SUPERCALILINEUP

Talk about coming back with a bang! Berkeley’s Cal Performances has announced its 2021–22 season, and the Bay Area is getting the best line-up I have seen since well before the pandemic shut everything down. The world’s greatest artists in jazz, classical, opera, pop, dance, theater, and more are heading to Berkeley, leaving you with one tough decision: What to choose? This season’s dizzying array of the greatest pianists, dance companies, music ensembles, and singers in the world may be dizzying, but choose you must. Trouble deciding? Leave us a comment and we’ll try to help you out. Subscription packages go on sale August 3, so Stage and Cinema is offering a look at the entire season with descriptions of each show below (performance venues will be announced in August). Single tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, August 27, at noon. For tickets, call (510) 642-9988 or visit Cal Performances.

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AUGUST 2021

Not Our First Goat Rodeo performs with guest Aoife O’Donovan (photo: Josh Golemantif)

Saturday, August 21, 8pm
Not Our First Goat Rodeo
UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre
(Single tickets go on sale on Thursday, July 8 at noon.)
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Stuart Duncan, fiddle
Edgar Meyer, bass
Chris Thile, mandolin
with guest Aoife O’Donovan, vocals

For the first time in nearly a decade, the musicians of the original Goat Rodeo Sessions’”Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Edgar Meyer on bass, and Chris Thile on mandolin’”share a stage in selections that combine their diverse backgrounds in classical, folk, and bluegrass music to create a sound that’s part composed, part improvised, and uniquely American. The group likens playing the challenging music to a “goat rodeo,” airplane pilots’ slang for a situation so nearly unmanageable that countless parts must come together perfectly in order to avoid disaster. Ma, Duncan, Meyer and Thile are joined by featured vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, who also appears on last year’s recording Not Our First Goat Rodeo, the follow-up to their double-Grammy winning 2011 debut, for this special performance at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre.

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OCTOBER 2021

Violinist Tessa Lark. (photo: Lauren Desberg)
Pianist Amy Yang. (photo: Balázs Böröcz of Pilvax Studio)

Sunday, October 3, 3pm
Tessa Lark, violin
Amy Yang, piano

Beethoven/Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 30 no. 3
Tessa Lark/Jig and Pop
Michael Torke/Spoon Bread
John Corigliano/STOMP
Lewis/Django
Ravel/Violin Sonata in G major

Grammy-nominated violinist Tessa Lark returns after her season-opening Cal Performances at Home online debut last fall, with her in-person Berkeley debut. Fluent in both classical and contemporary concert repertoire, Lark is also an accomplished bluegrass and folk music fiddler. Here she offers a program that speaks to her singular strengths: Beethoven’s virtuosic Sonata No. 3 from Op. 30 calls for a sprightly athleticism; Michael Torke’s Spoon Bread, named after a popular treat in Lark’s native Kentucky, was composed specifically for her genrebending talents; John Corigliano’s STOMP is a solo study modeled on American fiddle music; and Ravel’s dazzling and delicate Violin Sonata in G major is infused with American jazz and blues. Lark rounds out the program with her own composition Jig and Pop and an arrangement of John Lewis’ popular Django. She is joined by pianist Amy Yang, who also accompanied Lark on her acclaimed 2019 debut recording, Fantasy.

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The Danish String Quartet (photo: Caroline Bittencourt)

Sunday, October 10, 3pm
Danish String Quartet

Brent Sørensen/New Work (US Premiere, Cal Performances Co-commission)
Schubert/String Quartet in G major, D. 887

The Danish String Quartet returns for the first of two Berkeley concerts this season, pairing a Schubert string quartet with a newly commissioned work as part of its Doppelgånger project, a three-season initiative co-commissioned by Cal Performances. Schubert’s final quartet in G major is matched here with its musical “double,” a new quartet by Danish composer Bent Sørensen, a winner of the 2018 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, whose work explores post-Romantic colors and textures.

