This is a great article about Luna Composition Lab. The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is partnering with Luna to select a fourth composer for the "In the Works" concert on Tuesday, July 28. This is part of Cabrillo's annual Conductors / Composers Workshop. See you in Santa Cruz!

Tosca at West Bay Opera coming up soon! Our wonderful cast is headed by Julia Behbudov, Bob Balonek, and Xavier Prado. José Maria Condemi directs and José Luis Moscovich conducts. Our chorus part is small but gorgeous. Come see us May 22, 24, 30 & 31 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.

I was so sad today to learn that Eleanor Selfridge-Field died 2 months ago. Eleanor's and Walter Hewlett's work at the Center for Computer-Assisted Research in the Humanities was the foundation on which MusicXML was built. Beyond MIDI was the technical bible behind it. everloved.com/life-of/elea...

Here's a great appreciation of MTT from @joshuakosman.bsky.social. One of the huge perks of singing in the chorus was being part of that evolution of performances from night to night, season to season. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

RIP Michael Tilson Thomas. I was lucky beyond words to sing for MTT during four seasons in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and to be in the audience during his 25 amazing years as music director.

Who says big bands are dead? Bruce Springsteen had 19 musicians on stage last night for a powerful show. This was our first time at Chase Center and the sound was by far the best I’ve ever heard in an arena. Even from our nosebleed seats!

Nothing says Easter like Richard Thompson concert, and nothing says a Richard Thompson concert like an encore of "Down Where the Drunkards Roll" and "Wall of Death." It's been way too long since I've heard him in concert and he's still the master.

Hooray, the San Francisco Symphony season for next year is back to normal with interesting repertoire, diverse voices, Gabriella Smith as a creative consultant, and the return of Esa-Pekka Salonen as a guest conductor. Having a senior director of artistic planning can indeed help programming!

On Sunday I started listening to The Westerlies, a new-to-me group. I really enjoyed them and started binging their albums. Looking up their tour dates, I see they played here at SFJazz on Saturday. What is this called? JNIT listening (Just Not In Time)? JTL (Just Too Late)? MNT (Maybe Next Time)?

Congratulations to Chicago Opera Theater on a fabulous performance of Kurt Weill’s Der Silbersee. I’ve been waiting 48 years for this, ever since playing and recording the suite with my college orchestra.

Tonight, our fourth time hearing Beethoven 7 at San Francisco Symphony over the years was finally the winner! Jaap van Zweden didn't stint on the tempi, letting it dance along. It helps that we now have excellent principals and associates in all sections - this piece really exposes any weak links.

For our Super Bowl counterprogramming, we went to Philharmonia Baroque's concert of Handel's Dixit Dominus and Rameau's La guirlande. Both were wonderfully performed under Nicholas McGegan's direction. It was good to see several familiar faces in the chorus. They were spectacular in the Handel.

Dame Prue Leith is leaving The Great British Bake Off after nine seasons. Thanks for bringing such joy to us in these shows, and best of luck in your continuing new adventures! www.channel4.com/press/news/p...

To mark the expiration of my noncompete agreement, here's a new blog post summarizing the three years since my last blog post! michaelgood.info/2026/01/the-...

2025 was a banner year for albums from my favorite female singer-songwriters, including Sarah McLachlan, Suzanne Vega, Dar Williams, Molly Tuttle, I'm With Her, and Taylor Swift. But my favorite of the year was Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Personal History." My favorite song: youtu.be/SkuUeI7nQXA?...

It's great to see Cabrillo Festival on this list, represented by my favorite program of the past season. Thanks!

RIP Rob and Michele Reiner. Thanks to Rob for all the great gifts you gave us both behind and in front of the camera. If anybody has a video or transcript of Rob's interview with John King on @cnn.com in the early morning of November 8, 2000, could you please share? It was dark comedy in real time.

RIP Gordon Goodwin and Jubilant Sykes.

Oh no! RIP Tom Stoppard. Arcadia is one of my favorite plays ever. I made sure to see Leopoldstadt on Broadway. But there are so many plays of his I haven't seen yet.

I love EBTG's Amplified Heart album. It helped me through my Dad's 12-hour brain surgery and recovery. (He did well, he'll be turning 101 soon!) The whole album is suffused with loss and fear of loss, which really resonated. Thanks @traceythorn.bsky.social and Ben Watt for all the music!

Bravi to everyone in Chess on Broadway! What outstanding performances of this magnificent score. I thought the book also solved the main problem of the show by making the three leads more likable, softening the two men a little and making Florence more active.

So much for the doom-and-gloomers moaning about the San Francisco Symphony's ability to hire and retain top musicians. They've just hired a principal horn away from the London Symphony Orchestra, which is a fantastic group! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Another fine review for Samson et Dalila, this time metioning the chorus: "Bruce Olstad’s chorus handles the material adeptly, and it’s a real treat for those who enjoy choral music." There are just two more performances this weekend in Palo Alto: don't miss out. www.almanacnews.com/ae/2025/10/1...

We're two weeks away from opening our West Bay Opera production of Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila in Palo Alto. We have a fabulous cast, wonderful dancers, and a juicy chorus part. This is a great opera that isn't done often - don't miss it! Tickets are available at www.wbopera.org/tickets-page...

RIP Robert Redford. Mick LaSalle wrote a nice tribute for @sfchronicle.com: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

What a surprise! The hotel I'm staying at in Washington, DC in 10 days is now 20% cheaper than when I booked it a month ago. I'm off to the Library of Congress for more research in the Performing Arts Reading Room. Maybe I'll see @musicologyduck.bsky.social there, but if so I wouldn't know it.

RIP Jamshied Sharifi. He joined the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble right after I left at graduation. With his fellow new band members, he took the group to some of its greatest heights. I was so happy when he became FJE director when Herb Pomeroy retired. His gifts of music will keep giving us joy.

Thanks so much to @lisairontongue.bsky.social and San Francisco Classical Voice for this lovely review of last Saturday's Cabrillo Festival concert. It was my favorite this season. Though Gabrielle Beteag was amazing in the Heggie on Sunday. Plus the first weekend! www.sfcv.org/articles/rev...

Cabrillo Festival's closing concert in Santa Cruz features Gabrielle Beteag singing Good Morning, Beauty by @jakeheggiemusic.bsky.social and Taylor Mac, and Adolphus Hailstork's Saxophone Concerto with @mcallistersax.bsky.social. See you Sunday, August 10 at 7 pm! cabrillomusic.org/2025-season/...

Cabrillo Festival's second weekend starts Saturday at 7 pm in Santa Cruz, with Cristi Mǎcelaru conducting. This concert features music by Darian Donovan Thomas, Lou Harrison, and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, with concertmaster Justin Bruns as violin soloist. See you there! cabrillomusic.org/2025-season/...

Saturday's Cabrillo Festival concert in Santa Cruz features female composers: Rene Orth, Stacy Garrop, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Julia Wolfe. Daniela Candillari conducts. Michelle Areyzaga and Sidney Outlaw sing in Garrop's "Fredrick and Susan B." See you there! cabrillomusic.org/2025-season/...

Cabrillo's opening night concert is Friday at 8 pm in Santa Cruz! It features works by John Corigliano, @missymazzoli.bsky.social, and Nina Shekhar, with Jennifer Koh as violin soloist. Daniela Candillari is the guest conductor. Tickets and more information here: cabrillomusic.org/2025-season/...

Last night was the "In the Works" concert at Cabrillo Festival by members of the Conductors/Composers Workshop. It's 3 composers, 6 conductors, each work done twice. All were good but my clear favorite was Cages of Jade by Ethan Soledad, a student of @kristinkuster.bsky.social. He's a live one!

This looks like it's working - thanks for sharing!

RIP the great Chuck Mangione. This week has been a doozy for musicians, actors, and entertainers. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/a...

In honor of Iga Świątek’s Wimbledon singles championship, I made pasta with strawberries for dinner. With peak season farmer’s market strawberries, this was a grand slam. Thinking also of tennis fan @vancegilbert.com and wishing him the best.

Thanks Peter for this trip down memory lane. I lived in Boston then and was watching on TV. It was so cool to hear this chant and I was proud of the classy fans at the game. It still gives me tingles thinking about that moment.

Hey, I finally saw I Confess on the big screen. So much better than seeing it on my iPad. I thought @3gjane.bsky.social would like to know. 🙂

I've set up my return visit to the Library of Congress music division for mid-July, contingent on their catalog migration project succeeding. We'll see if the specialist can enter an off-site order next week as planned. Wondering if this project affects @musicologyduck.bsky.social's work as well?

One of the people that Barry Vercoe pointed me to for MusicXML starting points was David Huron, who died just 10 days before Barry on June 5. Besides his work on Humdrum, listening to him was always inspirational. May his memory be a blessing. www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...

RIP Barry Vercoe, one of the pioneers for computer music software. He was my B.S. thesis advisor at MIT on some very early music notation software. 20 years later, he was the one who pointed me to the best starting points for my work on MusicXML. May his memory be a blessing. cdm.link/barry-vercoe/

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final concert as San Francisco Symphony music director was a fabulous performance of Mahler 2 with Sasha Cooke and Heidi Stober as soloists. The ovation afterwards wouldn’t stop until Salonen spoke a few words to the audience.

We ate at the table next to Julia Child one evening at the Blue Room in Cambridge. We waved to her as she made her grand tour of the dining room while leaving.

Michael Anthonio has given us another rave review for Otello at West Bay Opera. This production has closed, but season tickets will be on sale soon for our 70th season, featuring Samson et Dalila, Salome, and Tosca. Thanks for the coverage!

Bravi to all at Opera Parallèle's production of Harvey Milk Reimagined! It was a stirring performance. It was strongly cast from top to bottom, and what a chorus! Fabulous orchestral playing too under Nicole Paiement's baton and strong direction from Brian Staufenbiel.

Tied between 1) Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin opening for Patty Larkin, and 2) John Wesley Harding and Poi Dog Pondering opening for Michelle Shocked. Two incredible 3-for-the-price-of-1 shows!

We've received another rave review for Otello at West Bay Opera. Thanks to everyone who attended, including the virtually sold-out house for our final performance. splashmags.com/index.php/20...

Here's another review for our Otello at West Bay Opera. This is the first review I can recall that praises the chorus's acting as well as our singing. There are just two more performances this weekend in Palo Alto! www.almanacnews.com/ae/2025/05/2...

We've been getting rave reviews for Verdi's Otello at West Bay Opera; here's one of them. Tickets are still available for our two remaining performances in Palo Alto this weekend on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. cordellreports.com/2025/05/26/o...

What a great performance of the full Firebird music at San Francisco Symphony tonight! It's a shame Salonen is leaving, but his orchestra hires will be a gift for years to come. The top of the flute & cello sections are now far stronger, and new principal bassoon Joshua Elmore was awesome tonight.