Goldstar

The Great Broadway Sing-Along mixes performance with audience participation in an evening of classic show tunes. Producer Ellie Mednick and an outstanding cast perform well-known songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, the Gershwins, Porter, Sondheim and Berlin, from hit shows like West Side Story, Mary Poppins, Hair and Billy Elliot. This popular event is suitable for the whole family. Learn more...

E.L. Doctorow's books offer a rich imagining of the American past, from The Civil War (The March) to turn-of-the-century New York populated by Henry Ford, Emma Goldman and J. P. Morgan (Ragtime) and The Rosenberg Trial of the 1950s (The Book of Daniel). Not only is he the winner of every major literary award and one of this country's most distinguished writers, he's also an engaging speaker. He'll be joined in conversation by author Adam Hochschild (Bury the Chains). Learn more...

Like a small, organic urban garden, 2 Foot Yard sprouts nutritious, lush music that defies restrictions. With violin, cello, voice and drums, the band pushes the boundaries between art song and pop song, evoking the intimacy of chamber music and at the same time creating the raw and visceral expression of rock. Learn more...

Hosted and narrated by opera legend Regina Resnik, this concert explores the evolution of Kurt Weill's endless array of musical styles from Berlin in the 1920s to Paris in the 1930s and finally New York in the 1940s. Excerpts from the composer's great works are presented by Ms. Resnik, whose witty and poignant reflections on the material make her the ideal guide for this special evening. Learn more...

Each year in Fes, Morocco, the city hosts the highly acclaimed Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, a one-of-a-kind celebration of the divine through music, song and dance. The Friend Center presents an extraordinary evening that begins with the ancient music of Gregorian chant and moves through South India's classical tradition, ending with Andalusian music. The festival presents the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in collaboration with those from the Hindu sacred tradition. Learn more...

An eye, ear and mind-opening experience, Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations begin with an insightful and entertaining prologue on the music and its composer, followed by a full performance of the works, ending with a lively question and answer session. Siegel's enthusiasm is contagious, his credentials are world-class and his virtuosity is amazing. Learn more...

Relive one of baseball's most storied moments, the "shot heard round the world," with Josh Prager, the writer who broke the story of its secret. To baseball fans, October 3, 1951, is a pivotal date, when Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit a homerun off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers to secure a miraculous comeback victory for his team and win the pennant. Prager discusses the real story of what happened that day. Learn more...

Armistead Maupin's beloved characters from Tales of the City have cut a wide swath through popular culture. The Night Listener, his novel inspired by a real-life telephone friendship, is a new movie starring Robin Williams and Sandra Oh and the subject of intense literary debate. His conversation with Barbara Lane at the Jewish Community Center will reveal what one of San Francisco's favorite adopted sons has on his radar. Learn more...

Edward P. Jones, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, comes to the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco in conversation with V. Denise Bradley, Executive Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora. Jones is the acclaimed author of The Known World and a collection of short stories, Lost in the City, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award. Learn more...

Growing up Jewish in Salt Lake City, Roseanne Barr collected a wealth of material at an early age. As an adult, she evolved from a stand up sensation with her "Domestic Goddess" persona to a television superstar, amassing four Emmy awards for her landmark hit TV series. She brings her one-woman show to Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Learn more...

Originally known for an appearance reminiscent of David Bowie in his glam-rock days, Aviv Geffen has since distanced himself from that image--but he's grown into his rock-idol status gracefully. Many of his songs have become classics of Israeli pop-folk music, and many are ballads with serious socio-political critiques. Aviv performed at the November 1995 peace rally at which Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, and has since performed every year at the annual memorial at Rabin Square. All proceeds from this concert go to rebuilding Northern Israel. Learn more...

Historian Deborah Lipstadt discusses History on Trial, a powerful account of her much-publicized libel case in London against fellow historian David Irving, who sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier. Professor Lipstadt hosts a discussion of the courtroom confrontations of one of the most important legal battles in recent history, and discusses its implications on freedom of speech and historical truth. Learn more...

Join the Pacific Chamber Symphony in celebration of Mozart's 250th birthday. The symphony will enjoy some of his early, exuberant work, revel in his lyrical beauty, and conclude with one of the great symphonies of all time, his 40th Symphony, a work of towering emotional magnitude. Learn more...

An eye, ear and mind-opening experience, Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations begin with an insightful and entertaining prologue on the music and its composer, followed by a full performance of the works, ending with a lively question and answer session. Siegel's enthusiasm is contagious, his credentials are world-class and his virtuosity is amazing. Learn more...

