Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
50th Anniversary
50th Anniversary
Saturday, January 27, 2024, 8pm
Sunday, January 28, 2024, 3pm
Zellerbach Hall
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Please see the Community Agreements section on our Policies webpage for more information.
Leadership support for LGBTQ+ programming at Cal Performances is provided by Michael P. N. A. Hormel.
From the Executive and Artistic Director
Happy New Year from Cal Performances! I’m so pleased to welcome you back to campus as we launch the second half of our extraordinary 2023–24 season. We begin this month with the return of two audience favorites—jazz diva Cécile McLorin Salvant and the ever-popular Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo—as well as the highly anticipated Berkeley debut of the brilliant young Italian pianist Filippo Gorini.
As we enter the busiest months on our calendar, we’ll continue a season distinguished by an array of carefully curated events designed to appeal to the eclectic interests and adventurous sensibilities of Bay Area audiences. In total, 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 (see page 6 for more details) 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, 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.
An ongoing focus of the season is our multi-dimensional Illuminations programming, which once again connects 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 new questions emerging 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.
Again, welcome to Cal Performances! We’re delighted to begin the new year together, celebrating the very best in live music, dance, and theater.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
Happy New Year from Cal Performances! I’m so pleased to welcome you back to campus as we launch the second half of our extraordinary 2023–24 season. We begin this month with the return of two audience favorites—jazz diva Cécile McLorin Salvant and the ever-popular Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo—as well as the highly anticipated Berkeley debut of the brilliant young Italian pianist Filippo Gorini.
As we enter the busiest months on our calendar, we’ll continue a season distinguished by an array of carefully curated events designed to appeal to the eclectic interests and adventurous sensibilities of Bay Area audiences. In total, 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 (see page 6 for more details) 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, 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.
An ongoing focus of the season is our multi-dimensional Illuminations programming, which once again connects 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 new questions emerging 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.
Again, welcome to Cal Performances! We’re delighted to begin the new year together, celebrating the very best in live music, dance, and theater.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances