yMusic
Friday, April 8, 2022, 8pm
Hertz Hall
CJ Camerieri, trumpet
Alex Sopp, flute
Nuno Antunes, clarinet
Rob Moose, violin
Nadia Sirota, viola
Gabriel Cabezas, cello
This performance will last approximately 75 minutes, including intermission.
From the Executive and Artistic Director
This weekend’s programming at Cal Performances offers instructive—and delightful—examples of the eternal changeability and flexibility of music. Over the course of three extraordinary concerts, we’ll sample a selection of music that ranges from the masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert, to cutting-edge compositions by a group of today’s most gifted composers.
We begin on Friday evening with the music of today, as the brilliant yMusic serves up a feast of contemporary works, the oldest of which was written only six years ago. I’m particularly proud that the group’s program features the West Coast premiere of Difference (2019), a Cal Performances co-commission by American composer Andrew Norman, “one of the most gifted and respected composers of his generation” (New York Times). As ensemble member and award-winning radio host Nadia Sirota promises in her program note, it’s “immediate, unexpected, physical, and a blast to play.” Those of you who saw yMusic’s brilliantly creative concert on last year’s Cal Performances at Home streaming series will have some idea of the musical treasures that lie in store; for everyone else, get ready for a real treat!
Then, two ensembles working in the grand European tradition, present programs featuring some of the most sublime classical music ever written. The esteemed Vienna Piano Trio, making its Cal Performances debut in a rare—and final—West Coast appearance, arrives with a deep dive into Schubert’s chamber music comprised of the composer’s two magisterial piano trios played back-to-back. And on Sunday afternoon, renowned conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his esteemed English Baroque Soloists—the period-instrument ensemble Gardiner founded more than 40 years ago—make an exceedingly rare stateside appearance in a bracing program of Mozart and Haydn.
March and April finds Cal Performances operating at full speed as we approach the April 20 announcement date for our brilliant 2022–23 season. (We just released our beautiful new 42-page season brochure to the printer; I can’t wait to share it with you!) From now through the beginning of May, the remainder of our current season is filled with adventurous programming. You won’t want to miss…
- Angélique Kidjo, our 2021–22 artist-in-residence, in her new music-theater piece Yemandja (a much-anticipated Cal Performances co-commission and Illuminations event, Apr 23).
- highly anticipated concerts with superb classical artists including Germany’s Tetzlaff Quartet (Apr 23), another favorite from last season’s Cal Performances at Home; pianist Daniil Trifonov (Apr 28), making his Cal Performances solo debut; and the Danish String Quartet (Apr 29)—a particular favorite of our chamber music audience—delivering the next installment in its ongoing Doppelgänger Project, a series of concerts that pairs late Schubert string quartets with newly commissioned works (on this occasion, a new quartet by the fascinating Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski).
Fasten your seatbelts; we have all of this—and more—in store before the season ends!
I know you join us in looking forward to what lies ahead, and to coming together—as we do today and have done so often in the past—to encounter the life-changing experiences that only the live performing arts deliver. We can’t wait to share it all with you!
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
This weekend’s programming at Cal Performances offers instructive—and delightful—examples of the eternal changeability and flexibility of music. Over the course of three extraordinary concerts, we’ll sample a selection of music that ranges from the masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert, to cutting-edge compositions by a group of today’s most gifted composers.
We begin on Friday evening with the music of today, as the brilliant yMusic serves up a feast of contemporary works, the oldest of which was written only six years ago. I’m particularly proud that the group’s program features the West Coast premiere of Difference (2019), a Cal Performances co-commission by American composer Andrew Norman, “one of the most gifted and respected composers of his generation” (New York Times). As ensemble member and award-winning radio host Nadia Sirota promises in her program note, it’s “immediate, unexpected, physical, and a blast to play.” Those of you who saw yMusic’s brilliantly creative concert on last year’s Cal Performances at Home streaming series will have some idea of the musical treasures that lie in store; for everyone else, get ready for a real treat!
Then, two ensembles working in the grand European tradition, present programs featuring some of the most sublime classical music ever written. The esteemed Vienna Piano Trio, making its Cal Performances debut in a rare—and final—West Coast appearance, arrives with a deep dive into Schubert’s chamber music comprised of the composer’s two magisterial piano trios played back-to-back. And on Sunday afternoon, renowned conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his esteemed English Baroque Soloists—the period-instrument ensemble Gardiner founded more than 40 years ago—make an exceedingly rare stateside appearance in a bracing program of Mozart and Haydn.
March and April finds Cal Performances operating at full speed as we approach the April 20 announcement date for our brilliant 2022–23 season. (We just released our beautiful new 42-page season brochure to the printer; I can’t wait to share it with you!) From now through the beginning of May, the remainder of our current season is filled with adventurous programming. You won’t want to miss…
- Angélique Kidjo, our 2021–22 artist-in-residence, in her new music-theater piece Yemandja (a much-anticipated Cal Performances co-commission and Illuminations event, Apr 23).
- highly anticipated concerts with superb classical artists including Germany’s Tetzlaff Quartet (Apr 23), another favorite from last season’s Cal Performances at Home; pianist Daniil Trifonov (Apr 28), making his Cal Performances solo debut; and the Danish String Quartet (Apr 29)—a particular favorite of our chamber music audience—delivering the next installment in its ongoing Doppelgänger Project, a series of concerts that pairs late Schubert string quartets with newly commissioned works (on this occasion, a new quartet by the fascinating Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski).
Fasten your seatbelts; we have all of this—and more—in store before the season ends!
I know you join us in looking forward to what lies ahead, and to coming together—as we do today and have done so often in the past—to encounter the life-changing experiences that only the live performing arts deliver. We can’t wait to share it all with you!
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
