Friday, June 1
Berkeley Baroque Strings
“The Bach Family” Kati Kyme directs the 40-piece Berkeley Baroque Strings in a program of J.S. Bach and his sons. Featured are an overture by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a sinfonia by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, a concerto by Johann Christian Bach (J. Phillips, soloist) and an orchestral suite by J.S. Bach.
7:30 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (main sanctuary)
2320 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
$20, students $10, children under 12 free
more information . . .
Saturday, June 2
Peter Hallifax and Mary Prout
“The Renaissance Viol” Works by Ortiz, Hume, Simpson, and much more of the Renaissance repertoire for the viol, performed by Peter Hallifax and Mary Prout, bass viols, with occasional surprise guests
12 PM
Berkeley Art Center
1275 Walnut Street, Berkeley
Free, donations gratefully accepted
The Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra
“Harmony out of Chaos” The Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra (an outreach program of Voices of Music) will perform its 2018 program “Harmony out of Chaos” to jump start the Berkeley Festival with an impressive array of recorders ranging in size from the tiny sopranino to the resonant sub-contrabass.
4 PM
First Presbyterian Church Of Berkeley
2407 Dana Street (between Haste and Channing), Berkeley
$15 suggested donation
more information
Berkeley Baroque Strings
“The Bach Family” Kati Kyme directs the 40-piece Berkeley Baroque Strings in a program of J.S. Bach and his sons. Featured are an overture by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a sinfonia by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, a concerto by Johann Christian Bach (J. Phillips, soloist) and an orchestral suite by J. S. Bach.
5 PM
St Clement’s Episcopal Church
2837 Claremont Blvd, Berkeley
$20, students $10, children under 12 free
more information . . .
L’esprit Baroque
“A Tour of Italy” Tour Italy with your ears! Experience the newfound freedom of music in the Baroque era. Now that women were allowed into public performance of music, they began to take the stage as soloists and composers, like Barbara Strozzi. A woman’s voice was now celebrated and in demand. Soloists came into focus as virtuosity became the only thing for a good time. Scarlatti, Geminiani, Platti and more took advantage of this newfound expressive tool. Borders between countries, emotions, performers, words, and music all become more porous as the rise of the soloist brings us through the different cities of Italy. Hear what singer-songwriters sounded like in the 1660s…
7:30 PM
University Lutheran Chapel
2425 College Ave, Berkeley
Sliding scale $20–$10. None turned away for lack of funds. Additional donations welcomed.
more information . . .
Sonoma Bach, Robert Worth, Artistic Director
Season Finale: “A Tale of Two Cities” The Venetian style, developed especially by musicians working at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, became famous throughout Europe for its color, grandeur and expressive capacity. Composers Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Schütz came to Italy to absorb the style at the feet of such masters as Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi, and then returned to Saxony like evangelists spreading the word. Others such as Michael Praetorius observed and learned the style from afar. We present works written for Venice and Dresden by all of these composers, scored for multiple choirs and a festive double orchestra of brass and strings.
8 PM Bachgrounder pre-concert talk at 7:25
Schroeder Hall, Green Music Center
1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park
$25/$15
Tickets online
www.sonomabach.org or 877-914-2224
Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble (WAVE), Shira Kammen and Phoebe Rosquist, Directors
“Celestial Voices” Medieval and Renaissance music for the sun, moon, and stars. Chants and polyphony inspired by our ancient fascination with the mysterious lights in the sky, including varied settings of Ave Maris Stella, from Gregorian chant to a constellation of medieval and Renaissance motets. Music from the Las Huelgas Manuscript, Landini, Josquin, Victoria, Senfl, Rameau, Casulana, and more.
8 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
$20 General, $15 Seniors/Students, $5 18 and under
No advanced seating. 800-838-3006 for tickets and information. Or online: wavespr2018.brownpapertickets.com
www.wavewomen.org
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Junior Recorder Society
20th Anniversary Concert. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Junior Recorder Society of the Easy Bay. The Junior Recorder Society is an education outreach program of Voices of Music. Recorder players between the ages 7 and 18 are welcome to join us at our monthly meetings. Louise and Hanneke started the Junior Recorder Society group ot provide a venue for children to have access to music by playing the recorder, beyond their weekly recorder lessons. Louise Carslake grew up in England and Hanneke van Proosdij in The Netherlands where thay had the opportunity to play the recorder in an ensemble. This was a meaningful and joyful experience for them, so they decided to create similar opportunities for children here. www.voicesofmusic.org/jrs
12 PM
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
2120 Oxford Street (at Center Street), Berkeley
FREE with admission to BAMFA
more information . . .
Jennifer Paulino & Elaine Thornburgh
“The Food of Love” Jennifer Paulino, soprano; and Elaine Thornburgh, harpsichord, perform songs and solo keyboard works, showcasing his amazingly beautiful ground bass variations. The program begins and ends with “If Music Be the Food of Love” in two distinctly different versions, showing Purcell’s versatility and savvy with text. Also on the program are several of his theater songs, two devotional songs, and the beautiful and haunting “O Solitude”, one of his songs “upon a ground”. The solo keyboard works feature three of his charming suites and two poignant ground bass variations. These were the two grounds that Gustav Leonhardt performed in Paris for his final recital.
3 PM
Trinity Chapel
2320 Dana Street, Berkeley
$10–20 suggested donation
Sonoma Bach, Robert Worth, Artistic Director
Season Finale: “A Tale of Two Cities” The Venetian style, developed especially by musicians working at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, became famous throughout Europe for its color, grandeur and expressive capacity. Composers Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Schütz came to Italy to absorb the style at the feet of such masters as Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi, and then returned to Saxony like evangelists spreading the word. Others such as Michael Praetorius observed and learned the style from afar. We present works written for Venice and Dresden by all of these composers, scored for multiple choirs and a festive double orchestra of brass and strings.
