Michael Zwiebach

Guitarist David Russell has walked away with every competition he has ever entered and has energized a huge fan base with his nearly perfect technique and musicality. His S.F. Performances show this weekend promises to be pretty special.

Opera San José opens its production of La bohème this weekend. Puccini's bittersweet love story reliably leaves new operagoers in tears and is tailormade for young casts, OSJ's specialty.

Bay Area audiences know pianist Hadley McCarroll, who is also a well-loved music teacher in Oakland. If you haven't heard her play, you might nip over to Old First Concerts on Sunday.

James MacMillan's passionate setting of the Seven Last Words has had a bit of a mini-revival in the Bay Area the last couple of months. Now it's the turn of the Sanford Dole Ensemble to sing this modern classic.

Renowned lutenist Hopkinson Smith has transcribed Bach's Suites for Solo Cello for the theorbo (a bass lute). Bach lovers can see him play the first three of them at concerts for the San Francisco Early Music Society this weekend.

The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble premieres three new works this weekend on the theme of childhood in what promises to be a real variety show.

Fans of orchestral music are heading for the San Francisco Symphony this weekend, where Osmo Osmo Vänskä is set to lead the orchestra in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

Dubravka Tomsic is one o f those really wonderful pianists who never seem to garner the accolades and recognition their excellence deserves. She's back at S.F. Performances.

Stile Antico, a great vocal group from England that's young but much-heralded, appears at Calvary Presbyterian Church this weekend.

Chances are, with all the concerts going on this weekend, Jennifer Stumm's is the only viola solo recital. Presented by the Mill Valley Chamber Music Society, Stumm is going for the gusto: Rebecca Clarke's extraordinary, underplayed sonata, one of Brahms' Op. 120 clarinet sonatas in transcription, and Benjamin Britten's inspired Lachrymae.