Humanities West Salon. Kayleen Asbo / The Sublime and the Surreal: Erik Satie and Salvador Dali.

Come celebrate the city of lights and love in this delectable Humanities West Salon, a performance and lecture evening on the history of music and art in turn-of-the-century Paris.

November 30, 2017. 7-8:30 pm. Hotel Rex. $25-30

Kayleen Asbo, PhD is a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a lecturer on cultural history for the San Francisco Opera, Dominican University and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes of UC Berkeley and Sonoma State University. Her course Dante through Art and Music has been hailed as “utterly addictive tour-de-force of passion, performance and meticulous scholarship,” and “unlike anything you’ve ever experienced in a classroom–not just intellectually illuminating, but also heart-opening and profoundly moving,” and “unforgettable and perhaps even life-changing.”

March 17, 2016, 6-7:30 pm PST at the Hotel Rex

See Event Details

Humanities West Salon, featuring Music of the Celtic Nations. Multi-instrumentalists Shira Kammen and Jim Oakden celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a performance of the music of the Celtic nations–Brittany, Galicia, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc.–on piano, bagpipes, and other Celtic instruments.

Thursday, January 21, 2016, 6:00 pm PST at Hotel Rex

See Event Details

Humanities West Salon at the Rex, featuring Richard Savino’s performances and recordings have been praised by critics throughout the world. In addition to receiving a Diapason d’Or from Compact ( Paris) and a 10 du Rèpertoire (Paris) the latter has also placed his Boccherini recordings in their “Great Discoveries” category which they deem as essential to any classical music collection. He has also recorded the romantic guitar music of Johann Kaspar Mertz (HM) virtuoso sonatas by Paganini and Giuliani with violinist Monica Huggett, and sonatas for flute and guitar with flutist Laurel Zucker. In 1998 Koch International released his recording of an extensive collection of 18th century guitar music from Mexico by Santiago de Murcia (4 Stars: Goldberg) which the Public Radio International program The World featured as its “Global Hit,” and in September 1999 Mr. Savino was the subject of a one hour special on the PRI program Harmonia. With El Mundo he has recorded Venice Before Vivaldi, a Portrait of Giovanni Legrenzi and Villancicos y Cantadas (sacred music from Spain and Latin America) and with Ensemble Galatea he has recorded the music by Barabara Strozzi (Emanuella Galli, mezzo soprano), Biagio Marini (with Monica Huggett) and Giovanni Buonamente (with Monica Huggett and Bruce Dickey). In recent years Koch released his recording of the first period instrument versions of the Boccherini Guitar Symphonia and the Op. 30 Concerto for Guitar by Mauro Giuliani with Ms. Huggett and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. His most recent recordings (2006-07) include The Essential Giuliani Vol. 1 (Koch), Music Fit fir a King (solo baroque guitar music by Robert De Viseé and Françios Campion) and Baroque Guitar Sonatas (1696) of Ludovico Roncallii (Dorian). As a continuo player and accompanist Mr. Savino has worked with some of the world’s most important performers and is a principal performer with the Houston Grand Opera, New York Collegium, Portland Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado, Dallas Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. From 1986-98 Mr. Savino directed the CSU Summer Arts Guitar and Lute Institute. Presently he is director of the ensemble El Mundo and in 1995 and 2005 he was Visiting Artistic Director of the prestigious NEH sponsored Aston Magna Academy and Music Festival at Rutgers University. An avid writer, Mr. Savino has had articles and editions published by Cambridge University Press, Editions Chantarelle and Indiana University Press. He is a lecturer and instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Professor of Music at CSU Sacramento where he has been the only music professor to receive “outstanding and exceptional” and “best” sabbatical awards. Mr. Savino instructors have included Andres Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, Albert Fuller and Jerry Willard. He received his Doctorate from SUNY at Stony Brook.