Cal Performances at Home is much more than a series of great streamed performances. Fascinating behind-the-scenes artist interviews. Informative and entertaining public forums. The Cal Performances Reading Room, featuring books with interesting connections to our Fall 2020 programs. For all this and much more, keep checking this page for frequent updates and to journey far, far Beyond the Stage!
Major support for Beyond the Stage is provided by Bank of America.
Beyond the Stage
10 Fascinating Facts About Kristin Chenoweth You Might Not Know
10 Fascinating Facts About Kristin Chenoweth You Might Not Know
Kristin Chenoweth’s Remarkable Career Journey
Kristin Chenoweth, star of stage and screen, comes to Cal Performances for one night only on November 15. In her For the Girls program, Chenoweth gives a vocal performance dedicated to the women friends and idols who musically inspire her. As we eagerly anticipate her Cal Performances debut, we’re sharing 10 things you might not know about Chenoweth that underscore the uniqueness of her artistry and the vastness of her talents and accomplishments.
Chenoweth as a young performer in 1984. Photo Courtesy of Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection/Oklahoma Historical Society.
1. She grew up singing in church.
Chenoweth was born in 1968 and was raised in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She grew up attending her local church and, as a child, was so determined to sing, she tried out for the adult gospel choir—which promptly earned her a solo! Soon after, she began singing for other nearby gospel choirs, too; she even performed a solo at the Southern Baptist Convention national conference when she was only 12 years old.
Chenoweth is interviewed before receiving an honorary Ph.D. from Oklahoma City University. Photo courtesy of Paul Hellstern / The Oklahoman
2. She has a master’s degree in opera performance.
Chenoweth earned both a bachelor’s degree in musical theater and a master’s degree in opera performance from Oklahoma City University (OCU). Since her mainstream success, she has continued to support her alma mater by speaking at commencement ceremonies, teaching master classes, and even serving as an artist in residence. After finishing her master’s degree, Chenoweth had the opportunity to go on for more schooling when she won a Metropolitan Opera competition that came with a full scholarship to Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts. She ended up turning down that opportunity when she landed a job in the Paper Mill Playhouse’s 1993 production of Animal Crackers. (Kristin was awarded an honorary doctorate by OCU a decade later.)
Chenoweth in a look she wore during the 1991 Miss Oklahoma Pageant. Photo courtesy of Kristin Chenoweth.
3. For a few years leading up to her career as a professional performer, she competed (rather successfully) in beauty pageants.
While pursuing her performance degrees, Chenoweth competed in multiple pageants in her home state of Oklahoma, ultimately becoming runner-up to Miss Oklahoma in 1991. Speaking about her experience with the Miss America system, Chenoweth said, “A lot of people can make fun of pageants, but… I ran for Miss OCU [Oklahoma City University] and won, and because of that, I was able to put myself through graduate school.”
Chenoweth as Glinda in Wicked. Photo courtesy of USA Today.
4. Her role as Glinda in Wicked capped a decade of memorable, award-winning performances.
Following her first role in Animal Crackers in 1993, Chenoweth played Precious McGuire in the Kander and Ebb musical Steel Pier at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 1997, a performance that earned her a Theater World Award, an honor given each year to six up-and-coming actors and actresses. (That year, she happened to share her win with Mark Ruffalo!)
Chenoweth stayed busy in 1999, landing Broadway roles as Sally in the Ambassador Theater’s production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and as Louisa Goldman in the Helen Hayes Theatre’s performance of Epic Proportions. Wicked made its Broadway premiere in 2003 at the Gershwin Theatre (after a successful pre-Broadway run at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre), and Chenoweth’s iconic performance went on to break box office records and captivate audiences around the world.
Chenoweth in Pushing Daisies. Photo courtesy of ABC/tor.com.
5. She is an experienced television, film, and voice actor, boasting roughly 80 distinct acting credits.
Many will recognize Chenoweth for her television appearances in Pushing Daisies, West Wing, and Glee, and her movie roles in RV, Bewitched, and The Pink Panther. She also has a distinctive speaking voice—one she has personally likened to that of the fictional character Betty Boop—and has been successfully cast as a voice actress in animated projects including Rio, Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue, BoJack Horseman, and The Peanuts Movie.
Chenoweth accepting her first Tony Award in 1999. Photo courtesy of Kristin Chenoweth.
6. She has won a Tony Award as well as a Primetime Emmy.
In 1999, Chenoweth won a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for her portrayal of Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. In subsequent years, she was nominated for additional Tony Awards for her performances in Wicked (2004) and On the Twentieth Century (2015). She has also been recognized as a television actress, winning a Primetime Emmy in 2009 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in Pushing Daisies, and has been nominated for four additional Primetime Emmy Awards. Other accolades include multiple Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the GLAAD Media Vanguard Award. (It’s also worth noting that the Broadway studio recording of Wicked, on which Chenoweth features prominently, won a Grammy in 2004.)
