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
Shifting Artistic Representation of the US’s First Transcontinental Railroad
Shifting Artistic Representation of the US’s First Transcontinental Railroad
“The past may be the past, but history is the stories we tell about the past. Rather, it’s not what happened, but how we understand what happened. And it’s always open to reinterpretation.”
By Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
On November 17, 2023, Silkroad Ensemble and Rhiannon Giddens bring their groundbreaking new-music project American Railroad to Zellerbach Hall. Conceived as an artistic means of illuminating the contributions of under-recognized voices in the creation of the US’s first transcontinental railroad, the production weaves together elements of African American, Chinese, Irish, Japanese, Indigenous, and other communities’ cultures and music. This performance also provides a unique lens for understanding Cal Performances’ 2023–24 Illuminations series, “Individual & Community.”
A primary advantage of hosting such meaningful performances at Cal Performances is the organization’s university context, which carries the potential to enrich our understanding of what we see on stage. Amidst the vast array of talented researchers, lecturers, and thinkers at UC Berkeley, the university is fortunate to employ one of the nation’s preeminent railroad scholars, Dr. Alexander Benjamin Craghead. A professor in the American Studies program, Craghead’s research centers on the intersection of technology, representation, and landscape, particularly as depicted with photography. Like Silkroad Ensemble and Giddens, he is working to uncover a history that has traditionally ignored some crucial voices.
Photograph by Andrew J. Russell showing a portion of a distant Mormon community. Panoramic No 1, 219 Salt Lake Valley from Corinne, Brigham City in the Distance, c. 1869, Union Pacific Railroad, Oakland Museum of California, H69.459.2023.
When the transcontinental railroad was first being discussed in the 1840s and 1850s, a vast railroad network already existed in eastern and parts of the midwestern US; however, the western states—some of which were not even official states yet—lacked reliable overland transportation systems, which had the effect of isolating them from the rest of the US and, most notably, from political control. According to Craghead, the push to develop the transcontinental railroad was primarily motivated by US politicians’ desire to have those in the west be better incorporated into the nation. To encourage a faster build (and to increase the likelihood of successful completion, given that overcoming the landscaping and organizational challenges at this level would be a tremendous feat), the build was awarded in 1862 to two companies that would build toward each other from opposite ends of the track: the Central Pacific, which was based in California (moving eastward), and the Union Pacific, which was based in Nebraska (moving westward).
The demographic makeup of the labor forces was different for each company, and was heavily influenced by the company’s location and connections. The Union Pacific employed primarily Irish immigrants as well as African Americans who had been enslaved prior to the Civil War. The Central Pacific, on the other hand, depended heavily on Chinese nationals, many of whom were brought over by Chinese labor brokers with the intention of working and then returning home upon completion of the project. And though they didn’t typically directly contribute to railroad work, it would be negligent to leave out an acknowledgment of the many Native American peoples who were significantly impacted by the railroad, as laying tracks often followed either a negotiated or a forceful takeover of tribal lands.
Though the railroad represented a variety of things to those actively involved with the project, public messaging and perception have tended to follow a more simplistic narrative, ignoring the reality of those with less financial and political capital. “The past may be the past, but history is the stories we tell about the past. Rather, it’s not what happened, but how we understand what happened, and it’s always open to reinterpretation,” said Craghead.
Photograph by Carleton E. Watkins. Cape Horn, C.P.R.R., circa 1878, Central Pacific Railroad, J. Paul Getty Museum, 94.XA.113.23. Accessed digitally from Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s “After Promontory” exhibit site.
According to him, narratives that dominated during that time about the railroad could be grouped into a few dominant categories: that the railroad was part of America’s Manifest Destiny; that the railroad was a “triumph of technology over nature” and that this innovation was “building the future”; and that the railroad was a means of bringing economic prosperity to less populated areas (particularly to fledgling communities that the tracks would run through). The narratives that proliferated were curated primarily by politicians, business executives and investors in expansion, and public intellectuals who wrote newspaper articles and appeared on traveling lecture circuits; and often made no reference to the hard work and contributions of the diverse labor force making the project possible.
A strong example of this void is in the famous photograph taken at the Golden Spike (railroad completion) ceremony (pictured below this paragraph) in 1869 by A.J. Russell, which would become a widely recognized symbol of national pride and accomplishment. The ceremony as told via the photograph became the subject of reenactments at festivals and patriotic fairs throughout the country for decades to come, served as inspiration for Hollywood films (particularly around the 1930s), and even led the government to later declare Promontory Point (where the ceremony took place) a national monument, where the Parks department facilitates regular reenactments to this day. For years, scholars have debated whether a single blurry figure in the foreground of one of these photos shows a man of Chinese descent, with no clear answer; despite the countless and diverse laborers who made this iconic moment of celebration possible, at most one non-White individual is represented.
Photograph by Andrew J. Russell. East and West Shaking Hands at Laying Last Rail, 1869. The two men shaking hands are Union Pacific chief engineer Grenville Dodge on the left and the Central Pacific’s chief engineer Samual Montegue on the right. Source for information is Klein, Union Pacific, page 232.
