From Super Bowl fun to the return of the beloved conductor and the Odo Akland Interfaith Gospel Choir, there’s plenty to see and hear in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.
Here is a small part.
Good luck to the Swimmer fans
Teddy Swims will headline the Super Bowl LX Tailgate Concert presented by NetApp – the NFL’s top pregame party – at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Feb. 8. But you don’t even have to leave your home to watch it.
The Grammy-nominated pop singer, who is also scheduled to perform at the 2026 BottleRock Napa Valley event, will perform without Levi before the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks battle it out to decide this year’s NFL champion. Bay Area hip-hop artist LaRussell will open the show.
“The Super Bowl is one of the events that I grew up watching with my father and brothers and I always wanted to be there and perform,” said Swims who is known for his hit song, Lose Control and other popular songs. “
Vallejo hip-hop star LaRussell, who will also be performing as the house band at Levi’s on Super Bowl Sunday, is excited to be a part of the festivities.
“Music has taken me to places I never imagined, and the Super Bowl is one of them,” LaRussell said. “Being a part of Super Bowl week in my hometown means the world to me.”
Details: The concert will be broadcast live on the Peacock at 12:50 pm The audio will also be broadcast live on 120 iHeart stations nationwide and on the iHeartRadio app.
– Jim Harrington, Staff
Classic selections: McGegan, DiDonato, a lotta Mozart
Classical music week brings magic from the Baroque era to new works – and welcomes returning artists with special programs you won’t want to miss.
“Baroque Garlands”: Nicholas McGegan, the renowned conductor and long-time music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra – and now its Music Director Emeritus – has been prominent in the extraordinary works of the Baroque period. He returns to the organization this week to perform two timeless works: a setting of Handel’s hymn, “Dixit Dominus,” and Rameau’s opera, “La Guirlande,” with soprano Nola Richardson and tenor Aaron Sheehan joining the Philharmonia Chorale led by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.
Details: 7:30 pm Deb. 6 at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; 2:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at First Congregational Church, Berkeley; and 1 p.m. Feb. 8 at Bing Concert Hall, Stanford; $20-$125; philharmonia.org.
Mozart Aplenty: Music lovers who can’t get enough of Mozart’s works are in for a treat at the San Francisco Symphony’s upcoming dream concert at Davies Symphony Hall. Under British conductor Harry Bicket, the orchestra will play six of the composer’s works in this all-Mozart event, including Symphonies 34 in C Major and 38 in D Major, as well as selections from the operas “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Don Giovanni.” Guest singers included soprano Golda Schultz and tenor Samuel White.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5-7; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $55-$155; sfsymphony.org.
Poetry and Music: With the countless new ways she has discovered to explore and present music, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato always brings her audience on an exciting ride. This week, he returns to Cal Performances to explore Emily Dickinson’s poetry in 24 intimate songs. He will be joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts and Grammy-winning chamber trio, Time for Three.
Details: 8pm Feb. 7; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $31-$86; calperformances.org.
– Georgia Rowe, Journalist
2 film festivals are returning to the Bay Area
The Bay Area’s film festival season kicks into gear with not one but two of the region’s cinematic staples – the San Francisco IndieFest and the Very British Film Festival. Both continue this week.
SF IndieFest (Feb. 5-15) showcases Bay Area talent and independent storytelling in long and short formats. All screenings take place at the Roxie in San Francisco with many films available online.
Seth Porges’ documentary “Santacon” unpacks the event and looks at the cause and effect of the annual, often drunken, holiday tradition in San Francisco and revisits its origin story. And Rockridge’s Lauren Shapiro’s “Still Life” is set in 1999 Alameda (also shot in Walnut Creek) and tells the coming-of-age story of a young ballet dancer (Alameda’s Anika Jensen) who struggles with her mother’s leukemia and her own growing problems.
Details: Tickets are $5-$25; passes $95-$250; sfindie.com.
Meanwhile, The Mostly British Film Festival (Feb. 5-12) is packed with tempting titles, including the hit Scottish drama “I Swear,” which chronicles the influential life of John Davidson who, in the 1980s, established what Tourette’s is and isn’t. Another option is the hard-hitting prison drama “Inside” with fireworks from Guy Pearce and Cosmo Jarvis of “Shogun” and “Urchin.”
Details: The test is at Vogue in San Francisco; tickets and more information at mostlybritish.org.
– Randy Myers, reporter
Storytellers are full of TILT
Most of the time, when you buy a theater ticket you know where you are. Not so with “TILT: Stories on the Edge,” a production that relies on everyday people to step up and reveal their secret reckoning. Stories can be funny, sad or edgy, but at the end of the night they are all meant to be memorable.