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Bria Skonberg. (photo: Christine Vaindirlis)

Saturday, October 9, 8pm
Bria Skonberg

Trumpeter, singer, and songwriter Bria Skonberg has been described as one of the “most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” (The Wall Street Journal). Her latest record, Nothing Never Happens, offers originals and creative arrangements of music by Queen, the Beatles, Duke Ellington, and more. She made her UC Berkeley debut as part of Cal Performances at Home this past winter, and now returns for a live, in-person set with her band.

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Takács Quartet (photo: Amanda Tipton)

Sunday, October 17, 3pm
Takács Quartet

Hadyn/String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5
Coleridge-Taylor/Five Fantasiestí¼cke, Op. 5
Beethoven/String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132

In the first of two concerts this season, the Takács Quartet performs works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The set of six Op. 20 string quartets by Haydn are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in these complex works the quartet itself began as a singular expressive art form. Coleridge-Taylor’s Five Fantasiestí¼cke are character pieces composed near the turn of the 19th century, when the composer was just a teenager’”well before he would achieve renown with his large-scale orchestral and choral works. By contrast, Beethoven was at the end of his life when he wrote the A minor quartet, best known for its technically demanding slow third movement, the “Holy Song of Thanksgiving.” The Takács’ recording of the late Beethoven quartets more than a dozen years ago became a classic: “an exceptional achievement…every detail…is utterly organic and the ensemble at times almost subliminally precise” (The Guardian).

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Pilobolus (photo: Juliana Sohn)

Thursday, October 21, 7:30pm
Friday, October 22, 8pm
Pilobolus
BIG FIVE-OH!

For five decades, the dancers and acrobats of Pilobolus have entranced audiences with their unique version of dance theater. Contorting, bending, and partnering to transform themselves into a phantasmagoria of animals, spirits, and monsters, the Pilobolus dancers tell otherworldly stories through the strength and precision of their bodies, enhanced by magical stage effects. This 50th anniversary celebration includes Untitled, Megawatt, and signature shadow works.

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Tenor Jonas Kaufmann and Pianist Helmut Deutsch. (photo: Gregor Hohenberg)

Sunday, October 24, 3pm
Jonas Kaufmann, tenor
Helmut Deutsch, piano

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann is known for his versatility, and combining power with finesse, as demonstrated in roles like Don José in Carmen, Siegmund in Die Walkí¼re, and the title roles in Otello, Andrea Chénier, and Don Carlos. In this rare US recital’”his first UC Berkeley appearance since his Bay Area debut 10 years ago’”Kaufmann returns with a program showcasing his love of lieder, along with a rewarding mix of French, German, and Italian song.

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Angélique Kidjo performs Remain in Light on Friday, October 29, 2021
and the West Coast premiere of  Yemandja on Saturday, April 23, 2022
(photo courtesy of Angélique Kidjo)

Friday, October 29, 8pm
Angélique Kidjo
Remain in Light

For one of her latest recording projects, global pop star and four-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo partnered with producer Jeff Bhasker (Rihanna, Kanye West, Drake, Jay-Z) to revisit, reimagine, and repatriate the Talking Heads’ landmark 1980 album Remain in Light. Kidjo, Cal Performances’ artist-in-residence for the 2021–22 season, is an artist with a gift for assimilating a wide range of music into a sound that is completely her own, always infused with her powerfully positive message. Here, she connects with the record’s original Afropop influences and filters its new-wave sensibility through her own musical interests’”which span the African continent’”mining the songs for topics that resonate with her today and adding her own lyrics in languages from her home country of Benin.

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Manual Cinema's Frankenstein.

Sunday October 31, 3pm
Manual Cinema
Frankenstein (Cal Performances co-commission)

Manual Cinema returns to Berkeley with a live production of Frankenstein, a Cal Performances co-commission which was adapted for video by the collective of musicians, composers, theater artists, and filmmakers last fall for Cal Performances at Home. Frankenstein weaves the plot of Mary Shelley’s classic story with themes of desire, birth, and loss from the author’s own biography. Manual Cinema is known for creating handmade and imaginative works of live cinema, and in Frankenstein actors join puppeteers onstage, creating a silent animated film in real time alongside an immersive score performed live by four musicians.

