Preservation Hall Jazz Band

It would be hard to exaggerate the depth and breadth of Cal Performances’ programming this month, a schedule distinguished by the culmination of our season-long, campus-wide residency honoring the visionary work of South African artist William Kentridge—the man the UK’s Guardian described as “continuously original, deeply humane, and vividly thought-provoking…one of the great artists of our time.” Residency events include the US premiere of Kentridge’s musical and theatrical work SIBYL at Zellerbach Hall (for more, see Thomas May’s excellent article, beginning on the next page), including a special gala honoring the artist; a presentation of the Dadaist poem Ursonate, performed by Kentridge himself; a staging of A Guided Tour of the Exhibition: For Soprano and Handbag, a bold and innovative work created by Kentridge and Joanna Dudley (who will also perform it); a retrospective of Kentridge’s films; the visual lecture To What End; and classroom conversations. We’re thrilled to play a major role in this extraordinary artistic endeavor and thank our partners—the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) and the Townsend Center for the Humanities—for their contributions to this great celebration.

During any other month, the Kentridge Residency would be more than enough to trumpet. But March at Cal Performances will also see a return engagement by the storied Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductor Christian Thielemann (making his Bay Area concert debut). Over the course of three programs at Zellerbach Hall, the orchestra will traverse a century of canonic repertoire—from the heroic music of Viennese classicism, through several generations of opulent Austro-German Romanticism, to the expanded sonorities of the Second Viennese School near the turn of the 20th century. These works showcase the mighty Vienna musicians at their finest, artists renowned for playing both “rich in detail and fearsome in its intensity” (The Guardian).

If all of this weren’t enough, we’ll also see a long-anticipated visit by New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with a rousing program of traditional jazz, gutbucket funk, Afro-Cuban rhythms, folk, and pop; and a performance of Handel’s great oratorio Solomon (1748) with the renowned English Concert, the Clarion Choir, and an impressive array of guest vocalists. Our great friend Zakir Hussain returns with his ever-popular Masters of Percussion; the London-based Castalian Quartet makes its Cal Performances debut with a program that ranges from Haydn to Schubert to a haunting 2006 work by contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho; and we’ll cap off the month with concerts by the international all-woman jazz supergroup Artemis and the accomplished Zurich Chamber Orchestra with music director and violinist Daniel Hope.

Upcoming Illuminations: “Human and Machine” programming (much of it presented in conjunction with the Kentridge Residency) will continue to take advantage of Cal Performances’ unique positioning as a vital part of the world’s top-ranked public university. As we’ve done all
season long, we’ll be engaging communities on and off campus to examine the evolution of tools such as musical instruments and electronics, the complex relationships between the creators and users of technology, the possibilities enabled by technology’s impact on the creative process, and questions raised by the growing role of artificial intelligence in our society.

Please make sure to check out our brochures and our website for complete information about upcoming events. And stay tuned in April, when we announce our 2023–24 season; we’ve got plenty of exciting news for you.

Thank you for joining us at Cal Performances!

Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances