Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS)

Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) Community and Visibility through Artistic Excellence. Visit http://BARS-SF.org for info and to show

10/03/2025

Guest Conductor Donald Lee III breaks down our program for TOMORROW’s concert! We hope to see you there. Link in bio!

On To Awaken a Sleeper, Thompson writes: “The insightful and prophetic words of James Baldwin have always been a source ...
10/03/2025

On To Awaken a Sleeper, Thompson writes: 

“The insightful and prophetic words of James Baldwin have always been a source of solace for me, and never more so than during the last few years as the country has been forced to grapple with its identity.

When commissioned to write a piece for Peter Oundjian and the Colorado Music Festival in 2020, it felt like the perfect opportunity to amplify his words. James Baldwin sought to bear witness to the country that birthed him and hated him, a country that murdered his friends (Evers, King, X) for speaking out against injustice. Despite the pain of those wounds, it is evident that, although Baldwin didn’t hesitate to hold our deeply flawed society to account, his words were rooted in an impossible love of this country. Though they were written decades ago, his words still ring true. Today, Baldwin asks us to look in the mirror and reckon with what we see. He asks us to examine the nature of power and its dependence on human will and desire. He asks us to go to “the unprotected” among us in order to examine our supposed love for justice. I like to think that if he were to reword his proposal today, he would include the immigrant, the refugee, the trans person, those without bodily autonomy under the law, and those suffering in the thrall of poverty. Baldwin acknowledges all the messiness and failure and genocide and death that has brought us to this point and he asks us to build a new world where we truly value and support each other in all of our differences. It is in that spirit that the piece was born and I hope that same spirit can continue to move each of us toward a more perfect union.”

On Sinfonia Americana, Geter writes: “Sinfonia Americana is an expansion on what has been deemed “the American Sound.” ...
10/02/2025

On Sinfonia Americana, Geter writes:

“Sinfonia Americana is an expansion on what has been deemed “the American Sound.” As a composer, I spend copious amounts of time trying to define what that even means. The answer, I imagine, lies somewhere in the fact that as I am an American, by default, I have created an American sound — my own — that is influenced by those who came before me who seemed to have success in creating the template for this particular sonic landscape. However, mine grooves a bit, a nod to my Black American culture. The piece is in two main parts with a recap. The opening melodies are interwoven throughout the piece against differing musical ideas which cause the main tunes to act like a chameleon that is shaped by its surroundings.”

Sinfonia Americana is commissioned by and premiered with the Richmond Symphony January 2024.

🏳️‍🌈 Celebrate Pride with BARS!🎶 Saturday, June 14, 2025 – 7:30 PM📍 San Francisco Conservatory of Music🎟 Tickets on sale...
05/19/2025

🏳️‍🌈 Celebrate Pride with BARS!
🎶 Saturday, June 14, 2025 – 7:30 PM
📍 San Francisco Conservatory of Music
🎟 Tickets on sale now!

Join the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony for our annual Pride Concert — a joyful evening of music, community, and visibility. Guest conductor Martha Stoddard leads the orchestra in a dynamic program featuring timpanist Jimmy Chan and the U.S. premiere of a new timpani concerto by Juan Sebastian Cardona Ospina.

Program highlights:
• Grażyna Bacewicz – Overture
• Mahler/Britten – What the Wildflowers Tell Me
• Juan Sebastian Cardona Ospina – Timpani Concerto (U.S. Premiere)
• Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 3

🌈 Come be part of an unforgettable night of powerful music and Pride.

🎟️ Tickets are going fast for our concert this Saturday, March 29 — don’t miss out! 🎟️We had an incredible dress rehears...
03/27/2025

🎟️ Tickets are going fast for our concert this Saturday, March 29 — don’t miss out! 🎟️

We had an incredible dress rehearsal last night with conductor John Kendall Bailey, and we’re so excited to bring this beautiful and wide-ranging program to the stage.

Join us for a magical evening of music featuring:
🎶 Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
🎶 Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
🎶 Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s Sussex Landscape
🎶 Atterberg’s Suite No. 3 — with stunning solo violin and viola

This concert is full of rich orchestral color, heartfelt solos, and a blend of beloved classics and inspiring new discoveries.

