Jason Victor Serinus

Jason Victor Serinus regularly reviews music and audio for Stereophile, SFCV, Classical Voice North America, AudioStream, American Record Guide, and other publications. The whistling voice of Woodstock in She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, the longtime Oakland resident now resides in Port Townsend, Washington.

Articles By This Author

An Interview With Susan Graham: The Intimate Singer

Jason Victor Serinus - November 3, 2009
Texas-born mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is no stranger to these parts. Since 1990, she has sung everything from Monteverdi to Jake Heggie in six different productions with San Francisco Opera, performed several times in concert with the San Francisco Symphony, and sung two recitals here.
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Review

Bryn Terfel Sinks the British Isles

Jason Victor Serinus - October 26, 2009

As powerful as bass-baritone Bryn Terfel’s voice is, it’s not strong enough to sink the British Isles by itself.

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Preview

Cowell, for Days

Jason Victor Serinus - October 26, 2009
Not since winter 1997, when pianist Sarah Cahill organized a three-day piano marathon of works by Henry Cowell (1897-1965) and those he influenced, have Bay Area music lovers had an opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the oeuvre of one of America’s most brilliant musical mavericks. Now, thanks to Charles Amirkhanian’s Other Minds, we can enjoy two different concerts on Nov.
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Review

Lieder Highs

Jason Victor Serinus - October 22, 2009
It was a night of opposites. For the first half of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s semi-annual Lieder Alive concert series in SFCM’s Concert Hall, we had tenor Eleazar Rodriguez, a 2009 Merola Opera participant who is compact of voice and frame.
Feature

In Memoriam: J. Karla Lemon

Jason Victor Serinus - October 20, 2009
Berkeley-raised conductor J. Karla Lemon, who conducted a host of local and national new music ensembles and orchestras between teaching gigs at Stanford University and other institutions, died peacefully at her Oakland home on October 15.
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Preview

S.F. Symphony Day of the Dead Family Fest

Jason Victor Serinus - October 20, 2009
Mexico’s Día de los Muertos is hardly a day for mourning. A celebration of those who have died, it centers on offerings of food, flowers, and fanciful ceremonial altars for the departed.

“We make our offering to the dead at either the cemetery or home,” explains conductor Alondra de la Parra, who makes her much-anticipated San Francisco Symphony debut with a Nov.

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Review

Pan-Cultural Beauty and Longing for Kim Kashkashian

Jason Victor Serinus - October 19, 2009

Award-winning producer Manfred Eicher’s transcendent vision for his ECM New Series recordings defies simple categorization. A case in point is violist Kim Kashkashian's Neharót, a collection of unusual, oft-rarefied pieces that transcend national and genre boundaries, the recording touches the heart with its universal expressions of longing and prayer.

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Review

The Demented and the Divine

Jason Victor Serinus - October 19, 2009

“The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death,” sings Salome, the eponymous central character in Richard Strauss’ 1905 opera.

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Preview

Laying Out a Smorgasboard For Percussion

Jason Victor Serinus - October 12, 2009
Some people are born to pound their way through life. Take Loren Mach, for example.
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Review

Thomas Hampson Surveys American Song

Jason Victor Serinus - October 2, 2009

Midway through his Song of America recital on Wednesday, presented by San Francisco Performances, Spokane-raised Thomas Hampson paused to address the adoring Herbst Theatre audience he had sung for on 10 previous occasions. “In many of the places where I’ve presented this project," the 54-year-old baritone declared, “people ask me if I’d please sing more songs like that one called Shenandoah.