for the action, and the "fat-cat" CEO' s who have made their own beds of luxury usurping from the lower rungs of civilization, is palpable.

The Sacramento Opera's will perform Mozarts four-act masterpiece starting this Friday at the Community Center Theater (the opera runs through Tuesday).

Information: www.sacopera.org

It's an orchestral whodunit...

That best describes the picture book adaptation of Lemony Snicket's "The Composer is Dead".

That book, which will be released by HarperCollins on March 3, includes an accompanying recording by the San Francisco Symphony. The recording is narrated by Lemony Snicket himself and conducted by SFS resident conductor Edwin Outwater, with music by composer Nathaniel Stookey.

The pairing of the SFS and Lemony Snicket, the 13-part children's book series known as "A Series of Unfortunate Events" authored by Daniel Handler, is a refreshing take on making classical music come alive to young audiences. It originates from a SFS commission that resulted in the 2006 world premiere of "The Composer is Dead".

And it's a fitting pairing since both Handler and Stookey live in San Francisco.

"The Composer is Dead" makes it possible for young readers to listen as the Inspector interrogates the instruments, section by section, to uncover a murderous culprit.

A video interview with Lemony Snicket about "The Composer is Dead" is posted on YouTube at www.youtube.com/sfsymphony.

And for those that want to see Lemony Snicket in the flesh, the Inspector will appear as narrator of "The Composer is Dead" with the San Francisco Symphony on March 29 at 2:00 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

Information: www.sfsymphony.org

Parents interested in introducing their children to classical music will have two opportunities to do so when the Camellia Symphony's offers two free family concerts on March 8 and 15.

The concerts are designed as an introduction to the world of classical music in a fun and casual setting. This season, guest conductor Pete Nowlen teams up with Richard Bay and his Puppet Theatre to present a puppet performance of "Peter and the Wolf".

The March 8 performance will take place at Sacramento's Central Library, Tsakopoulos Library Galleria. The March 15 performance will be held at Buljan Middle School in Roseville. Doors open for both at 1 p.m. with an instrument "petting zoo" followed by an hourlong concert starting at 2 p.m. (that concert includes the puppet presentation).

The program will include Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" (with Richard Bay's Puppet Theatre) and Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty Waltz."

Information: www.camelliasymphony.org

Well, it was bound to happen.

Someone, somewhere has finally realized that the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith, former Plaboy playmate turned oil tycoon's wife, is drama-worthy.

But we're not talking soap opera drama-worthy here - we're talking opera drama-worthy.

Or at least Britain's Royal Opera thinks so.

The company is planning a production based on the life on the Texas-born Smith,
and has tapped the highly respected British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage to write the music and Richard Thomas to write the libretto.

Smith came into the limelight in 1993 when she became Playboy's Playmate of the Year. She married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994. At the time, she 26 and Marshall 89. Marshall died a year later.

Smith was constantly in the celebrity spotlight thereafter, and went on to star in her own reality TV show. She was also embroiled in a protracted legal battle with the Marshall family over Marshall's $500 million estate. She died of an accidental drug overdose in a Florida hotel in 2007.

The Smith opera is planned for the Royal Opera's 2011 season.

The opera was described by Royal Opera's director Elaine Padmore in The UK-based Guardian newspaper as "not just a documentary about her, but a parable about celebrity and what it does to people."

The National Endowment for the Arts will receive a $50 million increase to its yearly budget as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, whose final version was signed by President Obama today.

The funding increase for the NEA is expected to create jobs in the arts. Much of that funding is expected to be funneled through arts agencies in all 50 states, said Lisa Caretto, board member of California Arts Advocates, a statewide arts advocacy organization.

"As I understand it, the NEA intends to make the new grants consistent with the goals of economic stimulus and job creation," said Caretto. "The increase of funds will be for used the arts workforce-for jobs."

Although it is still unclear how the funds will be handed out by arts agencies, Caretto said local arts organizations might be able to use the funds to help with payroll issues. Some of those funds are to be given first to the state's arts agency-the California Arts Council, she said.

The funds, which are part of the $787 billion stimulus package, may also be used for maintaining jobs, said Caretto.

"So the funds may go to a local organization, like the Sacramento Ballet, that has been assuring its dancers that they still have jobs," she said.

The Sacramento Ballet notified its subscribers Jan. 21 and the public at large Jan. 22 that it was canceling the remaining programs in its 2008-09 season because of financial reasons.

"But it's up to the arts organizations to apply for this money when they come out with the grant guidelines and requirements for proposals," she said.

It remains to be seen how the extra funds, once allocated, will affect local arts organizations.

But one thing is clear, the arts have a large economic impact on the region.

The estimated economic impact of arts and cultural activities in the Sacramento region totals approximately $350 million annually, according to the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

The Metropolitan Opera is bringing back its popular live simulcasts for the 2009-10 season. The new season, announced amid severe financial uncertainty for the company, offers eight new productions, four of which are company premieres. Eighteen revivals from the company's repertory will also be produced.

The simulcasts have proven intensely popular in the Sacramento region, with five cinema houses participating (listed below). Some of the opera screenings have been soldout affairs, and those that are not have been mostly well attended.

For its live HD simulcasts, the Met has picked nine operas to be broadcast live nationally and internationally. They include the following:

"Tosca," Oct. 10

"Aida," Oct. 24

"Turandot," Nov. 7

"Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Dec. 19

"Der Rosenkavalier," Jan. 9, 2010

"Carmen," Jan. 16

"Simon Boccanegra," Feb. 6

"Hamlet," March 27

"Armida," May 1

Specific theaters that will show the live operas in the Sacramento area have not been announced, although it is expected that they will be shown in the same theaters as participated this year. Those theaters include: Cinemark Sacramento Downtown Plaza 7, Cinemark Sacramento Greenback Lane 16, Cinemark Sacramento Stadium 14, Regal Natomas Marketplace, Sacramento, Cinemark Laguna 16, Elk Grove,
Cinemark Roseville 14, Roseville.

There are three remaining operas to be broadcast this season: "Madama Butterfly" on March 7, "La Sonnambula" on March 21, and "La Cenerentola" May 9.

More information on the Metropolitan Opera's new season can be found at:
www.metopera org

For a few days at the end of January things were looking up for the National Endowment for the Arts... and also for struggling theaters, museums and arts centers.

It was Jan. 28 when the House of Representatives passed its version of the economic recovery package. That bill included $50 million in supplemental grants funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). It passed by a vote of 244 to 188.

The implication of such funding is that financially beleaguered theaters and arts centers may have become eligible for bailout funds granted through the NEA.

But that was then. This is now.

Last Friday afternoon, an amendment, authored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), was included in the Senate's version of the economic stimulus passage. The language in the the Coburn amendment prohibits stimulus funds from going to "any aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project."

The bill, and its attached amendment, passed by a wide vote of 73 to 24. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) opposed the amendment, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) voted in favor of it..

