(415) 776-4580
Starr King Way Performance Series
(SKWPS)
Contact Us
About
We have begun our second season of the Starr King Way Performance Series (SKWPS), presented by the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. Curated by Nancy Munn and Mark Sumner, professional staff musicians at UUSF, SKWPS features a diverse array of artistic talent that reflects the progressive vision of our revered and historic institution.
We present ten performances in 2025, usually scheduled on select Sunday afternoons at 1:30 p.m. in the beautiful spaces and acoustics found in our center at the corners of Geary Boulevard, Franklin Avenue, and Starr King Way.
2025 Calendar
Check out our 2025 SKWPS CALENDAR for exciting concert performances planned throughout the year. Don’t miss the chance to experience a variety of musical genres and talented artists. Each month promises to bring something new and captivating to our Chancel, so mark your calendars and join us for an unforgettable year of music!
SKWPS 2025
SUNDAYS, 1:30PM, UUSF SANCTUARY
$20 SUGGESTED DONATION FOR ALL EVENTS
*SKWPS IN-HOUSE PERFORMANCE
**SATURDAY 6PM WITH CATERED DINNER OPTION ($30)
MLK/TSK ROOMS
February 2
violinist/fiddler Andrew Finn Magill
Sunday, February 2, 1:30 pm, Sanctuary
Our first Starr King Way Performance Series (SKWPS) performance of 2025 (1:30 on February 2nd in the Sanctuary) will feature Andrew Finn Magill on tour from the East Coast.
​
North Carolina violinist/fiddler Andrew Finn Magill is a Fulbright Fellow, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, All-Ireland fiddle finalist, and 2024 Seifert jazz violin finalist in Poland. Magill's solo show is one violinist's global journey through many musical traditions and soundscapes, including a year in Malawi and two years in Brazil, among other places. This journey has been enabled by a constellation of grants and a commitment to connection with other people through the common language of music.
​
March 2
Celebrating Extraordinary Women: A Concert Featuring Soprano Nancy Munn and Pianist Dr. Joachim Reinhuber
Sunday, March 2, 1:30 pm, Sanctuary
Don’t miss soprano Nancy Munn singing songs and arias in celebration of extraordinary women. Accompanied by Dr. Joachim Reinhuber, the program will feature music and words either performed, written, or composed by women, culminating in audience favorites like Gwyneth Walker's No Ordinary Woman!
​
San Francisco-based soprano Nancy Munn began her career singing with the D’Oyly Carte Opera and Welsh National Opera companies, touring the United Kingdom before teaching and performing in her native Texas and now the Bay Area.
​
Dr. Joachim Reinhuber serves as Professor of Piano at Texas A&M University Kingsville. He performs in the US and his home country, Germany. Nancy and Joachim have been friends and collaborators for many years!
​
March 8
ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS IS BACK!
BROADWAY SING-A-LONG MARCH 8TH
Saturday, March 8, 6:00 pm, TSK Room
This year, come sing and hear the sound of Broadway music, lifting your voice (and a twig of Edelweiss) with our gathered community.
​
The annual event returns on Saturday evening, March 8th! Join the Music Committee and choir for an evening of great food, great fellowship, and “How do you solve a problem like M---ia” efforts, led by our Music Director Mark Sumner and pianist Bill Ganz.
​
The evening begins with wine and nibbles as guests arrive. Following a delicious dinner, Mark will warm up with a few Do-Re-Mi exercises and then lead us in an evening of singing favorite Broadway tunes, with solo features sprinkled throughout. If you have ever secretly imagined singing a favorite song, all by yourself, in front of an appreciative audience, this is your chance!
Past soloists include Rev. John Buehrens, Trustee Liz Strand, and other “secret singers,” as well as some of our own choir members. Contact Mark here if you would like to offer a solo feature, and he will make sure to provide music in your preferred key!
​
Tickets are $30 to cover the cost of dinner and wine, provided by UUSF favorite caterer Jordon Alexander.
Look for the Broadway Sing Along table in the gallery on Sundays after church and purchase tickets to support music programs here at the church!
April 5
EXPERIENCE EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE MAGIC RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES....
Saturday, April 5, 7:00 pm, TSK Room
....and better yet, be the creator of that magic! On the evening of April 5th in the TSK (Thomas Starr King) Room at 7pm, the gathered will be charged with a guided audit of a radio play written by Bruce Clements inspired by Noel Coward's brilliant one-act play and movie script, Brief Encounter.
​
A small cast will perform the radio play with scripts in one hand. The experience will simulate an authentic radio play with sound effects and live music supplied to break up the scenes. The audience will be charged with individual assignments and contribute their thoughts and discoveries at the 'interval.' After some guided and free exchanges with the cast and author, there will be a second reading/performance to end the evening.
​
Reservations were highly recommended, but the new approach to the evening allows one and all to come without forewarning! If you would like a script in advance or want to make a reservation for a ringside seat, email sngwtme@gmail.com or text 415-309-0150.
This experiment promises to be an unforgettable experience—encouraging a more profound engagement with the material at hand and conjuring elements to enhance the theatricality and effectiveness of the story and its telling.
​
Let in the Magic!
Mark Sumner and Bruce Clements
May 4
Rita Lackey - A Soulful Afternoon of Jazz and R&B Awaits!
Sunday, May 4, 1:30 pm, Sanctuary
Rita Lackey is a powerful songstress with a vocal and piano style all her own! She delivers a blend of jazz, R&B, and original compositions that captivates her audience. This diversely talented SF Bay Area artist has opened for such greats as Maria Muldaur and B.B. King. The upcoming May 4th performance will also feature an album release of her new CD, A Shot of Soul. Ms. Lackey’s back-up band for the engagement will be Mark Lee on drums and Tim Romain on bass. As a professional musician, she has performed at Yoshi’s, the Art and Soul Festival, and numerous special events. Currently she teaches at Community Music Center in San Francisco and conducts vocal workshops. Having performed all over the globe, she brings to the stage a style reminiscent of the early days of popular music. See you there!
June 29
Los Cenzontles - Mexican-American band
Sunday, June 29, 1:30 pm, Sanctuary
Los Cenzontles is one of our featured SKWPS performances in 2025—scheduled for June 29th at 1:30 pm. They began as a youth music group in 1989 by Eugene Rodriguez. Along with his student collaborators from San Pablo and Richmond, California, they have promoted Mexican cultural traditions and cross-cultural connections through their academy, band, and music and video productions. Los Cenzontles has pioneered revivals of Mexican roots music in California, cultivating traditional rhythms to connect generations. Interpreting traditional, classic, and original songs in their own voices, Los Cenzontles captures the depth, clarity, and living spirit of our heritage with dignity and care. The band has performed across the United States, Mexico, Cuba, the UK, and the Dominican Republic, sharing the beauty of their Mexican roots all over the world through their media productions. The group’s members were trained at their Cultural Arts Academy and have worked with many Mexican folk musicians and diverse renowned artists as well. Los Cenzontles’ core members also serve as the programming staff and teachers of our academy. They pass on musical traditions to new generations and invite their students to perform with them on stage.
July 14
Harmonies Through History: The Renowned Choir of Sidney Sussex College
Monday, July 14, 7:00 pm, Sanctuary
The Choir are the inheritors of an illustrious musical tradition dating back to the foundation of Sidney Sussex College in 1596.
​
Sidney Sussex College rose from the ruins of the Cambridge Greyfriars in 1596 and has long been a nest for professional musicians. The large Chapel that stood on this site in pre-Reformation times was the regular venue for University ceremonies and was where a number of early English composers took their degrees, including Robert Fayrfax and Christopher Tye. Later, the great Elizabethan composer William Byrd would have been well-known to the foundress, Lady Frances Sidney, and two very fine elegies by Byrd survive for her nephew, the poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney.
Aside from the abundant contribution the Choir makes to the musical life of the College, Sidney is home to a wealth of musical ensembles and choral groups and Fellows with both academic and practical expertise.
Dr. David Skinner (DPhil, Oxon) is a Fellow and Osborn Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and artistic director of the early music ensemble Alamire. His research has centered around music institutions, manuscripts, and composers of 16th-century Europe, and his particular specialty is music and the Reformation in England. A large portion of his doctoral thesis was published in the Roxburghe Club volume The Arundel Choirbook (Arundel: Duke of Norfolk, 2003), and he has since published a number of music editions, facsimile volumes, and articles, as well as more than 30 commercial recordings (awards including Gramophone, BBC Music, Limelight, Times CD of the Year, and others).
​
Since the appointment of Dr. David Skinner as the Osborn Director of Music, the Choir has honed a specialism in Renaissance music, making a niche in making professional recordings for specialist markets, including museums, art galleries, and national libraries.
Recent tour destinations include Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Austria, and the east and west coasts of the USA, with performances in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York's Carnegie Hall.
Since 2014, the Choir's close relationship with the Italian choral community has been fostered by annual tours to Rome, including performances in the Colosseum and St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
July 20
Rami Bar-Niv: Piano Performance and Discussion
Sunday, July 20, 1:30 pm, Sanctuary
Rami Bar-Niv, an internationally acclaimed musician born in Tel Aviv, has established himself as a prominent concert artist, performing extensively across North, Central, and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel, where he received the “Best Performer Award” from the Israeli government. Rami will be performing on Sunday, July 20, at 1:30 pm for the Starr King Way Performance Series (SKWPS). A graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music and Mannes College of Music, he has won numerous competitions and scholarships, including the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Competition, which facilitated his studies in the United States. Bar-Niv has made history as the first Israeli artist to perform in Egypt after the Begin/Sadat Peace Treaty and is recognized as an ambassador of goodwill for Israel, often representing the country in concerts abroad. His recordings for CBS and other labels have garnered acclaim, and his compositions are published and performed globally.
August 31
Giacomo Fiore, classical/contemporary guitarist
Sunday, August 31, 1:30 pm, Sanctuary
Italian-born guitarist and musicologist Giacomo Fiore has premiered more than three dozen new works for justly tuned electric and classical guitars and released several recordings for Other Minds, Populist, Cold Blue, Pinna, Spectropol, Paper Garden Records, and his own impressum. As a scholar, his research focuses on U.S. experimental music, intonation, and performance; he has published articles in Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of the Society for American Music, and TEMPO, and he writes occasionally for Classical Guitar and SFCV. He teaches a wide range of historical and practical music courses at the University of San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz. Giacomo is a member of Ninth Planet New Music (the chamber group formerly known as Wild Rumpus) and an occasional performer for New Music Works, sfSound, and other Bay Area organizations. He has served as a curator for the Center for New Music since 2019 and as the vice president of the Northern California Chapter of the American Musicological Society from 2015 to 2019. Giacomo will be performing on Sunday, August 31, at 1:30 pm for the Starr King Way Performance Series (SKWPS).
SKWPS
2024
March 10 Rebecca Roudman and her Dirty Cello ensemble (WATCH HERE)
June 7 Our Town, prepared reading, directed by Bruce Clements and Mark Sumner
June 9 Eric Hamilton, classical guitar
September 22 Wagner and Kong, cello and piano
November 3 21 V, choral artists, Martin Benvenuto, director (WATCH HERE)