Combining clever acrobatics, physical comedy and inventive choreography, Galumpha brings to life a world of imagination, beauty, muscle and merriment. A three-headed human fly? Totem poles that come to life? Velcro-helmeted weirdoes who defy the laws of physics? For kids ages three to ninety three! Learn more...

Rova:Arts presents Rovate, an annual celebration of improvised music and other arts, in 2006 featuring the world premiere performances of Glass Head. Bringing together music (Rova), image (Koziol), theater (Lafky), and dance (Koga and Kaseki), Glass Head will explore the realms of 21st-century assumption, opposition, and suspicion -- the sanctity of thought, protection vs. isolation, stability vs. chaos, memory vs. illusion. Learn more...

The Friend Center for the Arts presents historical classic jazz performances on film narrated by master archivist Mark Cantor, at Kanbar Hall. The Los Angeles Times calls Cantor's collection "an extraordinary treasure trove." Throughout the 1920s, 30s and 40s, jazz was produced primarily as accompaniment for dance -- Lindy Hop, jitterbug, tap, eccentric and more. Enjoy an evening of film starring the Nicholas Brothers, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Tip, Tap and Toe, the Four Step Brothers, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, "Snakehips" Tucker, and a lot more. Learn more...

Come and be swept away by an exuberant Mozart overture, revel in Schubert's beautiful melodies as Berio has imaginatively rendered, tap your toe the jazzy feel Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wayne Peterson's newest work, and dance away with Korngold's light-hearted Strauss. Learn more...

Award-winning film, television and stage performer Lainie Kazan has been selling out houses in Europe, Asia and the United States. Kazan, who started out as Barbra Streisand's understudy in the Broadway production of "Funny Girl," has an amazing voice and performing talent that has kept her working nonstop in theatre, film and television. Kazan, star of CBS's "My Big Fat Greek Life," performs live at Kanbar Hall. Learn more...

The Jewish Music Festival presents Yiddish Matters, a conversation with poet-singer Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, her son Itzik Gottesman (Associate Editor of the Yiddish Forward) and Yiddishist Harvey Varga. Learn more...

Full of energy and passion, the spirited Del Sol Quartet brings an evening of cutting edge music-making to Kanbar Hall, as they perform the work of this genre-defying young African-American composer. DBR is a pioneer in new forms as he marries the instrumentation of string quartet with electric violin, laptop and Hip Hop turntablist. Learn more...

Master archivist Mark Cantor presents Giants of Jazz on Film, featuring classic performances on film by some of the greatest jazz singers of all-time, including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nat "King" Cole, Louis Armstrong and more. Learn more...

Described by The New York Times as "electrifying" and hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a local treasure," Robert Moses' Kin will present its own eloquent and streetwise brand of contemporary dance. Two programs, two world premieres and two repertory works, including the award-winning The Soft Sweet Smell of Firm Warm Things and The President's Daughter, will highlight the performances of this mesmerizing group. Learn more...

Described by the New York Times as "electrifying" and hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a local treasure," Robert Moses' Kin will present its own eloquent and streetwise brand of contemporary dance. Learn more...

Master archivist Mark Cantor presents Giants of Jazz on Film, featuring classic performances on film by some of the legendary giants of jazz, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and more. Learn more...

Celebrating her 85th year, internationally renowned dance icon Anna Halprin brings her groundbreaking dance company to the JCC's Kanbar Hall. Fresh from sold-out performances in Paris, Halprin and her company show us why she is considered a monumental force in dance, inspiring generations of dancers to restore forgotten ties between dance, nature and myth. Learn more...

Widely recognized as one of the masterworks of the 20th century, Swiss composer Frank Martin's opera Le Vin Herbe is a tour de force of exhilarating vocal writing. The work retells the bewitching story of Tristan and Isolde, and is a heartbreaking work of beauty and romance. Infrequently performed due to the difficulty of the vocal parts and the unique scoring, this is a rare opportunity to hear this work. Learn more...

Conductor and Music Director Urs Leonhardt Steiner and the CMC Orchestra and Chorus present Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9" and "Choral Fantasy, Opus 80" featuring piano soloist Nicole Faghihi. Also featuring vocal soloists and the West Coast premiere of Michael Kimbell's Ricercar for Brass. Champagne reception follows on 12/31. Learn more...

