This year’s San Francisco Conservatory ‘exports’ to the Kennedy Center
Millennium Stage is a series of free concerts offered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, which take place every day at 6 PM (local time). Not only is admission free but also the performances are offered through live webcasts. The captured video is then archived for viewing at the convenience of any would-be audience. The San Francisco Conservatory has been participating in this series since 2004 through the Conservatory Project, which features the best talent from our country's best venues for advanced music education; and all seven of their past performances have been archived. The next one is scheduled for April 26.
Kronos Quartet, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Last week, to inaugurate a three-year relationship with this city’s most adventurous arts complex, the quartet revived the piece in a new production and, with it, reawakened the anxiety and despair of that woeful conflict. The players fiddle, wander the stage, strike gongs, shake maracas and, in the piece’s most haunting episode, three of the musicians on illuminated platforms bow crystal goblets, while the cellist intones a lamenting solo. The years have not muted the quartet’s buzzing attacks in the famous “Night of the Electric Insects” section. Black Angels disturbs still.