Pianist/composer brings ‘Antonia’ adaptation to Menlo School

Adapting ‘Antonia’

While Willa Cather forbade any adaptation of her work, pianist/composer Sir Stephen Hough hopes his adaptation her novel “My Ántonia” would have been an exception “in consideration of her love of music.”

Hough will perform the West Coast premiere of his piano quintet, “Les Noces Rouges,” with the Viano Quartet at Music@Menlo on July 26 and 28.

Drawn to its potential as “a macabre tone-poem,” Hough’s work musically recounts Cather’s story of a wedding unraveling into a drunken banquet, a sleigh ride across the snowy steppes, and the subsequent “murder by wolves” committed by two callous brothers.

The work is part of “The Unfolding of Music,” a program that includes works by Telemann, Beethoven, Schumann and Bartók. Featured artists include pianists Hyeyeon Park and Wu Han; violinists Aaron Boyd, Stella Chen, Jessica Lee and Arnaud Sussmann; cellists David Finckel and Dmitri Atapine; and horn player Kevin Rivard.

The concerts are set for July 26 at 4 p.m. and July 28 at 7 p.m. at the Spieker Center for the Arts on the Menlo School campus, 50 Valparaiso Ave. in Atherton. Tickets are $25-$90 at https://bit.ly/4hbqnBe.

Permanent free tuition

The San Mateo County Community College District has made its free tuition program permanent following a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom, The Daily Journal reported. Senate Bill 968, signed into law by the governor, disregarded the 2028 sunset date for the Free College pilot program.

Since the pilot began in 2023, the program has served more than 35,000 students, according to The Journal. The program has helped boost enrollment by 24%, and supported student success. The majority of its population are students of color and first-generation college students.

—EdSource staff