Past Performances
Wednesday
April 2, 2008
8 PM
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall
Laura Jackson
Music From Myth
Laura Jackson, conductor

Laura Jackson, most recently Assistant Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony, closes the season's Zellerbach Hall series with three lyrical works inspired by ideas from myth and literature.

Darius Milhaud, La Création du Monde
Susan Botti, The Exchange
Thomas Glenn, tenor; Wendy Tamis, harp
Susan Botti, Translucence
(West Coast Premiere)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade
Complete program notesAdobe Acrobat Document

Thursday
March 13, 2008
8 PM
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall
Guillermo Figueroa
Classical Puerto Rico
Guillermo Figueroa, conductor

Guillermo Figueroa, Music Director of the Puerto Rico and New Mexico Symphony Orchestras, presents two of the Caribbean island's classical talents: composer Roberto Sierra with a folk-inspired opener and mezzo-soprano Gabriela García in a Berlioz song cycle.

Roberto Sierra, Borikén (U.S. Premiere)
Hector Berlioz, Les Nuits d'été
Gabriela García, mezzo-soprano
Antonín Dvorák, Symphony No. 7
Complete program notesAdobe Acrobat Document

Listen as Figueroa talks about this program with KALW's Alan Farley
(5 MB; please be patient for download)


Sunday
March 30, 2008
7 PM
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Under Construction
Under Construction III
Laura Jackson, conductor
 
Berkeley Symphony's new music series concludes with three new works inspired by spring. It's like open mic night... with full orchestra! More info

David Graves, Deep Green Dream
Sue-Hye KimBom
Elizabeth Lim, Vesper / Serenade


Sunday
March 16, 2008
7 PM
Under Construction
Under Construction II
Guillermo Figueroa, conductor

Berkeley Symphony's new music series continues with three selections inspired by dance. Watch and listen as new works come alive with an immediacy unmatched anywhere else! More info

David Graves, The Spectator
Sue-Hye Kim, Heung
Elizabeth Lim, Shadow Dances


Sunday
February 24, 2008
7 PM
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Under Construction
Under Construction
Hugh Wolff, conductor
 
Berkeley Symphony's new music series opens with the first-ever readings/performances of the winning entries by this season's three Emerging Composers-in-Residence. More info

David Graves, Insecurities (and Other Agencies of Government)
Sue-Hye Kim, Creatio
Elizabeth Lim, Windfall

Buy Tickets:
$20 / $10


Thursday
February 21, 2008
8 PM
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall
Hugh Wolff
Berkeley Symphony
Hugh Wolff, conductor

Hugh Wolff returns to the U.S., following a decade as head of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. He introduces works by Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis and Grammy Award winner Osvaldo Golijov, followed by a Shostakovich song cycle performed in Yiddish, as he is convinced was the composer's intent. A Beethoven symphony—welcomed by Austrians emerging from years of turmoil—completes this fascinating program.

Aaron Jay Kernis,
Overture in Feet and Meters
   (West Coast Premiere)
Osvaldo Golijov, Night of the Flying Horses
   Heidi Melton, soprano
Dmitri Shostakovich, From Jewish Poetry
   Heidi Melton, soprano
   Katharine Tier, mezzo-soprano
   Thomas Glenn, tenor
Beethoven, Symphony No. 7
Complete program notesAdobe Acrobat Document

Download an interview with Maestro Wolff and KALW's Alan Farley (4 MB)


Thursday
January 31, 2008
8 PM
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall
Kent Nagano
Berkeley Symphony
Kent Nagano, Music Director

Maestro Nagano opens the Berkeley Symphony season, including a piano concerto depicting a lotus flower floating in water, dreaming of Mozart.