The NEA is no stranger to budget controversy. For the fiscal year 2008, the NEA was appropriated $144 million, according to NEA figures. That amount is markedly below the $176 million that was budgeted for it back in 1992. Its budget has been mostly growing since fiscal year 1996 when it was budgeted $99 million -- it's biggest drop in funding --more than $60 million in appropriations from what it received the year prior.

In 2007, the NEA awarded approximately $60 million in 2,158 direct grants in 435 congressional districts through its program funds.

Now, it remains to be seen whether the Senate's stimulus package, and the Coburn amendment attached to it, will be included in the final conference version of this legislation.

Regardless of the outcome -- the amendment raises an important question: Should organizations like arts centers, museums and theaters be in the bailout pipeline at all, either now or in the near future?

If you're in one of five area cinemas tomorrow, you will be able to judge whether the standout soprano Anna Netrebko aces the madwoman role of Lucia in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor."

The Metropolitan Opera will simulcast the performance live in HD from New York's Lincoln Center at 10 a.m.

Netrebko, one the most sought after sopranos in opera, will sing the role at the Met for the first time. Her rich voice and wonderful acting skills can certainly sell the demanding role of the fragile Lucia. But can her voice offer the agility necessary to ace the fluid vocal singing demanded?

"Lucia di Lammermoor" is the eighth opera in a series of 11 performances from the Metropolitan Opera to be transmitted live from New York. The hugely successful simulcasts use 10 HD cameras to capture the opera. Experiencing an opera in this HD format is, by far, the most intimate and enjoyable way to do so from outside the concert hall.

For this production, Netrebko will share the stage with tenor Piotr Beczala as her lover, Edgardo. Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien sings the role of her tyrannical brother. Marco Armiliato conducts, and the simulcast host is Natalie Dessay, who sang the role with the San Francisco Opera recently, to wide acclaim.

Note: The Sacramento Opera will be hosting its "Coffee and Conversation" event before the screening at Regal Natomas Marketplace. Executive Director Rod Gideons and conductor Timm Rolek will speak at the pre-screening event, which offers free coffee and pastry. The event begins at 9:30 a.m.
www.sacopera.org

WHAT: Lucia di Lammermoor
WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday (Running time: 3 hours, 20 minutes, with 2 intermissions).
WHERE: Cinemark Sacramento Downtown Plaza 7; Cinemark Sacramento Greenback Lane 16; Cinemark Sacramento Stadium 14; Regal Natomas Marketplace, Sacramento; Cinemark Laguna 16, Elk Grove; Cinemark Roseville 14, Roseville
COST: $22
INFORMATION: www.FathomEvents.com and http://www.metoperafamily.org/hdlive

Call art critic Edward Ortiz at (916) 321-1071

Do you like a little roast loin of pork with your big time opera?

Then the Sacramento Opera's upcoming "Grand Opera in the Grand Ballroom" gala might interest you.

That fund-raising event will see noted British soprano Jane Eaglen as the honoree in an evening that pairs opera with Wagner-inspired cuisine.

The event, which takes place on Feb. 13, will see Eaglen talk about her storied opera career and will include a video retrospective of Eaglen's career by the Wagner Society of Southern California.

Eaglen is well known for her work in Wagnerian roles and with Bellini operas. She has performed such roles to critical acclaim with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and at Milan's La Scala. She also owns an equally impressive reputation as a concert singer, having performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

The five course "Wagner" meal was crafted by chef Charlie Billo at Event Architects, and is meant to capture the spirit of the composer and his operas.

The event also offers jazz music, live and silent auctions, and entertainment by the stars of the Sacramento Opera's upcoming production of "The Marriage of Figaro", including soprano Emily Pulley and baritone Malcolm MacKenzie.

WHAT: Grand Opera in the Grand Ballroom
WHERE: Sacramento Grand Ballroom, 629 J St., Sacramento
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. - 10 p.m. Feb. 13
COST: $125 per person (includes valet parking).
INFORMATION: (916) 737-1000 or www.sacopera.org

So far the last six months have been most unkind to opera companies.

The operative word? Cancellation or curtailment of seasons.

The latest opera company to have its season deeply affected by the economy is the Nevada Opera, which recently announced the cancellation of two upcoming performances of its 2008-09 season.

A drastic reduction in income was cited by the Nevada Opera Association as the reason it chose to cancel two productions of "Die Zirkusprinzessin" (The Circus Princess) scheduled for Feb. 20 and 22, at the Pioneer Center Theater in Reno.

"The Circus Princess" is the second of three main stage operas presented by the Association as part of its regular season. The company, Nevada's oldest professional presenting arts organization, said its spring production of "La Bòheme" will likely be unaffected.

In a written release, General Director Michael Borowitz said that the company's mid-season ticket sales have slowed substantially due to the state of the economy. Ticket sales there are off by 30 percent compared to past seasons. Donations are also lagging.

In the release, Borowitz stated the he has pledged to take no salary for the 2009-2010 season as part of an aggressive plan to dramatically reduce spending.

Season curtailment and cancellations have been sweeping through the country ever since the mortgage crisis took hold last fall.

Since then, Orange County's Opera Pacific has closed, and the Connecticut Opera and Opera Orchestra of New York have cancelled the remainder of their seasons. The Baltimore Opera recently announced it was filing for bankruptcy and also canceling the balance of its season.

Closer to home, the San Francisco Opera recently announced its 2009-10 season, which offers a smaller season than this year (by two productions), including the absence of the much-awaited Benjamin Britten opera "Peter Grimes".

Well, by now everyone knows that Yo-Yo Ma and other classical music performers that played during Barack Obama's inauguration pre-recorded their music two days earlier. It was that taped music that most of those in attendance heard at the event.

The rational put forth by the event organizers, as reported in several newspapers, was that it was too cold for the instruments to stay in tune, and that live amplification would have been a big mistake.

But this story is not about fooling the public as much as how people feel about classical music... and the fact that classical music is being talked about at all.

Surely, classical music has not been a talked about issue in any recent inaugurations. So having a dialog about classical music, one way or another, is a good thing. It may speak volumes about how President Obama's administration approaches the arts.

But what is most interesting about this story is a live poll being conducted online by MSNBC.com.

That poll asks the question:

"Was it wrong to 'fake' music at the presidential inauguration?

So far this is how people have voted:

** 24.6% -- Yes, the organizer shouldn't have tried to fool the masses...

** 64.7% -- No. Who cares?

** 10.7% -- Maybe, If this is how the administration starts out....

Thing is... out of those 64.7% who voted "No", did they vote so because offering recorded music was not that big deal?

Or was it the case that they couldn't care less?

Let's hope it was the former.

Despite the gloom and doom brought on by the recent announcement by the Sacramento Ballet that it has cancelled the remainder of its 2008-09 season, not all has been bad news locally on the arts scene.

Good news can be gleaned from the latest ticket sales figures at the Sacramento Philharmonic. For it's last performance, an all-Beethoven concert Jan. 16 at the Community Center Theater, the orchestra posted its best ticket sale numbers in its 11-year history.

"We nearly sold the hall out," said Marc Feldman, executive director of the Sacramento Philharmonic.

