10 Great Jazz and Classical Shows in the Bay Area This Summer

I know, I know — summertime is for staying out ’til 2 a.m., losing your mind to ear-splitting bass and dancing for hours. Not exactly the realm of classical music or jazz.

But there’s balance in all things, and this summer offers some exciting, not-to-be-missed jazz and classical performances in the Bay Area’s community centers, nightclubs and concert halls. Here are just 10 of them.

Gary Bartz Ntu Troop Revisited

June 9, 2024
SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco

Saxophonist Gary Bartz may be 83 years old, but each time I’ve seen him, he’s played with more imagination and spirit than many musicians half his age. For this show, Bartz reassembles his Ntu Troop project, responsible for classics like “Celestial Blues,” and the Langston Hughes poem set to music, “I’ve Known Rivers,” which he performed earlier this month at NPR’s Tiny Desk. (He was also part of KQED’s 8 Over 80 cohort last year.) Bartz is joined on this show by fellow East Bay resident Ambrose Akinmusire, a phenomenal trumpet talent.

Garden of Memory

June 21, 2024
Chapel of the Chimes, Piedmont

This annual event is one of the Bay Area’s best hidden gems. The idea is simple: place over 50 musicians throughout the Julia Morgan-designed columbarium, and let the public walk through to hear new sounds in jazz, classical and experimental music. The day includes Bay Area legends like ROVA, Sarah Cahill, Paul Dresher, Lisa Mezzacappa and Will Bernard, but the experience is less about marquee names and more about discovery. Surrounded by beautiful urns and receptacles for the dead, it’s also a meditation on existence itself.

‘Innocence’

June 1–21, 2024
War Memorial Opera House

An opera about… a school shooting? Believe it. San Francisco Opera hosts the U.S. premiere of this contemporary opera, about a wedding thrown into turmoil when the bride suddenly learns that her husband-to-be is the brother of the gunman from a school shooting from 10 years prior. Exploring themes of love and betrayal, and interweaving teachers and students — and ghosts — with the events of the wedding, Innocence has been hailed as a masterpiece. (A supplemental event, Beyond Innocence, brings the discussion of gun violence in focus with a variety of local figures from the church, public policy, television, public media and hip-hop.)

The Azar Lawrence Experience

June 19, 2024
Yoshi’s, Oakland

A saxophonist of compelling power, Azar Lawrence may be the only musician who can say he’s collaborated with Marvin Gaye, Busta Rhymes, Tina Turner and famed John Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones. A Coltrane acolyte, Lawrence has played nearly every style of music and returned home to searing, exploratory jazz; when I saw him at a Pharoah Sanders tribute last year, his playing was crisp and emotive. (Pro tip: If, like me, you make a tradition of going to Home of Chicken and Waffles after shows at Yoshi’s, know that they recently closed and plan to reopen soon, six blocks away.)

Kahil El’Zabar and David Murray

June 15, 2024
Eastside Cultural Center, Oakland

The Eastside Cultural Center is a small community space doing important work in the neighborhood; it’s also an excellent, intimate place for a jazz show. This exciting evening features two legends in a duo setting: multi-instrumentalist Kahil El’Zabar, who just released the 18th album with his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, and tenor titan David Murray, who brought down the sold-out house when his quartet appeared at Eastside last year. While they could easily perform at the Bay Area’s more traditional jazz clubs, it’s a testament to Eastside’s mission that Murray and El’Zabar chose the grassroots option in East Oakland.

Road to 100: The Complete Beethoven Symphonies, Year 1

June 9, 2024
Green Music Center, Rohnert Park

The Santa Rosa Symphony didn’t exactly have auspicious beginnings: its first performance, in 1928, was at an Elks Club. Now, nearly 100 years later, the orchestra performs at a world-class music hall, led by the inventive, energetic director Francesco Lecce-Chong. To celebrate its upcoming centennial, the Santa Rosa Symphony plans to perform all of Beethoven’s symphonies over the next five years, starting with Nos. 1 and 3. And who said classical music is stuffy? Afterward, Lecce-Chong and the musicians will join a “Beethoven BBQ” on the lawn outside, chowing down on chicken drumsticks and chillin’ with the audience.

‘Pathways: Florence Price Piano Quintet’

June 8 and 9, 2024
Ruth Williams Opera House, Bayview, San Francisco
Piedmont Center for the Arts, Piedmont

In 2009, the new owners of a house in Illinois stumbled upon reams of music manuscripts. They turned out to be the works of the late Black composer Florence Price, sparking a renaissance for Price’s music once the newly discovered pieces were performed and recorded. One of them, the Piano Quintet in A Minor, forms the centerpiece of these two shows by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Pairing Price’s quintet with a piece by American composer David Sanford, as well as new works seeing their world premieres, the performances should open new possibilities in classical music, both past and future.

Kronos Festival 2024

June 20–23, 2024
SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco

It’s a new era for the venerable, ever-searching Kronos Quartet: violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt are retiring after 46 years with the group. This year’s annual Kronos Festival is their send-off, and what a party it is. Over four days, pieces by Terry Riley, Mahsa Vahdat, Sun Ra, Nicole Lizée, Zachary James Watkins and many others will get the full Kronos treatment. The festivities conclude with a performance of the “live documentary” A Thousand Thoughts, and a farewell to Sherba and Dutt. Expect a long standing ovation; they deserve it.

Esa-Pekka Salonen & Sheku Kanneh-Mason

June 13–15, 2024
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

What with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s impending departure — not without controversy — from the San Francisco Symphony, I can’t be the only one making plans to catch him on the podium as much as possible in the coming year. An attractive option comes with Salonen conducting Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, with the British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Shortly afterward in June, Salonen conducts Schumann’s Piano Concerto as well as Mahler’s Third, but my money’s on Shostakovich, and the cellist who, yes, performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Remember the Titans: Mahler, Mozart and Márquez

June 1 and 2, 2024
California Theatre, San Jose

San Francisco can’t have a complete lock on Mahler, now, can it? In this cheekily titled program, Symphony San Jose performs Mahler’s First — the “Titan” symphony — a tone poem–esque work that marked the beginning of a legendary run. In another shade of the harmonic spectrum is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, used to great effect in the film Elvira Madigan. Rounding out the program is Danzon No. 2, by the living Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, which captures the lively rhythms and flavors of mariachi.