Atlanta, GA -- June 18, 2010... Berkeley Symphony Music Director Joana Carneiro was honored with the Helen M. Thompson Award today by the League of American Orchestras at its 65th National Conference in Atlanta. The award recognizes Carneiro's commitment to expanding the community base of Berkeley Symphony and furthering the orchestra's tradition of presenting the works of composers of our time. In only one season, Carneiro has infused a wide range of innovative programming to the orchestra's repertoire and inspired the musicians of Berkeley Symphony with her exceptional talent. Her appointment of composer Gabriela Lena Frank as Creative Advisor has resulted in new relationships with community organizations and deeper connections with audiences. Audience response to Carneiro's leadership can gauged by the orchestra's record-breaking subscription rate in her first season.
Berkeley, CA – May 24, 2010… Berkeley Symphony is pleased to name San Francisco Conservatory of Music graduate Mark Ackerley and UC Berkeley doctoral student David Coll as the 2010-11 Under Construction Composers. Each composer will work closely with Music Director Joana Carneiro and Creative Advisor Gabriela Lena Frank to develop one or more symphonic works to be read and performed by Berkeley Symphony Sundays January 16 and March 13 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. Fourteen-year-old Taiwanese Joe (Shuo-Chun) Lin, who wowed the selection committee with his exceptional talent, will also participate in the program.
Berkeley, CA – April 15, 2010… Berkeley Symphony Conductor Laureate Kent Nagano returns to conduct Berkeley Akademie Ensemble Thursday,May 20 at 8 PM at the First Congregational Church. The program includes Beethoven’s Quintet in E-flat for Piano and Winds, German composer Jörg Widmann’s Versuch über die Fuge (“Attempt at the Fugue”) with soprano Christine Brandes, and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major featuring Widmann as soloist.
February 25, 2010… On Thursday, April 1, at 8 PM at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Joana Carneiro concludes her inaugural season as Music Director with Berkeley Symphony. A concert overture by the young German composer Jörg Widmann is followed by soprano Jessica Rivera in her second performance of the season, singing Samuel Barber’sKnoxville, Summer of 1915. The program concludes with the Symphony No. 1 by the German master Johannes Brahms.
February 1, 2010—Berkeley Symphony’s second season with Music Director Joana Carneiro continues the orchestra’s mission of presenting the cutting edge of the classical music tradition. Featured are commissioned works by Enrico Chapela and Du Yun, a return appearance by composer John Adams, performances of lesser-known works by Manuel de Falla,Peter Lieberson and James MacMillan, as well as favorite repertoire by Beethoven, Messiaen, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky. Guest artists mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway and violinist Jennifer Koh will both be featured in performances of multiple works. Season subscriptions, which are currently at their highest level in at least ten seasons for the organization, are available by calling 510-841-2800 or on our Subscriptions page.
January 15, 2010—On Thursday, February 11, 8 PM at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Joana Carneiro continues her inaugural season as Berkeley Symphony Music Director with a program that embraces the artistry of two longtime friends—composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and soprano Jessica Rivera—and begins a new artistic relationship with Berkeley composer Paul Dresher. Salonen’s Five Images After Sappho will be performed by Rivera in her first of two appearances this season as resident artist. Dresher’s Cornucopia and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” complete the program.
September 22, 2009—On Thursday, October 15, 7 PM at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Joana Carneiro conducts Berkeley Symphony in her debut performance as Music Director. Carneiro will conduct works by two well-known Berkeley composers with whom she enjoys close working and personal relationships: John Adams with The Chairman Dances, and Gabriela Lena Frank with the West Coast premiere of her Peregrinos (Pilgrims), a work inspired by stories gathered from Latino immigrants and the subject of a recently completed documentary to air on PBS. Both Adams and Frank will participate in the pre-concert talk with Carneiro at 6:10 PM. Closing the performance will be Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, followed by an Inaugural Welcome Dinner for patrons on the mezzanine level in Zellerbach Hall.
August 19, 2009—On Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Conductor Laureate Kent Nagano leads Berkeley Akademie Ensemble in a program examining works by Beethoven, Mozart, and the young German composer Jörg Widmann. Berkeley Akademie is a program of Berkeley Symphony, founded in 2007 to explore repertoire for small orchestra in an intimate setting. This performance marks a realization of Nagano’s intention to continue his association with the organization, following the conclusion of his tenure as Music Director at the close of his 30th anniversary season in May 2009.
August 17, 2009—Berkeley Symphony and incoming Music Director Joana Carneiro have named Berkeley composer Gabriela Lena Frank to the new position of Creative Advisor. In this capacity, Frank will have an ongoing relationship with the orchestra, helping to shape programming, guide outreach projects in the community, and mentor the Emerging Composers in Residence in Berkeley Symphony’s Under Construction new music series.
