There’s lots to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend. Here are several shows and exhibits you should know about.
Please make sure to check an event or exhibition’s website for COVID updates and safety precautions before you go.
Tunes for cartoons
The Queen’s Cartoonists are a group of six musicians who hail from Queens, New York, and specialize in family-friendly concerts that deliver, as they put it, “virtuosic musicianship, multi-instrumental mayhem, and comedy.” And cartoons. Lots of cartoons.
In fact, that is the foundation of the act. The band performs scores, soundtracks and theme songs from cartoons ranging from classics nearly a century old to contemporary works. And the music is performed with plenty of cartoon clips and comedic commentary. Sometimes, classic theme songs are re-created not for note. For other animated works, band members create their own score. And it’s all delivered with an improvisational flair; the band prefers to describe their shows as more of a “musical circus” than a simple concert.
The Cartoonists arrive in the Bay Area this week for a trio of shows.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Jan/. 26 at Livermore’s Bankhead Theater; $20-$78; livermorearts.org; 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at Montalvo Arts Center Carriage House in Saratoga’; $66-$70; www.montalvoarts.org; 8 p.m. Feb. 2 at Yoshi’s in Oakland; $44-$79; yoshis.com.
— Bay Area News Foundation
New SF Christie’s opens
A man and woman face each other with open lips mere inches apart. It could be a lover’s assignation, except for the fact their disembodied heads dangle from a knotted cord.
Alison Saar’s “Kiss on a Rope” is just one striking image in a new exhibit of portraits about the Black experience in America. “Witness to This Game: Selections from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” — part of an inaugural series at Christie’s in downtown San Francisco — gathers more than 60 prints exploring Black identity, culture and history from celebrated artists like Kehinde Wiley, Mark Bradford, Robert Colescott and Romare Bearden.
Some of the pieces are joyous: Derrick Adams’ “Self Portrait on a Float” shows the artist having a blast on an inflatable pool unicorn. And some are cutting, like Mildred Howard’s ladies in old-fashioned gowns that (as the Bay Area native has said) references a “game in which women and in particular women of color are expected to serve as pawns without agency or strength.”
“Voices across the globe have been calling on art institutions for more Black representation in leadership, theorization, exhibition and collection, and we are witnessing a strong response,” says Rhea Fontaine, partner and gallery director at Berkeley’s Paulson Fontaine Press. “‘Witness to This Game’… is right in step.”
Details: Through March 25; hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday; Christie’s San Francisco, 49 Geary St., Ste. 530; christies.com/exhibitions/witness-to-this-game.
— John Metcalfe, staff
Classical highlights: MTT Part 2, Cal Symph, Paul Appleby
Classical music lovers will want to check out these three events on this weekend’s calendar.
MTT returns: San Francisco Symphony music director laureate Michael Tilson Thomas returns to Davies Symphony Hall for the second straight weekend to lead a program featuring the return of superstar pianist Yuja Wang in a performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1; Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 completes the program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27-29; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $20-$250; www.sfsymphony.org.
California Symphony takes flight: There’s a decided bird theme in California Symphony’s program this weekend: from Sibelius’s “Swan of Tuonela” to the nature sounds of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 and Haydn’s Symphony No. 83, “The Hen,” it’s a program of avian delights. Music director Donato Cabrera, who conducted a magnificent performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony in the orchestra’s previous program, opens this one with the composer’s beloved “The Lark Ascending,” with concertmaster Jennifer Cho as soloist.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; proof of vaccination required as masks must be worn inside the venue; $44-$74; 925-943-7469; www.californiasymphony.org.
Appleby sings: American tenor Paul Appleby made an indelible impression as miner Joe Cannon in the world premiere of John Adams’ “Girls of the Golden West” at San Francisco Opera and is slated to return to the company as Cesar in the world premiere of Adams’ “Antony and Cleopatra” this fall. He makes a much-anticipated stop for a vocal recital at Cal Performances on Sunday. Accompanied by pianist Conor Hanick, Appleby will sing music by Schubert and Schumann, Alban Berg’s “Altenberg Lieder,” and Beethoven’s lone song cycle, “An die ferne Geliebte.”
Details: 3 p.m. Sunday; Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley; proof of vaccination required and masks must be worn in the venue; $63-$68; calperformances.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
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