Past Performance

Katie McNally Trio–Tuesday, January 22 “The new face of Scottish fiddling in the USA,” Katie McNally has made waves in both the American traditional music scene and abroad since the release of her debut album, “Flourish,” in 2013. Based in Boston, her latest project synthesizes her elegant and powerful fiddle playing with the talents of genre-crossing pianist Neil Pearlman and bluegrass phenom Shauncey Ali on viola. The trio's album “The Boston States” reinvigorates and reimagines the historic musical connection between Maritime Canada and ... Read more

New World String Project--Friday, November 16 Four highly skilled and well-known multi-instrumentalists join to create exciting music rooted in Celtic, Nordic and American folk traditions. Ancient and modern sounds mix on Swedish nyckelharpa, Celtic harp, fiddle, guitar, cittern, bouzouki, and more. John Weed, Aryeh Frankfurter, Lisa Lynn, and Stuart Mason blend extraordinary instruments and uplifting music. Weed and Mason play together in the renowned Celtic band Molly’s Revenge. Celtic harp master Lisa Lynne often performs in a duo with Aryeh Frankfurter, playing passionate ... Read more

Musica Pacifica--Saturday, October 6 Make Reservations Baroque ensemble Musica Pacifica has made its mark on the early music scene here in the Bay Area and beyond.  They've performed several times at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, as well as at other festivals and series around the country. Individually, the musicians who make up Musica Pacifica perform with Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists and many other prominent early music ensembles. Musicians Judith Linsenberg, recorder; Ingrid Matthews, violin; Gretchen Claassen, cello/viola da gamba; Derek Tam, harpsichord and Peter Maund, percussion will treat ... Read more

John Whelan & Haley Richardson--Friday, September 28 Make Reservations Seven-time all-Ireland champion John Whelan is one of the world’s best living Irish button accordion players. John was raised in the vibrant London Irish music scene of the 1970s, and learned his craft from legends Lucy Farr, Roger Sherlock, Paddy Taylor, Mick O’Connor and his teacher Brendan Mulkaire. John moved to the USA in 1980 and has been inspiring Celtic musicians and fans ever since. Along with his All-Ireland Championships, he was twice awarded ... Read more

  Western Centuries--Saturday, September 1 RSVP This is not country music. The first generation of country artists borrowed from everything around them: Appalachian stringband, Texas fiddle traditions, cowboy songs, Delta blues. Western Centuries uses every tradition and their modern spirits and ears. They are really good singers, brilliant songwriters, and great instrumentalists. They aren’t bound by any rules to write songs in a country style; instead they’re taking their own personal influences as songwriters and fusing them into a sound that moves beyond the ... Read more

  Amaranth Quartet--Friday, August 3 RSVP Equally at home with Mozart and Mendelssohn as they are with brand new string quartet compositions, violinists Emily Botel and Abigail Shiman, violist Julie Michael, and cellist Helen Newby met at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, formed the Amaranth Quartet in 2014 and have been going strong ever since.  They've been one of the featured groups for the past two years at the annual Kronos Quartet Festival in San Francisco. For us they'll present pieces from a wide ... Read more

Mads Tolling & Dan Zemelman -- Saturday, July 28 Internationally renowned violinist and composer Mads Tolling is originally from Copenhagen, Denmark and now lives in San Francisco. As a former member of both bassist Stanley Clarke’s band and the celebrated Turtle Island Quartet, Mads won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for a third. He has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, Paquito D’Rivera, Leo Kottke and Sergio & Odair Assad as well as with his own groups, The Mads Tolling Quartet and ... Read more

Elizabeth Blumenstock -- Saturday, June 9 Virtuoso baroque violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock is a local treasure. Bay Area early music fans know her well from her many years with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists, often in the concertmaster's chair. We don't often get her all to ourselves, though, so we're thrilled to be hosting her at Fifth Street for this rare solo recital. There's no shortage of videos of Elizabeth online.  Here are a couple we recommend, to tide you over until ... Read more