Previews

In a concert titled "Ye Sacred Muses — Music of the Chapel Royal" the choral group Clerestory gets back to its cathedral roots and music that inspired the ensemble's name. On the program are lesser-known a cappella works by Purcell, Byrd, Tallis, and Handel, side by side with a few compliations devoted to great Queens, and more familiar works by other greats (composers, that is).

For a "modern-dance company," ODC feels like an old friend. Actually, it's more than just a matter of sentiment. Known as the Oberlin Dance Collective when Brenda Way formed the troupe in Ohio in 1971, the now-geographics-free ODC took an old yellow bus to San Francisco in 1976, and became a vital part of the city's cultural fabric.

The upcoming performance of two works by British composer Ralph (pronounced "Rafe") Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) has Marin Symphony musicians lavishing superlatives as if they were CEO bankers planning year-end parties during the housing boom.

If there is any man who wants you to participate in Thomas Jefferson's "true secret, the grand recipe for felicity," it must be Charles Amirkhanian, the executive and artistic director of the Other Minds Festival.

Walking into Paul Dresher’s studio, a casual observer might think it was a rehearsal space, an experimental sound lab, or an inventor’s workshop. It’s actually all those things, and Dresher, the award-winning composer, musician, instrument maker, and founder of the acclaimed Paul Dresher Ensemble, presides over each aspect with the eyes and ears of a Renaissance master.

Now in her absolute prime, Cecilia Bartoli has established herself as one of the greatest singers of this or any age. It’s not just her phenomenal technique and unique, rapid-fire coloratura, both of which will be amply demonstrated in her presentation of María Malibrán’s Salon Romantique. Nor is it simply a matter of vocal beauty, which she supplies in abundance.

Stanford Lively Arts has been at the forefront of local Messiaen centenary year celebrations. In their last presentation, Christopher Taylor returns to the Bay Area with Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus for solo piano, a lyrical, mystical, and profoundly virtuosic meditation on the nature of the Christ child.

It has been more than 20 years since the debut of Helgi Tomasson’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake for the San Francisco Ballet. This time around the most-cherished and well-known of ballets gets a complete restaging featuring scenery and costumes by European designer Jonathan Fensom, who will try to avoid that “museum piece” feel.

San Francisco Symphony’s new Phyllis C. Wattis Composer Residency program starts with two weeks devoted to the music of the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. The first of the programs features The Light of the End, which the composer herself describes as a dramatic work in which much of the drama arises from the nature of musical instruments themselves.