Michael Zwiebach

We can’t throw a parade, but here’s a playlist ready for your celebration of all things Irish.

Thanks to the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth, his Requiem, one of the most popular choral works of all time, is sure to figure in the Bay Area concert scene a number of times this year. 

For a famous violinist, Midori cuts an intentionally low profile, so you can be forgiven for not noticing that she will be performing a Bay Area recital soon, for San Francisco Performances.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra and their dynamic leader, Richard Tognetti return  to Cal Performances for a wide-ranging pair of programs, featuring pianist Alice Sara Ott in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Cantare con Vivo is doing Sergei Rachmaninov’s deeply moving Vespers (All-Night Vigil) as their spring concert. 

Clerestory, the men’s choral group that is partly a spin-off from Chanticleer, is back in action on the weekend, with a program they’re calling “Bacchanalia”, a celebration of spring and music about springtime appetites.

When the exciting new music group Alarm Will Sound visits the Bay Area, tickets are normallyhard to find. 

Here is a short tribute to only a few of the great violinists who have played in the Bay Area in the last month, or who will play here shortly. If the list were complete, it would be twice as long.

For its first big concert, the newly-established Young Womens’ Choral Projects starts off with some fancy rhythms from Gershwin, leading to a whole set of Latin American polyrhythms, American spirituals, and other traditional tunes.