In recent years, Craghead asserts there has been a fresh emphasis on reframing the narrative to include the perspectives, contributions, and struggles of those workers intimately involved with the project, not only in scholarship but also through artistic mediums. In the case of the Golden Spike photograph, for example, as the 150th anniversary of the ceremony was approaching, civil rights photographer Corky Lee took on a project of “photographic justice” in 2014 that involved restaging the historic event, but this time included the ancestors of real Chinese railroad workers as the subject of the photographs.
In his own work using and analyzing photography, Craghead turns his attention frequently toward those Native peoples who were displaced as a result of the build. “One of the most important considerations for my work is that I don’t want to repeat the false assertion that this was an empty land. To my mind, you can’t talk about the railroad and development of the west in an honest way if you’re not talking about it as an occupied place for thousands of years; often popular narratives have erased people already here. As a scholar, I think we have a duty to reconsider that narrative, to try and better see the human costs of the extension of the railroads,” he said.
Photograph by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Lo! [Indians (Paiute?), with two Expedition members], 1840-1882. Contributing Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library.
Additionally, Craghead hopes to draw attention to the numerous and complex identities of those who took over this land, as well as their understanding of their own role and the significance and value of the railroad in their world. He explained, “It wasn’t just European Americans colonizing a First Nations space; there were multiple peoples involved: Chinese railroad workers who intended to go home and sometimes never did, raising questions of the intersection between “nationality” and “identity”; people who saw themselves as Californians (as distinct from East Coasters); plain Europeans who were involved from a financial perspective and had their own stakes, their own ideas of what the project was supposed to be about; enslaved people who were recently freed; recent immigrants… There was a collision between multiple peoples that led to a far more complicated and nuanced story than many people understand.”
Though reading about these nuances is certainly a fruitful way to gain knowledge of the many ways the railroad impacted various communities, the arts have proven a powerful tool for inspiring deeper understanding. As the campus anticipates Silkroad Ensemble and Giddens’ musical depiction, Craghead encourages us to embrace the ways that art can round out our knowledge in a more human way.
Photograph by Carleton E. Watkins, showing the continued presence of Chinese railroad workers eight years after the railroad’s opening. Trestle on Central Pacific Railroad, 1877, Central Pacific Railroad, now Union Pacific, J. Paul Getty Museum, 94.XA.113.26.
“Sometimes when trying to tell historical stories only in text, we can miss out on the embodied implications of what happened or what it was like, other ways of living with these consequences that aren’t always accessible. For example, what would it feel like to be in the West, where you’ve been disconnected from the rest of the country and then suddenly you are connected? What would it feel like to have opportunities expanded with a new job and new life and a place thousands of miles away from everything you’ve known? What would it be like to have the home you grew up in, where your family and your people have lived for generations, suddenly being claimed by others, and taken against your will?” said Craghead. “There is an emotional resonance to what change is like, and art often gets us closer to that feeling. Humanities sources can give access to a reality that is no longer practical—a reality that doesn’t impact you until you’re reading a diary, seeing what that person wrote themselves, where their tears hit those pages… Getting out into the field, into art, into music, makes these situations and these people real in a way text sometimes cannot.”
Interested in experiencing some of the powerful art that is reshaping the railroad narrative in our modern world? Learn more about Silkroad Ensemble’s and Rhiannon Giddens’ American Railroad tour, their American Railroad performance at Cal Performances, and Dr. Craghead’s research, including multiple photography books and a curated exhibit.
On behalf of Cal Performances, we extend our thanks to Dr. Alexander Craghead for his thoughtful discussion, expertise, and passion, all of which contributed significantly to the writing of this article.
Credit to header image: Photograph by Andrew J. Russell. Trestle work, Promontory Point, Salt Lake Valley, 1870, Union Pacific Railroad, California State Library, 1470591. Accessed digitally from Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s “After Promontory” exhibit site.
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The Making of Ngwenyama’s Flow, Inspired by the Natural World
The Making of Ngwenyama’s Flow, Inspired by the Natural World
“We are part of that same energy, we are the dust from these ancient creative events. And thus we are all tied together.”
By Thomas May, Cal Performances-commissioned writer, critic, educator, and translator
The string quartet, according to composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama, “is considered a ‘perfect’ ensemble. It inspires delicacy, sensitivity and adventure. The core range is smaller than that of the piano, yet its timbre allows for beauteous interplay.” For the first of its two Cal Performances appearances this season, the Takács Quartet presents the world premiere of Ngwenyama’s debut in the genre, which the ensemble commissioned “because of our admiration for her as a virtuosic violist and performer who understands the dramatic and sonorous possibilities of a string quartet.”
Ngwenyama demonstrates this understanding in her new work, Flow, a centerpiece of the Takács Quartet’s current season. Responding to the ensemble’s request to write something inspired by “the natural world,” she locates her new composition in a tradition that recognizes the string quartet as uniquely well-suited to conveying profound reflections on existence and the human condition.
