The SFCV Summer Music Festival Guide, 2026

2026 Summer Festival Guide

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival | May 9 – Nov. 13

San Francisco’s unique free outdoor festival in Yerba Buena Gardens opens on May 9 with a salsa dance party, featuring sonero (lead singer) Hermán Olivera and his Orquesta Taíno, famous on New York City’s Latin music scene for the past half century.

The festival offers more than 100 free performances over a seven-month period between May and November. Top attractions include Gamelan Sekar Jaya on June 6; SF Uke Jam on July 4; YBG ChoreoFest on July 25 and Aug. 1; and the Afro-Filipino Jazz Project on Oct. 24.

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San Francisco Opera Summer Season | May 28 – June 27

The Opera’s summer duo in the SF War Memorial provides comedy in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, May 28–June 21, and t drama in Richard Strauss’ Elektra, June 7–27. The company’s third annual Pride concert, June 26, will be emceed by Sapphira Cristál and conducted by Robert Mollicone.

The Barber is double cast, with the title role split between Joshua Hopkins and Justin Austin, with Maria Kataeva and Hongni Wu as Rosina. Benjamin Manis conducts, Emilio Sagi is the stage director. SF Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the Keith Warner-directed Elektra, and Elena Pankratova makes her San Francisco debut in the title role.

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Ojai Music Festival | June 11–14

Of all the summer festivals on the West Coast, Ojai is the only one that reinvents itself every year. 2026 Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s vision connects his American sojourn with his European modernist roots. The artists include the LA Philharmonic New Music Group, LA Dance Project, Attacca Quartet, and the Colburn Orchestra.

One strand of the extended weekend will be a celebration of John Adams’s 80th birthday, with performances of his Road Movies, Chamber Symphony, and the world premiere of Iron Jig. Another layer includes music by colleagues like Kaija Saariaho’s Sept papillons, Magnus Lindberg’s Related Rocks, and György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. Salonen’s own music is also on the docket, including Lachen verlernt, kínēma, Fog, and the U.S. premiere of a new work.

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Britt Music & Arts Festival | June 2 – Sept. 30

Located a day’s drive from San Francisco, this bustling festival, located in the historic Gold Rush city of Jacksonville, Oregon, has major draws to suit most musical tastes. The Festival Orchestra is in residence for two weeks, June 18 to July 3, and will play favorite masterworks with Music Director Norman Huynh. Of note: a world premiere composition by Gabriella Lena Frank paired with Gustav Holst’s The Planets under the stars (June 27), and bluegrass/classical specialists Time for Three performing Kevin Puts’s Grammy-winning concerto Contact alongside Caroline Shaw’s The Observatory and Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony (July 2).

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Hollywood Bowl | June 20 – Sept. 30

This granddaddy of summer festivals is stacked with talent. Music Director Thomas Wilkins and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra are set to contribute a highlight early on, celebrating William Grant Still, who in 1936 made history at the Bowl as the first Black artist to conduct a major American orchestra. On the concert are Valerie Coleman’s Fanfare for Uncommon Times, Still’s Mother and Child, and Duke Ellington’s orchestra suite Harlem, among other works.

Amid the movie music and the masterworks concerts, don’t miss the KCRW Festival, which kicks off with the reggae of Ziggy Marley (June 21), and a roster of stars celebrating the music of Wes Anderson’s films (July 12).

Other concerts to mark in your planner: Conductor Tito Muñoz’s debut (July 9) with a World Cup-themed concert featuring the world premiere of Adam Schoenberg’s The Art of the Goal, the National Symphony Orchestra’s visit with Music Director Gianandrea Noseda (Aug. 18), four concerts with Gustavo Dudamel (Aug. 20-23), and Herbie Hancock’s tribute to Miles Davis (Aug. 19).

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SFJAZZ Summer Sessions | June 16 – Aug. 16

This summer, SFJAZZ offers high-octane programs defined by rhythmic density and cultural fusion. Stars of the 2026 Summer Sessions range from legendary icons to contemporary trailblazers. Highlights include the Wynton Marsalis Septet (July 14–15), Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob (July 16–19), and Take 6 (Aug. 13–16) to close out the season. Shows will take place at Miner Auditorium and Joe Henderson Lab.

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Healdsburg Jazz Festival | June 12–21

Centennial tributes to Miles Davis and John Coltrane thread through this year’s programming. Tiffany Austin’s Freedom Jazz Choir honors both in Milestones and Giant Steps (June 14), and Marcus Shelby’s Orchestra opens for Kurt Elling with a nod to Davis’s Birth of the Cool (June 18). The lineup ranges from Charles Lloyd with Gerald Clayton, Larry Grenadier, and Kweku Sumbry (June 14) to a free Juneteenth Plaza tribute to Ray Drummond (June 13). Later highlights include Branford Marsalis (June 19), Hamilton de Holanda with Etienne Charles’s Creole Soul (June 20), and Cécile McLorin Salvant with Sullivan Fortner (June 21).

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Music Academy of the West | June 17 – Aug. 8

Music Academy of the West: The Academy is an eight-week summer conservatory where young musicians interact with master teachers and concertize as well. There is a performance nearly every day, and the series range from recitals by the teaching artists to family concerts to new music (the “X2” series) to performances by the Academy Festival Orchestra, and much more.

This season, the Academy fellows will be featured in a performance of Kevin Puts’s opera Elizabeth Cree, based on Peter Ackroyd’s Victorian-era gothic thriller of a similar name. Recitalists include violinist Jennifer Koh, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, and pianist Jeremy Denk. The Academy Orchestra will perform Gustav Holst’s The Planets, complete with recent imagery from NASA projected on the big screen; Samuel Carl Adams’s piano concerto No Such Spring with Conor Hanick at the keyboard; and Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait (Josh Brolin, narrator) together with Jasmine Barnes’s American Lament, featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.

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Stern Grove Festival | June 14 – Aug. 16

Since 1938, these free concerts in San Francisco’s spectacular 33-acre urban forest have entertained generations of San Franciscans. Although opera and ballet concerts were part of the original flow, the festival now presents popular music, except for the SF Symphony, which this year performs with guest Béla Fleck, on July 12.

The 2026 season opens with the Peter Cat Recording Co. on June 14, and closes with Al Green on Aug. 16. Between those dates, the Sunday afternoon concerts include Tune-Yards and KALW DJ Lady Ryan from the Bay Area on Aug. 2; Patty Labelle, on Aug. 9, and Public Enemy, on Aug. 15.

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Mainly Mozart | June 17–27

A longstanding San Diego tradition, the week-long Mainly Mozart Festival brings musicians from major orchestras to enjoy a busman’s holiday playing the classics at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla. There’s a fair bit of Ludwig van Beethoven mixed in here (his Third and Fifth Symphonies and Piano Concerto No. 3), but this year’s concert schedule is overall pretty well balanced and will include soloists like pianists Anne-Marie McDermott and Anton Nel, guitarist, Mak Grgic, and violinist James Ehnes.

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San Francisco Symphony Summer Season | July 1 – Aug. 1

The 2026 “Summer with the Symphony” lineup promises breezy fun and classic faves. On July 1, Chloé Van Soeterstède is set to make her debut conducting the first SF Symphony performances of Swedish composer Elfrida Andrée’s Concert Overture in D Major (1873), along with Felix Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony. The next day, A.R. Rahman, the composer of the score to the movie Slumdog Millionaire leads the orchestra in his genre-spanning music. The orchestra is at Stern Grove on July 12, with banjoist Bela Fleck, and on July 18, vocalists Kelli O’Hara and Sutton Foster pay homage to Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett. Singer/songwriters are represented by two debuting artists: St. Vincent on July 30 and Andrew Bird on Aug. 1.

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Merola Opera Program | June 25 – Aug. 15

Having launched hundreds of singers on their careers since 1957, the Merola Opera Program trains young artists over three months each summer. Part of the training is a series of public performances, all in the San Francisco Conservatory’s Oak Street concert hall.