The orchestra filled 2,425 of the hall's configured 2,452 seats for the performance. Although the orchestra's yearly all-Beethoven concerts are one of its strongest selling events, this year's concert exceeded all expectations, Feldman said.

"That concert saw a 30 percent increase from what we sold for our all-Beethoven concert last year," he said.

Most encouraging about the robust tickets sales was the healthy number of last-minute ticket buyers.

Walk up ticket sales are watched closely by orchestras, as it is believed that such buyers hail from a younger demographic than the typical subscriber. The orchestra sold more than 300 tickets in the days preceding the concert.

Feldman contends that many new faces were evident at the concert.

"I was interviewing people in the lobby and I heard from some that this was their first time here," said Feldman. "They said that, typically, they would have gone to San Francisco, but that ticket prices were now so high for them."

Feldman also believes that many in attendance may have migrated to the orchestra from the Sacramento Ballet.

"When we asked some of the newcomers why the came they said that normally would have gone to the ballet, but once the Ballet raised their ticket prices that pushed them over to us because we have not increased our prices that much."

Single tickets for the Ballet's "Noches Calientes" were selling between $28-$63. The Philharmonic is selling single tickets this season between $16-$80. The Philharmonic increased their ticket prices slightly from the $15-$75 ticket range it offered last season.

The Sacramento Ballet is offering its subscribers the option of redeeming their tickets or exchanging them for Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Opera and California Musical Theater performances.

But so far there have been few takers said, Greg Wellman, ticketing manager at the Philharmonic. "We are expecting to get some calls."

For ticket exchange information call the Community Center Theater box office at (916) 264-5181.

Should there be a cabinet post for the arts?

That's what composer Quincy Jones and others would like to see as part of the Obama Administration.

It was reported recently in the Washington Post that 76,000 people had signed an online petition (started by two New York musicians, who were originally inspired by producer Jones), calling for President Barack Obama to give the arts and humanities a cabinet level post.

Now, before you get to thinking that this is a pie-in-the-sky notion, please note that there are such high level posts in administrations across Europe - including France, Germany and Finland.

So, what do you think? Yea or nay?

It's official - the Berkeley Symphony has acted boldly with its selection of Joana Carneiro as conductor Kent Nagano's successor.

The 32 year-old Carneiro will become this maverick orchestra's third Music Director beginning with the 2009-10 season. She will lead the orchestra in four programs in UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall beginning October 15, in addition to leading Berkeley Symphony's Under Construction new music series.

The Portuguese-born Carneiro recently served as Assistant Conductor and American Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2005-2008, and worked closely with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. As a conductor she is highly respected for her commitment to new music.

"Over an intensive two-year search period the Berkeley Symphony invited six guest conductors to conduct over the past two seasons, all of who were under consideration to succeed Kent Nagano," said Kevin Shuck director of Communications for the Berkeley Symphony.

That pool included some highly regarded conductors - including former Frankfurt Radio Symphony conductor Hugh Wolff and former Atlanta Symphony Assistant Conductor, Laura Jackson.

www.berkeleysymphony.org

Could it be true that the National Endowment for the Arts may be getting more money from the U.S. government - and not less?

Sounds like a pie-in-the-sky hope, right?

Not really. Believe it or not, the possibility of more funding for the NEA is written into the House of Representatives' pending $825 billion economic recovery package - also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009.

The bill, announced today, includes an infusion of $50 million for the NEA under its "National Treasures" package.

That $50 million amount is in addition to its annual appropriations of $144,706,800 for 2008.

The infusion is designed to preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support resulting from the recent economic downturn, according to Americans for the Arts Action Fund, a nonprofit that watches legislation related to arts funding.

The House plan also proposes additional opportunities throughout other parts of the federal government that could also help the nonprofit arts sector and individual artists.

If the bill passes with the NEA funding intact it may signal a newfound committment in Washington, D.C., to increasing and not slashing arts funding.

There is good news and goodish-bad news from the New York CIty Opera.

The good news is that the company is finally moving beyond the Gerard Mortier fiasco.

Associated Press reported Thursday that the city opera has chosen George Steel as its new general director and artistic director. Steel succeeds Mortier, effective Feb. 1. The much-touted Mortier was hired in 2007, but backed out last year, citing the company's budgetary woes.

Steel is highly regarded in New York classical music circles for his directorship of Columbia University's Miller Theater, which become a magnet for new music.

Steel will have to shift gears quickly since he is backing out of his directorship of the Dallas Opera, a job he started in October.

The bad news is the company is paring down its 2009-10 season.

Or, perhaps this is good news? It certainly shows a strong dose of reality in the wake of Mortier's exit - and right now that's a good thing.

The company expects to announce a detailed schedule of operas in mid-March.

Well, it was bound to happen - the VHS is slouching towards oblivion.

The death knell for the VHS comes at the hands of the Florida-based compnay Distribution Audio Video. The company, the only one left stateside that distributes VHS tape, recently announced it will stop doing so in the United States, according to the website DigitalTrends.com.

Not that many people will miss the VHS these days, outside of libraries and resale shops. That's because the shiny DVD has outsold the boxy VHS since 2003. And the last time a film was released in VHS format was David Cronenberg's "History of Violence" in 2006.

Question is: will the DVD meet a similar fate at the hand of the Blu-ray disc?

Or will Blu-ray become the ill-fated Beta cassette of the VHS era?

Sales figures for Blu-ray discs suggest not everyone is flocking to replace their DVD collections with them.

There is talk of a Japanese company getting primed to release hybrid Blu-ray/DVD discs (read: more expensive) that can be played on current DVD players.

If that happens, and if the public embraces the hybrids, it might just be R.I.P. for the DVD, too.

Odds are if you watched cartoons as a child (and that's pretty much everyone, really), then it was probably your first intro to the world of Rossini, Beethoven and Wagner.

It's no secret that Warner Bros. cartoons, like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, mined classical music for its soundtracks. And On Jan. 10, the Crocker Art Museum, in partnership with the Sacramento Opera, will present a musical performance exploring how Warner Bros. cartoons introduced classical music to generations.

The performance will plumb how opera and classical music came to appear in the cartoons and how it was diffused into mainstream culture.

The cartoon masterpieces of "What's Opera, Doc?", "The Rabbit of Seville" and "Long-Haired Hare" will be shown. The program also features performances of three popular opera selections.

The free program will be given at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at Curtis Hall in the Sierra 2 Center, located at 2791 24th Street, Sacramento. Appropriate for children ages 6-12, the program is offered in conjunction with The Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons, on view at the Crocker through Jan. 18.

For more information, contact the Crocker's Education Department at (916) 808-1963. Reservations not required.

Local radio station KQJK, better known as "Jack FM", has been included in a multi-radio station swap between CBS Radio and the Clear Channel Network. The swap is part of CBS Radio's bid to shed middle market stations in favor of large market ones.

KQJK, based out of Roseville, programs the "Jack FM" format which touts the slogan "Playing What We Want". The format offers hits from the 1970's to current adult hits. The station broadcasts on 93.7 FM, and was the former KHWD before it changed format and call letters in the fall of 2005.