August 3, 2009—Bruce Christian Bennett, Patrício da Silva, Don Myers and Andy Tan have been named Emerging Composers in Residence for Berkeley Symphony’s 2009-10 Under Construction series of new music readings. Each composer will develop short works to be read and performed by Berkeley Symphony Sundays at 7 P.M. on December 6 and February 7 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. These performances will be led by Berkeley Symphony’s new Music Director, Joana Carneiro.
June 11, 2009—Berkeley Symphony recognized at the Annual Conference of the League of American Orchestras in Chicago with its seventh ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming since 2001.
April 6, 2009—Berkeley Symphony's first season with Music Director Joana Carneiro prominently features Berkeley composers John Adams, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Paul Dresher, as well as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Steven Stucky, two of Carneiro’s mentors whom she came to know during her three years as Assistant Conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Repertoire to be performed include works by Barber, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius and Stravinsky, as well as a recent work by Jörg Widmann. Season subscriptions (4-concert introductory packages start at $40) are available by calling 510-841-2800 or on our Subscriptions page.
January 15, 2009—Following an intensive two-year search, conductor Joana Carneiro has been named Music Director of Berkeley Symphony beginning with the 2009-10 season. She will lead the orchestra in four programs in UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall beginning October 15, 2009, in addition to leading Berkeley Symphony’s Under Construction new music series. Carneiro succeeds Kent Nagano, the California-born conductor who rose to international prominence during his three-decade tenure with the orchestra, as only the third Music Director in Berkeley Symphony’s history.
February 19, 2008—Kent Nagano today announced plans for Berkeley Symphony’s 2008-09 season, his last as Music Director. Nagano opens his 30th anniversary season leading Berkeley Symphony in his final concert as Music Director. He is followed by the final three of six guest conductors in Berkeley Symphony’s search for its next Music Director: William Eddins, Paul Haas, and Joana Carneiro. Nagano then closes the season with two performances by Berkeley Akademie Ensemble. Season subscriptions (4-concert introductory packages start at $80; 6 concerts for $120) are available by calling 510-841-2800.
May 8, 2007—Ming Luke has been named to the dual positions of Education Director and Conductor of Berkeley Symphony’s award-winning Music Education Program, effective May 14. In this role, he will oversee both the continued artistic and administrative expansion of Berkeley Symphony’s partnership with the Berkeley Unified School District. He replaces outgoing Education Director Sarah Bullock who is relocating to Baltimore to pursue a Masters in Education at Johns Hopkins University.
April 18, 2007—Music Director Kent Nagano today announced plans for Berkeley Symphony’s 2007-08 season. Three guest conductors – Hugh Wolff, Guillermo Figueroa, and Laura Jackson – represent the beginning of a 2-year search to identify a successor when Nagano transitions from Music Director to Conductor Laureate at the end of his 30th anniversary season in 2009. This season also includes the debut of Berkeley Academy Ensemble under the direction of Maestro Nagano and concertmaster Stuart Canin, as well as the expansion of the Under Construction new music series.
January 19, 2007—Kent Nagano today announced that he will step down as Music Director of Berkeley Symphony at the conclusion of the 2008-09 season, which will be his 30th anniversary season. Nagano will continue his long-standing association with the organization in two new roles. First, as Conductor Laureate of Berkeley Symphony, he will have an ongoing presence as guest conductor. Second, as Founding Music Director of the new Berkeley Academy Ensemble, he will continue to explore fresh artistic territory with members of Berkeley Symphony beginning in the 2007-08 season. An international search for Nagano’s successor has been initiated.
September 22, 2006—The Berkeley Symphony has named James A. Kleinmann as Executive Director. A Berkeley resident, Kleinmann brings to the post a varied background as administrator for several prominent Bay Area arts organizations. He assumed leadership of the organization effective September 18, succeeding June Wiley who had occupied the position on an interim basis.
Beginning with the 2006-07 season, Kent Nagano now serves as Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. His opening performance with the orchestra was broadcast live on Canadian television:
"The premiere performance for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's new music director...could have been mistaken for the installation of a new head of state. Bells rang out from church steeples around the neighbourhood to herald...the debut of Kent Nagano as head of the orchestra. With Nagano conducting, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for a sellout audience at Montreal's Place des Arts." Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, September 7, 2006
Kent Nagano began his tenure as General Music Director of Bayerische Staatsoper, the Bavarian State Opera, October 27, 2006 with a spectacular double premiere of Rihm's Das Gehege and Richard Strauss' Salome, both produced by William Friedkin (director of the famous 1973 film The Exorcist):
"Finally the conductor has arrived in Munich. His orchestra, which after years with Zubin Mehta had abandoned itself to great flowing feeling, suddenly sounds interesting down to the last detail. In Nagano, Munich finally has a conductor who is not only willing and able to revive great traditions but also to place them in a contemporary context, investing them with new meaning" Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 30, 2006
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