Following a sold-out performance in Los Angeles, “TILT” comes to Berkeley on Feb. 12 at the Marsh Arts Center. Directing the night’s action is host Aaron Samson, playwright and Moth StorySLAM champion who will tell his special story. How it works is audience members submit pitches to the editors and, if selected, get 5-7 minutes to tell stories live on stage. (Those interested should email three sentences to sharistrulson@gmail.com, or show up in person that night, describing a true, first-person story they’re ready to share publicly.)
“TILT” is raising money for the Alex Manfull Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting pediatric neuroimmune disorders such as pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS).
Details: 6pm Feb. 12; 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley; $30-$200; givebutter.com/tilt-berkeley.
– John Metcalfe, Staff
Here is your free book of the week
Black History Month and Lunar New Year fall at the same time of year, so why throw a tag team doubleheader at night? That’s what the Oakland Asian Cultural Center has in mind for this weekend’s event, simply titled Lunar New Year + Black History Month Celebration. And, of course, you’ll find plenty of artists and activities at the free event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on February 7 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, located Pacific Renaissance Plaza, 388 Ninth Street, Suite 290.
Expect to see and hear lots of dancing, drumming and music from East Bay Asian and African American artists, including Toishan Association Lion Dancers, Afro-Filipino MPWRD Collective, Patty Chu’s Chinese Dance Troupe, Comrade Lover lion dance group, Bantaba Drum Call, members of Urisawe Korean Drumming, Fufu! Dance school in Oakland. Another event that will be there is the Kids + Teens Zone, which tells stories and appears by the author of the picture book, Dr. JaNay Brown-Wood, YA fantasy author Aimee Phan, and more, plus crafts led by Oakland’s Storyland Collective. There will be a market featuring local black and Asian vendors, as well as representatives from Eastwind Books, Marcus Books, and more. The event is part of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center’s 2020 EARS for Change Initiative, which aims to strengthen ties between the Black and Asian communities.
Details: For more information, visit the oacc.cc
– Bay City News Foundation
Hershey is Hershey
You still have a few chances to catch the latest show by legendary singer/storyteller Hershey Felder, who performs in Mountain View through Sunday in a production that marks a twist on his usual schedule. A talented musician known for imitating famous classical composers while playing parts of their works on the piano and telling the story of his life this time he talks about a different subject – himself. “Hershey Felder: The Piano and Me” is more of a “best of” production looking back at his previous shows. He also added his sweet essay – how certain works and composers have registered in his life and helped him through heartbreak. Of course, Felder’s formidable musicianship still stands out in the show – which includes parts of piano works from composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Bartok, and more. But after 28 years and 6,000 performances worldwide (not to mention nearly 20 films), Felder has earned the right to add some of his history to the mix.
Details: Performances are at 7:30 pm Feb. 5, 8pm Feb. 6, 2 and 8pm Feb. 7 and 2 and 7 pm Feb. 8 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. Tickets are $34-$115; Go to theatreworks.org.
– Bay City News Foundation
The magic of OIGC
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir this year celebrates 40 years of singing first-rate gospel music provided by singers from diverse backgrounds under the direction of legendary director Terrance Kelly. They have become such an institution in the Bay Area and beyond that they are the subject of an acclaimed documentary (“One Voice – The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir”) and have collaborated with musical luminaries from the Kronos Quartet to Linda Ronstadt and many more. With their annual Christmas celebrations, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and others are known throughout the Bay Area. Some of these performances will return this weekend when the choir presents its 11th Black History Month concert at The Freight Music Hall in Berkeley. The set list will touch on everything from popular civil rights songs to unknown and rarely heard Negro spirituals, delivered by a talented and passionate group of singers who have delighted music fans and touched hearts since the choir’s inception.
Details: The concert is at 7 pm Feb. 7 at The Freight, 2020 Addison St.; in the Berkeley arts district. Tickets are $39-$44; Go to thefreight.org.
– Bay City News Foundation
From Baroque to hot rock
“What’s Your Hand in This” is the question bass-baritone Davóne Tines and the original musical group Ruckus will pose to the audience at the Herbst Theater on Feb. 7 p.m. as they present a program of San Francisco Performances inspired by the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Ruckus, a band that has been described as “the world’s only period rock band,” and the singer will cross multiple musical boundaries in a show that includes works as diverse as “Why Do the Nations So Furiously Rage” from Handel’s “Messiah” to the late R&B singer Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Tines’ “What Is My Hand in This” and his arrangement of the folk song “Be the Lover of My Soul” are also on the program, as are John Dickinson’s “The Liberty Song,” Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” and Benjamin Carr’s “The Federal Overture.”
Details: Opening hours are 7:30 pm; $45-$65; sfperformances.org.
– Bay City News Foundation
