Arjun K. Verma and Pezhham Akhavass will collaborate on Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges, developing new repertoire and improvisational structures for sitar, tombak, and daf that explore the historical connections between Indian and Persian classical music traditions. The project will culminate in a public performance at the Ali Akbar College of Music in Fall 2025.

LIEDER ALIVE! will present and record Sacred Joy: The Recording, a live concert of sacred classical vocal music featuring soprano Esther Rayo and pianist Peter Grünberg, showcasing their long-standing musical partnership in the church’s resonant acoustics. The performance will be recorded live at St. Stephen’s Belvedere on December 20, 2025.

Brett Carson will compose and record “Lights Out! (Angel Telephony)”, an experimental chamber opera for three voices, piano, drums, and electronics, based on the work of Renaissance cryptographer and occultist Johannes Trithemius. The 70-minute work bridges avant-garde electronic music, modern classical, and jazz, with a recording scheduled for April 2026.

The Kasey Knudsen Sextet will record an album of original compositions by saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, blending modern jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary composition inspired by literature, film, and visual art. The studio recording will take place in Fall/Winter 2025 to support future performances and festival submissions.

RyanNicole will present a live ensemble performance of Yours Truly, described as “a love letter to Black sound,” bridging jazz and hip-hop traditions through live instrumentation, reinterpretations of jazz standards, and original compositions. The showcase, featuring local musicians, celebrates her debut album with performances planned for Fall 2025.

Bethany Hill will develop the next cycle of Femmina Super, a one-woman theatre-opera piece exploring multigenerational women’s stories through Barbara Strozzi’s 17th-century compositions reinterpreted with early, folk, and electronic music. Development begins October 2025 with San Francisco performances planned for early 2026.

Azesu will record Legacy, an album honoring 80-year-old Latin music legend and master percussionist Orestes Vilato, combining Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian, Venezuelan rhythms with contemporary American jazz. The album will be recorded at El Cerrito Records studios during summer 2025 and released in August 2025.

Heart Matter will record and release their debut album Horizons, reimagining the singer-songwriter tradition with chamber music precision and jazz improvisation, featuring vibraphone as the primary chordal instrument. Recording begins in late May 2025 at the Record Plant in Sausalito, with release planned for Spring 2026.

The Musical Art Quintet with mezzo-soprano Melinda Becker will record Kanta Judezmo, a 10-movement oratorio in the endangered Ladino language telling the story of a young Sephardic girl’s journey during the Spanish Inquisition. The modern Ladino chamber music work will be recorded at Buffalo Bill Studios in Ross, CA between August 2025 and January 2026.

Kurt Erickson will compose a 7-10 minute song set for voice and piano exploring themes of loss, beauty, and resilience, inspired by the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy and personal grief. The expanded art song will premiere on a Fall 2026 LIEDER ALIVE! concert and be incorporated into his existing oratorio Each Moment Radiant.

Jazz in the Neighborhood will present Jazz in Southwest Berkeley, featuring six free outdoor concerts on Saturdays this late summer and fall. Each event will showcase quartets or quintets of local professional jazz musicians, performing straight-ahead, Latin, fusion, and contemporary jazz styles.

Sierra Ensemble will commission and premiere a new work by Berkeley composer David A. Jaffe for their unique instrumentation of violin, French horn, and piano, building on the classical chamber music tradition established by Brahms. The project includes educational workshops featuring an introduction by composer, David A. Jaffe and premier performances TBA at San Francisco and east bay venues, as well as a live recording taking place in 2026.

Lisa Mezzacappa will record othrwrldly, a suite for creative jazz sextet that explores “worldbuilding” through electroacoustic ensemble improvisation, drawing influences from literature by Ursula LeGuin, David Mitchell, and Haruki Murakami. The recording will take place in fall 2025 and be released in February 2026.

Amateur Music Network will present a Chamber Music Intensive featuring four pre-formed amateur ensembles paired with professional mentors for coaching sessions and skill development. The program culminates in a public performance at Drew School auditorium in San Francisco in November 2025.

Anne Hege will create The Glance, an operatic reinterpretation of the Orpheus myth for laptop orchestra and live voices, featuring electronic instruments including analog live-looping cassette players and motion-controlled devices. The opera will premiere in June 2026 at the Milk Bar in Richmond and Meets the Eye Studios in San Carlos.

Roopa Mahadevan and Sruti Sarathy will record and release Songs for Many Lives, a diasporic Carnatic album featuring new compositions inspired by South Asian American immigrant history in the Bay Area. The Carnatic music recording explores themes of resistance, community building, and cultural diversity through traditional raga and tala structures and is planned for a 2025 release.

Esotérica Tropical will record Futura Ancestral, blending Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba rhythms, folk harp, and experimental electronic music rooted in Caribbean spiritual traditions and Latine futurism. The album will be developed at Montalvo Arts Center and recorded at Women’s Audio Mission in Summer 2025.

Sam Reider will record a solo album featuring 8-10 songs for piano, accordion, and voice, exploring themes ranging from personal to the political and environmental. The compositions will draw on influences ranging from folk singer-songwriters like Gillian Welch, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Woody Guthrie, to jazz pianists Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Keith Jarrett, and Ray Charles.

Carla Lucero will present a public workshop of Muriel & Anita, an opera exploring a Napa true crime story about a woman guided by her murdered sister’s ghost in pursuit of justice.The staged showcase featuring arias and duets will be performed at Mercury Theater in Petaluma in June 2026.

Ian Dogole will engage the services of an internationally recognized professional to promote his upcoming release titled “The Last Trane to Africa,” to international radio and press. “The Last Trane to Africa” is an Afro-infused homage to the legendary music of John Coltrane.

Khatchadour will record Shounch: Breath, a world music album exploring Armenian sacred, folk, and troubadour traditions sung in Eastern and Western Armenian dialects. The album, featuring original compositions and arrangements born out of the 2023 conflict and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians, will be recorded in 2025 and early 2026.

David James’s GPS will record the song cycle Mission Rebel No. 1: Looking for Jesse James, a 12-part contemporary music work exploring the composer’s father’s life and work. The recording will take place in July 2025 and be released on CD, vinyl, and streaming platforms in January 2026.

Ensemble for These Times will record their sixth album, “El Tiempo Latine,” featuring contemporary classical chamber music by eight 21st century women, queer, and nonbinary Latine composers, including Grammy winners Gabriela Ortiz and Claudia Montero, and Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León. The recording will be released on Aerocade Music in May 2026.