Cover of What Will I Do with My Love Today?. Photo courtesy of Barnes & Noble.
7. She is a four-time author.
Chenoweth wrote her first book, a memoir entitled A Little Bit Wicked, in 2009. The book carried a slogan characteristic of Chenoweth’s standout humor and determination: “Life’s too short. I’m not.” (Chenoweth is 4’11’’.). The book was an instant success, debuting on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller List. In the past year, she has authored three additional books: What Will I Do with My Love Today?, an illustrated children’s book encouraging “generosity and kindness”; I’m No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us, a book inspired by her self-reflection early into the COVID-19 pandemic that shares experiences from all throughout her life; and, newly released this year, My Moment: 106 Women on Fighting for Themselves, a book co-created by Chenoweth, actress Kathy Najimy, singer-songwriter Linda Perry, and the married duo of musician and activist Chely Wright and writer and businesswoman Lauren Blitzer. Described as a “natural extension of the #MeToo Movement,” My Moment features contributions from such icons as Gloria Steinem, Lena Waithe, Joanna Gaines, Brandi Carlile, Beanie Feldstein, Cynthia Erivo, and Billie Jean King.
Cover of For the Girls album. Photo courtesy of Kristin Chenoweth.
8. She has released eight studio albums.
Chenoweth’s debut album, Let Yourself Go, was released in 2001 and was inspired by musicals from the 1930s. Subsequent albums have included Christian/spiritual albums (including two Christmas albums), a country-pop album, a jazz album, a recorded PBS concert special, and an album inspired by her female musical icons entitled For the Girls, which serves as the inspiration for her upcoming concert at Cal Performances. (Read more about For the Girls below.)
Chenoweth in her For the Girls mystical-style revue on Broadway. Photo courtesy of Playbill.
9. Her Cal Performances November program For the Girls is related to her seventh studio album by the same name.
In August 2019, Chenoweth released For the Girls as a way to honor her female musical icons and friends. On her inspiration for the album, Chenoweth said, “I wanted to celebrate women who’ve come before me, like Dinah Washington, Eva Cassidy, Judy [Garland] of course, Barbra [Streisand]… And I think nowadays we’re looking at different lanes, musically, being broken because I have a voice that kinda does a lot of different things, and it’s never been celebrated. But with this record I get to have the opportunity to do it all.” The album includes contributions from Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, and Reba McEntire. Later in 2019, Chenoweth went on to promote the For the Girls album on Broadway by performing in a limited-time, eight-performance run of a musical-style revue created around the recording. Cal Performances patrons can expect a similar program for her Berkeley debut!
Children performing at Kristin Chenoweth’s Broadway Bootcamp. Photo courtesy of Kristin Chenoweth’s Broadway Bootcamp.
10. She has her own Broadway Bootcamp for children in her hometown.
Nearly a decade ago, Chenoweth formed her very own Broadway Bootcamp in her hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to train the next generation of entertainers. Kristen Chenoweth’s Broadway Bootcamp is an annual 10-day program that culminates in a final showcase and awards ceremony. Through the program, high school students have the opportunity to interact with award-winning stage actors as they are trained in dancing, singing, and performing. This year’s camp even featured a forum with Chenoweth’s parents about what parents should know to help their children succeed in the business.
We hope you learned something new about this incredible artist and will join us when Kristen Chenoweth makes her Cal Performances debut at Zellerbach Hall on November 15, 2023. Learn more/buy tickets >
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Announcing Illuminations’ New Partnerships and Community Event Series Exploring “Individual & Community”
Announcing Illuminations’ New Partnerships and Community Event Series Exploring “Individual & Community”
“…Anything that brings us together in a positive way is very useful in helping us reinterpret not just the ‘other’ community, not just the ‘other’ individual, but also our own community and ourselves.”
By Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
In its fourth year, Cal Performances’ Illuminations program is exploring its new theme of “Individual & Community” with an original series of community events, augmented by fresh campus partnerships!
Illuminations launched during Cal Performances’ 2020–21 season as a way to connect groundbreaking UC Berkeley scholarship to pressing themes taken up and explored by the world-class music, dance, and theater presented by Cal Performances. Illuminations programming, which includes performances, panel discussions, lecture demonstrations, Q&As, community conversations, and more, sheds light on pressing topics with the power to transform our understanding of the world and shape the future.
Why “Individual & Community”?
