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World’s best-selling jazz instrumentalist kicks off 2024 with Bay Area run

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

Want to see Chris Botti in concert?Well, you’ve got plenty of chances to do so as the famed trumpeter plans to perform eight shows in six nights, Jan. 9-14, at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.That’s a rare kind of a multi-show run for a jazz instrumentalist to enjoy, well, basically anywhere outside of New York City. Yet, Botti isn’t just any jazz instrumentalist. According to SFJAZZ, he’s “the world’s best-selling jazz instrumentalist.” Not coincidentally, he can draw the type of big crowd numbers to warrant eight consecutive shows in the same venue.What’s so great about Botti? Let’s start off with his amazing tone and sense of lyricism, which pay off in various enchanting ways in both his studio recordings and on the live stage.The list of all stars who have called upon Botti’s talents over the years include Buddy Rich, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Sting and, yes, even Frank Sinatra. The Portland, Oregon,-born trumpeter ...

Best of music 2023: Premieres and reborn classics thrilled Bay Area classical fans

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

Concerts, operas, new works and visiting artists: classical music presenters offered a thrilling array of performances throughout the Bay Area in 2023. Here are some of the most memorable events among the highlights.“Eden”: Joyce DiDonato brought this semi-staged concert focusing on climate and the natural world to Stanford Live and Cal Performances in January; backed by the early music ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, with music spanning Baroque to new works, the great mezzo-soprano made it an enchanting experience.A French rarity: The music of Olivier Messiaen doesn’t get performed nearly often enough, but under music director Michael Tilson Thomas, the San Francisco Symphony gave a lustrous performance of the French composer’s 1944 “Trois petites liturgies de la Présence divine” in January at Davies Symphony Hall. Featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist, with essential contributions from Cynthia Millar on the ondes Martenot, and members of the S.F. Symphony Chorus, “divine” descr...

Bay Area News Group high school football coach of the year: Acalanes’ Floyd Burnsed

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

After Acalanes coach Floyd Burnsed, 76 years young, raised his first state championship trophy at Saddleback College in Orange County last month, the football lifer didn’t think about what the title meant for his already-decorated coaching legacy. Instead, he praised the town that saw him turn the Lafayette school’s program into state champions.“It’s huge, it’s huge,” Burnsed said in front of Acalanes fans after the team defeated Birmingham of Lake Balboa. “They’ve been big supporters for such a long time, they deserve a great football program.” No one can argue that Acalanes, which before the playoffs had never even won its section, was a great team this season. The Dons won a shared Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division title, routed San Marin 24-7 to win the NCS Division IV title, crushed Escalon 49-14 to collect the NorCal 3-AA trophy, and then triumphed 33-21 over Birmingham. “Three firsts in a row,” Burnsed remarked. For this, Burnsed is the Bay Area News Group coach ...

Chance sighting leads to rescue of driver stranded for days in California backcountry

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

A chance sighting of a flashlight led to the rescue of an Arizona man who had been stranded for four days in a remote area of Ventura County, the sheriff’s office said.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | A skull found near Lake Tahoe has finally been linked to a nurse who disappeared in 1970 Crashes and Disasters | East Bay boyfriend eyed in Capitola woman’s disappearance Crashes and Disasters | Torso found in dumpster identified as missing California mother of 3 Crashes and Disasters | Former NBA G League player for Stockton Kings and his girlfriend arrested in killing and kidnapping of missing woman Crashes and Disasters | Human remains found in June near Oakland Zoo officially identified; police say man was a homicide victim  The man was discovered on the night of Dec. 26 in backcountry about 20 miles west of the Grapevine section of Interstate 5.A sheriff’s deputy and dispatcher had b...

Federal investigators say they’ve identified no connection to terrorism in deadly Rochester crash

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

(CNN) — Authorities found no evidence of a connection to domestic terrorism in a deadly car crash outside a New Year’s concert in Rochester, New York, which killed two people and injured nine, officials said Tuesday.The suspect, who officials identified as 35-year-old Michael Avery from Syracuse, has died, two law enforcement sources said.Rochester Police Chief David M. Smith said as of Tuesday morning, officials had found no evidence that Avery acted on “political or social biases,” in the incident, in which two vehicles – one laden with gas canisters – crashed and plowed into the crowd outside the concert at Rochester’s Kodak Center.“So far we’ve uncovered no evidence of an ideology and no nexus to terrorism, either international or domestic,” FBI agent Jeremy Bell said Tuesday.Multiple law enforcement sources told CNN that domestic terrorism is still being looked at as a possibility in this case.The FBI defines domestic terrorism as involving acts dangerous to human life that are...

