Arts & Events

Northern and southern Europe come together in a not totally comfortable way in the design of the newly expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which will open on May 14 after a three-year closure. The new addition designed by Snøhetta, a firm which originated in Norway but now operates out of New York, is attached to and behind the original building designed by the Italian Swiss architect Mario Botta. -more-

In an eclectic program, cellist Yo Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott gave a concert Thursday evening, May 12, at Davies Hall. Longtime collaborators in both live performances and recordings, Yo Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott have a wonderful feel for each other’s musicianship. They opened this program with five pieces from something they term the “Arc of Life Suite,” which they recorded in 2015. However, as with many of Yo Yo Ma’s themed projects, this grouping seems a bit arbitrary and forced, though he sees it “as an invitation to our audience to remember and imagine what the soundtracks of their lives might be…. Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age: what do they sound like?” Personally, I can’t imagine anyone’s life having this group of works as its soundtrack; but, oh well, there’s beautiful music here, and, anyway, Yo Yo Ma often stretches the point of his themed projects way out of proportion. -more-

Voci Women's Vocal Ensemble will appear on May 15 and 21 in two performances of a concert on the theme of Traces of a Vanishing World, featuring Composer Ann Callaway's recently-completed ON MUSIC AND NATURE: Three Hopkins Settings, for SSAA choir and piano. -more-