As our society faces increasing polarization and radicalization, this year’s theme of “Individual & Community” will empower us to explore the tensions that come into play while balancing the interests of the individual with the interests of the group.
john a. powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, said, “The concept of individuality and community is constantly in flux, although this real emphasis on individuality is relatively recent; if you go back 300 or 400 years, it wasn’t relevant. And so, as the individual emerged… initially in Western society, it was always the question of the relationship between the individual and the community. Neither one of them is static, and that’s one of the mistakes that we make. They’re constantly moving.” powell continues, “And music, dance, art is an…expression of meaning at a deep spiritual level… So anything that brings us together in a positive way is very useful in helping us reinterpret not just the ‘other’ community, not just the ‘other’ individual, but also our own community and ourselves.”
Based on common threads in the performances coming to Cal Performances’ stages and noteworthy scholarship on campus, Cal Performances has opted to focus on three key subtopics related to the concept of “Individual & Community”: intersectionality, individual liberties and community needs, and American Dreams and Culture Wars. In the coming months, videos discussing each of these topics in greater depth will be shared on the Beyond the Stage blog.
Enlightening and Participatory Community Events
Throughout the season, eight distinct performances spanning rock opera to modern dance will each pose new questions and offer a fresh lens through which to analyze the concept of “Individual & Community” in our lives and our world. These performances will be augmented by a schedule of complementary moderated discussions with artists and UC Berkeley faculty to find through lines in art and in research; as well as facilitated post-performance community conversations that will allow those in attendance to put the theme into practice by collaboratively discussing their own response to the performance.
Dates of moderated discussions and community conversations are listed on Cal Performances’ website, on the event details page of each Illuminations performance. While information about discussion participants and moderators from the university is forthcoming, patrons can expect that many guests will be pulled from the “Individual & Community” lead partner institution and advisory council (Read on for more information.).
An Epicenter of Campus Expertise
In addition to the interpretations of artists, Illuminations programming will include the voices of UC Berkeley faculty and staff, with each participant possessing expertise that adds a new layer to the “Individual & Community” conversation. Campus luminaires will participate in Illuminations events and help shape conversations around the theme, providing points of interest and of access for members of the campus and broader Bay Area community.
Lead Partner
During the 2023–24 season, UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) will serve as Illuminations’ lead partner. “Illuminations brings Cal Performances artists and UC Berkeley scholars into thought-provoking conversations, and we are incredibly fortunate to have a resource such as the Othering & Belonging Institute to help us navigate our season-long inquiry into ‘Individual & Community,'” said Mina Girgis, Cal Performances’ Director of Education, Campus and Community Engagement. “As with Illuminations, OBI works to make academic research available to a non-academic audience. While easily digestible, the institute’s frameworks and research are both profound and revolutionary. They also address many of the questions we’re exploring throughout the season.”
OBI is made up of scholars, organizers, communicators, researchers, artists, and policymakers who focus on “groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality.” OBI’s relationship to “belonging” is rooted in structural equality that uplifts the individual as a means of building community. According to OBI, belonging “means having a meaningful voice and the opportunity to participate in the design of political, social, and cultural structures that shape one’s life—the right to both contribute and to make demands upon society and political institutions. At its core, structural belonging holds a radically inclusive vision because it requires mutual power, access, and opportunity among all groups and individuals within a shared container (such as a society, organization, club, etc.).”
OBI’s director, john a. powell, also brings perspective as the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion and as a Professor of Law, African American Studies, and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Members of OBI will participate in Illuminations programming in a number of faculties, most notably in helping to develop a welcoming space for and facilitate dialogue in post-performance community conversations.
Advisory Council
To provide even greater diversity of thought and expertise, the 2023–24 season will also feature an advisory council that brings together scholars from across the UC Berkeley campus to contribute to Illuminations events, especially moderated discussions and classroom visits, and to introduce perspectives designed to better explore the theme. Through Illuminations’ advisory council, Cal Performances will place the performing arts in dialogue with research from eight different UC Berkeley institutions working on new ways of understanding ideas concerning “Individual & Community.” Advisory council members currently include:
- Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, whose expertise spans constitutional law and law and society.
- Julianna Deardorff, Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs for Public Health; Associate Professor in the Division of Community Health Sciences; and head of the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) program, whose research focuses on early life adversity, pubertal development, and the health and well-being of adolescents, with a specific focus on Latino youth and young adults.
- Patrice Douglass, Assistant Professor in Gender & Women’s Studies, whose research includes Black feminist theory, Afro-pessimism, gender and sexual violence, and political philosophy.
- Jack Glaser, Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, whose work in social psychology covers intergroup biases, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
- Jodi Halpern, Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities in Public Health and co-founder and co-lead of the Berkeley Group for the Ethics and Regulation of Innovative Technologies, with her research bringing together psychiatry, philosophy, affective forecasting, and decision science.
