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San Francisco boasts one of the most vibrant and varied guitar scenes around.

The traditional Japanese art remains wedded to folk custom, but with a distinctive New World edge.

When Melody of China and Asian Improv Arts teamed up for “Shanghai Stories,” a concert of jazz and Chinese classical and folk music, exoticism brought a lacquered newness to familiar pleasures.

Mark O’Connor — the protean superfiddler, composer, music educator, and inventor of “The O’Connor Violin Method,” which has helped school countless budding violinists — heads to the Bay Area this month. The New Century Chamber Orchestra has designated him the featured composer this season.

Twice, in Sunday’s all-star-name evening of string trio music at Davies Symphony Hall, the center held.

In the hands of Philharmonia Baroque, expert interpreters and a seasoned period-instrument orchestra, it becomes apparent why 18th-century audiences were hungry for orchestral repertoire by the bucket load.

The Santa Rosa Symphony consists of about six dozen talented musicians, but during its performance Saturday, piano soloist Valentina Lisitsa stole the show. This 30-something, blonde, steely-fingered Ukrainian-American has technical virtuosity to easily match any pianist of her generation, and her musicality is out of this world.

The French Ensemble Zellig focuses on innovation and experimentation and is fully at ease traveling through time and musical styles. In its West Coast debut on Sunday night it was a breath of fresh air.

You have probably heard Carl Orff's Carmina Burana before. If you're like me, you've heard it many times. Even so, I have never heard it the way the S.F. Symphony played it on Wednesday.