Clear Channel will add KQJK, to four stations it already operates in Sacramento, including KGBY-FM 92.5, KFBK-AM 1530, KHYL-FM 101.1 and KSTE-AM 650.

The swap, which must undergo regulatory approval, also satisfies U.S. Department of Justice conditions placed on Clear Channel Communications' merger with Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Bain Capital Partners. Clear Channel was bought by both entities this past July in a deal valued at $17.9 billion.

"This deal represents a financially advantageous opportunity for us to shed some of our mid-size market stations while expanding in a Top Ten market, which is our focus," said Les Moonves, president and CEO of the CBS corporation, in a written release.

As a result of the swap, Clear Channel not only gets KQJK, it will also add CBS Radio stations in Seattle, Baltimore, and Portland. In return, CBS acquires two Clear Channel stations in Houston.

Clear Channel Communications is the number one radio station owner in the U.S. It owns, operates or programs for nearly 1,200 radio stations in the U.S. and also has equity interests in 240 stations worldwide.

To a musician there's nothing quite like a recording to add a feather in the proverbial cap.

And if it is your first, all the better.

For the 185-member Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra the release of its first-ever commercial recording, entitled "Eternal Light," is a milestone. It not only marks its entry into recording, it celebrates its first tour with its very own orchestra.

The recording was made during the SCSO's tour performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall last June. That performance saw the chorus and orchestra tackle Mozart's "Requiem" and Morten Lauridsens "Lux Aeterna". It was one of the SCSO's best performances to date, and showed how the organization took to the stellar acoustics at Disney Hall. Both works are included in the recording.

The release of the CD (cost: $15) will be announced during its 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. "Home for the Holiday" concerts this Saturday at the Mondavi Center for the Arts.

The CD will be available for purchase at both concerts, and also on its SCSO's website: www.sacramentochoral.com.

And it will soon be a purchase item at Amazon.com, said Lee Blachowicz, vice president of the SCSO and its board. A total of 2,000 CDs were made of the Disney Hall performance. And it is the SCSO's intention to work out an arrangement with iTunes to allow the download of the recording, he said.

The recording comes way of a collective bargaining agreement that it entered with its orchestra musicians, and the American Federation of Musicians union in 2007. That agreement allows for the creation and selling of commercial recordings, and also stipulates how musicians will be paid for them.

That agreement also allows the orchestra to stream its music on KXPR and KXJZ, though Blachowicz said the details of any such streaming has yet to be worked out.

A $1000 gift certificate at Skip's Music is up for grabs for the winning performance in a radio choir competition hosted by co-hosts of the Pat Still and Tom Mailey's morning show at New Country 105.1 KNCI.

For the second year, Still and Mailey are soliciting one holiday song from any area school choir (or even just a classroom). The ten best entries will be posted on the KNCI website and there will be an online voting system in place for 24 hours. Some of the entries will be aired during the show's 7:10 a.m. daily slot, said Mailey.

The winner earns a $1000 gift certificate for use at Skip's Music.

Interested groups can sign up by going to www.kncifm.com, then clicking on the "Pat and Tom" page, then clicking on the "Holiday Idol 2" icon.

Last year's co-winner, a choir from Christian Brothers High School, has their winning entry posted. A choir from Victory Christian School was the other co-winner.

The deadline is Dec. 16. Winners will be announced by the following Friday. For more information call (916) 338-9256.

Well, it's Grammy time again. And as always, this year list of classical music nominees offers an impressive combination of newcomers and heavy hitters, each of them deserving an award.

And among the nominees is one of my favorite opera recordings of the year.

That work is the "Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny," (released by EuroArts).

That opera (or is it a musical?), debuted in 1930, and is a collaboration between Weill and playwright/librettist Bertold Brecht.

The recording is up for two Grammys this year - one in the Best Classical Album category, the other for Best Opera Album.

The Grammy nods are well deserved.

In the hands of the LA Opera, "Mahagonny" gets a modern and Broadway-like treatment. Much of that due to the inspired direction of Tony award-winning director John Doyle.

There's so much to like about this super-talented cast, which includes Audra McDonald in one of the most sizzling turns by a woman in any opera in recent memory. And Patti Lupone and Anthony Dean Griffey give strong acting and singing performances. And, as always, when James Conlon conducts, its top notch work.

One of the most striking things about this work is how it seems so topical.

With "Mahagonny" Brecht and Weill spin an elegant and jazzy moral parable about a cynical and corrupt society. It's both breezy and deep.

During its time the tale was seen as an analogy for the Nazi regime.

These days, it is easy to fill in the blanks.

Let's face it, having a holiday season without a sing along "Messiah" is like having turkey without the trimmings and stuffing.

But not to worry... lovers of Handel's great and joyous work will have the chance to sing along when the Camellia Symphony and the Camerata California Choir team up for a performance of the "Messiah" on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 4:00 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (2620 Capital Ave., Sacramento).

Audience members will be encouraged and expected to sing- along with the choir at the performance.

Tickets are $15 (ages 18 and under are free).

Ticket information: (916) 929-6655 or www.camelliasymphony.org.

The world's first collaborative online orchestra, (known officially as "The YouTube Symphony Orchestra Project") is now a reality...

... and it has a Northern California angle.

That angle comes in the form of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, who are participating in the groundbreaking project.

The project calls for online auditions, musician selection and a musical summit at Carnegie Hall in April 2009.

Here's how it will work: From Dec. 1 through Jan. 28, 2009, musicians from around the world are invited to submit videos showcasing their personal style. This will be accomplished by participants performing in two different videos - the first is their interpretation of an original Tan Dun composition that has been written specifically for this program. The second will be a talent showcase video designed to demonstrate musical and technical abilities.

A panel of musical experts from the San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and other leading orchestras around the world will narrow the field of entries down to semifinalists.

Also, the YouTube community will be invited to vote on the semifinalists from Feb. 14, 2009 through Feb. 22, 2009.

Musicians who are selected will be announced on YouTube on March 2, 2009.

Partners signed on as part of the project include pianist Lang Lang, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall. As an initial orchestral partner, the San Francisco Symphony will helpichoose candidates for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, as well as contribute educational content to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Web site. The SFS and New York Philharmonic are the only two American orchestras reviewing online auditions in the project.

For official rules of entry and more information, consult the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Channel (www.youtube.com/symphony).

Well.... it was only a matter of time. The Sacramento Philharmonic has discovered the charms of YouTube.

The video is a quick hit by Sacramento Philharmonic conductor Michael Morgan in preview of its "Bach to Blues" concert tonight at the Guild Theater (and running through Sunday in Orangevale and Roseville - see below).

The orchestra will be joined by the Paradise Church Baptist Choir for the performances. The selections to be performed include J.S. Bach, Aire in G, the Concerto for Violin and Oboe, and the Cantata No. 61 ("I Have Enough"), with baritone Zachary Gordin. The Baptist choir will sing gospel music.

