Arts and Culture
Cal Performances’ New Season Feature Artistic, Ecological Themes
By Thomas Levy, UC Berkeley News
Berkeley RADICAL, a new initiative to promote artistic literacy among the millennial generation, is driving Cal Performances’ 2015-16 season, which starts with a weeklong residency by conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.
<p>Highlights of the new season, which starts in September, include performances by the St. Louis Symphony, choreographer Twyla Tharp, the Kronos Quartet, the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Rude Mechanicals, an Austin, Texas, theater ensemble.
This year’s program focuses on three themes: “The Natural World,” which connects music and dance to global ecological concerns; “ReVisions,” which will add powerful visual components to traditional 20th-century concert experiences; and “ZellerBACH,” which will offer multiple perspectives on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
It will “change the DNA of Cal Performances,” said Executive and Artistic Director Matías Tarnopolsky. “It’s about creating the new while also appreciating the old.”
An example of this DNA in action is Dudamel conducting the Bolivar Symphony Orchestra during a weeklong “inquiry into Beethoven and the equation of music, youth and community” Sept. 22-26. The residency culminates with a performance at the Greek Theatre of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, to include several Bay Area choirs.
“Dudamel is the poster child for many of these ideas,” said Tarnopolsky. “He embodies the ideas of Berkeley RADICAL.”
Berkeley RADICAL (Research and Development Initiative in Creativity, Arts, Learning) connects the UC Berkeley campus to the world’s most innovative artists through carefully curated public programs and creative residencies. The season’s performances will be broadcast on the Web, including on Cal Performances’ new iTunes channel.
A “Natural World” highlight will be a performance of Des Canyons aux Étoiles by the St. Louis Symphony, led by conductor David Robertson. Composed by Olivier Messaien, the symphony celebrates his visit to the canyons nlands of southwestern Utah. The performance will be accompanied by Deborah O’Grady’s photography of the Bryce, Zion and Cedar Breaks areas, commissioned to celebrate the National Park Service’s 100th birthday.
Other “Natural World” performers include Kaija Saariaho and eco ensemble, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and the Kronos Quartet, which will perform Terry Riley’s “Sun Rings,” accompanied by extraterrestrial visuals from Willie Williams, both inspired by outer space audio from NASA.
As part of “ReVisions,” Cal Performances will collaborate with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by music director Matthias Pintscher, which will perform “Cluster X,” from UC Berkeley composer Edward Campion, to be accompanied by video from artist Kurt Hentschläger.
This strand also features the theater of the Austin-based Rude Mechanicals’ “Stop Hitting Yourself” and dance-theater artist Trajal Harrell’s West Coast debut of “The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai.”
Among others, “ZellerBACH” will feature the 50th anniversary of modern dance maven Twyla Tharp with a new work set to Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as concerts by the Bach Collegium Japan, the Brentano Quartet and an all-Bach recital by violinist Gil Shaham, to include the sonatas and partitas with a visual accompaniment.
But the range of this year’s Cal Performances offerings also includes dance from Mark Morris and Alvin Ailey, classical music recitals, theater from Ira Glass and the creators of the podcast “Serial,” and jazz from Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis as well as a unique partnership between tap king Savion Glover and the Jack DeJohnette Quartet.
Cal Performances also plans a variety of activities for K-12 teachers and students, including SchoolTime performances in partnership with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, teacher workshops, master classes with visiting artists and classroom visits from artists before and after students visit Zellerbach.
For more information, go to http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/04/21/cal-performances-new-season-goes-radical-with-artistic-ecological-themes/
Arts and Culture
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.
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.”
Arts and Culture
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).
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.
Arts and Culture
Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut
Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.
The Richmond Standard
Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.
“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf
The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.
The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.
Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”
San Francisco’s Z Space is located at 450 Florida St. in San Francisco. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ap9N2XBB0
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