Beyond the Stage

An artist conversation with Beatrice Rana, recorded in conjunction with Rana’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Julia Wolfe, recorded in conjunction with Bang on a Can’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

by Jonathan Leal, April 30, 2021, San Francisco Classical Voice

On May 6, 2021, Cal Performances will debut the new film adaptation of Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, her long-form composition based on hundreds of variants of the John Henry ballads, via its Cal Performances at Home virtual series. The film project features performances by Bang on a Can All-Stars and a new vocal trio (Molly Netter, Rebecca Hargrove, and Sonya Headlam), as well as the creative contributions of filmmaker Jeremy Robins, conductor and music director David Bloom, and percussionist-producer David Cossin.

An artist conversation with Renée Fleming, recorded in conjunction with Fleming’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Jazzmeia Horn, recorded in conjunction with Horn’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Jeremy Denk, recorded in conjunction with Denk’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Christine Goerke, recorded in conjunction with Goerke’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Mitsuko Uchida, recorded in conjunction with Uchida’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Mahan Esfahani, recorded in conjunction with the Esfahani’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

by Victoria Looseleaf, February 22, 2021, San Francisco Classical Voice

The Scotsman’s David Kettle once hailed Mahan Esfahani’s performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations as a “deeply human experience, brimming with humor and wit, cool objectivity, deep tragedy, and startling joy.” And while most live performances in the States have been cancelled due to COVID-19, the Iranian-born, American-raised Esfahani, who currently lives in Prague, recently filmed the masterwork for a Cal Performances concert that will be available for viewing online beginning March 4 for three months.

A talk between Mahan Esfahani and Michael Maul, director of the Leipzig Bach Archive, recorded in conjunction with the Esfahani’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

Award-winning composer and musician Vân-Ánh Võ leads an immersive “show and tell,” of traditional Vietnamese instruments, demonstrating the sound of each unique, hand-constructed instrument, and featuring them in her compositions.

An artist conversation with the Takács Quartet, recorded in conjunction with the Quartet’s performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Spring Season.

An artist conversation with Julia Bullock, recorded in conjunction with the Julia Bullock, classical singer; Laura Poe, piano performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

An artist conversation with Bria Skonberg, recorded in conjunction with the Bria Skonberg performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

Following each performance of Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol, ticketholders will be welcomed to “Puppet Time,” a behind-the-scenes “meet the artists” event for audiences of all ages. Manual Cinema’s artistic directors will take viewers back-stage in their studios to share the numerous theatrical mediums and devices utilized to perform Christmas Carol.

In “Changing the Narrative: What Stories Can We Tell Now?” UC Berkeley faculty members Anthony Cascardi and Catherine Gallagher discuss the ideas of Fact or Fiction in shaping humanity’s narrative about the current global pandemic, climate change, and the stories we tell about this moment in history.

An artist conversation with Dover Quartet, recorded in conjunction with the Dover Quartet performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

An artist conversation with members of the Dover Quartet and Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen.

An artist conversation with Leif Ove Andsnes, recorded in conjunction with the Leif Ove Andsnes, piano performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

An artist conversation with Leif Ove Andsnes and Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen.

An artist conversation with Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott, recorded in conjunction with the Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott; Songs of Comfort and Hope performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

Arts + Design’s Monday evening series, Together: Reinventing Politics, Reimagining Health, presents the three creators of Real Enemies—composer Darcy James Argue, writer and director Isaac Butler, and film designer Peter Nigrini—in a discussion about the American fascination with conspiracy theories that fuels their immersive, multimedia production. The conversation will be moderated by Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, UC Berkeley University Librarian and Chief Digital Scholarship Officer, and a professor in the UCB School of Information and the Department of Economics.

The late neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition.

In conjunction with its streaming presentation of Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) hosted an informative conversation and Q&A with Ric Burns, the film’s director; Kate Edgar, Sacks’ editor and researcher, and executive director of the Oliver Sacks Foundation; and Bill Hayes, photographer, writer, and Sacks’ partner. The discussion was moderated by scientist and soprano Indre Viskontas, who holds faculty positions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of San Francisco, and whose scientific work is featured in Sacks’ book Musicophilia. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life – Forum Discussion is available free of charge, courtesy of BAMPFA.

Matthew Whitaker’s performance and all related activities are part of the Cal Performances Illuminations: Music and the Mind series.

Where does imagination come from? Neuroscientists have only recently begun to examine the elusive nature of creativity in connection to music. One key area of study is the notion of improvisation—a foundational element in many musical art forms, including jazz and hip hop. In this 90-minute video from the Kennedy Center, UCSF Professor of Otolaryngology Dr. Charles Limb shows how encouraging and developing musical improvisational skills in children has led to a better understanding of how creativity is implemented in the human brain. In this talk, Dr. Limb is joined by the Kennedy Center Artistic Director of Jazz Jason Moran, Freestyle Love Supreme co-founder Anthony Veneziale, music therapist Ed Roth, and jazz pianist Matthew Whitaker, who helps with a demonstration. Thank you to the Kennedy Center for generously sharing this video free of charge.

Matthew Whitaker’s performance and all related activities are part of the Cal Performances Illuminations: Music and the Mind series.

An artist conversation with Matthew Whitaker, recorded in conjunction with the Matthew Whitaker Quartet performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

An artist conversation with Matthew Whitaker and Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen. 

The classic and authoritative text, and the fascinating life story of its author.

Cal Performances Reading Room are books suggested for reading in conjunction with events scheduled during Cal Performances’ 2020–21 season.

An artist conversation with co-Artistic Director of Manual Cinema Drew Dir and UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, recorded in conjunction with the Manual Cinema; Frankenstein performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

Olmsted demonstrates that it was only in the 20th century that strange and unlikely conspiracy theories became central to American politics.

Cal Performances Reading Room are books suggested for reading in conjunction with events scheduled during Cal Performances’ 2020–21 season.

An artist conversation with composer Darcy James Argue, director Isaac Butler, and media designer Peter Nigrini, recorded in conjunction with the Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society; Real Enemies performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

Real Enemies, featuring Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, was inspired by Kathryn S. Olmsted’s 2013 book Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I through 9/11. Watch as Professor Olmsted of UC Davis’ History Department, writer and director Isaac Butler, and MacArthur Fellow journalist and writer Mark Danner of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism as they had a lively conversation about the grip of conspiracy theories on the American imagination.

We encourage you to read Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I through 9/11 (Oxford University Press), available from any online bookseller.

An artist conversation with Nathalie Joachim, recorded in conjunction with the Nathalie Joachim and Spektral Quartet; Fanm d’Ayiti performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

The late neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition.

Cal Performances Reading Room are books suggested for reading in conjunction with events scheduled during Cal Performances’ 2020–21 season.

An artist conversation with members of the Tetzlaff Quartet, recorded in conjunction with the Tetzlaff Quartet performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.

The renowned New Yorker music critic and author reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics―an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled—and continues to wrestle—with its capacity for beauty and violence.

A signed copy of Wagnerism is available from our partners, Pegasus Books on Solano Avenue in Berkeley.

Cal Performances Reading Room are books suggested for reading in conjunction with events scheduled during Cal Performances’ 2020–21 season.

An artist conversation with Tessa Lark, recorded in conjunction with the Tessa Lark, violin; Andrew Armstrong, piano performance, part of the Cal Performances at Home Fall Season.