Bay Area office vacancies balloon to all-time highs as tech wobbles

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

SAN JOSE — Office vacancies in the Bay Area have ballooned to all-time highs — and might even worsen in 2024 — fresh evidence that tech cutbacks still haunt the region’s wobbly office market, a report released Tuesday shows.The office availability rate soared to record levels at the end of 2023 in both Silicon Valley and San Francisco, according to a report released by Savills, a commercial real estate firm.The sluggish state of the tech industry in the Bay Area is deemed to be the driving force behind the sky-high availability levels for offices, Savills reported. The office availability rate is a combination of vacant space plus space being offered for sublease.Silicon Valley’s office availability ended 2023 with a record high of 27.5% — which means well over one-fourth of the region’s office spaces were empty and being offered for a direct lease from a property owner or sublease from a tenant that was seeking to downsize its occupancy foo...

High surf advisory begins Wednesday: NWS

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

(KRON) – The National Weather Service issued a high surf advisory beginning from 10 a.m. on Wednesday to 4 a.m. on Thursday for Central and Northern California beaches.  One dead, two injured in rollover vehicle accident The NWS forecasts large and long period swell from the west and northwest that will create hazardous beach conditions. Breaking waves are predicted to be 19 to 23 feet. For your safety, stay off of jetties, stay out of and away from the water, never turn your back on the ocean, and keep pets on a leash and away from the water.

The 1972 Andes plane crash story has been told many times. ‘Society of the Snow’ is something new

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Gustavo Zerbino watched “La Sociedad de la Nieve,” the 1972 plane crash survivor felt as if he was being submerged “into boiling water,” reliving the roughly 70 days he and his teammates were stranded in the snow-covered Andes mountains.Zerbino praised J.A. Bayona’s raw and unfiltered film, which is being released Wednesday as “Society of the Snow” on Netflix in the U.S., but said he also felt the same anxieties and emotions he felt while stranded as a young athlete more than 50 years ago.“Fortunately, that feeling ended in 2 1/2 hours,” he told The Associated Press this past October. (All interviews for this story were conducted in Spanish.)Bayona’s movie is based on Pablo Vierci’s book of the same title, and follows the story of the Uruguayan Air Force plane disaster. The Old Christians rugby team was traveling with relatives and friends to Chile for a match when their plane crashed, stranding them in the mountains where they faced snow storms, avalan...

States and Congress wrestle with cybersecurity after Iran attacks small town water utilities

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyberattack.It had never had outside help in protecting its systems from a cyberattack, either at its existing plant that dates to the 1930s or the new $18.5 million one it is building.Then it — along with several other water utilities — was struck by what federal authorities say are Iranian-backed hackers targeting a piece of equipment specifically because it was Israeli-made.“If you told me to list 10 things that would go wrong with our water authority, this would not be on the list,” said Matthew Mottes, the chairman of the authority that handles water and wastewater for about 22,000 people in the woodsy exurbs around a one-time steel town outside Pittsburgh. The hacking of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa is prompting new warnings from U.S. security officials at a time when states and the federal government are wrestling with how...

Corcept Therapeutics, PNM Resources fall; Valaris, Johnson & Johnson rise, Tuesday, 1/3/2024

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:40:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that are trading heavily or have substantial price changes on Tuesday:ASML Holding N.V. (ASML), down $27.90 to $729.02.The equipment supplier to semiconductor makers said it is facing export restrictions to China from the Dutch government on certain machines.Baidu Inc. (BIDU), down $3.60 to $115.49.The web search company terminated its plan to buy JOYY’s live-streaming operations in China.Tesla Inc. (TSLA), up $1.45 to $249.93.Steep price cuts helped the electric vehicle maker increase its fourth-quarter vehicle sales by almost 20%.Valaris Ltd. (VAL), up 71 cents to $69.28.The offshore drilling services company announced a multi-year contract with Petrobras offshore Brazil.Corcept Therapeutics Inc. (CORT), down $8.93 to $23.55.The pharmaceutical company lost a patent dispute involving its Cushing’s syndrome drug Korlym with Teva.PNM Resources Inc. (PNM), down $2.39 to $39.21.Iberdrola’s Avangrid unit is terminating its plan to buy the power c...