- Charles Hirschkind, Professor of Anthropology and Senior Research Scholar for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, with research interests including religious practice, media technologies, and emergent forms of political community in the Middle East and North America.
- Arlie Russell Hochschild, Professor Emerita of Sociology, whose research covers family, market culture, global patterns of care work, and social psychology, with a recent focus on the relationship between culture, politics, and emotion. (Her latest book focuses on the “American Right,” empathy, and notions of the American Dream.)
- Juana María Rodríguez, Professor of Ethnic Studies and Core faculty in Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, whose expertise spans racialized sexuality and gender, queer of color theory and activism, affect and aesthetics, technology and media arts, law and critical race theory, and Latinx and Caribbean literatures and cultures.
- john a. powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, and Professor of Law, African American Studies, and Ethnic Studies, who is recognized for his expertise in civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy.
How to Participate
The best way to participate in this far-reaching dialogue is to attend Illuminations performances and to join in the pre- or post-performance events designed to provide greater context on the theme. Check the specific event page for each performance to find out which dates will include moderated discussions and community conversations. You are also encouraged to keep an eye on Cal Performances’ Beyond the Stage blog or sign up for the biweekly email newsletter so you can see when new videos and resources on the topic are uploaded.
“This theme of ‘Individual & Community’ is special in that it at once connotes a universal, grand context for our societies at large, and at the same time inspires an intimate understanding of our own role within this broader context. Therefore, an exploration of ‘Individual & Community’ can only be fruitful if we have active participation from individuals who are open to engaging their authentic selves, who bring fresh ideas, and who are willing to reevaluate and challenge those ideas along the way,” said Jeremy Geffen, Cal Performances’ executive and artistic director. “We hope to work with many members of our own Bay Area, UC Berkeley, artistic, and Cal Performances communities to build something profound this season.”
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5 Questions with Groundbreaking Pianist Michelle Cann
5 Questions with Groundbreaking Pianist Michelle Cann
“a desire to inspire change”
Interview of Michelle Cann by Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
Michelle Cann is a star in every sense: a phenomenal pianist, an empathetic educator, and an impassioned champion of underrecognized Black female pianist-composers. In 2022, Cann won the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, which is awarded based on “artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and [artists’] communities.” Around that same time, she also became the first African American appointed to the piano faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she continues to teach and mentor other musicians. Cal Performances is thrilled to welcome Cann for the first time to Hertz Hall on October 29 for a characteristically rich program that mixes classical works with the music of the brilliant American composer Florence Price, as well as a new work by Joel Thompson that reflects on the killing of unarmed Black men in the US.
Ahead of her Cal Performances debut, Cann answered questions about her program, her career, and what it means to be “successful.”
Q: This is your debut at Cal Performances. What is your primary objective with a debut? What approach do you take in crafting a program for a new audience?
A: For me, it doesn’t make a difference if it’s a debut, because it’s important to consider the audience whether it’s their first time or fifth time seeing me. I’m always thinking, “What do I think the audience will really value? What do they already know and love? And, how can I teach them something new?” I still program works people already know and will be happy to hear played, but I also feel that, as musicians in this day and age, we are doing nothing for the field if we sit right there. We have a duty to also bring something to broaden the audience’s perspective and expand the classical field for generations to come. There has got to be a balance.
You can see that approach in this program, too. I have some traditional works like the Ginastera sonata, everyone knows Ravel and Liszt; but then there’s also Price and Thompson. With Thompson, I’m bringing something very new—he only wrote that piece during the pandemic; and while Price is an older composer, many audiences are still getting to know her and her music.
Q: You are known as one of the premiere champions of Florence Price’s work. You’ve mentioned previously that you were first introduced to Price in 2016 when you were asked to perform her Piano Concerto in One Movement. What drew you to Price initially, and is it the same thing that draws you to her today?
A: My initial excitement and shock came from really loving the piano concerto I was asked to play. It was charming and powerful and made me curious to know more about the creator. Then when I found out how phenomenal she was, it only enhanced the value of the music.
As I read more about her, though, I was also disappointed because she encountered so many barriers, as many Black composers during that period did. When she died in the 1950s, she could never say she overcame them all—she never got to have her concertos performed with any major orchestra other than the Chicago Symphony, and many of her works remained unpublished at her desk. And I’m upset it has taken so long to uncover her work. When people say they don’t want to hear about race, I always think we are still talking about it because we still have so much work to do. The fact that someone like this has had to wait until 2018 to have things be rectified and get recognition, that’s a problem.
For me, that is how the thread has taken on a different meaning over time. It has become a mission to me, that desire to inspire change. Part of this is performing her music and sharing the power and beauty of her writing because that speaks for itself. That said, there are even more Black female composers than Price who have not been given their due, and I’m going to be one of those people to do something about it.
Q: The program you’re bringing to Cal Performances features Price’s Piano Sonata in E minor. What made you want to perform this work, and what do you think audiences should know about it beforehand?
A: Programming Price was an easy decision because she was the beginning of my journey in finding these forgotten or lost voices. This sonata in particular is the grandest piano work in her repertoire, and it has additional significance because she was most known for winning a competition in 1932 for her Symphony No. 1, which was later performed by the Chicago Symphony and ultimately put her on the map. But fewer people know that, in that same competition, she also submitted this sonata in a different category and won top prize for it as well, so it had a lot of significance to her.
I also think this work showcases all the things that are great about her. Each movement in the sonata brings in influences from her life and writing that you see in the rest of her music. In the first movement especially, you hear the connection to past titans of Romantic composition who inspired her, such as Dvořák and even Schumann and Brahms. There are moments that are reflective of each of their musical styles, and yet it is so original to Price. She is clearly inspired by their music and mixes it with folk material and folk songs.
The second movement is very beautiful and it’s based on the form of a spiritual, which tended to be repetitive, employ simple melodies, and be very religious in nature and able to speak to the Black American experience in slavery and beyond. In this instance, she has crafted her own original spiritual, not based on any known work.
Finally, in the third movement, she breaks into all types of dances. There are traces of the Juba dance, you hear a little blues and a little jazz, as well as various old African dances. And then you suddenly hear those Romantic influences again as well. This was all part of who Price was: She was trained in classical style and understood and pulled from past composers, but she also very expertly pulled from her own country—not just America, but Black America as well, because there was a distinction at that time. She celebrated her culture, and she put it into the music. This is what we all should have been thinking then and now, that all types of music can live together harmoniously and deserve to be respected and considered valuable.
Q: You have a work by Joel Thompson on your program. Thompson gained significant attention for his work The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, and much of his music centers around identity and activism. Can you talk about your relationship with his compositions?
A: My inspiration for programming Thompson was very personal. He won the Sphinx Medal of Excellence in 2023, and since I was one of the winners in 2022, they asked me to perform one of his works at the ceremony. I got to meet him and he is such a great man, but also an amazing composer. A theme with me is that the music comes first, the story second—so, the music has to speak for itself and, in this case, it was beautiful. I began looking at more of his music after that and this movement I have programmed is just shocking. I don’t want to give too much away, but the storyline is the connection right in 2020 when he wrote it, between Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and others whose lives were taken by police brutality. He even spells out the names of the men in musical notes at various points. He somehow created music so reflective of his heart and soul and the emotions everyone felt at that time. I find myself on the brink of tears every time I play it.
Q: In a recent interview with The Classical Life, you spoke about the importance of connecting with yourself and evaluating what success looks like on your own terms. What does success look like for you at this point in your career, and how has that shifted in recent years?
A: It’s really interesting to consider this idea of “success” because people often look from the outside in and tell me now I am so successful—I’m performing everywhere, I’m teaching at great schools. But the question for me always becomes, was I not successful before? Today I’m doing what I’ve always dreamed of: I love being able to teach at places like the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute, to have access to new talent, and to have a performance career. But, truthfully, I was doing that before, too. Before these jobs, I had a private studio where I taught students, which was very fulfilling, and I wasn’t performing as much, but I was still performing music I loved, so, to me, I felt successful then.
Ultimately, the only thing that matters is how you view yourself independently. If you’re constantly comparing yourself to those around you, you’ll never feel like you’ve arrived. That’s in part because when we achieve one standard, we are looking for the next one. And we should always be striving for more, but the question is, how are you going to accept the journey? Are you going to say, “I’m never there, I haven’t achieved real success until I get to X…” But getting there is elusive because we never really get there. People who think that way are never satisfied.
I believe in and have tried to find a sense of balance by setting realistic goals for myself wherever I’m at in life at that time, and then pushing to try to achieve those goals, big or small. And then you have to look at your own life and journey and celebrate each thing you achieve as you move forward. And wherever you end up, be proud of having gotten to where you are, because that’s what makes you you.
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Mandolin and Accordion Lend a Fresh Sound to Classical Music
Mandolin and Accordion Lend a Fresh Sound to Classical Music
Featuring exclusive insights from Avi Avital and Hanzhi Wang
By Janet E. Bedell, program annotator and feature writer
Ever since its development in the Italian courts of the late 17th century, the mandolin has been an extraordinarily popular instrument, yet star mandolinist Avi Avital says it has a very small concert repertoire—a lack he, as a classical artist, is eagerly trying to remedy. “Unfortunately, the great composers—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and so forth—never wrote one single note for the mandolin. I think it was because the mandolin was so very popular, they considered it more an amateur instrument than a classical or orchestral one” and thus perhaps not worthy
of their attention.
