Features

It will never be “same old, same old,” if you organize your concert calendar around these new and unusual concerts.

Less popular than Mozart's comic operas, his Idomeneo is still a dramatic, musically bold opera with a lot to say. It's also the biggest production Opera San José has yet undertaken.

Though there are fewer big presenters in the South Bay, you don't have to trek north to find great artists playing seriously entertaining music. Here are a few best bets in the San Jose-Palo Alto area.

The Bay Area’s fall bounty of music includes delicious selections from jazz, pop, and other musics from around the globe. Here are a few worth your notice.

For Beck-Ruiz and His Choir, Elijah Is Child’s Play
Youth Performances in the Presidio San Francisco
Berkeley Music Festival a Joyful Romp

Read an account of the Gamelan and its Balinese roots in excerpt from Music of the Peoples of the World by Bill Alves.

Read more about the Gamelan influence on Western music and composers such as Claude Debussy and Benjamin Britten.

Gamelan holds surprisingly wide appeal in America, which has more than 200 ensembles. SFCV profiles Gamelan Sekar Jaya, easily the best-known gamelan orchestra in the Bay Area, as it continues to reach a fascinating cross-section of music lovers.