Ai Weiwei’s World of Art Lost and Found

Welcome to the opening weeks of Cal Performances’ brilliant 2023–24 season! Beginning on October 1 with the Berkeley debut by the brilliant young Israeli pianist Tom Borrow, and continuing into May, when Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will close the season with a performance of J.S. Bach’s timeless Goldberg Variations, you can look forward to a calendar packed with the very finest in live music, dance, and theater.

We start with a powerhouse lineup of remarkable musicians. Along with Tom Borrow, October features highly anticipated performances by artists like soprano Christine Goerke and pianist Craig Terry, mandolinist Avi Avital and accordionist Hanzhi Wang, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and pianist Michelle Cann. We’ll also enjoy an exciting combination of hot jazz music and dazzling animation in the Triplets of Belleville Cine-Concert. And we’ll round out the schedule with presentations by two exciting guest speakers, the renowned artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei (appearing with guests Peter Sellars and Orville Schell) and popular New York Times columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein.

As we continue through the season, you’ll find more than 80 carefully curated events designed to appeal to the eclectic interests and adventurous sensibilities of Bay Area audiences. This year’s schedule features nearly 30 companies, ensembles, and solo artists new to our program, offering a wide range of opportunities to discover unfamiliar performers and artworks. There’s plenty to enjoy, including six world premieres, six Cal Performances co-commissions, nearly one dozen local and regional premieres, and the West Coast premieres of Taylor Mac & Matt Ray’s Bark of Millions and Nathalie Joachim’s Ki moun ou ye (Who are you?).

Cal Performances continues to invest in ongoing relationships with established and acclaimed artistic partners, with upcoming presentations including a landmark collaboration between Germany’s Pina Bausch Foundation, Senegal’s École des Sables, and the UK’s Sadler’s Wells theater in the first-ever Bay Area performances of Bausch’s pioneering The Rite of Spring (1975), as well as the renewal of a multi-season residency by The Joffrey Ballet, which this year will present its first full-length narrative ballet, Anna Karenina, at Zellerbach Hall. And I’m especially pleased that in March 2024, the renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida will join us as Artist in Residence for two special concerts as well as additional opportunities for the campus and wider Bay Area community to engage with her singular artistry.

A focus of the season will be our multi-dimensional Illuminations programming, which once again will connect the work of world-class artists to the intellectual life and scholarship at UC Berkeley via performances and public programs investigating a pressing theme—this season, “Individual & Community.” Concepts of “individual” and “community” have been at the forefront of public discourse in recent years, with some models increasing polarization and radicalization within our society. Questions have emerged as to how we can best nurture a sense of community and how the groups we associate with impact our own sense of self. Given our fast-evolving social landscape, how can we retain and celebrate the traits that make each of us unique, while still thriving in a world that demands cooperation and collaboration? With the performing arts serving as our guide and compass, our 2023–24 “Individual & Community” programming will explore the tensions that come into play when balancing the interests of the individual with those of the group.

Please make sure to check out our latest brochure and our website for complete information. We’re thrilled to share all the details with you, in print and online!

Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances