Mill Valley
Art of Healing
Music takes on a deeper purpose at The Art of Healing, a benefit concert dedicated to supporting the recovery of Oshalla Marcus, executive director of the Marin City Art & Culture Center, following a life-threatening stroke. Conceived as a restorative musical journey, the evening, at the Throckmorton Theatre, centers on sound as a force for resilience, connection and renewal. The lineup includes Steven Halpern, a globally recognized pioneer of modern sound healing, alongside James Henry and the Hands on Fire Band. Cabaret performer and musical storyteller Craig Jessup adds narrative panache, while Piwai and the Bassmint Quartet weave mbira, bass and rhythm into music grounded in healing traditions. 7–9pm, Sunday, Jan. 18, Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. Tickets $50–$100. throckmortontheatre.org.
Corte Madera
Artists & AI
What is the role of the artist when the machine picks up a pen—or composes a symphony? Emmy Award-winning composer and producer Lucas Cantor Santiago comes to Corte Madera’s Book Passage to explore that question in conversation with astrophysicist and author Adam Becker. The event centers on Santiago’s new book, Unfinished: The Role of the Artist in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, a clear-eyed and surprisingly optimistic meditation on creativity in an era of accelerating technology. Once a self-described luddite, Santiago’s perspective shifted after an unlikely commission: collaborating with artificial intelligence to complete Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, a project that drew international attention and forced a rethinking of authorship, tradition and innovation. Drawing on deep experience in both the arts and tech worlds, the discussion traces the long arc from bone flutes to algorithms, asking not only what is lost when machines enter the creative process—but what might be gained.
4pm, Sunday, Jan. 18, Book Passage Corte Madera, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. bookpassage.com.
Sonoma
Bowl of Terriers
Life Is Just a Bowl of Terriers offers a retrospective look at one of Northern California’s most idiosyncratic voices. A key figure in the Bay Area’s Funk Art movement of the late ’60s and ’70s, Maija Peeples-Bright built a singular visual universe crowded with animals—her beloved “beasties”—stacked, multiplied and set loose in surreal, often absurd scenarios. Painted in thick, audacious impasto, her canvases brim with energy, texture and a mischievous sense of excess, filling every inch with creaturely invention. This exhibition, at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA), traces her evolution from the Funk years to the present, revealing a practice that has always reveled in imagination and humor. 5–7pm, Saturday, Jan. 24, opening reception at SVMA. Free for SVMA members; $10 for non-members. Pre-registration required; registration closes 5pm, Jan. 22. svma.org.
Healdsburg
Joni Revisited
The Joni Mitchell Situation brings Mitchell’s songbook into intimate focus at Furthermore Wine and Music Lounge, tracing her ballads, art songs and jazz-inflected turns with equal care and wit. Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kate Foley-Beining leads the evening, moving easily between piano, guitar and dulcimer while drawing out the emotional elasticity of Mitchell’s writing. She’s joined by a seasoned Sonoma County rhythm section—Tom Shader on bass, Kevin Dillon on drums and Christian Foley-Beining on guitar—capable of shifting from lyrical restraint to improvisational swing. The setlist spans eras and moods, touching on everything from “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” to “The Fiddle and the Drum,” and reflects Mitchell’s enduring refusal to stay in one genre for long. 5:30–8:30pm, Friday, Jan. 30; Saturday, Feb. 28; and Thursday, March 19, Furthermore Wine and Music Lounge, 328A Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. furthermorewines.com/events.