To date, Avital has commissioned more than 100 works from contemporary composers to enlarge the mandolin’s repertoire. In addition, he has chosen to play many classical works written for other instruments, as he will do at Cal Performances’ Oct. 15 concert with Hanzhi Wang. (The Chinese accordionist has similar aspirations to develop her instrument—also long-associated with folk and popular music—as a legitimate classical voice.) As
he prepares this music for performance, Avital says “I prefer to use the word ‘adaptation’ to ‘arrangement.’ I try to change the original music as little as possible to suit our instruments. For instance, with the Bach Chaconne on this program, I play it straight from Bach’s original score for violin.”
Avital says he has been watching Wang’s development for several years now. “I’ve seen her turn from a young professional into a true artist. And I love working with the accordion: mandolin and accordion are instruments that really complement each other. Most of the pieces on this program are for violin and piano, and our instruments suit those roles perfectly: the mandolin takes the violin’s part and the accordion the piano’s. The mandolin has a sound with a relatively quick decay while the accordion has a more sustaining sound.”
Adds Hanzhi Wang, “As a keyboard instrument with the approximate range of a Steinway grand, as well as the tone qualities of a wind instrument, [the accordion] also seems to be able to give the illusion of a small orchestra.”
Two Artists on the Rise
Though in America the mandolin is mostly associated with bluegrass and the accordion with polka bands and the Lawrence Welk Show, Avital says that in Europe and in his native Israel, they are now being regarded as classical instruments and are taught in conservatories.
Growing up in Be’er Sheva in the southeastern desert of Israel, Avital began taking mandolin lessons at age eight with a remarkable teacher, the Ukrainian violinist Simcha Nathanson. “He emigrated to Israel,” says Avital, “and wanted to teach violin in Be’er Sheva’s music school. However, the school told him they already had a violin teacher, but that there were lots of mandolins in the basement—could he teach that? So he formed a mandolin orchestra, which I played in until I was 18, and taught the instrument using the violin as a model.
“Mandolin and violin actually have a lot in common: they are both soprano instruments, and they are tuned in fifths with the same open strings of E–A–D–G. The violin immediately became part of my culture. My teacher arranged classical music for our orchestra to play. So that really was my musical education. Because he taught mandolin more strictly than it was typically taught, I think I was actually receiving a deeper foundation in music than I would have had if I’d had a more conventional teacher.”
Leaving Be’er Sheva, Avital continued his training at the Jerusalem Music Academy, then did graduate work in Italy at the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in Padua, studying with renowned Italian mandolinist Ugo Orlandi. His innovative career steadily growing, in 2007, Avital became the only mandolinist to win the top prize in Israel’s prestigious Aviv Competition. He would later become the first mandolinist to be nominated for a classical Grammy Award.
At age five, Hanzhi Wang fell in love with the sound of the accordion while watching an Italian movie on television with her father. “I immediately asked to have one to play.” Starting with a small eight-button instrument, she advanced to being accepted by Beijing’s Central Conservatory at age 13. Later, after earning her bachelor’s degree, she moved to Copenhagen, where the Royal Danish Conservatory has a renowned accordion department, for her master’s work. In 2017, Wang became the only accordionist to win the Young Concert Artists auditions, and in 2018, Musical America named her as “New Artist of the Month.”
Oct. 15 Program Preview: Listening in a New Way to Familiar Classics
“Paying tribute to the folk origins of our two instruments,” says Avital, “I’ve focused on works by classical composers that were derived from folk melodies that they enriched with the complex harmonies, rhythms, and formal structures of classical music. Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances is the central piece here, using music Bartók collected around Romania and then scored first for solo piano, then for small orchestra.” Much the same approach was taken by the two Spanish composers, Pablo de Sarasate and Manuel de Falla; they adopted Spanish folk melodies for Sarasate’s virtuosic Spanish Dances for violin and piano and the “Danse Espagnole” used in Falla’s opera La vida breva.
Famed violinist Fritz Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro “in the Style of Pugnani” and Igor Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne—an arrangement of selections from his ballet Pulcinella for violin and piano—are hybrid works blending Baroque style with a more modern idiom. Kreisler’s piece is actually a musical hoax: in 1905, he published it as a long-lost work by Italian Baroque composer Gaetano Pugnani, then 30 years later admitted he’d written it himself. Stravinsky’s 20th-century harmonic and rhythmic bite drastically transformed music written by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and others in the early 18th century.