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NOVEMBER 2021

Ballet Hispánico performs  Noche de Oro – A Celebration of 50 Years!
Pictured: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s  Tiburones (photo: Paula Lobo)

Saturday, November 6, 8pm
Ballet Hispánico
Noche de Oro – A Celebration of 50 Years!

Gustavo Ramí­rez Sansano/18+1 (Bay Area Premiere; 2012; music: Pérez Prado) Vicente Nebrada/Batucada Fantástica (Bay Area Premiere; 1982; music: Luciano Perrone) Annabelle Lopez Ochoa/Tiburones (Bay Area Premiere; 2019; music: Pérez Prado, Dizzy Gillespie, and The Funky Lowlives) Cal Performances welcomes New York’s Ballet Hispánico in its Berkeley debut, with a program of Bay Area premieres by an intergenerational cadre of choreographers who have been part of the company’s 50-year history. Batucada Fantástica is Vicente Nebrada’s homage to the energy of Brazilian Carnival; and Gustavo Ramí­rez Sansano created 18+1 to celebrate his personal career milestone of making work for 18 years, his choreography inspired by the mambo music by Pérez Prado. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Tiburones addresses the discrimination and stereotypes placed upon Latinx culture, and the role the media plays in diminishing the voices of Latinx artists.

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The English Concert, directed by conductor Harry Bicket (photo: Dario Acosta)

Sunday, November 7, 3pm
The English Concert
Harry Bicket, artistic director
Karina Gauvin (Alcina), soprano
Lucy Crowe (Morgana), soprano
Elizabeth DeShong (Bradamante), mezzo-soprano
Paula Murrihy (Ruggiero), mezzo-soprano
Alek Shrader (Oronte), tenor
Wojtek Gierlach (Melisso), bass

Handel/Alcina, HWV 34

London’s Handel specialists The English Concert, directed by conductor Harry Bicket, returns toCal Performances with a concert  performance of Handel’s Alcina. An allegorical fantasy with love triangles and mistaken and misrepresented identities, Alcina takes place on an enchanted island where discarded lovers are transformed into wild beasts and trees. Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin, one of the world’s leading Baroque interpreters, makes her Cal Performances debut singing the title role, portraying Handel’s sorceress; she is joined by an international cast of soloists in their Cal Performances debuts: soprano Lucy Crowe as Morgana, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as Bradamante, mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy as Ruggiero, tenor Alek Shrader as Oronte, and bass Wojtek Gierlach as Melisso.

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 Guitarist MiloŠ¡ Karadaglić. (photo Esther Haase)
Mandolinist Avi Avital. (photo: Harald Hoffmann)

Saturday, November 11, 7:30pm
Avi Avital, mandolin
MiloŠ¡ Karadaglić, guitar

Bach/Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971
Schubert/Selected song transcriptions
Villa-Lobos/Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
Philip Glass/Metamorphosis No. IV
Glass/Etude No. 9
New Work TBA (Cal Performances Co-Commission)

Israeli mandolin player Avi Avital was the first soloist on his instrument to be nominated for a classical Grammy Award; the Montenegrin guitarist MiloŠ¡ Karadaglić has been called “one of the most exciting and communicative classical guitarists today” (The New York Times). Both artists have revitalized the repertoire performed on their instruments, attracting a new generation of listeners through inventive programs and sheer instrumental prowess. Together in Berkeley for the first time as a duo, Avital and Karadaglić perform a program of arrangements and transcriptions for strummed and plucked strings, from a Bach keyboard work to a set of instrumental transcriptions of Schubert songs, to the fifth section from Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras. The duo also performs two Philip Glass piano compositions, and a new work to be announced.