The season opens with a recital called “L’Anima Napoletana” (The Neapolitan soul). There are two staged opera productions this year: Peter Brook’s La Tragédie de Carmen, an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée’s play and Georges Bizet’s opera (July 9 and 11) and Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (July 31 and Aug. 1). Closing the season, on Aug. 15, is the Merola Grand Finale in the traditional War Memorial Opera House.

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Festival Opera | June 13 – July 26

The summer portion of Festival Opera’s 25th anniversary season offers two operas, the first in concert performances on June 13–14, as part of the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition, and staged on June 19 and 21; the second in an abbreviated Opera-in- the-Park production, July 23–26.

Derek Tam conducts Handel’s 1735 Alcina in June, with a distinguished local cast of Nikola Printz in the title role, Courtney Miller as Ruggiero, Shawnette Sulker as Morgana, and Sara Couden as Bradamante. The cast for Gaetano Donizetti’s 1832 L'Elisir d'amore (The elixir of love) in July is yet to be announced.

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Chamber Music Northwest | June 25 – July 19

This summer’s theme, “Confluence: Our Shared Voices,” puts diversity front and center for a festival that hits its midpoint on the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Opening night is Americana of the Appalachian Spring variety. Then, the Oregon Bach Festival adds a bit of Bach to the mix (July 6), and mandolinist Chris Thile plays a special concert on July 10. There’s a New@Night series focused on contemporary music, including a performance of Kenji Bunch and George Takei’s Lost Freedom: A Memory, based on stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Festival Music Director Emeritus David Shifrin returns in the final week (July 16–19) to lead two clarinet-based programs.

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Pacific Symphony SummerFest | July 4 – Sept. 5

Pacific Symphony will open its summer season with a sparkling celebration of America’s 250th birthday on the Fourth of July — yes, you can expect a fireworks show! Fans of Star Wars, Back to the Future, and ABBA are in luck — concerts on July 25, Aug. 1, and Aug. 22 are curated just for you. The summer season will wrap up with a Tchaikovsky Spectacular: Concert of Hope featuring acclaimed violinist Randall Goosby. All five of the Symphony’s programs will be presented under the stars at Great Park Live’s state-of-the-art outdoor concert venue.

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Festival Napa Valley | July 4–19

Dinners and luncheons in idyllic wine country venues set the stage for a rich blend of musical and cultural offerings. The festival’s lineup features such major names as soprano Renée Fleming, trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. To kick off the season, the Uytengsu Family Opening Night (July 10) will include a composition by Gordon Getty and a new concerto performed by the Grammy Award-winning string trio Time for Three. Other highlights include the world premiere of a new opera by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, The Judgment of Paris (July 18), and a screening of The Wizard of Oz (July 16) with live orchestra accompaniment. Free daily Festival Live! concerts keep the doors open for all.

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Stanford Live Summer@Live | June 3 – Oct. 10

Enjoy music under the stars at Stanford’s recently renovated Frost Amphitheater. Stanford Live’s summer season begins with Paul Simon in concert on June 3-4, backdropped by the iconic Hoover Tower. Soon to follow are two energizing programs with the SF Symphony — “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” led by Nicolas Ellis, and “James Bond Forever” led by Steven Reineke with guest vocalist Lena Hall. To wrap up the season, Brandi Carlile brings “The Human Tour” to campus. The 11-time Grammy-winning songwriter, producer, and activist, who has collaborated with Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Alicia Keys, Hozier, and Dolly Parton is not to be missed.

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Carmel Bach Festival | July 11–25

The theme of Carmel Bach Festival’s 89th season is “the nature of sound.” This season promises to integrate climate consciousness with the concert experience, all set against a stunning seaside backdrop. CBF’s 2026 featured composer and curator is Angélica Negrón, a Puerto Rican-born multi-instrumentalist whose work lives at the intersection of classical music, electronic music, and found sounds. Standout concerts include Nature’s Poet at Carmel Mission Basilica (July 15), Counterpoint (July 25) with dancer/choreographer Caleb Teicher, and the Closing Night Dinner (July 25). The festival also offers free events, like pre-concert talks and community concerts in libraries throughout Monterey.

