2025 - 2026 Season | Concerts at a glance
NOTE: The final concert of the season will take place at The Ruth Williams Opera House in SF on both June 6 and 7. Please select the subscription that includes your preferred date.
In restless times, the Left Coast season slows down to explore not only change, but the things which remain constant: time, memory, endings and beginnings, the pursuit of happiness, and our connection to the world around us.
We are excited to present three significant world premieres alongside music by Mahler, Mendelssohn, Strauss and Stravinsky, as well as less familiar voices, both old and new, which deserve to be heard.
Left Coast returns to its theatrical leanings in two works of music theater presented at the iconic Ruth Williams Opera House in San Francisco: Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale paired with a new work by David Dominique inspired by Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps.
— Matilda Hofman, Artistic Director
Midnight Memories:
Mendelssohn, Mahler, Moderns
Saturday, November 1, 2025, 7:30 PM (Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco)
Sunday, November 2, 2025, 4:00 PM (First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley)
Fanny Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler brush shoulders with composers of our time, past and present connecting through musical memories.
Metamorphosen
Saturday, January 31, 2026, 7:30 PM (First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley)
Sunday, February 1, 2026, 4:00 PM (Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco)
Strauss’s eulogy to the world he knew and loved is an outpouring of emotion, and one of his most intimate works. Metamorphosen is paired with other works that extract maximum power from small forces: Berio’s virtuosic Sequenza and the world premiere of Bahar Royaee’s viola concerto.
Sound Stories
Friday, March 20, 2026, 7:30 PM (Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco)
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 7:30 PM (First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley)
Volti and Left Coast meet in a new work by Chris Castro for storyteller and musicians, which explores the connection between sound and the spoken word in tales from the west coast. The human relationship to our environment forms a through-line from romantic to experimental musical sensibilities.
A Soldier’s Tale & Interrogations
Saturday, June 6, 2026, 7:30 PM (Ruth Williams Opera House, San Francisco)
Sunday, June 7, 2026, 3:00 PM (Ruth Williams Opera House, San Francisco)
“Do not share what you are with what you were...”
Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, written and performed during the 1918 flu epidemic, is a satirical examination of the pursuit of happiness. We pair this iconic tale with a new work for the same jazz-inspired forces, in which Arna Bontemps’ novel Black Thunder clashes with contemporary social crises. Omari Tau brings his theatrical brilliance to both works.
Image credit: Copyright Sally K. Smith, used by permission of Artist. The banner image is a detail of My Hidden Harp.