🕢 Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 PM

Get your tickets here: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/tix/2941/event/1419955

The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation has awarded BARS a grant to play Suite No. 3 by Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg. ...
03/21/2025

The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation has awarded BARS a grant to play Suite No. 3 by Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg. 🇸🇪

Kurt Atterberg – Suite No. 3 for Violin, Viola, and Strings, Op. 19 (1917)
Swedish composer and engineer Kurt Atterberg (1887–1974) was a prolific symphonist and arguably the greatest of the early 20th century Swedish romantic composers. He was deeply influenced by Scandinavian folk music and the late-Romantic traditions of composers like Sibelius and Nielsen. Atterberg balanced his musical career with a profession as an engineer and a patent examiner, yet his compositions gained international recognition.

His Suite No. 3 for Violin, Viola, and Strings is a lush, expressive work that showcases his gift for melody and rich harmonic textures. Written in 1917, it features beautiful interplay between the violin and viola soloists, set against the backdrop of a warmly lyrical string orchestra.

The Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy has awarded BARS a grant to perform and videorecord Sussex Landscape. Avril Coleridge...
03/20/2025

The Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy has awarded BARS a grant to perform and videorecord Sussex Landscape.

Avril Coleridge-Taylor – Sussex Landscape, Op. 27 (1940)
English composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903–1998) was a significant composer, conductor, and pianist in the early 20th century in Britain.

She was the daughter of the well-known composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was of Sierra Leone and British ancestry.
She studied at Trinity College of Music and was a frequent guest conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra in the 1930s.
She wrote many large-scale orchestral works, which have largely disappeared from the concert hall partly because of systemic racism and sexism.
Her works are now being rediscoverd, and we are excited to be giving the west-coast premier of Sussex Landscape

In 1939, Coleridge-Taylor moved to Buxted, East Sussex, where the local scenery inspired several of her compositions, including the tone poem Sussex Landscape. This three-part orchestral work reflects the serene beauty of the South Downs. Composed immediately after the outbreak of World War II, the piece conveys a bleaker and more desolate atmosphere than typically associated with the idyllic countryside, offering a unique wartime perspective.

For more, read:
https://leahbroad.substack.com/p/women-war-and-writing

Meet the Soloists! BARS’s concertmaster, Michael Long, is joined by popular Bay Area violist Ivo Bokulic for Atterberg...
03/19/2025

Meet the Soloists!

BARS’s concertmaster, Michael Long, is joined by popular Bay Area violist Ivo Bokulic for Atterberg’s Suite No. 3 next week, March 29th

Croatian-American violist Ivo Bokulic is a highly sought-after musician, celebrated for his artistry in the Bay Area and beyond. He is Principal Violist of the San José Chamber Orchestra, and holds additional positions in Opera San José, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and One Found Sound. Ivo also performs with distinguished ensembles such as the New Century Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Opera.

In addition to opera and orchestra, Ivo has toured, recorded, and shared the stage with renowned musicians such as Beck, Andrea Bocelli, Death Cab for Cutie, The Eagles, Father John Misty, Smokey Robinson, and Sting. He also regularly records music for video games, television, and films at Skywalker Ranch. Ivo can also be seen performing at Fever’s Candlelight Concerts in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, & San José.

Notably, Ivo has appeared as soloist, performing Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto with the Eureka Symphony, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante alongside violinist Liana Bérubé and the San José Chamber Orchestra.

A recipient of both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Jodi Levitz, Ivo plays a viola crafted in 1999 by Hiroshi Iizuka. When he’s not making music, Ivo enjoys cultivating his mostly monochromatic aesthetic, indulging in fine dining, and indie music exploration. He also loves sharing and receiving copious amounts of cat memes, and polishing the day off with a glass of vino.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo credits:
Samsun van Loon Photography
Nick Garibay
Kelsey Floyd’s Photography

Join BARS on March 29th at 7:30 at the San Francisco Conservatory for an exciting concert with guest conductor John Kend...
03/11/2025

Join BARS on March 29th at 7:30 at the San Francisco Conservatory for an exciting concert with guest conductor John Kendall Bailey - Tickets are on sale in the bio!

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About Us

The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) is an orchestra founded in 2007 that provides a safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. BARS makes cultural, social, and educational contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area by performing ambitious repertoire to a high standard.

BARS is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation in the state of California.