Michael Zwiebach

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director Ben Simon always concocts a hook that appeals to me and puts me in the mood to hear a concert.

The Assad Brothers are the preeminent classical guitar duo of the last 40 years, having set the standard for technical excellence, sensitive musicianship, and innovative repertoire choices and opportunities to see them together have been dwindling over the past few years.

The always-recommendable Ives Quartet is playing one of their recent commissions on this concert. 

The recent San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow with the bright tenor voice wowed Mozart lovers last summer with his performance of Tamino in The Magic Flute.

In a good production, Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang’s 80-minute opera Ainadamar packs one heck of a punch.

Pablo Heras-Casado’s mastery of contemporary-music idioms is perfect for the S.F. Symphony’s West Coast premiere of Magnus Lindberg's EXPO.

With Lunar New Year coming up this weekend, take a few minutes to listen to these ear-opening Chinese classics.

“High art” is a vital subject for critical discourse as presenters of classical music face a multitude of challenges for their very survival.

In honor of Mozart’s birthday (Jan. 28), this week’s playlist is all-Mozart all-the-time.

When Lynn Harrell and the Berkeley Symphony led by Music Director Joana Carneiro take on Witold Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto, they will be taking a trip to the dark side that balances, in a radical way, the vivacity of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, also on the program.