Arts and Culture

Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra Turns 50

Published

8 years ago

January 8, 2016

By Sally Douglas Arce

It’s remarkable yet true. For 50 years, the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra (BCCO) has provided free concerts.

Eugene Jones, an African American who was a firefighter and had a passion for classical music, founded the chorus in 1966.

<p>He broke through segregation against African Americans both as a firefighter and as a basso-voiced opera singer.

The 50th Anniversary celebration begins with three concerts performed Friday, Jan. 8 through Sunday, Jan. 10 at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley – all with free admission, but donations are encouraged.

Led by Music Director Ming Luke, the 220-member chorus will perform Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms; a new work by Kurt Erickson, commissioned for the anniversary; and music to honor BCCO’s former music directors.

Ming Luke, the current director of the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra (BCCO), conducts the BCCO Spring 2015 Concert at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley.

Jones directed BCCO for 22 years, from1966 – 1988. He crossed the color barrier both as an Oakland firefighter in the late 1940s and as a Bay Area opera singer in the ’50s, singing with the San Francisco Spring Opera, the Oakland Light Opera and the San Francisco Municipal Opera Chorus.

In the 1940s and 1950s, African Americans in classical music were few and far between. “He was not able to make the strides that someone who was European would have been able to make,” says Jeneane Jones, his daughter, and a violinist who performed with BCCO.

“That was a painful reality for him. It did not prevent him from pushing into areas that were not receptive to African American musicians.” Jeneane teaches violin both privately and with a music school in the Gaithersburg, MD area.

Both his daughters, Miriam and Jeneane, testify that their father had an incredible voice and was devoted to music.

“We all have a passion for music,” says Miriam Jones, referring to her mother and three siblings. “I love listening to all types of music. But, no one had as much passion for it as our father.”

For many years, Jones suffered from glaucoma, a progressive disease that reduces a person’s vision field. Despite an inability to view a musical score in its entirety, he never allowed that deficit to prevent him from conducting. For him, it just meant studying the music more and learning how to memorize scores.

With persistence, charisma, talent, and devotion, Jones realized his dream of creating a chorus of non-auditioned singers and an orchestra drawn from the community that together would perform choral masterworks in free concerts for the general public.

The first African American conductor of a large Bay Area chorus and orchestra, Eugene Jones guided the group, bringing great choral works (which often featured his superb bass voice) to BCCO singers and audiences.

When he died at the age of 79 in the fall of 2003, many longtime BCCO members sang at his memorial service.

Eugene Jones, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., came to Oakland in 1945 after serving in World War II as a Navy cook. He became a firefighter at a time when black and white firefighters worked at separate stations.

Jones retired from the Oakland Fire Department in 1969. Jones married Irene Idella Jones, who attended U.C. Berkeley and stopped her studies, before completing a bachelor’s degree, to marry and have a family.

In addition to BCCO, Jones, in the early 1960s, formed “Echos from Jordan,” an African American a cappella chorus that sang Negro spirituals. Performing for about 7 years, they were 40-50 voices and sang at the Kaiser Center in Oakland.

On Oct. 17m Friends of Negro Spirituals, a nonprofit organization, posthumously presented Eugene Jones with an award for his work to keep the heritage of African Americans strong through oral histories and music.

Also, from the late 1960s until 1972, Jones toured the country with his oratorical performance, “Black Man Speaks,” combining classic spirituals and oratory denouncing racism.

For more information about Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra and the Jan. 8, 9 and 10 performance, visit http://bcco.org/

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Kedrick Armstrong: New Music Director for the Oakland Symphony

The Oakland Symphony Announced Kedrick Armstrong as its Next Music Director. In addition to conducting the orchestra’s public concerts, Armstrong will also actively participate in the Oakland Symphony’s many education and community engagement programs, designed to inspire a love of music in people of all ages.

Published

2 days ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Kedrick Armstrong is the new music director for the Oakland Symphony. Photo credit Scott Chernis.

By Post Staff

The Oakland Symphony Announced Kedrick Armstrong as its Next Music Director.
In addition to conducting the orchestra’s public concerts, Armstrong will also actively participate in the Oakland Symphony’s many education and community engagement programs, designed to inspire a love of music in people of all ages.

Armstrong is the successor to previous music director and Conductor Michael Morgan, who passed away in 2021 after a 30-year tenure at the Symphony.

Armstrong will open the Oakland Symphony 2024-2025 season on October 18.

Armstrong, who is 29 and hails from Georgetown, South Carolina, is currently the creative partner and principal conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony.

The Chicago Tribune has praised Armstrong for his ability to “simply let the score speak for itself.” He enjoys a wide range of repertoire, spanning early music to premiering new works, using his joy and curiosity for all music to cultivate understanding and collaboration within diverse communities.
“I am deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve as the new music director of the Oakland Symphony,” Armstrong said. “As a Black conductor, I find it humbling to stand on the shoulders of both Michael Morgan and Calvin Simmons,” the most recent and the first African American music directors of the Symphony, respectively.

Armstrong led three programs at the Symphony between 2022 and early 2024, which showcased his broad knowledge of the classical repertoire and enthusiasm for spotlighting diverse voices.
On his Oakland Symphony subscription debut on Feb. 16, Armstrong led the world premiere of “Here I Stand: Paul Robeson,” an oratorio by Carlos Simon on a libretto by Dan Harder, commissioned by the Oakland Symphony.

Armstrong was selected unanimously by the Oakland Symphony’s board of directors and musicians after an extensive two-year search. “The search committee was overwhelmed by Kedrick’s scholarship and curiosity about all kinds of music, from classical and jazz to gospel and hip-hop,” said. Dr. Mieko Hatano, executive director of the Oakland Symphony. “We are thrilled to have him join us at the Oakland Symphony.”

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Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

6 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

Oakland Post

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Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.