Cal Performances 2015/16 Season Announcement

Monday morning Cal Performances held the press announcement for their 2015/16 season, also billed as the inaugural season of Berkeley RADICAL (Research And Development Initiative in Creativity, Arts and Learning), which aims to attract a millenial audience. Executive & Artistic Director Matías Tarnopolsky called conductor Gustavo Dudamel the poster child for the new initiative, & Maestro Dudamel will lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Beethoven Symphonies 7, 8 & 9 & participate in additional public programs.

Several musical performances involve collaborations with visual artists. The St. Louis Symphony's concert of Messiaen's Des Canyons aux Étoiles will be augmented by photographer Deborah O'Grady's images of the American landscapes which inspired the piece. Ms. O'Grady was in attendance, & we saw a short video about the project, in which she pointed out Messiaen's explicit references to geological formations in the score. Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by Matthias Pintscher, will give the American premiere of U.C. faculty member Edmund Campion's Cluster X, with a video by Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger. The Kronos Quartet's performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings will have a visual accompaniment, as will Gil Shaham's recital of the Bach solo sonatas & partitas.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman will perform all the Prokofiev piano sonatas in a set of 3 recitals. Baritone Mattias Goerne will sing Die schöne Müllerin, & countertenor Philippe Jaroussky will present a program of French songs from the 19th & 20th centuries. Mark Morris's  L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato will be back, & the Mariinsky Ballet will come with their production of Cinderella.

Mr. Tarnapolsky clearly enjoyed introducing the season's Bach offerings with a photoshopped picture labelled "ZellerBACH" that showed huge portraits of Bach adorning the facade of Zellerbach Hall. We also learned that the Berkeley RADICAL season has its own cocktail, which would be unveiled at the reception immediately following the press conference. During the Q&A, the only question was from a local music critic who wanted to know the recipe for the cocktail.

§ Cal Performances 2015/16 Season
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§ Cal Performances 2015/16 Season Press Announcement
Meyer Sound, Berkeley
Monday, April 20, 9:30 a.m.