Only at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, on September 15, can Metallica fans see rocker Kirk Hammett jam with chamber musicians on a night where classical music meets metal.

Hammett will join FLUX and the St. Lawrence String Quartet to perform for the Morrison Series 50th Anniversary Gala.

“The idea behind bringing Kirk is to broaden the audience,” said Saul Gropman, the series' Artistic Director.

The Morrison Series, which originated in 1955, is one part of the Morrison Chamber Music Center, a non-profit organization housed at SF State.

The series presents six free concerts per year and since its beginning, has featured over 300 performers from over 20 countries. This is the first ticketed event that the Morrison Series will put on, and all of the following five concerts held on Sunday afternoons are free.

A crowd of 920 people is expected to attend the Gala, and if Gropman gets his wish, most will leave wanting more.

“The hope is that young people will discover [that] this is great,” says Shiffman. “Hopefully young people will be as psyched and excited and turned on as we are.”

Hammett will perform an original composition with FLUX, a New York-based string quartet whose West Coast debut was with the Morrison Series in 1996. FLUX is made up of versatile, avant-garde musicians who are classically trained, but have interests in other types of music such as indie rock and free jazz.

“I’m not personally a fan of Metallica, but we represent experimental art music,” said Tom Chui, violinist and founding member of FLUX.

“You wouldn’t think that we would combine together, but we found the right vehicle for it. It’s a piece of mine called SAS. It has room for improvisation and because of its nature it has room for a guest artist.”

Hammett and FLUX have practiced over web-casts and exchanged the score of the piece. Their first in-person practice will be right before the concert.

“Regardless of what Metallica is, I actually embrace the opportunity to perform for a different demographic,” says Chui. “Young people have much more open minds. I embrace the strangeness of the combination because it creates more of a challenge.”

Gropman, a music lecturer at SF State and a long time friend of Hammett, pitched the benefit concert idea at a Cream reunion concert in London. Hammett agreed to perform on the contingency that Gropman would perform as well.

Gropman, who took over as the series director in 1989, is committed to showing that classical music is accessible and not just for old or rich people.

“Saul is committed to showing that music is music; that classical music is not just about watching old guys in tails play a Mozart quartet,” said Barry Shiffman, violinist for the St. Lawrence String Quartet. “All music is the same, but classical music isn’t the type of music that fits well into the MTV format.”

The St. Lawrence String quartet is the ensemble in residence at Stanford University where they do their best to bring chamber music to the younger students with what they call “guerilla tactics.”

“We try to play in non-traditional settings like in coffee houses and the residence halls of non-music students,” Shiffman said.

The St. Lawrence Sting Quartet will be performing a piece called “The Last Round,” by Osvaldo Golijov, one of the most celebrated living composers in America, and also The American Quartet,” by Antonin Dvorak.

For the finale of the concert, both FLUX and the St. Lawrence String Quartet will perform a piece by tango composer Astor Piazzolla.

The Morrison Center also operates a prestigious chamber music teaching program. Since its beginning, the Morrison series has been committed to bringing cutting edge and new artists to the Bay Area, giving world-renowned groups such as the Eighth Blackbird, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Erocia trio and FLUX their West Coast debuts.

“The primary reason why the event is ticketed is to increase endowment. You would pay $50 to see some of these bands downtown,” said Gropman. “We’re not even making enough to cover the cost of the event. It’s just to get people involved.”