A solo piece for Avital, J.S. Bach’s Chaconne in D minor from his Partita No. 2 for unaccompanied violin is one of the monuments of musical history. Avital’s relationship with the Chaconne goes back to age 13, when he bought a book of the complete violin partitas and sonatas. “For most musicians I know, Bach is the ultimate composer. His music is so complex and perfectly constructed. Every time you come back to the Chaconne, you find more information, more elements to bring out. I can never play it the same way twice. And I found that with the mandolin I don’t miss any of the impact of Bach’s music.”
Avital plays a special mandolin made expressly for him by Israeli luthier Arik Kerman. “He shares the same ideas I do about how the mandolin needs to be developed, and he created for me an instrument that has more power and a richer, warmer sound that meets the needs of larger modern concert halls. We work together on it whenever I’m in Israel—constantly trying to further develop the capacities of this same instrument. And to give listeners a new voice, a new way to experience music they’re familiar with.”
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An Eclectic Survey of Ai Weiwei’s Artwork: 10 Works to Know
An Eclectic Survey of Ai Weiwei’s Artwork: 10 Works to Know
“Art is a tool to set up new questions.”
By Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
Ai Weiwei’s adventurous work in sculptural installation, filmmaking, photography, ceramics, painting, writing, and social media is widely acclaimed for shedding light on pressing societal issues and values. The renowned artist and activist was born in Beijing in 1957 and for decades has been an outspoken voice on social issues including human rights, especially as they have related to his home country of China, where he has been the target of frequent government interference and was once imprisoned for nearly three months without charges. Currently residing in Portugal, Ai continues to advocate for international human rights, with his work and life often informing one another.
Throughout his decades-long career, Ai has developed powerful works of art that show an incredible range, both in their medium and in their subject. To help you become better acquainted with his artistry ahead of his visit to Cal Performances on September 24, we’ve compiled 10 of Ai’s works showing the breadth and depth of his creative vision and mission.
1. S.A.C.R.E.D., 2013
S.A.C.R.E.D. is an intimate and unsettling installation created by Ai to depict the conditions in which he was kept during his 81-day imprisonment in China in 2011. The work features six diorama scenes, whose individual names together make up the acronym S.A.C.R.E.D.: Supper, Accusers, Cleansing, Ritual, Entropy, and Doubt. In six separate 5ft x 12ft steel boxes, Ai utilizes figures of himself, guards, and a bleak enclosure to depict his degrading daily routines and the constant surveillance he endured. The doors on the outside of the boxes are merely a facade and cannot open; to see the dioramas inside the boxes, viewers must look through small apertures in the walls, contributing to the sense of surveillance and isolation within.
Photograph of a scene from S.A.C.R.E.D. Image courtesy of designboom.
See additional photos from the exhibit.
2. Study of Perspective, 1995–2003
Since 1995, Ai has been taking photos of his middle finger pointed at spaces and symbols that represent political/national power, including the Eiffel Tower, the White House, and even the Mona Lisa. Ai’s first photograph in his series was produced at Tiananmen Square where, upon visiting after his return to the country, he was disheartened to feel that not enough had changed. Ai reports that the photo is an expression of his “inner frustration” and represents “the stance and attitude of individual existence” within larger structures of political, cultural, and economic power. In recent years, Ai has evolved the project to include an interactive element by which individuals around the world can create and submit their own images overlaying a location with Ai’s iconic middle finger.
Select images from Study of Perspective. Image courtesy of The Artling.
Read more about this project and learn about the interactive feature (and begin making your own image!)
3. Forever Bicycles, 2014
Forever Bicycles is a work of sculpture that fuses over 1,000 bicycles into a fascinating geometric design. The term “Forever” references a popular brand that has mass produced bicycles in Shanghai since the 1940s, and it has been suggested that the sculpture itself invites consideration for the disparate ways that various social classes in China have historically used—and continue to use—bicycles as a means of transportation, as well as the global shift from bicycles to automobiles.
Photograph of Forever Bicycles. Image courtesy of Sightlines.
4. National Stadium of Beijing (“The Bird’s Nest”), 2005–08
Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron to design the stadium that would be used to host the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympics. According to design firm Arup which helped execute the project, the circular design of the stadium represents heaven, while the neighboring water center represents the Chinese symbol for earth; additionally, the intersecting lines that contribute to the stadium’s nest-like appearance are inspired by Chinese-style crazed ceramics. Despite designing the building, Ai did not attend the Olympics, later regretting the project’s use as a political tool to promote China’s greatness despite the government’s record of human rights abuses.
Photograph of the National Stadium of Beijing. Image courtesy of Architectuul, © Iwan Baan.
