Bay Area Rainbow Symphony “Dance, Drama, and Desire”

Submitted by the Event OrganizerBARS-SFBay Area Rainbow Symphony, the Bay Area’s LGBTQ-affirming orchestra, opens its 2026–27 season on September 12 with “Dance, Drama, and Desire” — a program spanning centuries and crossing mediums. The evening opens with Samuel Barber’s witty Overture to The School for Scandal, written while Barber traveled in Italy with his partner, composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 2 follows, transcribing Renaissance and Baroque lute music for orchestra. At the program’s center: Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Cello Concerto, performed by BARS principal cellist Hans Brightbill. Korngold wrote the piece for the 1946 Bette Davis film Deception; his music was banned in Austria during WWII as “entartete” (degenerate), and he built a second career in Hollywood film scoring instead. The concert closes with Ernest Chausson’s Symphony in B-flat major, one of the great French Romantic symphonies. Part of BARS’ LGBTQ Composer and Performing Artist Series. Saturday, September 12, 7:30 PM, San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Tickets $6.50–$43.50. Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.