3 PM Bachgrounder pre-concert talk at 2:25
Schroeder Hall, Green Music Center
1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park
$25/$15
Tickets online
www.sonomabach.org or 877-914-2224
Liaison
“Querelle des Femmes” Liaison Ensemble celebrates women composers of the baroque in a program by Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, and their contemporaries. The French phrase querelle des femmes, “the woman question,” refers to a debate started in 1500 by the philosopher Agrippa about the virtue of women. He argued that the oppression of women by men was due not to natural reasons, but socially constructed ones. Liaison celebrates the voices of admired female composers of the time, whose music rose to prominence despite adversity. Join them for an afternoon of song and wine at The Musical Offering. Melinda Becker, mezzo-soprano; Susie Fong, harpsichord; Hallie Marshall-Pridham, viola da gamba and baroque cello; Tatiana Senderowicz, theorbo and baroque guitar
3:30 PM
The Musical Offering
2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
$20
Berkeley Festival 2018 presents Seattle Historical Arts or Kids, Shulamit Kleinerman, Director
Handel’s Serse—Opera for all Ages Handel’s Serse is a tale of cleverness and bravery in the ancient imperial court of King Xerxes. Schemes are hatched, letters go astray, servants and nobles collude in deception, and a mysterious visitor in disguise takes treacherous action — all for the sake of justice and honor. Like SHAK’s beloved Alcina adaptation, presented in 2015 by Early Music America during the Boston Early Music Festival, this all-ages production is an hour-long spoken play interspersed with sparkling arias and choruses from the original work, all acted and sung by our skilled youth cast aged 8 and to teen. Students of Seattle Historical Arts for Kids bring to life the glories of the Baroque age with costume, dance, and fencing from the time, accompanied by an all-star period-instrument chamber orchestra. Stage direction by Carmen Mettler, vocal coaching by Nancy Zylstra, choreography & dance instruction by Jamia Hansen-Murray, duels and fencing instruction by Cecil Longino. Concept, script, and music direction by Shulamit Kleinerman, with Tekla Cunningham, violin; Joanna Blendulf, cello; and John Lenti, theorbo.
4 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Tickets online $15, $5 students under age 30 with ID (available only at the box office).
more information . . .
Vajra Voices with Shira Kammen
“The Last Trouvère: Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377)” Vajra Voices, known for their “shimmering resonance and elegantly paced performances” present a program of music of Machaut. Shira Kammen (vielle & harp) joins in this concert of motets, instrumentals, and Machaut’s exquisite Le Lai de la Fonteinne (The Lay of the Fountain).
4 PM
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
2120 Oxford Street (at Center Street), Berkeley
$20
more information . . .
Three Trapped Tigers
“Looped Local Roads” The recorder duo, Three Trapped Tigers (Thomas Bickley and David Barnett) present Looped Local Roads, an afternoon of pre-modern music for postmodern ears and vice versa. The repertory includes familiar and surprising early music and newer music, all prepared to engage and delight you. The program will include favorites from the trecento Italian repertory (Landini et al), canzonas by Thomas Morley, alongside solos, duos and trios form the 20th and 21st centuries by Frans Geysen, Alun Hoddinot, Will Eisma, Jens Margraff, Jim Wilson and Tom Bickley. TTT will be joined for this performance by guest Tiger, Greta Haug-Hryciw for a performance of Lou Harrison’s Serenade for Three Recorders (1943). Ms. Haug-Hyrciw has joined TTT for past performances, most notably John Cage’s 3 for Three Recorders and we are delighted to be collaborating with her again.
5:30 PM
Trinity Chapel
2320 Dana Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
$20 requested, no one turned away for lack of funds
more information . . .
Berkeley Festival 2018 presents California Bach Society, Paul Flight, Director
“Un musicien de premier ordre—Marc-Antoine Charpentier” Heralded by the San Francisco press for its “dazzling” and “sublime” performances, California Bach Society showcases Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s best choral works. Artistic director Paul Flight leads the award-winning 30-voice chorus, vocal soloists, flutes, and a full consort of viols in the poignant Litanies de la Vierge and the splendid Missa Assumpta est Maria. Charpentier wrote the Litanies de la Vierge early in his career, while in the employ of Mlle de Guise. The exquisite work, for six voices with two independent, treble gamba parts over it, was specifically written for Mlle de Guise’s house ensemble, in which Charpentier himself sang countertenor. At the end of his life, Charpentier held the most prestigious choir director post in all of France: “maître de musique” of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. It was for the choir that rehearsed and performed in this stunning church that he wrote the Missa Assumpta est Maria, nowadays widely considered his most beautiful mass setting. Artistic director Paul Flight says about this masterwork: “It is serene and exciting in turns, and has such a lovely scoring with the flutes.” With vocal soloists Samuel Faustine, tenor; Timothy Silva, tenor; and Clayton Moser, bass. Instrumentalists joining the 30 voice, award-winning chorus for these performances are Vicki Melin and Alissa Roedig, baroque flutes; Marie Dalby Szuts and Amy Brodo, treble gambas; Julie Jeffrey, alto gamba; Roy Whelden, tenor gamba, Lynn Tetenbaum, bass gamba; and Yuko Tanaka, organ.
7:30 PM
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Tickets online $45/$38 $15, students under age 30 with ID (available only at the box office).
more information . . .
