San Francisco Early Music Society - SFEMS

10/20/2026

Have you ever wondered how early music ensembles like Parallax Concerts sound so good? The answer is.... a lot of tuning!

This video is from our most recent concert weekend with . It was such a joy to get to see all the preparation behind the scenes and before the curtain that goes into a project like this. Thank you Parallax for all your hard work! (and all your tuning)

10/16/2026

Come along for a day in the life with a SFEMS staff member! ✨
Our Operations Assistant, Willa, filmed this during our Friday evening Palo Alto concert featuring Parallax Concerts.

10/14/2026

This week in Bay Area early music…

FRIDAY OCTOBER 16
🎵 Barefoot Chamber Concerts: Joye des Violes” : Lisa Terry and Lynn Tetenbaum play music for two viols
6:30 PM, St. Mary Magdalen Church, Berkeley

SATURDAY OCTOBER 17
🎵 Harpsichord Horizons with Lillian Gordis
4 PM, Gradus ad Parnassum Music Academy, San Mateo

Bay Area Country Dance Society's 1726 Ball — A Choice Selection of Country Dances from the Year
6:45 PM, Albany Veterans Memorial Building, Albany

SUNDAY OCTOBER 18
🎵 Western Early Keyboard Association Presents A Still, Small Voice": 17th- & 18th-Century German Music for Clavichord with Kevin Birch
2 PM, Online Event

🎵 Lillian Gordis, harpsichord
3 PM, Gradus ad Parnassum Music Academy, San Mateo

🎵 SF Chamber Orchestra MainStage 1: Beethoven's Eroica, A Hero's Journey
3 PM, First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Berkeley

🎵 San Francisco Bach Choir Love! Murder! Passion! Grief! Opera!
4 PM, Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco

MONDAY OCTOBER 19
🎵 2026–2027 Season of the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra
7 PM, Veterans Memorial Building, Redwood City

For more information on these featured events, please visit: www.sfems.org/calendar-of-early-music

If you are interested in having your event featured on our calendar, please visit: www.sfems.org/news-and-events

10/05/2026

We had a fabulous opening to our 50th concert season this past weekend! 🍾 Thank you to the wonderful musicians of Parallax Concerts who brought us into their artistic world where old and new music come together in creative and insightful ways.

And thank you to our enthusiastic audience of long-time patrons and newcomers to the SFEMS concert series who delighted in sharing the various influences they heard (was it CPE Bach, or some Italian music, or…)—and their desire to meet the (living) composers! It is a joy and honor to bring local and newly established groups to our series and we look forward to seeing what comes next from Parallax Concerts!

09/21/2026

👉 https://www.sfems.org/parallax

09/18/2026

https://www.sfems.org/parallax

09/14/2026

What year do you think this excerpt was written? (Hint: You will hear this piece in our upcoming Oct 2-4 concert “New Histories & Old Futures” with parallax concerts.)

09/08/2026

Join us on Reformation Day 2026 for an afternoon of singing Bach! In collaboration with the California Bach Society, Conductors Derek Tam (SFEMS) and Nate Widelitz (California Bach Society) will lead you through a no-pressure reading of favorite chorales, as well as selections from BWV 177 (Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ) and the motet BWV 229 (Komm, Jesu, komm). The workshop will be accompanied by Yuko Tanaka.

Oct 31, 1-3 PM • $35 registration
https://www.sfems.org/sing-some-bach-oct-2026

09/02/2026

We're excited to share that for the first time, SFEMS is coming to this year's Solano Stroll! We can't wait to see you all at our booth on the 13th 😁

Solano Avenue Stroll 50! September 13th 2026 10-5:00 pm The second Sunday in September   A mile of entertainers, music, shops, crafters, food booths & family fun on Solano Avenue in Berkeley/Albany Since 1974 Solano Avenue and the twin-cities of Albany and Berkeley CA, have hosted the Solano Avenue...

06/23/2026

One highlight at the Berkeley Festival was an abundance of organ music through a mini festival-within-a-festival—A Celebration of the Organ!—in collaboration with MusicSources. Organists Jeffrey Parola, Janine Johnson, and Arthur Omura showcased a vast variety of repertoire on three different organs in Berkeley, with the series culminating in our Mainstage concert with Jonathan Dimmock. Performing on Hertz Hall's magnificent Noack organ, Dimmock brought his audience deep into Bach's music, inviting the audience to sing along with the chorale melodies elaborated in Bach's Clavierübung III.