Tickets are $25 general, and $15 for students.

For ticket information call (916) 732-9045 during business hours. Tickets will be available at the door at the Guild Theater, Magic Circle Theatre and at Temple Or Rishon prior to the concert.

The schedule:

Guild Theater
Friday, November 28, 8pm
2828 35th Street, Sacramento
916-736-1185

Magic Circle's Roseville Theatre
Saturday, November 29, 8pm
241 Vernon Street, Roseville
916-782-1777

Temple Or Rishon
Sunday, November 30, 3pm
7755 Hazel Avenue, Orangevale
916-988-4100

The Orchestras of Pasadena has appointed Modesto Symphony Orchestra head Paul Jan Zdunek as its new chief executive, according to a Los Angeles Times story.

The Orchestras of Pasadena, a 2007 merger of the Pasadena Symphony and Pasadena Pops, drew a lot of attention recently as one of several music presenting organizations forced to cut back on programming due to the downturn in the financial markets. A marked drop in contributions was cited by the presenter as the reason for cancelling two recent concerts. Both of its co-executive directors were also let go as a result of financial issues.

It's curious how the memory of a performance can grow in stature the longer it stews in the brain.

It's now been two days since I saw the violinist Jorja Fleezanis perform as soloist in Ernst Chausson's "Poeme." This was during the 50th anniversary gala of the UC Davis Orchestra on Sunday evening.

And I can't keep the sonic image of Fleezanis making short work of the "Poeme" out of my mind.

Maybe it is the fact that Fleezanis owns one of the most melodic and clear tones of any violinist I've heard in quite a long time. And so, it's no mystery that her career has taken her from associate concertmaster at the San Francisco Symphony to concertmaster at the Minnesota Orchestra, (a post she has held since 1989).

On Sunday Fleezanis showed the Mondavi audience how excellent technique allows you to nail down the tone and many expressions demanded of this tricky and patently French work.

If you are a violin lover, and you don't know about Fleezanis, keep your eye out for this great instrumentalist. You will not be disappointed.

Below are some recordings to get you started.

"Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin." With Cyril Huvé, fortepiano (Cypres, three discs).

"Aaron Jay Kernis: Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky." With Sanford Sylvan, baritone, Daniel Druckman, percussion and Robert Helps, piano (CRI).

"Richard Strauss: A Hero's Life." With the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Eiji Oue (Reference Recordings).

"John Tavener: Ikon of Eros." With the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Paul Goodwin (Reference Recordings).

"Stefan Wolpe: Violin Sonata." With Garrick Ohlsson, piano (Koch International).

Well, it's that time of year again when Gramophone Magazine releases its top 20 list of orchestras.

And as is the norm with this British-based mag the rankings skews to the Euro side -- with only 7 of the 20 on the list U.S. orchestras.

Which goes to show that lists are all in the eye of the beholder.

And as opinions eyes go, perhaps Europeans think what happens on their continent is better than what happens in the Americas?

How else to explain how great orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony and the Boston Symphony orchestras missed making the top 10?

The Top 10
1) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
2) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
3) Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
4) London Symphony Orchestra
5) Chicago Symphony Orchestra
6) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
7) Cleveland Orchestra
8) Los Angeles Philharmonic
9) Budapest Festival Orchestra
10) Dresden Staatskapelle

... and the Next 10

11) Boston Symphony Orchestra
12) New York Philharmonic
13) San Francisco Symphony
14) Mariinsky Theater Orchestra
15) Russian National Orchestra
16) Leningrad Philharmonic
17) Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
18) Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
19) Saito Kinen Orchestra
20) Czech Philharmonic

Who knows how many times this has ever happened in Northern California?

According to Film Music magazine, the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed a lawsuit in federal court against three state musicians unions. The suit alleges that the unions blacklisted seven union members who had resigned from union membership.

The lawsuit names American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Locals 7 (Orange County), 47 (Los Angeles) and 581 (Ventura County).

The allegations include that the unions refused the musicians access to a rehearsal hall, hindered efforts to find employment, and fostered discriminatory policies in contracts with several local symphonies.

Under the state's Right To Work law, payment of dues is strictly voluntary and members cannot be discriminated against by union officials or employers for their union status.

Local 47 did not comment on ongoing litigation when contacted by the magazine. Officials for Locals 7 and 581 did not respond to requests for comments about the lawsuit.

Musical America magazine has picked its conductor of the year and the winner - Marin Alsop - comes as no surprise.

Alsop makes a big impression wherever she conducts. In Baltimore, as artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, she has reenergized ticket sales. And the fact that she became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra in that role has spurred much interest in that orchestra.

More importantly, for those of us in Northern California, she has been the fearless musical leader of the Santa-Cruz-based Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. She has been the artistic director at Cabrillo for the past 17 years, and in that time she has been a tireless champion of new works. For lovers of contemporary music it is a joy having this festival within driving distance of Sacramento.

If you are curious as to Alsop's merits as a conductor, a listen to her
a recent Naxos recording of Brahms Symphony No. 3, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, will make a big impression. It's a powerful account, and I think it is a must-have recording.

Among those that were also given awards were composer Christopher Rouse (Composer of the Year), and Yo-Yo Ma (Musician of the Year).

Want to get a taste for what the Sacramento Opera has in store in its upcoming production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance"? Then attending a talk by conductor Timm Rolek and a performance by star Julianne Gearhart may be the ticket to enjoying this deft and taut satire on military mores.

The opera talk begins at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, (6151 H St., Sacramento). Gary Briggle, who will stage direct and perform the Major General role, will also be part of the opera talk.

Admission is $10 for general and $7 for Sacramento Opera subscribers. Tickets are available at the door. There is free parking at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. For more information, call (916) 737-1000

Intense interest in the election is certainly a sign of the times.

That interest, in the arts, is playing out in unusual ways.

One of the more curious is the San Francisco Opera's providing election returns on election night Tuesday for audience members who attend its production of Modest Mussorgsky's political opera "Boris Godunov".

On Tuesday, eight Hi-Def video screens will be positioned throughout the War Memorial Opera House and will broadcast the latest election details before the opera and during intermission.

This production of Godunov offers bass-baritone Sam Ramey leading an international cast and production team that includes conductor Vassily Sinaisky and internationally recognized director Julia Pevzner in their San Francisco Opera debuts.

Information: www.sfopera.com or (415) 864 3330

These days there's nothing more refreshing than the voice of a contrarian.

It's a sign of the times.

And one of the more interesting contrarians is conductor and academic Leon Botstein. He's conductor and artistic director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra which will perform at Mondavi tonight. He's also conductor and artistic director of the New York-based American Symphony Orchestra.

And he's president of Bard College.

Botstein has always had a great many things to say about classical music. And a great deal to say about education - some of it running contrary to popular views.

As a president of Bard College, a liberal arts college in upstate New York, Botstein has proved himself an able contrarian.

In the past, Botstein has advocated for the abolishment of the last year of high school. He did so in his 1997 book "Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture".

His gist?

