Formed in San Francisco 51 years ago, psychedelic funk legends Sly & the Family Stone broke all the rules and revolutionized soul music.

Groundbreaking not only for a genre-bending sound, Sly & the Family Stone was the first major band in America to integrate race and gender, and the group solidified its place in rock and roll history with huge hits and critical acclaim. But drugs and a decline in output turned Sly Stone into a recluse nearly 30 years ago.

Fast forward from then to 10 years ago, when first-time filmmaker Michael Rubenstone set out to find the reclusive Stone, chronicled in the recently completed documentary,
On the Sly, screening at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival.

Drummer Greg Errico and other members of the Family Stone are featured in the film, and the screening is accompanied with a concert performance by the group (minus Sly) as part of MVFF’s music lineup. “It’s wonderful to get it going again,” says Errico. “As performers, we’re seeing the power of the music, the wave of what we had originally created, still moving.”

On the Sly screens Friday, Oct. 13 at CinéArts Sequoia, 25 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, 6pm (mvff.com). The Family Stone perform that night at Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave.,
Mill Valley. 9pm. $45–$50. 415.388.3850.

Two Santa Rosa institutions are celebrating major anniversaries this month, and they’ve joined forces to celebrate.

Radio station KSRO 1350-AM marks 80 years. At one time it was the only radio station between San Francisco and Portland, Ore. Santa Rosa’s Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa isn’t as long in the tooth, but this month it’s marking 60 years of stylish accommodations and relaxation. Fun fact: When the Flamingo opened in 1957, KSRO began broadcasting from the hotel.

To mark the double birthday party, Steve Jaxon’s The Drive on KSRO will broadcast live from the Flamingo on Sept. 27, 3–6pm—we’ll be there, too, at 4pm for the “Boho Buzz”. During the celebrations, which will feature live flamingo’s from Safari West and synchronized swimmers from Redwood Empire Synchro, Flamingo staffers will open the 20-year-old time capsule tucked under the hotel’s signature spinning flamingo. What will they find? George H. W. Bush memorabilia? Backstreet Boys LPs? A Nokia flip-phone? The event is closed to the public, but you can tune in to find out and listen in on the celebration.

After 12 years on the conductor’s podium, Bruno Ferrandis is stepping down as music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony at the end of the 2017–18 season.

“He’s been an absolute joy to work with,” says Santa Rosa Symphony president and CEO Alan Silow. “He felt it was time to explore new musical horizons back in Europe, where he is based, and give the orchestra a time to refresh and have a new artistic vision for this organization going forward.”

Ferrandis gave the symphony an ample two-year notice of his intentions, and a 10-person committee that includes Silow, musicians and board members
has searched the globe for his replacement.

From a list that originally topped 70 names, the committee has narrowed the candidates down to five, and each will have the chance to perform for local audiences in the symphony’s 90th concert season, beginning Oct. 7 at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall.

“All five of these candidates are or have been musical directors of highly distinguished orchestras,” Silow says. “I think that shows the stature that the Santa Rosa Symphony has acquired.”

In addition to the technical aspects of conducting and leading an orchestra, the search committee is looking for a director who will engage audiences and the community at large, collaborate well with the orchestra and visiting soloists and create imaginative, diverse and challenging programs.

The candidates were involved in selecting their concert’s program, with each concert featuring a solo pianist and containing classical, romantic and contemporary periods of music.

First up is Francesco Lecce-Chong. The San Francisco native, currently conducting at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and directing at the Eugene Symphony, will lead a program that includes Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and a 2014 piece, “Garages of the Valley,” by Grammy-nominated composer Mason Bates.

The other candidates are Mei-Ann Chen, music director emeritus at Memphis Symphony Orchestra and director at the Chicago Sinfonietta; Andrew Grams, former assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra; Graeme Jenkins, former music director of the Dallas Opera; and Michael Christie, formerly of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Phoenix Symphony and currently at the Minnesota Opera.

The board will decide in March after taking input from audiences and musicians. “We’re looking for somebody who has the ‘it’ factor,” says Silow. “Somebody who brings the magic to the concert.”