Mozart, Symphony No. 26 in E-flat Major
Toshio Hosokawa, Lotus under the moonlight
   Momo Kodama, piano (U.S. Premiere)
Schubert, Symphony No. 9, “The Great”
Complete program notesAdobe Acrobat Document

Wednesday
December 19, 2007
8 PM
First Congregational Church of Berkeley

Kent Nagano
Berkeley Akademie Ensemble
Kent Nagano, conductor

Maestro Nagano brings the rich "Akademie" concert tradition from his post in Munich to the Bay Area, featuring Berkeley Symphony musicians with guest artists from Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.

J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Beethoven, "Grosse Fugue," Op. 133
Richard Strauss, Metamorphosen
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
Complete program notesAdobe Acrobat Document

Listen as Nagano describes the origins of Berkeley Akademie
(3:08, courtesy KALW)

Listen as Nagano talks about the debut concert format 
(2:22, courtesy KALW)


Friday
May 11, 2007
8 PM
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Matt Haimovitz
Cello on the Edge
Kent Nagano, conductor

It’s a cello revolution as Matt Haimovitz joins Maestro Nagano for two world premieres combining big band and dance floor sounds!

Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4
Tod Machover, VinylCello
for HyperCello, DJ, and live electronics
   Matt Haimovitz, hypercello
   DJ Olive, turntables
David Sanford, Scherzo Grosso
for cello and orchestra
   Matt Haimovitz, cello

Listen Up Talk, 7:15 PM
KALW 91.7 FM host Alan Farley talks with cellist Matt Haimovitz and composers David Sanford and Tod Machover.

Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document

SOLD OUT


Thursday
April 19, 2007
8pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Kent Nagano, conductor

Europe, Old and New
Nagano pairs yesterday’s innovators with today’s voices, including two from Berlin: a Korean-born composer and the longtime principal clarinetist from the Berlin Philharmonic.

George Benjamin, Olicantus
Wolfgang A. Mozart, Clarinet Concerto in A
   Karl Leister, clarinet
Unsuk Chin, Cantatrix Sopranica
   Marnie Breckenridge, soprano
   Nikki Einfeld, soprano
   Paul Flight, countertenor
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 8

Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document

SOLD OUT


Saturday
January 13, 2007
8pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
George Thomson, conductor

Hold On
Join us as George Thomson returns to sample the many styles of the modern orchestra: Chamber music, from a composer known for his large-scale fireworks. Virtuoso music, at the hands of a 22-year-old Oakland native. Theater music, as could be heard in Shakespeare’s time. And music of conscience, as one of Berkeley’s own expresses how the African American spiritual tradition of the past speaks to perseverance in the face of injustice today.

Igor Stravinsky, Concertino for 12 Instruments
Jean Sibelius, Violin Concerto | Margot Schwartz, soloist
Matthew Locke, “Curtain Tune” from The Tempest (1674)
Olly Wilson, Hold On: Symphony No. 3

Read the feature article in the January 12 Berkeley Daily PlanetOffsite Link

Read the complete program notesAdobe Acrobat Document


Thursday
December 14, 2006
8pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, conductor

Leningrad

Shostakovich: Leningrad
Maestro Nagano presents an epic work from a time of war - a warning of threats both from abroad... and from within.

Arvo Pärt, Summa for strings
Arvo Pärt, Für Alina for piano
Arvo Pärt, Arbos for brass & percussion
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7, Leningrad

Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document

Listen as Nagano introduces this program
(MP3 / 2:20 / courtesy KALW 91.7 FM)

 


Wednesday
June 21, 2006
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor

Nagano and Eaglen Together!
Superstar soprano Jane Eaglen sings Berg and Mozart
Edmund Campion, Practice*
Alban Berg, Seven Early Songs
     Jane Eaglen, soprano
Wolfgang A. Mozart, Arias from  Don Giovanni
     Jane Eaglen, soprano
Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 2

The 2005-06 season comes to a glorious close with Kent Nagano's first-ever appearance with one of the world's most heralded sopranos, Jane Eaglen. Of a recent performance at the Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times wrote “Ms. Eaglen’s voice remains a natural wonder…a gleaming sound that shimmered throughout the house.”

The season's “Europe meets America” theme comes to a close with a new work for orchestra and integrated electronics by Edmund Campion, fresh from its debut in Carnegie Hall's Orchestra Underground series. Kent Nagano's year-long cycle of the Schumann symphonies concludes with his most popular work in the genre, the poignant and triumphant Symphony No. 2.
 
Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document
 
* Edmund Campion's Practice performed in conjunction with UC Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)


Thursday
April 6, 2006
8 pm
St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley
George Thomson, Conductor; Kent Nagano, Host
Under Construction
Entering its 12th year, the Berkeley Symphony's Under Construction is unique combination of open-rehearsal and performance that selects works-in-progress or recently completed works by local composers and brings them to life for the first time. BSO Associate Conductor George Thomson conducts the orchestra, and Maestro Nagano hosts and interviews the composers during the insightful question and answer period. Your exclusive opportunity to hear new music in progress before the World Premiere!

Wednesday
March 29, 2006
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor

Nagano and Ohlsson Together!
Garrick Ohlsson plays the Schumann Piano Concerto
John Chowning, Voices, in association with CNMAT (U.S. Premiere)
Maureen Chowning, soprano
Robert Schumann, Piano Concerto
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Robert Schumann, Fantasia for violin and orchestra
Stuart Canin, violin
Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 4

Robert Schumann  – German romanticism at its best. Revel in the rare opportunity to explore three varied works as Kent Nagano is joined by two remarkable artists: pianistGarrick Ohlsson and violinist Stuart Canin. Composer-in-residence John Chowning conjures ancient oracles to open a musical evening both fresh and familiar.

Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document

Join us to explore behind the music:

"Schumann's Brain:
Music and the Mind"
Pre-concert talk with Dr. Bruce Miller, Professor of Neurology, UCSF
March 29, 7pm, Zellerbach Hall

"Electronic Music Appreciation 101"
With John Chowning and David Wessel
March 23, 6pm, UC Berkeley CNMAT, 1750 Arch St.

 


Saturday
January 28, 2006
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
George Thomson, Conductor
From Bach to Carter
Thomson conducts Bach, Carter, Varèse and Stravinsky
Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Elliott Carter, Piano Concerto
Jerry Kuderna, piano
Edgard Varèse, Octandre
Igor Stravinsky, Suite from The Firebird

BSO Associate Conductor George Thomson’s subscription debut last season was called “one of the orchestra’s finest, most cohesive performances in recent memory” by the Contra Costa Times. Maestro Thomson continues our “Europe meets America” season as he leads Bach’s glorious Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and is joined by pianist Jerry Kuderna for Elliot Carter’s Piano Concerto. Carter, one of the preeminent American composers of our time, celebrates his 97th birthday this season. Edgar Varèse’s Octandre is a testament to the composer’s dynamic concept of sound and his colorful use of wind instruments. The concert ends with Stravinsky’s rousing Suite from The Firebird.

Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document


Friday
Friday, December 2, 2005
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor

World Premiere of Bitter Harvest
Bitter Harvest, an American farmer's oratorio (commissioned by the Berkeley Symphony)
Kurt Rohde, composer
Amanda Moody, librettist
  Melissa Weaver, director and dramaturge
  The Agape Performance Group:
  Henrietta Davis, soprano
  John Duykers, tenor
  Troy Cook, baritone

Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 1, Spring
 
‘Europe meets America’ continues with the world premiere performance of Bitter Harvest by Kurt Rohde, commissioned by the Berkeley Symphony. Kurt Rohde is a young Bay Area composer familiar to BSO audiences as a longtime violist in the orchestra. Kurt and the members of Agape Performance Group have come together to create the oratorio Bitter Harvest, a work that will challenge the audience to investigate the roots of hatred and what drives an individual to destructive behavior. It will use music to explore the economic, social, spiritual and psychological effects of corporate agribusiness on the small family farmer. Paired with this groundbreaking oratorio will be Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, an ode to spring.

Complete Program NotesAdobe Acrobat Document

Tuesday
November 1, 2005
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor

2005-06 Opening Night
Featuring violinist Caitlin Tully
Robert Schumann, Manfred Overture
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major
John Chowning, Stria, in conjunction with UC Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 3, Rhenish

“Europe meets America” in the BSO’s 2005-06 season, as Kent Nagano pairs each of the four Schumann symphonies with a work by a contemporary American composer. The BSO begins its Schumann exploration with the most joyous of the symphonies, the Rhenish. Schumann’s tribute to the mighty Rhine River is a boisterous, glorious tour de force for the orchestra, and demonstrates Schumann’s romantic lyricism at its peak. The Schumann Symphony is paired with Stria, a work by John Chowning, the BSO’s 2005-06 resident composer. Chowning is widely considered the “dean” of digital music, and Stria is regarded as one of his seminal works. Seventeen year-old Canadian violinist Caitlin TullyOffsite Link performs Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4, as the BSO joins in the worldwide celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday. Upon hearing Caitlin Tully, legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin said, “she plays with more integrity than any young violinist I have ever heard.”


Tuesday
June 14, 2005
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor
Season Finale
Featuring the Bay Area debut of soprano Linda Watson
Franz Schubert, Symphony No. 4
Arnold Schoenberg, Friede auf Erden (instrumental version)
Richard Strauss, Four Last Songs
Linda Watson, soprano
Richard Wagner, excerpts from Tristan and Isolde

Tuesday
May 10, 2005
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor
Season Concert #4
Featuring the premiere of Manzanar
Charles Ives, Unanswered Question
Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio, Act II Introduction
Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonore, Overture No. 3
Naomi Sekiya, Jean-Pascal Beintus, and David Benoit, composers; text by Philip Kan Gotanda: Manzanar: An American Story

Tuesday
April 12, 2005
6:00 PM
UC Berkeley Art Museum
Ticket prices $250-$500
The Berkeley Symphony 2005 Spring Gala
Celebrating the Art of Music
Join the Berkeley Symphony as we celebrate three decades of bringing new works to life and put the spotlight on the latest BSO premiere, Manzanar.  The evening will include an energetic live and silent auction with all proceeds benefiting the BSO and our award-winning Music Education Program.

Thursday
April 7, 2005
8 pm
St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley
Conducted by George Thomson; hosted by Kent Nagano
Under Construction
Entering its 11th year, Under Construction is a unique combination of open rehearsal and performance that selects works-in-progress by local composers and brings them to life for the first time.

Dylan Mattingly, Overture to Orestia
Michael Zbyszynski, Labirynt
Naomi Sekiya, Manzanar:An American Story
Kurt Rohde, Bitter Harvest

FREE and open to the public.


Wednesday
March 2, 2005
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Vance George, Conductor
Berkeley Choral Festival
Benefiting the Musicians' Pension Fund
Returning for a 4th sensational year, this concert has become a "must attend" community event for the whole family.

Program highlights:
Brahms, Schicksalslied
Brahms, Academic Festival Overture
Mendelssohn, Ave Maria


Wednesday
January 26, 2005
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
George Thomson, Conductor
Season Concert #3
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9
Charles Wuorinen, Symphony Seven
Felix Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E Minor
Nigel Armstrong, violin
Carlos Chávez, Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia India)

Tuesday, November 30,
and
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
8 pm
Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor
Season Concert #2
Béla Bartók, Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra
Stuart Canin, violin
David Wessel, Singularities
In association with the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), UC Berkeley
Ludwig van Beethoven, Grosse Fuge (for string orchestra)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 1
Mari Kodama, piano
Jörg Widmann, Chor f ür Orchester (U.S. Premiere)

Monday
September 13, 2004
8 pm
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
Kent Nagano, Conductor
Season Concert #1
J.S. Bach orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg, Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, heiliger Geist
George Benjamin, Viola Viola
Ellen Ruth Rose & Kurt Rohde, violas
Unsuk Chin, Violin Concerto (U.S. Premiere)
Viviane Hagner, violin
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C minor
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