Encourage high school students to voluntarily graduate in three years. It's a policy that he believes fits in well with the learning curve at a crucial age of educational development.

It's a policy that he has couched with the added benefit that such a move could also save property owners billions of dollars in taxes.

He called the current paradigm of high school outdated and leading to boredom and delinquency.

How's that for a refreshing take on education?

And so, it's no surprise that he is also a contrarian about music education.

"I see how little music education there is and I'm concerned about that, and I'm concerned we're not doing a great job with music education and music history," he said.

"I see how little a place music has to professors of the humanities at universities," Botstein said. "They often know a lot about art and literature but much less about classical music."

Botstein believes music education these days does not capture the imagination of young people. But he knows that classical music will not be an easy sell to a young demographic.

"It was never a children's affair," he said. "The question is: can we convince young adults to join in?"

When Botstein speaks of these issues it's not idle talk from a college president whose institution is content on resting on laurels.

An example of what Bard is doing with music education can be seen at its two Bard High School Early Colleges in New York City, where getting a diploma means you graduate with two years worth of college credits.

Some of the programs at the schools offer distinctive curriculum options. Botstein said that in its arts component adolescents are introduced to working music, visual arts and theater artists. In the program there are no music teachers. Emphasis is on the experiental.

One of the experiments that the program offers is teaching young people who do not know how to read music to improvise and to compose.

"One of the things that has been a mistake in the past in the teaching of music is the trend to teach music by rote," he said.

"What students really need to do is to learn how to improvise and they need to begin to compose early on."

He believes it is such an approach that can seed an interest in classical music among the young.

Ever wonder how 2008 presidential nominees Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain stack up on arts issues?

If you've been looking for it on the nightly news-good luck.

Some organizations, like the pro-public funding Americans for the Arts Action Fund, sees the arts as a crucial election year issue. The nonprofit has been keeping tabs on where each candidate stands on arts issues. To that end, it recently released its "Summary of 2008 Presidential Candidates Arts Positions."

The summary involves six criteria which are listed below.

1. Campaign has met with Americans for the Arts Action Fund to discuss policy issues.

Obama - Yes (on 4/1/08)

McCain - Yes (on 4/1/08)

2. Campaign has published policy proposals on the arts and/or arts education.

Obama -- Yes (policy proposal on 2/28/08)

McCain -- No

3. Candidate has made statement on federal support of the arts.

Obama -- Yes (during a Pennsylvania speech, 4/2/08)

McCain -- No

4. Candidate has made statement on federal support of arts education.

Obama -- Yes (Texas speech given on 2/28/08)

McCain -- Yes (statement released on 10/3/08)

5. National party platform includes statement on the arts and/or arts education.

Obama -- Yes

McCain -- No

6. Candidate has pro-arts Congressional record.

Obama -- Yes (Co-sponsored S. 548, Artist-Museum Partnership Act)

McCain -- No (voted to cut funding or terminate the National Endowment for the Arts*)

*Roll call votes on 7/12/00, 8/5/99, 9/15/98, 9/18/97, 9/17/97, 7/25/94, 9/15/93, 9/15/93, and 9/14/93

Source: Americans for the Arts Action Fund As of 10/03/08

The Arts Action Fund is a 4-year-old, nonprofit membership organization created by Americans for the Arts.

Couldn't make it to New York City to see Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony open the Carnegie Hall season during its celebration of Leonard Bernstein?

Well, you have two opportunities to catch up with an upcoming broadcast and a DVD release of the performance.

Locally, the Carnegie season opener will be shown on Channel 6 (KVIE) as part of its "Great Performances" series at 10 p.m. Oct. 29 .

Dubbed a "Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein," the broadcast will reprise the orchestra's soldout Sept. 24 concert.

The performance features music from a wide variety of Bernstein's music, from "West Side Story" and "On the Town" to Bernstein's later works. Soprano Dawn Upshaw, baritone Thomas Hampson and cellist Yo-Yo Ma join the orchestra in the performance. Also included is footage of conductor Tilson Thomas interviewing each performer.

The orchestra is releasing a DVD of the performance on Oct. 29. That release will be available on the orchestra's SFS Media label at www.sfsymphony.org/store

Information: www.kvie.org

Wouldn't it be a rush to lift a baton and conduct the 85 members of the Sacramento Philharmomic orchestra?

The opportunity to be a guest conductor is one of several prizes that will be awarded at the "Masked Ball on the Boulevard," an upcoming charity event benefiting the Sacramento Philharmonic's education and outreach programs.

Hosted by the Philharmonic, the event brings together fine cuisine, fire spinners, psychics and musicians under one roof from 7 p.m. to midnight Oct. 30. The event will be at the Greens Hotel, 1700 Del Paso Blvd. in North Sacramento.

Entertainment includes performances by principal musicians from the Philharmonic; the Philharmonic Brass, the Delta Wind Quartet and the Madrone Trio. On the non-classical side there will be a Latin/salsa band. The Moulin Rouge cabaret performers will also perform and there will be a costume contest with a $500 prize for best costume.

Tickets are $125 per person in advance, and $150 at the door. The first
200 attendees to purchase tickets will receive a celebrity-style swag bag valued at more than $250.

Tickets are available by calling (916) 732-9045 or online at www.sacphil.org.

When Finnish soprano Karita Mattila sings the "Dances of the Seven Veils" in Richard Strauss's "Salome" she appears in the buff, as is the tradition.

But she'll only be appearing nude for New York audiences.

For the national live simulcast audience, like the six theaters the opera will be shown in Sacramento, the camera will pan away. As a result some of the power of the scene will be lost.

That decision comes way of the Met General Director Peter Gelb, who decided that the simulcasts should be more "family friendly".

Hmm... so much for giving us hicks in these here hinterlands the option to decide what is family friendly and/or appropriate, and what is not. Heave forbid we're given the option to look away for the few seconds the Mattila appears in the buff.

It's all silly, really. Think about it, if you go to Salome you go with the full expectation that you will see a story that involves a healthy amount of lechery and depravity. It's one of this opera's biggest charms.

So, censoring such a work is like trying to make "Deep Throat" or "Last Tango in Paris" family faire.

Nonetheless, the show must go on.... and on it will go in Sacramento this Saturday, October at 10 a.m. at each of these six theaters:

In Sacramento:
Sacramento Stadium 14
Sacramento Downtown Plaza 7
Sacramento Greenback Lane 16
Natomas Marketplace

Roseville:
Roseville 14

Elk Grove:
Laguna 16

The adage "all politics is local" certainly applies to politics.

But it also applies elegantly to classical music.

That's because nothing inspires an interest in classical music among young audiences as when local and young musicians are featured at concerts.

This is the charm of the Sacramento Philharmonic's partnering with the recently formed local nonprofit Talent Launch, Inc., and St. Hope's Guild Theater. All three will join forces to put the spotlight on local talented musicians.

The initiative is called "Monday Music at the Guild."

The first performance in that effort will be at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20, and will feature student ensembles from Rio Americano High School and the performance will be held at the Guild Theater at 2828 35th St., in Sacramento's Oak Park.

