The Brannan Center opened its doors on Oct. 4 to an excited crowd of approximately 650 artists and audience members in Calistoga. The new 11,000+ square foot performing arts, education, and community hub is converted from the 150-year-old Community Presbyterian Church.
At a cost of over $12 million, the Brannan Center is located close to Calistoga Elementary School and named for Sam Brannan — founder of the town of Calistoga. The Center’s two performance halls are Upper Hall and Kozel Hall, named for major donors Edward and Sara Kozel. These two halls are adjacent to one another. Each can seat about 110 audience members, and the Upper Hall’s immediate seating area can serve as a mezzanine for a Kozel Hall performance.
“We’re particularly enthusiastic about inviting young people and families,” Executive Director Kyle Clausen said. “Brannan Center will offer daytime programming for school groups, eliminating barriers such as transportation and distance by bringing performances and workshops with professional artists to Calistoga.”
Much of the church was taken down to the studs and rebuilt with acoustic dampening material. The Entrance Hall and outdoor Dawn Terrace are new additions, while the shell of the original church building remains intact. This portion of the center holds the restored lancet windows and original virgin redwood ceiling. The Brannan Center has a Steinway piano, a large outdoor terrace with a fireplace and a finish of Texas limestone, and technology to support streaming broadcasts of performances.
Opening weekend performers included a piano trio from Music in the Vineyards featuring Daria Adams, co-artistic director of Music in the Vineyards, and Trio Tangazo, an Argentinian tango group working with Festival Napa Valley.
The Brannan Center’s next concert is set to have pianist Olga Kern perform a solo recital of Beethoven, Robert Schumann, George Gershwin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff — a program she recently played at Carnegie Hall — on Oct. 22, Kozel told SF Classical Voice.
Starting this fall, the Brannan Center will host a three-part intimate chamber series with the Santa Rosa Symphony through spring 2026. Performances will include Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and “The American Sound (An America 250 Celebration),” featuring a Symphony string quartet.
The center’s fall 2025 series is named “The Listening Room.” It will feature performances by Calistoga resident and Grammy-nominated artist Philip Claypool with The Campfire String Quartet; StringCircle, a genre-crossing quartet with a broad repertoire; the Linda Ronstadt Tribute Experience with flutist Ráyo Furuta; and Calistoga resident and bandleader Larry Vuckovich’s All Star Quartet.
The Brannan Center will also hold a regular “Brannan Center presents” series.