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Mendocino Music Festival | July 11–25

In a lineup that ranges from Beethoven to bluegrass, Mendocino Music Festival has something for everyone this year. Festival highlights include Puccini’s La bohème (July 17), the Festival Big Band with Maiya Sykes (July 18), a recital with the renowned Calder Quartet (July 19), and Festival Orchestra Concerts. Performances will take place at Tent Concert Hall, Preston Hall, Cotton Auditorium, and Mendocino Presbyterian Church.

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Valley of the Moon Music Festival | July 11–26

Valley of the Moon Music Festival’s 12th season is titled “Postcards from Dvořák.” Each concert will serve as a “postcard” from an era of the composer’s life, as his international travels shaped (and reshaped) his musical style. Don’t miss “With Love from Vienna” (July 12), “English Impressions” (July 18), “Russia: In Shadow & Song” (July 19), “American Roots” (July 25), and “Final Years: Going Home” (July 26). Alfresco concerts will bring music to the scenic outdoors (July 15 and 21), and a free Sunday morning concert is geared toward families and kids (July 19). VMMF was voted 2025’s Best Chamber Music Festival by readers of SF Classical Voice.

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Classical Tahoe | July 11–Aug. 9

Classical Tahoe’s 2026 festival is scheduled to begin July 11 and run through Aug. 9. The first week is composed of several jazz performances and events, including a Q&A with legendary saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. The middle and later legs of the four-week festival are punctuated by the Ron & Maureen Ashley Oasis Chamber Music Series, on the themes of “Landscapes in Sound” and “New World, Old World.” Attendees should look out for the season finale (which is not in fact a true finale, as there is a final chamber music program scheduled for the day after), Classical Tahoe Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s 7th.

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Festival Mozaic | July 15–Aug. 1

Originally founded over 50 years ago as the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Festival Mozaic has since expanded to offer a range of programming. Its Summer 2026 calendar includes performances every day from July 15 – Aug. 1. In honor of the United States’ semiquincentennial, this year’s festival aims to highlight American composers, particularly those with ties to California. Grammy-winning composer and conductor (and former inaugural Los Angeles Master Chorale artist-in-residence) Eric Whitacre will hold a “Meet the Artist” event near the program’s end on July 30, followed by a concert later that evening.

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Bear Valley Music Festival | July 17–Aug. 2

Bear Valley Music Festival’s 2026 season includes an eclectic lineup of events, beginning with a series of rock concerts that melt into classical performances by late July. Among the classical-flavored offerings are a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony — paired with pieces by three contemporary Japanese composers — and an “America250 Celebration” concert with music by American greats like Leonard Bernstein and John Williams. Musical theater fans may enjoy the inclusion of repertoire pulled straight from the stage, including selections from West Side Story in the America250 concert and a July 26 afternoon performance by Tony-nominated singer Norm Lewis.

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Music@Menlo | July 17–Aug. 8

Music@Menlo is a household name among Bay Area summer festivals, and this season promises to be no less impressive than in the past. The 2026 summer festival, titled “Redux,” includes more than 60 events over 22 days. For those who may not be able to attend Music@Menlo in person, livestreams will be available for some events. As usual — and highly befitting of the high school venue — the festival will include performances by over 20 young musicians interspersed among those by established artists.

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Ventura Music Festival | July 20–26

Ventura Music Festival’s 2026 season kicks off with its summer series July 20–26 and then will pick back up in October for the fall series. The one-week summer offerings include performances by Grammy Award-winning soprano Angel Blue, the Akropolis Reed Quintet, and Latin jazz greats Justo Almario and Jeremy Bosch. Those interested in getting their summer festival-going started early can attend Ventura Music Festival’s “free spring festival” June 21 in celebration of Make Music Day.