The Sacramento Philharmonic is facilitating the production of the concerts, said Charlie Weiss, director of development and marketing for the Sacramento Philharmonic.

"With this inaugural concert, Talent Launch and its partners expect to inject a new, youthful element into Sacramento's music scene, inviting young people from throughout the region to perform dynamic and eclectic musical programs," Weiss said.

For more information call 916-732-9045 or visit www.sacphil.org

Location, location, location...

That familiar retort explains a lot in the business of real estate. And it explains how an opera company like the San Francisco Opera can keep pulling rabbits out of its hat in the major gifts category.

Nothing opens up pockets like the immediacy of geography. And when you're San Francisco you've got an enviable demographic from which to call on for major gifts.

That became abundantly clear this past week when the San Francisco Opera announced
the whopping $40 million gift from philanthropists John and Cynthia Gunn. John Gunn is chairman and CEO of Dodge and Cox Investment Managers. He's also board chair of the San Francisco Opera Association.

The gift represents the largest single gift ever received by San Francisco Opera, and is easily one of the largest ever made to any opera company by an individual. The gift surpasses the blockbuster $35 million gift by patron Jeannik Mequet Littlefield in 2006.

The best thing about this gift is that a major portion of the funds are slated to underwrite new special artistic projects, including the commissioning of new operas.

This all makes you wonder about Sacramento.

It makes you wonder who would ever step up here in a big way with a major gift.

Will anyone in the region take up the mantle of "super-patron" to allow a company like the Sacramento Opera the enviable freedom to commission new operatic works?

Location and demographics aside, it shouldn't be a far-fetched notion.

If you want to hear, firsthand, what's going on at the Sacramento Opera this year, then attending its "Coffee and Conversation" talks is just the ticket. The event will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, in the Lois Crowe Patio, Arboretum Terrace Garden, at UC-Davis.

Executive Director, Rod Gideons and Sacramento Opera Artistic Director, Timm Rolek, will discuss the company's upcoming season including its collaboration with the Sacramento Philharmonic and Sacramento Ballet in "Arias, Overtures, & Arabesques" which will be performed at Sacramento's Community Center Theater on Sept. 21.

Complimentary coffee, bagels, and pastries will be served. To attend, call the Sacramento Opera office, (916) 737.1000, by Sept. 10.

For rockers Ann and Nancy Wilson of the rock band Heart, there's nothing fitting about the Republican National Convention's use of its 1977 hit "Barracuda".

That much became clear after the sisters issued a cease and desist order that seeks to bar Sen. John McCain from using the song as an anthem to underscore images and appearances of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The song was used, without permission, as a musical backdrop during Palin's appearance at the just-ended convention in St. Paul. It was meant to capitalize on Palin's nickname of "Sarah Barracuda" that she earned during intense and aggressive basketball play in high school in Wasilla, Alaska.

It is not the first time that the McCain campaign has run afoul of musicians for it's appropriation of theme music for campaign use. In February, John Mellencamp, an ardent Democrat, told the McCain campaign to stop using his two heartland anthems, "Our Country" and "Pink Houses".

One of the most exciting things about the Internet is how it has been opening a door to the arts and creating audiences for things, seemingly, from thin air.

For opera fans, one of the most interesting portals is www.operacast.com, where you can find stations across the globe broadcasting operas you wouldn't normally hear stateside.

The Operacast portal offers a list of opera stations broadcasting high-quality audio on the Net -- some of them 24/7.

The site also offers something called "The Opera Table," which is a page of broadcast schedules that lists stations, program name, and times for each regularly scheduled high-quality audio operatic broadcast. In some cases the page also offers links to each station's highest quality audio stream.

So, if you are hankering to hear something from, say, Switzerland of France - this site is the place to go.

Ultimately, what I like best about the site is that it is user-friendly. There is even a page called "Internet Radio for Simpletons"!

As promised, the hugely popular Metropolitan Opera HD simulcasts are being released in DVD. The first installment of six operas will be released by EMI classics and go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 16. They include:

Puccini's "La bohème" and "Manon Lescaut"
Tan Dun's "The First Emperor" (from the 2006-07 season).
Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel"
Verdi's "Macbeth"
Britten's "Peter Grimes"

The Met's Live in HD effort also continues this year, and the simulcasts are taking on a more international scope with an expansion to 800 venues in 28 countries.

The final dog days of summer are as good for listening to music as they are for catching up on reading.

And that's a good thing because there have been some good CD releases recently, two of which I've listed below along with three I keep returning to....

1. "The Berlin Concert" - Simone Dinnerstein - (Telarc) new release
Dinnerstein leaves no doubt she can play the Romantics with an electric performance of Beethoven piano sonata No. 32.

2. "Ay Amor!...Constantinople" - Francoise Atlan (ATMA)
A truly wild and totally infectious CD of world music from Spain, Persia and French troubadour traditions. Hard to push the off button on this one.

3. "Eight Grounbreaking American Composers - "Class of 38" - (Naxos) new release
The concept is simple: a compilation of 8 composers born in 1938. The music? Compelling and indefinable. Includes the likes of Gloria Coates, Joan Tower, Frederick Rzewski and John Corigliano.

4. "Fiesta" - Gustavo Dudamel w/Simon Bolivar Orchestra - (Deutsche Grammophon)
Classical music of Latin America gets the impassioned Dudamel touch. A showcase for this awesome orchestra.

5. "Continuo" - Avishai Cohen - (Sunnyside)
Forward-thinking jazz that grows on you and grows on you and...well, you get the picture.

One of the more daring classical musical organizations of the last 20 years -- Bang on a Can - will be featured on a segment of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" tonight on PBS.

Bang on a Can was started 21 years ago by three young composers from the Yale School of Music -- Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe. David Lang won a Pulitzer Prize in music earlier this year. The organization has grown into a $1 million plus organization of great influence that garners commissions from the likes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall.

Through its record label -- Cantaloupe Music, the organization has also been elemental in bringing such genre-bending musical ensembles like So Percussion and Ethel into the contemporary classical music mainstream.

The segment will be the second one in the program and will air on KVIE at 6 p.m. tonight.

For fans of new and contemporary classical music this segment should provide some interesting food for thought.

If Judy Britts gets her way, the region's newest children's chorus - the Northern California Children's Chorus - will have a big musical impact on Placer County .

The new group seeks to provide a choral music program for boys and girls in
Grades 1 through 8. There will be two groups: a training level and an advanced level ensemble, said Britts, who is NCCC's founder and artistic director.

The group will hold an introductory event, "Come, Sing with Us!" at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, at Valley Springs Presbyterian Church at 2401 Olympus Dr., Roseville

The festival will give parents and singers an opportunity to meet the conductors, learn more about the NCCC, and a first chance to schedule an informal audition to be a charter member of the NCCC.

"My approach to repertoire is to provide vocal training through the classics, art songs, folk music of different countries, as well as selections suitable for a child's voice," said Britts.

