Michael Zwiebach

To the rest of America, S.F. is the home of gay rights. But the S.F. Bay Area is also a music capital, so it makes sense that the Annual Pride Celebration should make a place for a number of the city's pioneering GLBTQ music ensembles.

Over at the Jewish Museum, a new exhibit on Gertrude Stein is in full swing. On Thursday the Museum hosts the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony and their special guest, New York TImes music critic Anthony Tommasini in a program about the collaborations between Stein and composer Virgil Thomson.

There are lots of big music events going on in the Bay Area this week, but let's not forget about Ojai North! In two concerts soprano Dawn Upshaw performs Winds of Destiny, her collaborative work with director Peter Sellars.

There are a lot of great ways to take advantage of the longest day of the year, otherwise known as the summer solstice. For music fans and, increasingly, for many families in the Bay Area, there's a clear winner: the Garden of Memory Day of Music at Oakland's Chapel of the Chimes.

The opening program of the Carmel Bach Festival is a performance of Joseph Haydn's magnificent oratorio, The Creation. With an impressive lineup of soloists it is this year's main event.

Elliott Sharp brings his interest in modified instruments like "guitarbass," an instrument that was built especially for him, to Meridian Gallery

Young violinists, cellists, and even one violist from the United States' elite conservatories will once again be displaying their virtuosity at the Irving M. Klein String Competition finals at Knuth Hall on the SFSU campus this weekend.

Romance is on the minds of several Bay Area groups this weekend. Chanticleer's series of spring concerts kicks off this Friday, and love poetry forms the center of their program.

Elena Sharkova, who heads the 90-voice Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, will use her intimate knowledge of works such as Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov's 1907 All-Night Vigil, in a concert that music lovers of all kinds should make an effort to see.

Concertmaster Laura Albers stakes out her space in the orchestra pit, then revs up to play Wagner’s long, intense operas.