Zoe Ellis's dramatic and colorful voice is known to music fans in the Bay Area and beyond. Described by reviewers as "a resourceful and inventive vocalist," she sang for many years with the Bay Area Funk band, the Mo’Fessionals. Ellis’s credits include live performances with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Donald Byrd, Phil Lesh and ...
Puccini’s famous opera is the story of love, friendship, poverty, and tragic death. Set in Bohemian Paris of the 1830s, it tells of four friends, all struggling artists of one sort or another. Mimi and Rodolfo meet and fall in love on Christmas Eve. Musetta and Marcello also love one another and, like Mimi and ...
This dynamic collaboration between guitarist William Coulter and violinist Edwin Huizinga explores the world’s musical landscape. Their performances blend iconic favorites with classic ballads, mixing North American folk and Celtic melodies with Argentinian tango and Bach sonatas. Described as “a monument to musical diversity and crossover brilliance,” this duo explores classical, folk, and contemporary traditions ...
Maiya Sykes, a classically trained vocalist and producer, wowed the audience at last year’s Festival Big Band concert. A graduate of Yale University, she continued her musical education at The Musicians’ Institute and studied independently with Nina Simone and Betty Carter. Sykes is a former back-up singer who has sung with the likes of Macy ...
“Few string quartets can command the stage like the Calder Quartet,” according to The Washington Post. The extraordinary ensemble is just as renowned for its expert, empathetic readings of core repertoire as it is for its thrilling commitment to new and unexpected programming. Returning to the Festival for the 12th year, the Los Angeles-based musicians ...
Prepare for an exciting evening of piano and keyboard work by perennial favorite, Julian Pollack (AKA J3PO). The San Francisco Chronicle calls him a “ferociously assured and creatively dazzling pianist, composer, and arranger.” After extensive touring this year with Chris Botti, Terence Blanchard, and Marcus Miller, Julian returns to the Festival stage to present his ...
The energetic duo of Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers will excite you with their interpretations of a wide range of contemporary two-piano music. The two San Francisco-based pianists have collaborated on many occasions, most recently for a duo performance at the 2025 Flower Piano in Golden Gate Park. This concert will feature both venerable and ...
For the past 50 years, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet has been making some of the most potent and popular Cajun music on the planet. Born out of the rich Acadian ancestry of its members, and driven by bandleader Michael Doucet’s spellbinding fiddle playing and soulful vocals, BeauSoleil is notorious for bringing even the most staid ...
In what has become something of a Festival tradition, Julian Pollack will join Susan Waterfall on one piano for the Sonata for Piano 4 Hands in D Major, Op. 6, a two-movement exercise in pianistic flair. Beethoven wrote beautifully balanced works for strings and piano, and this concert will celebrate that mastery. Sam Weiser will ...
Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, and national radio host Laila Biali has headlined festivals and venues on five continents. Winner of a Juno award, she has worked with Chris Botti and Sting. When not on stage or in the studio, Biali is busy hosting CBC Music’s national radio show, ”Saturday Night Jazz,” a weekly program broadcast ...
The polyrhythmic heat of Evie Ladin’s clawhammer banjo, resonant voice, real stories, and rhythmic dance have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Celtic Connections to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Brazil to Bali. A prolific creator and gracious facilitator, Ladin grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance throughout the East Coast. She brings ...
Shuying Li’s Purple Mountains overture will begin an evening of graceful lyricism and energetic rhythms. Amazing young violinist Mio Imai will perform Samuel Barber’s esteemed Violin Concerto. In her hands, elegant solo melodies will soar and mesh with lush orchestral textures. Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, the "Pastoral Symphony," is one of his few pieces with explicitly ...
American pianist Rachel Breen’s performances have been described as “truly show-stopping” (Gramophone UK) and having “a beautiful piano sound and original detail.” She has enjoyed an active and successful competition career and has performed and taught masterclasses around the world. If you enjoyed her performance last year, you will certainly appreciate this one. ...took into ...
Tom Rush is a gifted musician and performer whose shows offer a musical journey into the tradition and spectrum of what music has been, can be, and will become. His distinctive guitar style, wry humor, and warm, expressive voice have made him a legend to audiences around the world. His shows are filled with the ...
The annual concert by the wonderfully talented string players from the Festival’s Emerging Artists Program is anticipated by all who love hearing accomplished young musicians interpret chamber music classics and present exciting contemporary works. Each year twleve participants are chosen from the many who apply to come to Mendocino, receive chamber music coaching from principals ...
Originally from Canada, Sue Foley is a multi-award-winning blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. A five-time winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Female Artist, Foley has won a Juno Award among other honors. Touring internationally, she has shared stages with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, and Billy F Gibbons (ZZ Top), earning ...
The season will conclude with “Songs of Love and Loss” by Allan Pollack, a work for soprano, chorus, orchestra. The piece deals with emotions of grief and longing, blending contemporary texts and musical materials with Biblical passages. The mood will shift with Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 9 in D minor, a fitting finale for the ...