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La Jolla Music Society SummerFest | July 31–Aug. 29

For the 40th anniversary of SummerFest, La Jolla Music Society plans to bring together over 100 artists to perform in over 20 concerts. The programmed repertoire ranges from canonical pieces to world premieres, and includes a range of genres from European folk to American jazz — and, of course, some Strauss, Schubert, and Stravinsky mixed in.

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Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music | July 28 – Aug. 9

In laid-back Santa Cruz, new orchestral music is an exciting change of pace. The two weekends of the 2026 Cabrillo Festival are stuffed with music that is communicative and might even impel you to dance.

The concerts on the first weekend, on the other hand, are topical: “On Freedom,” which looks at America’s ideals vs. its lived reality, and “Defiant Dreams,” which “centers voices of resistance and cultural continuity.” Among the 17 composers in residence will be some of contemporary music’s most exciting creators — Clarice Assad, Vivian Fung, Elena Kats-Chernin, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Sam Shepherd. And in a special post-finale reflection, former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove will perform her poetry honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

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Music in the Vineyards | Aug. 2–23

“Taking Root,” the season’s America-at-250 theme, plants imported and homegrown musical idioms in Napa winery programs. The Isidore String Quartet returns with compositions by Billy Childs, Haydn, and Felix Mendelssohn (Aug. 5). “American Road Trip” spans Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, Florence Price’s Juba, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Nicholas Phan, and music by Chick Corea, Kenji Bunch, and Henri Vieuxtemps (Aug. 7). The Miró Quartet pairs Alberto Ginastera with Franz Schubert’s G-Major Quartet (Aug. 19), before the Inglenook gala marks 50 years since the 1976 Judgment of Paris (Aug. 23). A student masterclass, open rehearsals, and a Pachelbel’s Canon play-along round out the season.

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West Edge Opera Festival | Aug. 1–17

West Edge keeps a firm grip on its claim as the Bay Area’s most adventurous opera company. The season centers on the West Coast premiere of Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo, about painter John Singer Sargent and his Black model Thomas Eugene McKeller, with Markel Reed and John Bellemer in those roles, Kedrick Armstrong conducting, and Nataki Garrett directing (Aug. 8–16). Alongside it, Mark Streshinsky directs Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, with Laura Bohn as the Governess and Jonathan Khuner conducting (Aug. 1–15); Keturah Stickann stages George Frideric Handel’s Rinaldo, starring Kyle Tingzon, Shawnette Sulker, Nikki Einfeld, Sara Couden, and Efraín Solís (Aug. 2–15).

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San Francisco Bach Festival | Aug. 5–9

A five-program week keeps J.S. Bach at the center while ranging across the Baroque. The opening “Intimate Bach” program features Toma Iliev, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Bethanne Walker, Gretchen Claassen, and harpsichordists Gabriel Benton and Corey Jamason in Bach solo works and sonatas (Aug. 5). The lineup expands with The Musical Offering alongside Henry Purcell and Giuseppe Tartini (Aug. 6), then Bach’s Peasant Cantata, sung in English by Nola Richardson and Mischa Bouvier (Aug. 7). Concertos by Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and Georg Philipp Telemann follow (Aug. 8), before George Frideric Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day closes the festival with Richardson, Steven Soph, the American Bach Cantorei, and Jeffrey Thomas (Aug. 9).

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Monterey Jazz Festival | Sept. 25–27

Centennial tributes to both Miles Davis and John Coltrane shape the festival’s 69th edition, including Ravi Coltrane’s “Centennial Celebration” (Sept. 26) and Charles Lloyd’s Forest Flower 60th-anniversary set, dedicated to Jack DeJohnette (Sept. 27). The closing night prize is Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter’s first Monterey duo set in 34 years, billed as For Miles (Sept. 27). Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis opens the main stage with special guest Cécile McLorin Salvant (Sept. 25). Salvant will return for her own headlining set the next night (Sept. 26). Spoken-word debuts from Reggie Watts, Amy Tan, and aja monet add to the mix.

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