Ngwenyama, who is of Zimbabwean-Japanese parentage, explains that her first and last names (Her full name is Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama.), respectively, signify “mother of peace” and “lion” in Zulu. A native of Los Angeles who is now based in Phoenix, Ngwenyama studied at the Colburn School, the Curtis Institute, and the Paris Conservatoire. She initially came to international attention as a violist at the age of 16, winning first prize at the fourth edition of the Primrose International Viola Competition in 1993. Her distinguished career as a violist has taken Ngwenyama to audiences around the world—including at the White House.
Parallel to her career as a soloist and chamber musician, Ngwenyama has emerged in recent years as a composer with a growing catalog of works primarily for strings. “I write from the place that I know, which tends to come from the viola,” she says. “I think of it as the heart of the sound and feel very comfortable there.” She became the first-ever composer-in-residence with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society and is now devoting the majority of her creative time to composing—including a second piano quartet for Espressivo! with Anna Polansky, Jaime Laredo, Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, and Sharon Robinson and a new piece commissioned for the semi-final rounds of the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition, which will be held in June at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
Experience more about the composer’s inspiration for the piece by visiting her interactive flip book, accompanied by video, audio samples, and illustrations, as well as a mind-bogglingly far-ranging 12-page bibliography of sources that inspired her.
While performing at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ngwenyama got to know violinist Harumi Rhodes and welcomed the opportunity to write a piece for the Takács Quartet but also experienced a mix of emotions: “I was surprised, greatly honored, and fearful,” she recalls. The ensemble’s request that she write “about anything in the natural world”—in keeping with lead commissioner Cal Performances’ suggestion—led to more than a year’s worth of research into topics encompassing “the life cycle, carbon reclamation, environmental protection, animal communication, starling murmurations, our last universal common ancestor (LUCA), black hole collisions, and the subatomic realm.”
Along with Ngwenyama’s scientific investigations into such matters as cosmogony and quantum physics, Flow distills her deep study of spiritual traditions: in particular, of yoga and its understanding of the meaning of breath. (The composer also holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School.) The concepts of Om—which she defines as “the first source of sound and act of creation”—and Prana (“creative energy”) are central to Flow. Ngwenyama asks the quartet to manifest these concepts and connect with each other through breath control, which in turn is meant to encourage a mindful awareness within the audience.
“We are part of that same energy, we are the dust from these ancient creative events,” Ngwenyama observes. “And thus we are all tied together.” She describes her musical representation of Om as appearing mostly “on an upbeat as a widely vibrated pizzicato glissando in the cello imitating rhythmic placement of the gong in Balinese gamelan. That, in turn, imitates the vibrational birthing energy of our universe.” Flow relies on other extended techniques as well, such as sul ponticello overtones or astonishingly high pitches, to evoke a sense of these moments of cosmic drama.
The a priori template of a four-movement quartet was not part of Ngwenyama’s initial concept. The “Prana moment” of Flow itself—its point of origin— was instead a solo idea for the viola early in what became the finale. She continued by writing music that would culminate in this passage and was surprised to discover that the piece naturally took shape as a multi-movement form, the first three movements serving as a “preamble” leading to this original inspiration. But these in turn developed in new directions. Material from the first movement is thus developed in the finale, for example, “because all matter was put into our universe in an instant.”
Here is an excerpt from the commentary Ngwenyama has provided:
Flow starts like gas seeping from an infinitely full balloon about to pop. Then, as matter inflates space, climactic material is presented almost immediately before abruptly burning out for the universal dark ages. The Prelude examines “B’ing/BE’ing” melodically and harmonically through moments of pranayama (the transformative power of breath) [the notes “B” and “B” in tandem with “E” symbolizing hydrogen and helium, respectively]. It ends with a trailing Om.
The Lento brings further cooling and space in chorale around an octave B-centric pedal. Prelude motifs are given room to develop. The “Quark” Scherzo explores our fundamentally playful selves vibrating here, there—and where? Our sub-atomic realm giddily waltzes up and down while we embrace the ideas of solidity and ego. The opening cello mimics quark motion [i.e., triad combinations of protons and neutrons in an “up” or “down” direction]. The trio, whose only claim to three is triplets in the cello line, provides no break for anyone and instead intones a ballade. The movement ends in virtuosic flurry.
The Finale settles into a stylized recitative where three lower strings solo before coming together to feature a soaring treble voice. Flowing triplets turn into a Classical Indian Dadra Tal (even six beat) rhythm in the bass line while upper strings bow their bouts to simulate Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. Upper strings join in via pizzicato glissandi. There is a return to the Prelude opening, then a slingshot into awe-inspiring starling murmurations. Lower strings drive unrelentingly while violin lines chase the other as one mind, instantaneously turning, merging, and transforming beyond individuality. They eventually land, the sky calms through a long D overtone glissando, and a retreating tremolo reveals: Enjoy and go with the Flow, we only know what we know.
Cal Performances looks forward to presenting the world premiere of this epic work, paired in concert with Haydn’s Sunrise quartet and Beethoven’s middle-period E minor quartet from the Op. 59 Razumovsky series, on November 12. Learn more about the Takács Quartet’s performance and get tickets to see the world premiere of Flow.
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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.”