5. Sunflower Seeds, 2010
Perhaps Ai’s best known creation, Sunflower Seeds comprises 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds, individually crafted and painted by roughly 1,600 Chinese artisans who reside in a village that was historically used to develop porcelain for the courts of ancient emperors. Individuals are invited to walk on, pick up, and feel the porcelain seeds—in part as a way to wrap their minds around the idea that these are in fact porcelain and not true seeds. As to the significance of the sunflower seeds, in Chinese culture, Mao Zedong was often depicted as the sun. Additionally, Ai has said of his own experience with the seeds, “When I was growing up in China, we had few possessions. … But even in our darkest days, we might well have had a little handful of sunflower seeds in our pockets. They offered spiritual comfort as well as a modest answer to our hunger, and people were always cracking seeds between their teeth.”
Photograph of Sunflower Seeds. Image courtesy of Tate, © Ai Weiwei.
6. Human Flow, 2017
Ai served as director and co-producer of Human Flow, a poignant visual documentary that captures the experiences of refugees across 23 countries as they seek “safety, security, and justice.” From Bangladesh to Mexico, from stretches of barbed wire fences to harrowing ocean journeys, the film exposes the struggle of individual people, but also delivers a message of hope and of the resilience of the human spirit.
Ain Al-Hilweh, Lebanon, 04/09/2016. Image courtesy of Human Flow.
Learn more about Human Flow, including where to watch and take a look at photos from the film project.
7. Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995
This set of three photographs, produced early in Ai’s career, shows him in preparation, during, and after purposefully breaking a valuable urn from China’s Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.). The work challenges the idea of how we form and preserve cultural values, particularly around historic and national identity. It was also said to have been a potential response to how Mao Zedong had attempted to divorce China from elements of its traditional history during the Cultural Revolution. One of Ai’s most provocative works, the piece sparked debates internationally about whether or not the action of breaking the urn qualified as “desecration,” and even whether or not destruction should be interpreted as art.
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. Image courtesy of Royal Academy.
8. Ye Haiyan’s Belongings, 2013
Ye Haiyan is a Chinese women’s rights activist who was frequently targeted by the Chinese government and eventually cast out of the country. Ai, who was an ally for Ye and helped to support her when she was removed from her home, created this installation with all of the hastily packed belongings Ye was left with upon eviction. The exhibit is a powerful rendering of displacement, a common theme in much of Ai’s work.
Photograph of Ye Haiyan’s Belongings. Image courtesy of Royal Academy.
9. Water Lilies #1, 2023
Ai’s 50-foot recreation of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies is made entirely out of Legos—approximately 650,000 of them. Ai explained, “In Water Lilies #1, I integrate Monet’s Impressionist painting, reminiscent of Zenism in the east, and concrete experiences of my father and me into a digitized and pixelated language.” Ai’s father was a renowned poet in China whose criticism of the government led to the family’s exile. Reflecting this experience, Ai integrated the outline of a black door into the traditional Water Lilies image to represent the underground dugout where his family once lived.
Photograph of Water Lilies #1. Image courtesy of CNN, Ela Bialkowska/OKNO studio.
10. So Sorry, 2011
Ai dedicated multiple art projects to the thousands of schoolchildren who died when their classrooms collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. These works include Remembering, which used colored backpacks adhered to the facade of a building to spell out a quote from one of the victim’s mothers, reading in English: “She lived happily on this earth for seven years”; and Straight, a sculpture made from tons of reinforcing rods that were hand-straightened after being distorted during the earthquake. Following the disaster, Ai became a leading voice calling for accountability and exposing corruption that led to the building failures—and later attempts by the government to cover it up. So Sorry is a documentary produced by Ai that tracks his investigative work on the case and the backlash and physical violence he experienced at the hands of the government in reaction to his advocacy.
Still image from So Sorry.
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What It’s Like to Be a UC Berkeley Student Working at Cal Performances
What It’s Like to Be a UC Berkeley Student Working at Cal Performances
Roughly 75 students work critical roles at Cal Performances each season.
Featuring Cal Performances student workers: Shane Barrows, Usher Captain & Assistant House Manager; Jordan Dudas, Scene Technician; Alisa LeFebvre, Front of House Manager; and Mina Rossman, Lead Cashier. Video filming and editing by Tiffany Valvo, Cal Performances’ Social Media and Digital Content Specialist.
UC Berkeley students have a plethora of options when it comes to choosing an on-campus job. So, what makes a student apply to—and stay at—a performing arts center? What kind of skills do they hone here, and are they relevant to more than just music, dance, or theater majors? We interviewed four of the roughly 75 UC Berkeley student workers employed by Cal Performances year-round to learn more about their perspective on the important work they do to support our organization.
Interested in working for Cal Performances? Visit our Jobs page to see what positions are open.