She added that the NCCC's long term goals involve developing a multi-level program that includes weekly rehearsals, summer camps, day camps for the community, and eventually, tours nationally and internatioanlly to festivals.

For more information, call (916) 798-0104 or go to www.norcalchildrenschorus.org.

Interested in learning more about the world of opera?

An online learning course may be just the ticket.

This fall, 12 North American opera companies, including the Sacramento Opera, are partnering with OPERA America, the national opera service organization, to deliver a 2008-09 season of online learning courses.

The courses are designed as a portal into the operatic repertoire, but also geared to the opera aficionado. This season's offerings include: Verdi's "La Traviata," Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," and the world premiere of Andre Previn's "Brief Encounter."

Each course offers content that delves into the history, musical style, and dramatic structure of each opera. Written course lectures are emailed to participants once each week for four weeks. This allows participation at an individual pace.

So, what's not to like?

And audio clips and production photos are provided. An attractive feature is each course's interactivity, which allows for discussion among participants and instructor.

The Sacramento Opera, and each partner company, offers the courses at no charge to its patrons. The courses are available to the general public for only $10 each.

For more information, click here.

September marks the first anniversary of the death of Luciano Pavarotti.

To celebrate the anniversary PBS's Great Performances series is presenting "Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias," a new performance documentary by David Thompson. It will air on KVIE Sunday, Sept. 7.

The documentary combines rarely seen archival footage of Pavrotti and also includes fresh interview footage with Plácido Domingo, Joan Sutherland and Juan Diego Flórez.

Somehow, it feels entirely fitting to revisit the great Pavarotti on the TV screen. For it is there that he reached out to the largest audiences as opera's greatest ambassador of the 20th century.

I'll admit, one of the most refreshing things about a concert program is when there's a mix of the established with the untested work of a living composer.

And if that composer is the performer, all the better.

This was the great appeal of local pianist Tanya Plescia's concert at Sacramento's Westminster Presbyterian Church during its Music at Noon concert series yesterday afternoon.

In a 70-minute concert, Plescia offered the untested with the familiar. She began with the familiar -- Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 15 "Pastorale." But it was with the untested that Plescia made an impression.

The three original compositions Plescia played after the Beethoven showed a wide range of influences, and at times, a taste for pushing musical boundaries.

Here I'll talk about the most ambitious of the three -- the premiere of her "Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano." For this, Plescia was joined by violinist Ingrid Peters.

As one idea, the work does not hold together that cohesively. But Plescia's set of variations are everywhere full of color, and she's not shy about taking risks and being provocative.

The work began languidly, with a timid theme on the violin over static tentative chords. Not great food for thought.

But by the third movement things evolved into something different and entirely interesting -- a fast in-your-face scherzo. In the the sixth movement, where the best music was to be found, the piano and the violin exchanged potent musical ideas.

In this, violinist Peters proved a most willing medium for Plescia's ideas. Peters was not afraid to go for broke with her violin playing. She really brought to the fore many of the tactile and difficult ideas Plescia wrote for the violin.

Some of the latter movements offered motifs with a burnished Sibelius-like infuence. Her best writing was that which conjured the dark and the fraught. And many of the variations were musical ideas that begged a larger canvas. A string quartet perhaps?

The fact that this work, in total, was a hit and miss affair is less important than the fact that it came across as music that makes you think and feel.

And if that isn't the point of original music, I don't know what is.

It's official - U. S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is returning to her classical music roots.

The 53-year-old, who is a lifelong pianist, will be performing chamber music at the venerable Aspen Music Festival on Aug 3. It's a homecoming of sorts for Rice who studied piano there when she was 17 years old.

Rice, in an interview with Great Britain's Independent newspaper, listed Mozart's
Piano Concerto in D minor as her favorite piece of music although she has said that her favorite composer is Johannes Brahms.

For her Aspen appearance she will perform the first movement of Dvorak's Piano Quintet in A major, B. 155, op. 81 and the 2nd movement of Brahms' Piano
Quintet in F minor, op. 34.

A conductor like James Levine comes along only once in a generation.

And so it was disturbing to hear about his recent kidney cancer diagnosis, and news that the tumor was malignant.

Fortunately, the tumor was successfully removed last week, according to a recent Boston Globe article. That story said that Levine's cancer was caught in the early stages and his prognosis good.

Levine, 65, who has had health issues in the past, is expected to be on the podium for the beginning of the Met's season opener of Richard Strauss's "Salome" in September.

As current conductor of the Boston Symphony and longtime conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, Levine has earned legendary status in classical music and opera circles. He is equally beloved by musicians and fans.

And you would be hard pressed to find many recordings with him conducting that are not noteworthy.

He first conducted the Met orchestra in 1971 and became its principal conductor two years later. Since then, Levine has turned the Met orchestra into one of the world's finest.

Beethoven would have either loved or throttled Katherine Thomas.

Better known to the speed metal crowd as "Great Kat," Thomas is a Juilliard trained violinist who crossed over from straight classical to heavy metal after graduating.

She now specializes in superfast headbanging takes of classical works on guitar.

In that vein, one of her best known albums is "Beethoven on Speed".

And as for speed she's not kidding.

Now that I think about it, I'm sure Beethoven would have loved the in-your-face energy. And the dominatrix look.

Decide for yourself on this YouTube clip where she riffs on Beethoven's Symphony No. 5:

Could it be that we have one the best concert halls on the West Coast right here in our own backyard?

It's beginning to look, and sound, that way.

That hall is, obviously, Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Arts at UC Davis.

Out of curiosity, I ask as many performers as I can what they think of the hall. The consensus is unanimous about the extremely warm and clear acoustics. When conductor Paavo Jarvi came through here with the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra last year he was very excited by the acoustics. The Kronos Quartet's David Harrington is also a big fan of the hall. And they wern't being just polite.

As for me, the proof is the comparitive pudding. Recently I attended the Sacramento Choral Society's performance of Mozart's Requiem at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The acoustics, as well as the architecture, of this stunning hall have been much touted.

So how did they compare with Mondavi?

I believe the Mondavi to be the better hall. While the Disney offered a super-live and clear sound, it also offers extra brilliance on the high and low ends of the sound spectrum but nothing striking in the middle.

These are all equally balanced at Mondavi, with the midrange tones just as clear as what exists on either ends of the spectrum

And I'm not the only one who noticed differences. SCSO conductor Donald Kendrick noticed some disparities.

"The sound of the hall took most of the rehearsal to figure out and it was difficult trying to get a handle on it," said Kendrick. "The trombones said they couldn't hear much else. Apparently, the low brass in the L.A. Philharmonic complains about this also from where they sit."

Kendrick added that the violins were having trouble hearing the violas and cellos clearly. It made for a stressful rehearsal.

Luckily the live performance went much smoother than the rehearsal. At the performance, a nuanced sound from the chorus easily engulfed the hall. It was a sound not often heard at the Community Center Theater.

Acoustics aside, it's rare to find a hall as striking and as intimate in feel like Disney Hall, despite the fact that it seats more than 2,200 people.

But for my money, I'll take Mondavi.