First the good news. After last year’s experiment with a (flexible) $20 cover charge, SF Music Day is once again free. The better news is that InterMusic SF’s 19th annual celebration of the Bay Area’s overlapping creative music scenes returns to the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center with a stellar line up featuring nearly 100 of the region’s most venturesome musicians.
Running Sunday noon to 6 p.m., the cornucopian program features artists exploring chamber music, jazz, new music, bluegrass and various international musical permutations across three stages. A donation of $30 is requested, but there’s no charge to attend. The price seems to be right.
“We’re already at 2,200 reservations, which is more than we’ve ever had before at this point,” said Crystal Pascucci-Clifford, the cellist who took over as InterMusic SF’s executive director in 2023.
Part of what makes SF Music Day such an effective showcase is that it’s a synergistic expression of InterMusic SF’s year-long work. Formerly known as SF Friends of Chamber Music, the San Francisco nonprofit took on a new moniker in 2017 to reflect its much wider musical scope. The organization has steadily expanded the resources it offers to musicians and ensembles, including fiscal sponsorship and grants.
Classical percussionist Haruka Fujii’s project focusing on contemporary chamber music from Japan, Nippon Kobo, the Filipina folk trio The Sampaguitas, and jazz pianist/composer Anne Sajdera’s Quintet are all 2026 grant recipients featured on Sunday. But it’s not unusual for the relationship to flow the other way.
“Many times performing at SF Music Day is a catalyst to benefit from all the services we offer, career building, capacity building, one-on-one strategic counseling,” Pascucci-Clifford said. “We’re all about finding ways to support musicians building sustainable ensembles and practices. SF Music Day is a celebration of all of that.”
It’s also a celebration of one of the nation’s most consequential artistic leaders. The festival’s honoree is Janet Cowperthwaite, whose four-decade tenure as manager of Kronos Quartet oversaw and facilitated the ensemble’s rise as one of the world’s preeminent new music ensembles. Kronos’s rising tide has shaped the Bay Area’s creative ecosystem, providing a model for the kind of cross-genre collaboration that SF Music Day often showcases. Sunday’s debut of the duo pairing San Francisco Contemporary Music Players pianist Monica Campbell with violist Hank Dutt, who spent nearly five decades in Kronos Quartet, marks the launch of another ensemble dedicated to introducing new music.
“As an arts administrator Janet is a superstar,” Pascucci-Clifford said. “What she’s done for the city of San Francisco, putting us on the map for contemporary music, redefining the string quartet and what it could do, can’t be overestimated. And personally, seeing a female leader in a role similar to mine is such an inspiration.”
InterMusic SF is also partnering with Jazz in the Neighborhood, an organization dedicated to creating and promoting gigs that pay sustainable wages. It’s the third year that the organization’s JazzMobile will be stationed outside the War Memorial with a combo playing throughout the day.
“We realized that it’s also a jam session,” Pascucci-Clifford said. “Last year we started to see the stage musicians sitting in. We’re encouraging community members to bring their horns and sit in.”
Along with the number and diversity of acts on tap what makes SF Music Day such an adventure is that it’s designed to allow for easy exploration. Come for the tenor saxophonist Raffi Garabedian’s gorgeous emo-jazz but also check out the slimmed down 16-piece edition of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, one of several large ensembles on tap.
Here are some other highly recommended SF Music Day sets.
ROVA Saxophone Quartet
Green Room, 2:15 p.m.
With its 50th anniversary in sight next year, ROVA keeps forging ahead. Featuring Jon Raskin on baritone saxophone, Larry Ochs on tenor saxophone, Steve Adams on alto and soprano saxophones and Bruce Ackley on soprano saxophone, this inveterately inventive group focuses on music from the new ESP-Disk release, “Those Who…” a bracing set of rigorously designed material for collective improvisation.
Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic
Taube Atrium, 2:15 p.m.
Jazz trumpeter and composer Ian Carey’s Wood Metal Plastic is a fascinating hybrid featuring his detailed and often intricate music balancing horns, strings and protean rhythm section. With violinists Irene Sazer and Quinn Han, cellist Jessica Ivry, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, drummer Jason Levis and saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, the elemental ensemble can (and does) explore multiple directions.
Sundra Manning
Herbst Theatre, 4 p.m.
If the Bay Area is in the midst of a Hammond B3 renaissance, Sundra Manning deserves some of the credit. She’s a charismatic, soul-steeped force on the instrument, and her band features tenor sax powerhouse Howard Wiley, bassist Kevin Goldberg, drummer Darian Grey, and vocalist Omega Rae (who’s been working lately with the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra).
Trillian Welch
Taub Atrium, 5 p.m.
Featuring Margaret Belton, Jill Rogers, and Meredith Edgar, Trillian Welch is a project that transforms the songs of Gillian Welch with sumptuous three-part harmonies, as each woman brings a distinctive approach to the material. They’re accompanied by the top-notch Trillianaires, a guitar-forward quintet that brings the requisite torch and twang.
Bululú
Herbst Theatre, 5 p.m.
Led by Venezuelan-born percussionist and vocalist Lali Mejia, Bululú brings together a bevy of leading players from across the Bay Area Latin music, including bassist Ayla Davila, keyboardist Ruthie Dineen, drummer Omar Ledezma Jr, Puerto Rican cuatro expert Pedro Pastrana, Grace Guerrero on vocals and hand percussion, Dayron Calderon on trombone and vocals, and Puerto Rican vocalist Karla Lozada. With a far-ranging repertoire that encompasses salsa, cumbias, joropo, guarachas, bachatas, and calypsos, Bululú brings a pan-American party.