Too much fun.  That’s the only way to describe Saturday night’s SF Opera simulcast of Il Trovatore at AT&T Park.  There’s something about that beautiful setting, with the view of the Bay and the passing ships, the changing weather and more than 25,000 people all together for a night of free opera. Definitely one of those only in SF kind of events. One of the highlights for me was Anne Richnavsky, our KDFC Star-Spangled Sing-Off winner.  She blew everybody away with her stunning rendition of the National Anthem.  Here are some shots from the evening:

KDFC Star-Spangled Sing-Off Winner Anne Richnavsky

The KDFC logo on the big screen

Me and my co-host for the evening Bill Lueth

The magic of the stradivarius sound has fascinated people for three centuries and in recent years the secret has been pretty much figured out. A mini ice age from 1645 to 1715 created long winters and cool summers which caused trees to grow slowly and uniformly – ideal conditions in fact for producing wood with excellent acoustic qualities. So that was part of the strad magic. Now Swiss scientist Francis Schwarze and the Swiss violin maker Michael Rhonheimer have created a modern day violin that recently fooled some experts in a blind audio test. Their trick? follow this link for the full story.

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James Rhodes is a 34-year-old English pianist whose life story so far reads like a feature in the National Enquirer.  The key thing is that he can play and that’s what makes his history so compelling.  Read this article to get a sense of what’s he’s been through already. The cool thing is that he’s on to us here at KDFC.  Through Twitter and the internet and what else I’m not sure, James knows we’re featuring him this week and he’s grateful.  His new CD is called razor blades, little pills and big pianos and you can buy it here at a special price.

It’s one of the highlights of the Fall arts season and a definite highlight for us at KDFC. Rik Malone, our current host of the symphony, and former host Dianne Nicolini take over the broadcast booth for the once a season live broadcast event. Some years back it was decided that I should check out the rest of the evening. This year I brought along a camera and here is some of what I saw.

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