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The Aaron Diehl Trio performs  Mirror. Pictured: Aaron Diehl. (photo: Maria Jarzyna)

Friday, November 12, 8pm
Aaron Diehl Trio
Mirror
Aaron Diehl, piano
Paul Sikivie, bass
Aaron Kimmel, drums

Cal Performances audiences will recognize Aaron Diehl as the pianist and music director for many of Cécile McLorin Salvant’s ensembles, and from several appearances this past year in the Now, More than Ever blog. He returns this season for his Berkeley debut as a bandleader, leading his own trio in a new project showcasing his fluency in both classical repertoire and jazz improvisation. As a concert soloist, Diehl performed Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra several seasons ago, and critics have raved over his meticulously styled recordings, which combine original compositions with jazz tunes by John Lewis and Sir Roland Hanna and concert works by Philip Glass and Sergei Prokofiev. With Mirror, the pianist explores the affinities of the counterpoint in Bach’s music with bebop vocabulary, interspersing solo selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier with original compositions for jazz trio in corresponding keys.

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Violinist Leonidas Kavakos (photo: Marco Borggreve)
and pianist Yuja Wang (photo: Kirk Edwards)

Saturday, November 13, 8pm
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yuja Wang, piano

Bach/Violin Sonata No. 3 in E major, BWV 1016
Shostakovich/Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 134
Bach/Violin Sonata No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1014
Busoni/Violin Sonata No. 2 in E minor, Op. 36a

Chinese pianist Yuja Wang, known for her stage presence and facility at the keyboard, joins forces with Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos for their first joint appearance in Berkeley. Here they perform two of Bach’s violin sonatas, complemented by two works that owe a debt to Bach’s masterful approach to counterpoint: Shostakovich’s sonata from 1968, and Ferruccio Busoni’s rarely heard second sonata, which borrows a theme from the Bach chorale Wie wohl ist mir.

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Cellist David Finckel & Pianist Wu Han.

Sunday, November 14, 3pm
David Finckel, cello
Wu Han, piano

Bach/Sonata for Viola da gamba and Keyboard in G major, BWV 1027
Mendelssohn/Cello Sonata in D major, Op. 58
Debussy/Cello Sonata in D minor
Britten/Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 65

Returning after their two-recital program of the complete Beethoven cello sonatas for Cal Performances at Home last fall, the chamber duo of cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han present a program of works spanning centuries. Progressing chronologically, they tackle Bach’s G major sonata for viola da gamba and cembalo’”the ancestors of the cello and piano’”and continue to Mendelssohn’s second sonata, and Debussy’s cello sonata. The program concludes with Britten’s sonata composed for Mstislav Rostropovich, who as a mentor to Finckel, shared his insight into the work’s conception with his student.

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Vienna Boys Choir. (photo: Lukas Beck)

Saturday, November 27, 8pm
Vienna Boys Choir
Christmas in Vienna

The world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir returns to Berkeley on Thanksgiving weekend for a program of Austrian folk songs, classical masterpieces, and Christmas hymns and carols from around the world, including favorites like “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Joy to the World,” “White Christmas,” and their very own rendition of “Stille Nacht,” the original Viennese version of “Silent Night.” The choir is comprised of boys aged 9–13, who hail from more than a dozen countries and carry on a six-century Viennese choral tradition.

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DECEMBER 2021

Kronos Quartet (photo Jay Blakesberg)
and guest vocalist Mahsa Vahdat (photo Tehmineh Monzavi) perform Placeless.

Thursday, December 2, 7:30pm
Kronos Quartet
Mahsa Vahdat, guest vocalist

Placeless

Kronos Quartet returns with the newest edition of its 50 for the Future project. With 40 compositions commissioned, premiered, and shared to date, the ongoing multiyear project features new works by an international and diverse group of composers, made available online with the goal of training students and emerging professionals in contemporary approaches to string quartet music. This concert features new works by Terry Riley and Cal Performances’ 2021–22 artist-in-residence, Angélique Kidjo. For the second half of this concert, Kronos is joined by Mahsa Vahdat, a prominent performer of Persian vocal music, who collaborated with the quartet on the 2019 recording Placeless. The project features melodies Vahdat composed to classical poems by Hafez and Rumi, as well as contemporary texts by Iranian poets. This performance is part of Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Place and Displacement” series.

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Damien Sneed presents Joy to the World. (photo: IMG Artists)

Friday, December 3, 8pm
Damien Sneed

Joy to the World: A Christmas Musical Journey

Cal Performances audiences were first introduced to Damien Sneed’s uni