The BELLA Rush Hour Concert Series is HERE!
Need a breather between the office and home?
Unwind with friends, old and new, wine and live chamber music.
Reception at 5:30
Music at 6.
Home by 7!
Our Beethoven Project
We are thrilled to start preparing all of the Beethoven Piano Trios to be presented at the Old First Church (O1C) Concert Series in 2015. Stay tuned as we experience this exciting journey through some of the most gratifying music written for chamber music!
House Concert with the Young Chamber Musicians
Last week we had the pleasure of playing an intimate House Concert with the talented Young Chamber Musicians at the beautiful home of Tom Driscoll and Nancy Quinn.
The audience was lively, the reception was warm and their wine cellar was busy!
Thanks to all who made it possible, including Susan Bates, YCM's Founder and Director, The Harvard Club of SF, and the most gracious hosts Nancy and Tom for opening their home.
Nancy Quinn welcomes the audience in her home.
YCM's Chiaroscuro Quartet - William Copeland, Isabella Costanza, Clara Chan and Irene Jeong
BELLA - Nate, Mimi and Eric
OBLIVION by Astor Piazzolla (arr. Jose Bragato)
BELLA 3.0 at Chamber Music Day 2013
Thanks for being such a terrific audience at the SFFCM Chamber Music Day!
Read MoreFree concerts this weekend in SF!
BELLA and bella2 will be performing this weekend - both concerts are free and open to the public.
So please bring lots of friends - we have some great music we want to share with you!
bella2 (Mimi Lee and Jeremy Preston)
SF Community Music Center
544 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
415.647.6015
The program will feature Mozart, Beethoven, Kreisler, Dvorak and Kroll.
Free and open to the public.
There will be snacks and drinks.
And a fundraiser for Project Starfish, supporting sex-trafficked women in Asia.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20th at 3:30pm
BELLA Trio (Mimi Lee, Eric Gaenslen and Nathanael Bartley)
SF Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco CA 94102-6011
415.864.7326
This performance is a part of SF Friends of Chamber Music's Annual Music Day featuring Bay Area classical, contemporary and jazz ensembles.
We will be performing Piazzola's sexy "Oblivion" and Beethoven's "Archduke Trio."
BELLA 3.0 debuts!
We are excited to have been included in the SFFCM's Music Day this year.
The line-up is out, and we are slated to perform at
3:30 on Sunday, October 20th
at the SF Conservatory of Music in the Recital Hall.
Get there early though, as it is going to be a busy and fun-filled day with lots going on!
It's FREE for everyone, so friends and guests are welcome!!!
BELLA 3.0 is here!
After a long but rewarding search, we are pleased to announce BELLA 3.0!
Welcome violinist Nathanael Bartley and cellist and Bay Area native, Eric Gaenslen. We're looking forward to performing together in the Bay Area beginning this Fall.
See you at the next concert!
SF Classical Voice | Small is Beautiful
SFCV's Jeff Kaliss writes about the magic of intimate, personal concerts at home amongst friends old and new:
"...Mimi Lee, pianist with the BELLA Piano Trio, talks of similar “nerve-wracking” challenges, which she contrasts with “playing in a larger venue like a concert hall, when the lights are dimmed and you don’t see any particular faces.”
Lee estimates that 30 to 40 percent of her performances with the BELLA Trio occur as house concerts, several of them at a patron’s home at San Francisco’s highest residential elevation, atop Twin Peaks, where they’ll be this Saturday, Feb. 23. “There’s something very intimate and personal in how we can connect with the audience,” says Lee about these events. “People watch the dynamic between us, hear the sounds we’re making, and become part of that musical conversation. There’s stuff that happens, sometimes spontaneously, sometimes despite the best planning — we adjust and respond to that, and I think the audience is sensitive to when that kind of thing is happening. It makes house concerts really exciting.”
“We try to bring in our personalities, style, and sound, and explain that about that music speaks to us,” adds Lee. “In the Piazzolla Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, where you can feel you’re in Argentina on a summer’s day, we’re trying to stretch certain notes out to give it that elasticity. If we can demonstrate that, it kind of demystifies things.”
With her M.D.-Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a bunch of avocations, Lee also cherishes the opportunity to converse with her diverse audiences, “where all my worlds collide into each other, making everything feel more human. Sharing common interests in music or neuroscience or medicine or yoga, it’s inspiring, and I guess it makes me feel not so alone.”..."