Become one with Orff’s ‘spiritual exposition’
Dive into Carl Orff’s Carmina burana, get a jump on Cal Performances’ Winter Sale, and more.
If you are alive today, chances are you have been exposed to Carl Orff. Don’t recognize the name? Doesn’t matter. You probably had a grade-school music teacher who did. Maybe you attended an elementary school with a collection of Orff instruments: special xylophones and glockenspiels tuned to sound harmonious in untrained children’s hands. And maybe you learned about pitch and meter by playing Orff-prescribed games and using your body in motion to express these abstractions. All this was part of Orff’s pedagogical theory, which he called Schulwerk, and which remains influential today.
But even if you never took a music class, you can surely hum the main hook to Orff’s “O Fortuna” from Carmina burana. After the cantata’s successful premiere at the Frankfurt Opera on June 8, 1937, Orff issued the following instructions to his music publisher: “Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina burana, my collected works begin.”
On the Stage
This week it’s Carmina burana and an all sci-fi Music for Families, plus we’ve got our eye on Berekely Rep’s upcoming show.
Carmina burana & Adams
Classical | San Francisco Symphony
January 16, 18 & 19 | Tickets
Carl Orff’s Carmina burana is the “banger of all choral bangers.” Also on the concert: Víkingur Ólafsson premieres a new piano concerto by John Adams.
More Events
- James Gaffigan & Ray Chen | San Francisco Symphony | January 9–11 | View the Program
- Why Sci-Fi? | San Francisco Symphony | January 18 | View the Program
- The Thing About Jellyfish | Berkeley Rep | January 31 – March 9
Next Line
Score a deal on Cal Performances tickets, audition to be part of SF Ballet School’s summer, and enter to win a pair of tickets to see a special All-Tchaikovsky performance with the SF Symphony.
- Cal Performances’ Winter Sale is now underway, offering savings on more than 40 different events in the remainder of the 2024/2025 season. For the rest of this month, you can get tickets for $25 in select seating areas when you purchase seats for two or more designated performances.
- Registration is open for San Francisco Ballet’s national audition tour. The Summer Session Audition Tour travels to 11 cities, giving young dancers (ages 12–18) a chance to join the SF Ballet School’s 2025 Summer Sessions. The Summer Sessions run for four weeks and help young dancers prepare for a career in professional ballet.
- As a subscriber to Encore+, you are eligible to enter to win two tickets to an upcoming performance of San Francisco Symphony’s Chan Conducts All-Tchaikovsky. Share this newsletter with your friends and family, ask them to subscribe, and they’ll be entered to win as well!