Adrienne Rich writes with strength, conviction and immense beauty. Her poetry, she has said, seeks to create a dialectical relationship between "the personal, or lyric voice, and the so-called political - really, the voice of the individual speaking not just to herself, or to a beloved friend, but to and from a collective, a social realm." Learn more...

Dave Dorfman Dance presents two West Coast premieres at Kanbar Hall. See Level, described by Deborah Jowitt as, "an uncannily beautiful work," is a wonderfully wise and funny exploration of solidarity, individuality and group dynamics. Lightbulb Theory, set to a haunting piano score by Michael Wall, explores the complex issues of death, loss, tragedy and how these experiences are endured by those who remain behind. Learn more...

Three outstanding musical theatre soloists will lead you in favorite songs from the greatest Broadway shows of all times by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, the Gershwins, Stephen Sondheim and many more. Plus, music from the movies. Bring the family, bring your best voice! Songsheets will be provided. Learn more...

Stephen Sondheim is one of the theatre world's most-beloved composers and the A-J Productions is pleased to present a 75th Birthday Salute to this comporable artist. The program will present some of the best-loved songs from his entire career while giving some of the lesser known and, in some cases, unknown pieces the attention they so richly deserve. Learn more...

The Bay Area's soul-stirring Linda Tillery, founder of the Cultural Heritage Choir, stars in The Bible in Song, a special repertoire of spirituals and gospel music based on Biblical passages. She will be joined for a special selection by Linda Hirschhorn of Vocolot. Learn more...

Like history's greatest b-sides, these works deserve to be heard. Bach, masterful and uplifting. Ralph Vaughn Williams' free flowing musical daydream. Ernest Bloch offers a tantalizing short work, with Maestro Kohl soloing on clarinet, followed by one of the great serenades for strings by Dvorak. Learn more...

Chinese and Japanese ghost stories featuring master storyteller Brenda Wong Aoki, Asian Jazz pioneeer Mark Izu, Taiko soloist Janet Koike and 12-year-old Kai Kane Aoki Izu. Directed by Obie Award winning Jael Weisman. Learn more...

The Jewish Communuty Center of San Francisco presents Robert Hass & Jane Hirshfield at Kanbar Hall. These two world-renowned poets reflect on healing in an evening of readings and conversation. Learn more...

An eye, ear and mind-opening experience, the program begins with an insightful and entertaining prologue on the music and its composer, followed by a full performance of the works, ending with a lively question and answer session. Jeffrey Siegel's enthusiasm is contagious, his credentials are world-class and his virtuosity is amazing. Learn more...

Show creator Phil Rosenthal and his team of writers share the comic reality of creating Hollywood's #1 sitcom. Get an insider's look at how they turned the hilarious reality of their lives into TV's funniest show. Includes outrageous out-take footage. Learn more...

Don't miss this rare opportunity to see Jay Kholos' musical sensation when A Stoop on Orchard Street comes to Kanbar Hall for a short time only. With a cast of 23 colorful characters, Stoop on Orchard Street explores the immigrant experience, its joys and its sorrows, as the Lomansky Family strives to live the American Dream on New York's Lower East Side. Learn more...

The final concert of the Pacific Chamber Orchestra's 16th season presents a heartfelt collection of gems for chamber symphony: Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3, plus music from Mendelssohn, Haydn and Sibelius. Learn more...

Yisrael Borochov's East-West Ensemble, Israel's pioneer multi-ethnic musical group, brings 10 extraordinary musicians to San Francisco to reveal the melodic riches of the Zohar as explored over the centuries throughout the world. Learn more...

The Pacific Chamber Symphony presents a salute to the American Radio Hour, featuring the music of Gershwin, Copland, Ives, Sousa and more at Kanbar Hall. Learn more...

The Pacific Chamber Symphony Performs Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 at Kanbar Hall, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Learn more...

The Pacific Chamber Symphony performs works both classic and contemporary as part of their Chamber Concertos concert at Kanbar Hall. Learn more...

The Pacific Chamber Symphony performs one of the best known and loved collections of string music in history, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Learn more...

Join the Pacific Chamber Symphony's "American Idol" of classical music as the Bay Area's brightest young stars perform at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Learn more...

The Pacific Chamber Symphony explores the musical importance of the Czech capital through the music of Mozart and Dvorak, at Kanbar Hall. Learn more...

Take a tour through the musical world of the concerto, as the Pacific Chamber Symphony performs Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi and other giants of classical music; at Kanbar Hall. Learn more...