The Best Jazz and Classical Concerts in the Bay Area This Fall
It’s a ripe year for jazz in the Bay Area. While this year marks the centennials of two jazz giants, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the jazz on offer this fall extends beyond tribute performances of “So What” and “Giant Steps.”
And it’s an exciting year for the local classical music landscape, with a dynamic new conductor in San Francisco. Even the smaller regional orchestras are programming world premieres, catering to the historic hunger from Bay Area audiences for the fresh and new.
Here’s a select list of some of the season’s best bets in jazz and classical.
Sept. 10–13, 2026
SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco
The esteemed bassist and host of NPR’s Jazz Night in America swings through town with two configurations. One is a tribute to the great bassist Ray Brown, in a trio with the pianist Benny Green, who played hundreds of gigs alongside Brown. McBride’s quintet Ursa Major, meanwhile, leans to the future, with a group of the next generation’s sparkling talents (including Oakland’s own Savannah Harris on drums).
Sept. 12–27, 2026
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Before the perennial performance of Opera in the Park, SF Opera opens its season with this underperformed opera by Giuseppe Verdi, a stirring exploration of a splintered family and a divided republic. With the remarkable conductor Eun Sun Kim at the podium, and with Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role, expect to be moved.
Sept. 13 and 14, 2026
Yoshi’s, Oakland
There may be no finer torchbearer of the spiritual jazz era than this tenor saxophonist, who routinely conjures moments of transcendence with his longtime bandmates. Considering Washington’s most recent visit to the Bay Area was a sold-out concert at the 2,300-capacity Golden Gate Theater, these intimate club dates should be especially special.
Sept. 19, UC Theatre, Berkeley
Sept. 20, Raven Theater, Healdsburg
The oldest son of jazz demigod John Coltrane has always kept one foot out of his father’s shadow, but in this, the elder Coltrane’s centennial year, he indulges his family history. For this program of Coltrane’s timeless music, with a quintet including Jonathan Finlayson, Gadi Lehavi and Elé Howell, anticipate fire and beauty in equal measure.
Sept. 26 and 27, 2026
Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek
This year’s celebrations for the United States’ 250th anniversary have seen a flood of programming filled with Ives, Gershwin and Copland; the California Symphony, meanwhile, highlights Sibelius’ The Oceanides, written during the composer’s only trip to the states. It’s paired here with American composer Jennifer Higdon’s cello concerto, performed by Julian Schwarz, and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.
Oct. 1, 3 and 4, 2026
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
The soprano Renée Fleming needs no introduction, and perhaps her interpretations of the songs of Richard Strauss don’t either. Suffice it to say that her long relationship with Strauss’ Four Last Songs provides repeated moments of contemplation and emotional depth for one’s life — and its end. Also on the program is Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben.
Oct. 3–11, 2026
Bankhead Theater, Livermore
Set in a convent, Puccini’s luminous one-act features a rare all-female cast. At Livermore Opera, that cast is led by Ann Toomey as Sister Angelica, who wrestles with family estrangement and worldly desires — and sings the moving aria “Senza mamma.” Part of Puccini’s “triptych” of lesser-performed one-acts, Suor Angelica remains rewarding.
Oct. 10–12, 2026
Green Music Center, Rohnert Park
In the Santa Rosa Symphony’s season opener, Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong returns to the first piece he performed with the orchestra, nine years ago: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is in the capable hands of Maxim Lando, hailed in The New York Times for his “brilliance and infectious exuberance,” and a world premiere of Matt Browne’s Divertimento for Orchestra rounds out the program.
Oct. 24, 2026
Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley
With the dubious honor of being one of the few musicians praised by Donald Trump (or maybe just his ghostwriter, who even knows), Steve Reich turns 90 this year. Presented by Cal Performances in Berkeley, the New York ensemble Bang on a Can All Stars perform his Electric Counterpoint, Double Sextet and a new Cal Performances co-commission, In All Your Ways.
Oct. 25, 2026
SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco
It’s been ages since trumpeter Charles Tolliver last performed in the Bay Area, and in the years since, the record label he co-founded in the 1970s, Strata East, has undergone a massive renaissance. Which makes it curious that, instead of performing his own music, he’s in town for a tribute to John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass album. Ever original, he’ll surely put his own stamp on the big-band compositions.
Oct. 29–Nov. 1, 2026
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
In her first appearance since a triumphant welcome concert in June, the first woman to lead the San Francisco Symphony conducts Brahms and Mendelssohn alongside two contemporary pieces: Arvo Pärt’s Magnificat and John Adams’ Doctor Atomic Symphony. Chan is openly enamored of Adams, and her ease with soft tenderness should serve Pärt’s music well.
Nov. 5–8, 2026
Various venues
The Bay Area’s conductorless New Century Chamber Orchestra teams up with jazz pianist Marcus Roberts and his trio for a joint performance of Ellington and Gershwin. Adding plenty to the program are newer pieces by Caroline Shaw and Rhiannon Giddens. Roberts and the orchestra were a hot ticket in 2019; catch them this year across four dates in Berkeley, Mountain View, San Francisco and San Rafael.